When Game Development Stinks

I think you've made a very big insufficiently justified leap to "very poor game". I also don't understand the remark about the "coins/store crap". Unlike many other iOS games, it has no in app purchases.

If you read interviews with the creators, you'd see that they wanted a very tight reward loop for the game. They also wanted to be certain that no matter how you played, you'd always feel like you could make more progress.

As for "the names behind it"; it's a group of Dutch indie developers. It's hardly selling because of their names.

I'd like to see a more objective, reasoned post from you about why it's a "poor game".

One of the most important things I learned in life was how to more objectively evaluate something by asking if it was well made, used techniques properly, etc. You may not personally enjoy the game, but that does not make it a "poor game".

I think you should have said, "it appears to be a well-made game that clearly the creators spent years polishing, but the gameplay itself is not something I enjoy".

Maybe that is why it is almost impossible to tell what the game play is like from their video.

A decade ago when I first released my shareware app for users of eBay, I actively participated in a video game forum. Why a game forum? I wanted my software to feel fun and exciting to use, and in 2003, nearly all software I could think of had a crappy user interface and user experience.

Cas complained in many forum threads about about how hard and unprofitable it was to finish a game. I remember writing a particularly long post about how he should just work on his game and everything will work out. Also, I repeated advice many gave that he should use existing game libraries and engines, and focus on finishing the game. Also, that he should create casual games rather than retro arcade games.

Knowing nothing about him, except how much he stood out trying to do things his way, it's amazing how determined he's been.

I realized only recently that Minecraft was created using the lwjgl (http://www.lwjgl.org/), the lightweight Java Game Library that Cas created as a result of writing his own games in Java (how crazy!) instead of using existing open-source and closed-source game frameworks.

Not many people have the drive to create exactly the kind of games they want to play, as well as their own developer tools, for over ten years.

There was nobody there to tell him that he needs to quit his day job and join a startup accelerator, as well as find a co-founder first.

The idea that you will eventually realize some financial gains if you keep releasing quality games or apps is common wisdom. But to actually realize, ten years later, just how rare it is for a developer to continue to make and polish stuff for themselves, regardless of what other people think? Or to have created something that enabled a massively popular video game to be created?

That's truly awesome, and I'm cheering for him.

I don't know how any body game make a game profitable at £2.99