Xen was really rushed and shorter than originally intended in HL1 though, and part of the idea with BM was to flesh it out properly. Might have gone a bit too far, but it was also one of the few places in the project where they could truly come up with something new and unique, and not just redo what Valve had made before them.
I actually didn’t encounter anyone saying Dark Souls and like games being an ARPG. Dark Souls like games are usually called Souls like.
That is because everyone uses the term “Souls-like”. But if that term isn’t used, then they are all labeled as “Action Role-Playing Games”:
A Soulslike (also spelled Souls-like) is a subgenre of action role-playing games known for high levels of difficulty and emphasis on environmental storytelling, typically in a dark fantasy setting. -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soulslike
They went to gitlab, it was inevitable. And probably planned - what better advertisement for your name than a round of news and articles about the takedown. And now they are on a private git so for the next round, Nintendo has to actually sue them as well.
Major part of it is that some people differentiate hard between rogue-likes and lites, and others simply do not, and the two will never get along with each other. The thing being that if there are any type of permanent upgrade/unlock systems that makes the game easier the more you play, it is not like rogue, where instead of grinding for more max hp or dodge percentage, you “grind” knowledge and experience as a player.
Which means that there are very, very few actual roguelikes because upgrade systems are just so cool ™ and every game obviously needs one. Or three.
Stardew Valley was published by the developer themselves. He can do whatever he wants with the game and there is no publisher to tell him he can’t because it’s bad for business. If they want the next update to be the “Fuck Russia, fuck Israel, Taiwan is the real China!” update, they can do it. Cp2077 can do that too. Because they are independent.
D’ya think that goes for the games in question of the article published by Warner Brothers that are being pulled by them? Are they independent of the publishers, free to do what the creator wants?
That is why having just the two labels makes them rather useless. Which is the point I’m trying to make.
An indie game, short for independent video game, is a video game created by individuals or smaller development teams without the financial and technical support of a large game publisher. …The term is synonymous with that of independent music or independent film in those respective mediums. -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indie_game
And then:
Independent music (also commonly known as indie music, or simply indie) is music produced independently from commercial record labels or their subsidiaries
An independent film, independent movie, indie film, or indie movie is a feature film or short film that is produced outside the major film studio system in addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies
They are independent, because they don’t have a publishing company calling the shots. That’s literally where the term comes from.
And that is why I said people have only two labels - they use “single person or small team = indie, big team or company = triple-A”. When they should be looking at who is publishing, and therefore who is funding the project, i.e are they actually independent, or do they depend on someone else for that monetary/technical/marketing support.
Especially when the chipset, Tegra X1, is going to turn 10 years old next year and has roughly the same performance as the iPhone 6. Kinda impressive longevity when you think about it.
And a fourth and a fifth, both of which have already had some work done (fourth one apparently has 1/3rd consisting of a time skip sequence that has already been filmed). And if they do well, Cameron has said that he has plans to make two more.
Old is relative though. Age doesn’t hit movies or books nearly as hard as it does to games and gameplay mechanics, and where exactly that acceptable limit happens to be differ for each individual - with no doubt a large correlation based on your age.
It’s just really hard to imagine yourself in the shoes of someone who didn’t grow up with them and doesn’t have the appreciation and nostalgia of those times. Heck, back when I was a kid with my PSX, anything on the NES felt like an ancient unplayable relic.