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I’m only making business card sized games now

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Re: I’m only making business card sized games now

#101

Post by coldtea »

village-idiot wrote: post #81
pushpop wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Arcades were a thing before home consoles. The entire premise of an arcade is to get people hooked on short tasks of intermediate reward so they keep churning their coins into the machine.

Arcades are also a fundamentally social experience, which changes the tenor significantly. No, most online games don’t count as social. They’re anonymous, faceless, and typically populated with the utter dregs of humanity willing to say the most vile thing to get attention. Genuine human interaction this is not.

>typically populated with the utter dregs of humanity

Or, pretty typical 13 to 25 year olds, millions of them, people that could be your son or daughter or friend, and who you enjoy the company otherwise everyday...

>willing to say the most vile thing to get attention. Genuine human interaction this is not

Or perhaps totally genuine (which is different than "compassionate"), and context-appropriate?

It's a competition, from the ancient times you're meant to take sides, disparage the opponent, sing a nice insulting song against the other team, and enjoy crushing them!

Re: I’m only making business card sized games now

#102

Post by Cthulhu_ »

muzani wrote: post #83
jrockway wrote: post #3

> We all know that modern games have become bloated, weighed down by useless features, achievements, anti piracy measures, piles of assets, and other junk. Not only that but developers are constantly taken advantage of, made to crunch for no pay, mass layoffs, etc. Lives have been ruined, and for what? So you could watch your horse poop or play dominoes in an open world game? I am not sure that it's fair to compare a…

To each their own. I don't like Overwatch or games like Fallout simply because of the 1500 hours. I like to complete a game within a month or so. Much longer and it feels like work (work is fun too and if I'm going to get good at something, it should at least pay the bills). My sweet spot would actually be games like Rimworld or Kittens. Something that you can find closure in about 20 hours of gameplay. I feel like g…

20 hours for Rimworld? I've spent nearly a hundred in there and never even got close to endgame. That is a sandbox game without an end - however, one with constant entertainment though.

But I feel you about longer games starting to feel like work. I really want to like the Witcher 3 for example, but there's just so much content in there. I've started my playthrough two years ago and still haven't gotten to the end of the game. Or, I thought I did, but turns out it wasn't yet. And then there's some DLC which also got great reviews and promises of a huge amount of content.

Currently I'm playing Mass Effect: Andromeda, which bombed because of reasons but it's a pretty good game with a ton of content, can't go wrong for €7. Its missions are episodic enough that you can play for an hour at a time if you're limited in time.

Re: I’m only making business card sized games now

#103

Post by ComSubVie »

jrockway wrote: post #3

> We all know that modern games have become bloated, weighed down by useless features, achievements, anti piracy measures, piles of assets, and other junk. Not only that but developers are constantly taken advantage of, made to crunch for no pay, mass layoffs, etc. Lives have been ruined, and for what? So you could watch your horse poop or play dominoes in an open world game? I am not sure that it's fair to compare a…

Hm, I don't want to know how much time I spent with 2048. Definitely fun for much more than a few minutes ...

Re: I’m only making business card sized games now

#104

Post by pushpop »

coldtea wrote: post #101
village-idiot wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Arcades are also a fundamentally social experience, which changes the tenor significantly. No, most online games don’t count as social. They’re anonymous, faceless, and typically populated with the utter dregs of humanity willing to say the most vile thing to get attention. Genuine human interaction this is not.

> typically populated with the utter dregs of humanity Or, pretty typical 13 to 25 year olds, millions of them, people that could be your son or daughter or friend, and who you enjoy the company otherwise everyday... > willing to say the most vile thing to get attention. Genuine human interaction this is not Or perhaps totally genuine (which is different than "compassionate"), and context-appropriate? It's a competit…

“trash talk” is fine but I think what the former poster was referring to is the trolls. Online gaming is no different to any other online activity in that regard (or even real life playground “banter”). Ie some people are little shits and others aren’t. The trick is to give the shits a wide birth; which is often easier said than done.

