Yep! Co-op OR single player. Player 2 has an AI that scales as you level, so it’s still very fun as a solo experience 🙂
And it’s a shared screen, kinda like a 2 player beat em up.
And co-op works over Steam remote play. Only 1 copy of the game needed!
Actually, it’s not against the Steam EULA for me to sell Steam keys outside their platform. (As long as it’s me selling directly from my website). There even used to be 3rd party services that provided a way for you to sell your own steam keys on your own website without STEAM getting a cut. Last I checked, that was still an option with them. It’s somewhat of a loophole in their EULA, but they did use to encourage devs to sell keys themselves. Selling them through a third party is what breaks the EULA. But not private sales from the developer themselves.
Steam only has a problem is the dev sells more steam keys on their website then steam. Which I don’t think has happened yet.
Haha, thanks man! Completely understand. Keep us in mind around March 5th for related reasons 😉
Working on that actually! Specifically GoG and more outreach on Lemmy. And thanks for the advice! 🙂
We’re probably going to be deleting our Tiktok soon to likewise reduce use of US tech. Which really sucks because it’s the only place we have any traction atm.
Thank you! 🙂 Works great on Steam deck actually! 🙂 Just need to adjust the auto aim a bit in the options to get the best results.
Hate to ask, but as an Indie dev, I’d love some support:
We made a cartoon network inspired RPG (am ex Cartoon Network dev). It’s called:
Ink Inside
It gets lost in Steam discovery constantly as it’s combat is too unique to classify as more than “action RPG.”
Several 9/10 review scores. Brian David Gilbert as a lead VA, with 11 others
42 reviews on Steam.
Free software can’t be “purchased,” so it can’t be turned to shit 👍 Good point.
To clarify mine where needed: the purchasing of what people make is what eventually turns it to shit. (Not just that it’s made, apologies if that was confusing.)
So I completely agree GPL is fantastic and the way forward for us a civilization.
Seriously appreciate this point as a great example of what DOES work well for both creators and community.
Don’t forget how they also missed the point that “potential” returns would actually need to be the equivalent of several countries worth of GDP to actually be profitable.
Pretty much everyone is going to miss the target of creating the most profitable thing ever in all of human existence.
I too will eat my words if these bullshit models can ever be remotely profitable. Let alone more profitable than most nations.
Bloomberg is practicing journalistic malfeasance by even pretending these “potential” returns are viable. The article might as well say AI expects to make a gajillion dollars, as that would be at least more accurate than what they printed instead.
Buy my snake oil. It’s a cognitive amplifier. I just need several neighborhoods worth of electricity to make a bottle. Better find a use for this oil, otherwise I’ll get lynched!
Fair point. But I think you’re burying the promising parts of this article:
W’s data will be hosted decentrally in Europe by European companies, and the platform will adhere to strict EU data protection laws.
“We believe there is an urgent need for a new social media platform built, governed and hosted in Europe. With human verification, free speech and data privacy at its core,” she wrote.
In her LinkedIn post announcing the launch of W, Zeiter emphasized that systemic disinformation is eroding public trust and weakening democratic decision-making.
I’ve never heard an Elon say that.
And her background is solid compared to tech bros:
She earned her PhD in law at the University of Hamburg and later studied at Stanford University.
W will be legally the subsidiary of “We Don’t Have Time,” a media platform for climate action, but the team is scattered across Europe, with offices in Berlin and Paris planned, Bilanz reports.
And the whole platform is legally under a company dedicated towards climate action.
Lot of wins in this article make me think it’s far from the typical VC billionaire babysitting service.
Well said. I am certainly here for a reason :)
Oh because people did such a good job the first time?
Anything people make, no mater how good, can and has been purchased to be turned to shit and controlled by those that purchase it. In that world, which is the one we live in now, a government made and publicly used social media service is just about the only way to create a resilient and uncorruptable form of social media. Especially compared to current alternatives that are already getting corrupted.
I’m not saying what they’ll make is perfect. But it’s far better than any other option we currently have. Knee jerk reacting to assuming it’s bad is very much the same crux billionaires used in the US to weaken the government that would otherwise regulate them.
A government is literally the best suited to creating this tech due to its public utility. Same with electricity, water, Emergency services, roads and more. Everyone uses them, so our taxes should go to making those things better.
This is a step in the right direction.
Be good at math, and no one will care. It’s definitley math, and not having all that money from your parents that make people not care. That’s why his math needs to be “good”, not “great” because skills aren’t something people with money actually need to survive.
That’s just everyone else.
In this case, their “be good at math” is actually good advice, in that it will likely be the only skill and therefore excuse their kid has to remain employed in their 6 figure salaried position where they do nothing but participate in meetings all day.
Great parents.
The controls are what makes it a good purchase imo. Old arcade games often had unique controls like dials, or track balls that DO NOT translate well to a keyboard mouse or controller.
Playing OG Missile Command with an actual scroll ball is such a fun time. This hand held looks to give a bit of that back with their extra controls, so I am very interested.
Regardless of the game size and quality, HOW it’s played is what’s been missing from most arcade ports over the last few decades. Seems like they actually put some thought into this design imo! 😁
At any given time, there’s about 400 million people playing game on the planet. Of those people, only 14% play NEW games released within 12 months.
