mad respect for y’all, but you monster hunters are crazy. I have like 100 hours in games like Cities: Skylines or Crusader Kings, but 100 hours in an action game is so wild to me. But I love y’all for it.
I’ll give you that maybe it’s just “different”, but I also feel like no one would give obbies even a passing glance if they weren’t free-to-play. There may be depth there, but I think most would agree that it doesn’t feel good to play.
Fair point, but I disagree. I think the point of the article is to ponder what makes Roblox so appealing to kids, and the target audience is parents and older gamers that don’t “get it”. To that end, I think the article is fine to meander, because Patrick is partly explaining what Roblox is to an audience that mostly does not understand. He’s also trying to poke at what the popularity of Roblox means for traditional games that most of us put our time into. So yes, he’s kind of hitting three points in one article and that comes across as a bit unfocused. On the other hand, I think the article is more conversational and fun to read than it would be if he had laser-focused on his thesis.
“the core platforming mechanics are fun” is subjective, but I generally agree with Patrick that platforming in Roblox is awful. I feel like if you think that is fun, you haven’t played a real platformer.
the problem with the mobile game market is that it is aggressively opposed to any kind of premium experience. Time and again, the market has proven that they are not willing to pay very much upfront for a premium gaming experience. Games that try to charge a “premium” price like $10 or $20 tend to suffer for the choice to charge that much. You’ve seen attempts to address this problem (like Apple Arcade), and they’ve seen moderate success, but it doesn’t seem to be changing the overall shape of the market. App stores are still full of free-to-play slop because that is what gets the most downloads and plays and positive reviews.
Not exactly. “Nintendo-Switch-style” means it would be part of the PS6 stack, like any game that releases on console PS6 would also have to work on handheld PS6. And docking=the device runs in a higher power mode.
That’s because that market is still niche. It’s “exploding” relative to the population of PC gamers, but outside of that circle, people still find the Switch more appealing than any of those options. Certainly there are people out there for whom the Steam Deck is obviously better than the Switch, but those people are a niche within a niche. Small fries compared to the Switch audience that Sony is eyeing.
Anyone who played Hollow Knight and knows Team Cherry does not need to read this article (but you might still have some fun reading some of the details!). The answer is exactly what you think it is - they are a small team and they made a new game as big as or bigger than the original Hollow Knight. There was never a dev hell moment. They just bit off a lot and never stopped chewing.