I think this was inevitable, regardless of the state of the industry. Avadon sold well on steam because, within the context of steam, it was completely new. But once every Spiderweb game came to steam, the newness wore off. Likewise, the humblebundle completely de-valued Spiderweb games. Which is a HUGE problem given that they all look pretty similar due to the fact that they re-use the same assets over and over. So what motivation does someone have to buy a new Spiderweb game, when they still have a backlog of 15, huge, and very similar looking games yet to play that they got for 3 dollars in a humble bundle? Even if they missed the humblebundle, the mere fact that someone might own 1 Spiderweb game probably doesn't motivate them very much to buy newer ones that look, on the surface, to be very similar.
I think he'd get a bigger pay off if he spent some actual money and redesigned the look of his new games, giving each series its own art style, rather than being such a tight ass in the graphics department.
That said, I'm probably the biggest, unabashed, Spiderweb fanboy on these forums. So I'd actually pay way more than 20 dollars for a new game, and with that in mind, I don't think this is a bad strategy. I think it all just depends on how many of Spiderweb's core base of rabid fans are left post Steam, GOG, and Avadon.
He made good point actually. The most common major problem of Western game developers is always chasing the rainbows "newer thing". They never stop to redo the old good thing. The good is enemy of the new, so to speak.
This is true. Vogel very much learned to make games by just making games at a consistent rate, rather than spending tons of time developing the one perfect game. So many indies aim waaaay to high and try to develop the perfect, most ambitious, game of their dreams right out of the gate, and choke. But Spiderweb games have always been about developing formulas, and getting better at them over time. I don't think that applies to the Avernums necessarily (which are pretty spotty quality wise later in the series' run), but I do think the Geneforges progressively get better as they go along.