Ezeekiel
Liturgist
- Joined
- Dec 19, 2016
- Messages
- 1,783
It makes me wonder if this system of selling games is still viable for small niche teams like Overhype. I'm wondering if maybe Patreon of something similar would work out better. The guys behind Dwarf Fortress earn 4600 dollar per month. But then again that game has legendary status. Still it is a niche genre.
Tbh as much as I like the game I think there are just a number of dodgy design decisions (lack of real endgame, lack of story/tighter focus, pointless random map that serves no real purpose anymore because most of the simulation aspects are gone now, art style that is actually nice but does not look interesting on promo screens unless you sell the game on phones/tablets) that sucked up time or otherwise are likely to negatively impact sales that are probably the bigger issue rather than the system of selling.
I just can't imagine many people getting past the look of the game considering they have to sift through tons of indie games on steam every day... First impression is important unless you get lucky and your game just catches on like crazy with youtubers covering it etc.
Patreon I dunno... Seems like you'd basically be living from paycheck to paycheck and people can just get bored and drop off and now what... May work for dwarf fortress as you say, but what if you have to develop a new game? Wouldn't funding drop off then during development? Maybe they could go from kickstarter for dev. funds to patreon for patch funds and back again in an endless cycle of crunch or something haha