It used to be 30% 10 years ago. Now it’s less for a variety of factors, but one of them is less people have the income and budget they used to.
You are in that 14%.
Which is great - but the games you buy as part of that 14% are based on your taste. Not if they are exceptionally good, only if they are exceptionally good to you.
So making games that are “exceptionally good” for an audience isn’t easy because your audience doesn’t even know what they want beyond a genre. I’m sure you could tell me about the games you like and prefer to play, possibly even a genre of games you love.
But if I asked you to tell me what game COULD be exceptionally good in that genre, you might not have an answer. Just other games to compare it to. And if you do have an answer, there’s no telling if it would actually be popular with a bigger audience that genre enjoys.
Making “exceptional games” isn’t a bar to be crossed that makes a game money. Rather a game is “exceptional” once it finds an audience that feels that way about it. Games that have broad appeal have broad audiences like Call of Duty who all feel that game is exceptional too. Many who play it would argue which one in the series was the most “exceptional” and wouldn’t have a great answer for what to make as a better version of that game.
People like what they play, and exceptional games are only exceptional to the audience that plays them. So it’s not so much about making something exceptional, but making something that has an audience that thinks it’s exceptional.
And finding that audience is the hard part. Especially when only 14% of people who plays games are even looking at what you’ve made.
But it’s not impossible. Just difficult these days.
Based on what? Your opinion? Or is there a profit analysis and breakdown you want to pair with that to make a point?
My dude, I’m very familiar with the 14% of videogame players new game devs are vying for. And every one of the games you mentioned launched at that price because they were developed by a single dev (two at most) who could profit off of the $10 - $15 dollar space that was below the smaller studios putting out games like Shadow Complex, or Mercenary Kings, or Shank 1+2 for $20.
Now all of those spaces are being crushed together. Mostly due to economic factors. Thats where the biggest problem really lies, in the fact that people just have less money to spend on all that entertainment. Just pointing out that it’s competitive at all is obvious my dude, but the direction its going in is one in where there’s less anything being made (including games) because not as many people have money to spend on anything but necessities.
That’s why AAA is now scavenging at the bottom of the totem pole, and pricing their older games at $10 or less on sale, it’s because the few people that have money find that price point appealing. So it’s now one that not just the people who made Terraria, Braid, etc compete in. The money those devs made previously in that space is now up for grabs to AAA companies that never had anything to sell at that price before.
Theres a very tried and true formula for any business, including making games, and in the last 2 years it has completely broken apart. Mostly due to the Embracer group merger failing, combined with AI, combined with economic uncertainty, combined with AAA companies stabbing indie creators in the back (Subnautica, Disco Elysium). Your game doesn’t have to be a massive hit to be successful, it just needs to have a big enough audience to be profitable. But that audience has shrunk over the years as economies have tightened, and the companies getting squeezed have been invading markets they never had a presence in before.
So it’s just desperate times more than anything. But that doesn’t mean you can’t make a living off of making games. I know dozens of small teams funded by government grants making small games you’ve never heard of to help kids in hospitals learn about their cancer. Or teach kids in underprivileged schools about resource scarcity. Making games as a business goes far beyond entertainment and the hopes of narcissists. It’s an artistic medium like any other, and as such benefits society by making the toughest parts of it more accessible.
There’s plenty of ways to run a company doing just that - and just because the world economy is in free fall doesn’t mean the entire business of making games is something for the lucky few. It’s just for anyone that wants to learn how to run a game company. Which isn’t easy, but extends far beyond the simplistic view you are portraying.
Thanks! 🙂 Appreciate you confirming that. We actually changed the price of our latest game to $10 (from $20) because we launched last December and got buried by AAA selling for $15.
Almost every dev team we talked to this year felt the same about the $20 price. That is, it’s much better to go out at $15 or $10 as a LOT of people see indie games at that price as better than modern AAA. (All while still holding out for classic AAA that go on sale for $20.)
And that being said, I’m totally cool with losing a sale to MGSV or Witcher 3 😁 Just wish the $20 space wasn’t getting so crowded. It’s making it rough for the smaller teams to compete at that price too now.
As an indie dev, this article is fucking stupid.
Want to know why indie games are priced at $10 to $15? Becaue AAA has been putting everything they’ve made in the last decade on Steam and it’s all going for $20 - $25.
Indies can’t launch at that price point anymore because they’re competing with AAA games from 10 years ago that have been discounted to death.
The Steam winter sale is the best example of this, where most people will buy RDR2 for $19 instead of the new mega hit indie that’s $20. So indies have been lowering their price to actually get sales. That’s why team cherry priced Silk Song at $20.
Basically, AAA is now just competing with the bottom part of the market they spent that last decade flooding.
They’re complaining about people actually choosing where to spend their money wisely because that means they might actually have to make a good product if they want to sell a game for $70.
Oh thank you! 🙂 I was mostly answering your question about steams EULA and selling keys outside the platform. No expectation for you to send any money 😉. Completely understand with PayPal, etc, as I’d very much like to stop using them as well 🤘