Re: I’m only making business card sized games now

#106

Post by saiya-jin »

jrockway wrote: post #3

> We all know that modern games have become bloated, weighed down by useless features, achievements, anti piracy measures, piles of assets, and other junk. Not only that but developers are constantly taken advantage of, made to crunch for no pay, mass layoffs, etc. Lives have been ruined, and for what? So you could watch your horse poop or play dominoes in an open world game? I am not sure that it's fair to compare a…

Well, 1500 hours, or 2 months in a row, thats a bit of a sad story. Not everybody here wants to waste their lives like this, there is much more to life. It may not feel like it, but once you discover properly amazing things you can do in your life (exotic travelling, adrenaline sports, whatever makes you tick), this behavior will look pretty bland and boring.

I have a colleague like this, and boy does he regrets wasting his life with online games of his era. Time that you can't bring back and spend in a better way.

So imagine, for those of us willing to spend maybe 10-20 minutes per day max at some simple fun (if at all), at our time, this kind of game is a blessing. Because you know, life out there, in analog world, can be pretty great and better than anything digital can bring.

Re: I’m only making business card sized games now

#107

Post by baud147258 »

coldtea wrote: post #96
WA wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but most people in this world are not and would still like to enjoy something that's delightfully thoughtful, intriguing, and simple enough to pick up for a short time Most gamers these days seem to be people who play on their smartphone. These games can be simple compared to AAA games, but they still need to be flashy and good-looking with an interesting game mechanic.

> but they still need to be flashy and good-looking with an interesting game mechanic. If they have great/addicting gameplay, they don't have to be flashy and good-looking.

> If they have great/addicting gameplay, they don't have to be flashy and good-looking.

For that point, I think Tetris is a good example

Re: I’m only making business card sized games now

#108

Post by baud147258 »

village-idiot wrote: post #81
pushpop wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Arcades were a thing before home consoles. The entire premise of an arcade is to get people hooked on short tasks of intermediate reward so they keep churning their coins into the machine.

Arcades are also a fundamentally social experience, which changes the tenor significantly. No, most online games don’t count as social. They’re anonymous, faceless, and typically populated with the utter dregs of humanity willing to say the most vile thing to get attention. Genuine human interaction this is not.

The few time I talked with another player in a MMO, even as a noob, were cordial. I'd say it depends on the kind of people playing the game, I guess

Re: I’m only making business card sized games now

#109

Post by baud147258 »

dymk wrote: post #66
m463 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think some games do have a dark side, crafted by the creators to hook into the psyche of the players. I talked to a developer of a popular free-to-play game, and he told me of many of the psychological hooks they use in their game. Exploitation of hoarding behavior, community fame for specific players, random occurrences that are carefully scripted, etc. Nowadays it's hard to find games free of ulterior motives. Ye…

Videogames have always had "money mixed in", profitable videogame studios are as old as videogames themselves, and your glasses are just rose tinted. I'm not even sure what kind of "old" game you're picturing that you think didn't have "money mixed in" - tetris? pong? goldeneye?

Except than game based on a one-time purchase, without any kind of expectation of recurring revenue from IAP/lootboxes, wouldn't get much benefit from too many dark pattern equivalents/skinner boxes, but rather from being a fun game.

Re: I’m only making business card sized games now

#110

Post by baud147258 »

KilledByAPixel wrote: post #82
jrockway wrote: post #3

> We all know that modern games have become bloated, weighed down by useless features, achievements, anti piracy measures, piles of assets, and other junk. Not only that but developers are constantly taken advantage of, made to crunch for no pay, mass layoffs, etc. Lives have been ruined, and for what? So you could watch your horse poop or play dominoes in an open world game? I am not sure that it's fair to compare a…

Hi, I'm the author of the post. Thank you for your thoughts! I certainly don't want everyone to make business card games. I do however want games that are tighter and more focused. Like imagine RDR2 without the mini games, shorter story, and just much better core mechanics. That's the game I want to play. I will say though that philosophically a deep and complex game can already exist on a business card. Take the cla…

> Like imagine RDR2 without the mini games, shorter story, and just much better core mechanics

Or a RPG without fetch quest

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