Steam's two-hour refund policy leads to indie developer quitting game development - $8.99 for 90 minute games

[Govt. Shitposting Machine]

When will indie devs stop making only low-effort horror games, roguelikes, and games made with rpgmaker?

RPG Maker is actually an engine with a shit ton of potential, especially the later releases with Javascript support.
If you check the official forums there's a shit ton of premade plugins people have made for free, and you can even edit the basic engine itself (how it handles stats and whatnot).
Of course you could do the same with earlier engines (Pokemon Essentials and XP is a good example), but it's much easier now. There's no excuse now for not pimping out a game made in RPG Maker.
It actually really annoys me when I see a game made in it and they don't bother using the full potential of whats been given to them.
Games like HEARTBEAT actually make great use of MV and what it can do, but sadly for every HEARTBEAT there's 405837 "default assets edited in gimp and no plugin epic rpg" games.

Sorry for the tangent I'm interested in gamedev and it annoys me seeing lazy devs rate me autistic or whatever

 

[GenericEdgelordSupreme]

If you're going to make an indie game that's less than 2 hours long, it should be free or dirt cheap anyway. Who wants to pay $9 for a game that lasts an hour and a half? For $9 you can get a last-gen AAA title with all its DLC and it'll keep you busy for 20+ hours. There are plenty of indie games that take more than 2 hours to beat, some made by just one person. All he had to do was keep working on it 'til the completion time passed 120 minutes. Maybe make a longer game like the other indie devs and stop being such a whiny kike.

 

[cummytummies]

For $9 you can get a last-gen AAA title with all its DLC

But why would I want to play a AAA title?

 

[Toolbox]

Remember Gone Home can be beaten in under 5 minutes.

Gotta love this old slapfight

Who legitimately cared about Gone Home this much

 

[Prophetic Spirit]

Very positive reviews on Steam

>385 reviews
L 0 L

 

[ZMOT]

It actually really annoys me when I see a game made in it and they don't bother using the full potential of whats been given to them.

sturgeon's law. engine doesn't really matter.

 

[EmpGulcasa]

On the one hand I feel for someone who actually believes they've made something unique and good and this happens but I've heard the game is average at best and there's no shortage of these games on Steam already, so.. either you feel your games are artsy and shouldn't care if they sell or not or you acknowledge they're games and should do better at engaging the players for longer.

Reminds me of that one studio who made artsy fartsy games that quit the business after their shit didn't sell and called all game players loser assholes for not giving them the time of day.

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

I see a lot of posts equating length to quality, it seems to be a common belief. There's just some games that wear out their welcome in my opinion, and would be better off leaving on a high note.

 

[GenericEdgelordSupreme]

But why would I want to play a AAA title?

They're not all bad; just most of them. For every Call of Duty: Yes, We Made Another One there's a Fallout: New Vegas or a Dark Souls.

 

[cummytummies]

They're not all bad; just most of them. For every Call of Duty: Yes, We Made Another One there's a Fallout: New Vegas or a Dark Souls.

Two great games, but Fallout: New Vegas (2010) and Dark Souls (2011), so it feels a bit dishonest to say, "for every ____".

 

[ZMOT]

On the one hand I feel for someone who actually believes they've made something unique and good and this happens but I've heard the game is average at best and there's no shortage of these games on Steam already, so.. either you feel your games are artsy and shouldn't care if they sell or not or you acknowledge they're games and should do better at engaging the players for longer.

Reminds me of that one studio who made artsy fartsy games that quit the business after their shit didn't sell and called all game players loser assholes for not giving them the time of day.

those were grifters living on government subsidiaries.

as for anyone else, the second you take money for it it stops being "art" and becomes a product, which everything that comes along with it. you need to market it, you need to price it correctly etc. games selling on their own just for existing are rare as fuck, if they're not outright shilled by industry cronies like fez and gone home.

 

[GenericEdgelordSupreme]

Two great games, but Fallout: New Vegas (2010) and Dark Souls (2011), so it feels a bit dishonest to say, "for every ____".

Fair enough. Yes, there are certainly a lot of bad AAA games, mainly cookie cutter military FPS games, and there are comparatively few good ones. They do exist though.

 

[Milwaukee Macho Man]

Who legitimately cared about Gone Home this much

I thought it was funny that coke fiend Adam Sessler gave it game of the year and would always troll Gamefaqs about it back then. I didn't really care that much though, it was just another laugh at the joke that is game journalism.

 

[X Pac Heat]

Fallout: New Vegas

Fallout: New Vegas was one of the shittiest AAA titles at launch though. Easily the Cyberpunk 2077 of it's time and should have had mass refunds for how fucking bugged out it was.

 

[GenericEdgelordSupreme]

Fallout: New Vegas was one of the shittiest AAA titles at launch though. Easily the Cyberpunk 2077 of it's time and should have had mass refunds for how fucking bugged out it was.

It's an Obsidian game. They buy licenses to other people's franchises then rush a sequel as fast as possible using the engine and certain assets from the previous game. (In this case, Fallout 3) They're always buggy at launch, but now you can get the heavily patched version with all its DLC for ~$10 instead of $60+. Sure, I would have been pissed if I had paid $60 for a broken game at launch, but that's why you steal it first then wait for it to be patched and discounted before you buy it.

 

[X Pac Heat]

It's an Obsidian game.

Oh then I guess it's okay.

 

[GenericEdgelordSupreme]

Oh then I guess it's okay.

TL;DR? Obsidian works under contract to push out a sequel extremely fast. They're never given enough time for proper bug testing unless they own the IP, which they usually don't. See Star Wars KotOR II.

 

[X Pac Heat]

TL;DR? Obsidian works under contract to push out a sequel extremely fast. They're never given enough time for proper bug testing unless they own the IP, which they usually don't. See Star Wars KotOR II.

I guess that makes it okay.

 

[GenericEdgelordSupreme]

I guess thank makes it okay.

It... does? Are you confused about how game development and temporary licenses work? Bethesda takes forever and their games are still buggy as hell after years of delays. That's hard to excuse. Obsidian at least has the excuse of being under an extreme time crunch and cranking out a sequel in under a year. Proper bug testing requires time they simply weren't given. That's why you wait for patches (and/or download a fan patch mod)

 

[X Pac Heat]

Are you confused about how game development and temporary licenses work?

Did you actually play New Vegas at release? The game was neigh unplayable. More so than any Bethesda game.

You're also completely negating that they didn't have to do any engine development, and also had support from Bethesda when issues did arise.

Not to mention, there's been plenty of games that have been developed in a year or less that were not nearly as unplayable as New Vegas was at release.

But hey, they had a deadline so it's okay if the game is sloppy shit at release. As long as it eventually gets good, then it can be proclaimed a shining example of top quality.