Unless I’m not seeing something, game production is expensive. Most studios are 1-2 bad games away from closing their doors. Games are expensive as hell to produce and as much as it sucks the “going public” option is sometimes the only way to go.
It’s easy to forget but most small (1-3 people) team indie devs probably aren’t even working a salary. They split the earnings from the game and either live off of that or reinvest it into their company but the moment salaries need to get paid, or office space needs to be used (not really necessary for small teams) that’s when expenses get insanely high. I’m not a business person but I can understand why you’d want to “trim the fat” (I don’t support it at all but to play devil’s advocate, I can see the logic despite the flaws). Growth means structure, and structure means expense.
It’s far more different than BioShock. BioShock is imo a linear shooter I never understood the “immersive sim” tag for BioShock. But Prey is non linear within a space station. You can break away from the main task whenever you want and investigate other things which all play into the main story. You can play Prey 10-20 times and have a different journey each time if you try. The Gloo Gun, Mimicry, etc are all things that allow you to play differently each time and find unique new paths. Talos 1 is chock full of details. The only similarity with BioShock is the reveal, the wrench, and some minor combat similarities. But it’s far more than that.
Arkane games are always those games that require the “click” to enjoy.
I started every single Arkane title and stopped it for months before the world and what not pulled me back. That second time I finally get it and enjoy the hell out of the game more than before.
To be fair the price includes 10 or so original indie titles which if you go by the store front’s average game pricetag ($5.36) that accounts for $53.6 worth. (And that’s really not fair to some of the games I’ve played)
Correction: The first season of games that come with the device total out at 24 so going off of that original 5.36 average you’d actually have about $129 give or take worth of game value, leaving the actual Playdate device at a $71 purchase for the device itself.
I have a playdate and have seen this sentiment a lot.
Imo the charging mechanic would ruin the usability of the crank in many of the games. Some games require rapid cranking and having a charging mechanic would not only be another point of future mechanical failure, but also slow it down too much.
It’s also worth noting that the device also has a gyroscope so it can detect tilting, shaking etc as well. It’s very versatile for it’s size. It’s NOT an emulator (though it can run an emulator), it’s a fully original handheld console.
$200 is a fair price because that includes something like 15-20 games. Every game for the playdate is original and hasn’t existed before it came out.
I’m using LibreOffice but word would work just as well. I thought about Excel/the LibreOffice equivalent but I’m just not familiar with it enough to be useful with it.
And this is generally every game/franchise I own/want to own so it goes as far back as I can make it go back. I also plan to add a LOT of games via emulation that I used to play when I was younger.
I agree, huge open worlds are often exhausting for me, and the developer need to fill it often ends up with cheap copy and past Ubisoft methods (collectibles, etc)
If Skyrim was the size of say, Assassins Creed Odyssey, it would’ve honestly suffered horribly, largely because one of Skyrims best features was the fact that their map was handcrafted and full of detail and secrets.
Sure you can add secrets to a procgen map, but that developer process that lead to the best ones are largely gone.
We def get plenty of good games in a year. But everyone wants to give their money to big AAA devs when the good games are made by small teams.
This year we got (in the spotlight):
Baldurs Gate 3, LoZ: Tears of the Kingdom, Resident Evil 4, and Pikmin 4.
And in the background we got: Turbo Overkill, Have a Nice Death, Pizza Tower, just to name a few.
Maybe take a break from gaming if it’s so irritating, or go back and play some older games. Either way, the overconsumption of people who grew up gaming js unsustainable and it leads to mental burnout eventually. Doesn’t help that most profit comes from multiplayer games, which people continue to actively play while complaining about it as if there aren’t other options.