Game News Broken Roads Released

[Tyranicon]

Day 2, only 54 (mostly negative) reviews? That doesn't usually translate into hundreds of thousands in sales. Typically, you multiply the number of reviews by 40 to estimate the number of sales. BG3 has 530,000 reviews, and that's not even counting consoles.

They got dunked on by normie reviews and then the steam reviews. IIRC, the average conversion rate of wishlists on launch day is somewhere around 7-10%, but this game dipping way below that means a number of things, but mostly people saw the reviews and were like nah.

FWIW, they did an excellent job of marketing the game. I've actually been following this because they seem to have an outsized marketing machine for what appears to be a very indie outfit. Somebody has industry connections here. Like, they were on the cover of PCGamer (not as a big deal as it used to be, but still).

Also look at everything they ported to:

 

[koyota]

If anyone is actually wanting to purchase it and post impressions so others can enjoy the schadenfreude:

Already 28% off at Green Man Gaming.

 

[GloomFrost]

Just re-watching the original Mad Max trilogy will give you more Post apocalyptic Australia vibes then this woke trash. I mean this could easily be number 1 disappointment of the year candidate except I don't really think anyone actually expected much from this.

 

[Mei Scarlet]

Did anyone here play it? No comments about actual gameplay in 3 pages.

 

[Monte Cristo]

I live in this part of Australia so I'm gonna torrent it at least. Thing is this region is literally a desolate wasteland already. It's the size of western europe and like 4 people live there, so a post-apocalyptic setting doesn't seem to change much.

 

[luj1]

Did anyone here play it? No comments about actual gameplay in 3 pages.

I played the demo

Very basic dialogue with contemporary writing which I'm not a fan of, basic combat, story was meh and it ran quite poorly. I guess the assets were okay? The gameplay was so much below standard that it was unbearable tbh, you are mostly just talking to people. If you ask me, thus game wanted to be Disco Elysium so bad. I am not surprised it took people 7 hours to finish.

 

[Rincewind]

As an Australian, I won't play this.

Nice accents in the trailer, though.

 

[AwesomeButton]

Some of the reviews were "revealing" to say the least:

The Victorian Government contributed to the funding through its Assigned Production Investment Games program, as part of a larger initiative that distributed $550,000 across ten projects (Happy Mag). Meanwhile, Screen Queensland, representing the Queensland Government, allocated more than $1 million in total development funding for seven digital games projects, including "Broken Roads."

How dare you charge $31 for 7 hours of game play after receiving such grants.

The whole game was a scheme lmao

They're also required to follow the Victorian governments diversity policy which might explain why it has the stink of the woke about it.

But hey, tne got the grants! Which is peanuts anyway

 

[Cheesedragon117]

No surprises here. Good on an indie team for trying I guess.

As an Australian in what you would call the 'arts industry' this is frustrsting as hell because we basically dont have such a thing (as a creative arts industry). From the reviews it looks like they tried and failed, something I see all too often with the lack of any infrastructure for games like this here. Mobile trash? No worries. Take a risk on a real game? Git farked mate.

Then again it also grinds my gears knowing that with ten minutes I probably could have done better at designing a narrative/world building for this. Too late now, of course, but ffs if there are any other Aussies round here thinking of doing something similar, for the love of all that is holy send me a dm!

Australians have access to the same infrastructure that every other independent game developer on the planet has access to. which is the internet and sales platforms like Steam.

I am actually curious about what exactly Baron Tahn means by "infrastructure". Is office space sold at a premium in Australia? Is the economy so shit that nobody can take time away from their 9/5 to work on a passion project? Or is the culprit much broader cultural and/or sociological issues that he's choosing to blame on "infrastructure"?

Go woke go broke...n

The issue is they "went broke" with taxpayer money, which is even worse. How much longer before all our propogandized entertainment is being officially undercut by government grants? It's already happening unofficially, through NGOs like all the consulting firms we've come to know and love in the states, who themselves receive funding from government channels.

How many of you are aware of who Larian took checks from to finish Baldur's Gate 3?

How much longer until releases from studios not backed by said groups are either heavily regulated or just outright banned?

So many questions.

 

[Baron Tahn]

I mean there is no infrastructure. So in the U.S, you get investors. Here, you beg the government for development funds (which you jump through hoops to get - like pandering to government requirements) and yes, you keep your day job. There are no 'producers'. No supporting businesses for it.

Plenty of very talented creatives who would like to make interesting things and in general if they want to stay in the game one of two things happens: A. They move overseas or B. They join an advertising conglomerate and get paid.

Like a building with no foundations or a city with no roads - piles of creatives and no producers is the same: a lack of infrastructure.

 

[The_Sloth_Sleeps]

I mean there is no infrastructure. So in the U.S, you get investors. Here, you beg the government for development funds (which you jump through hoops to get - like pandering to government requirements) and yes, you keep your day job. There are no 'producers'. No supporting businesses for it.

Plenty of very talented creatives who would like to make interesting things and in general if they want to stay in the game one of two things happens: A. They move overseas or B. They join an advertising conglomerate and get paid.

Like a building with no foundations or a city with no roads - piles of creatives and no producers is the same: a lack of infrastructure.

All Australians care about is the property market.