Indie games are showing the way with the amount of content these days
this post was submitted on 05 Sep 2025
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I didn't realize 7 years was a full decade.
No no, you see, this is an alternative universe where we all use base 7
I use base 10, what's base 7? Also, what's a 7?
All bases are base 10
Damn, Elder Scrolls fans must feel real fuckin old then.
Just a different intelligent species with 7 fingers.
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I think it's great they're charging such a reasonable price, but I hope people don't hold other smaller devs to this standard and compare them one to one. It's a lot easier to charge $20 when you're about to sell a bajillion copies of something. A solo dev making something way smaller might charge $20, too, but they may only sell a few dozen copies.
In other words, celebrate the pro consumer decision but please don't use it as a cudgel against other indies in the future.
Nah, this is gaming. Get your grounded nuance out of here! Indies must meet these personal expectations of mine. Holds hand impossibly high.
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The $199 side omits that the poor ceo had to buy his 3rd luxury car in 2 years time because reasons.
*yacht
Destiny 2 moment
I cannot wait for all the AAA developers to whine, cry, and complain about how everyone is saying Silksong is so good and that AAA can't compete with their own games.
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I'm not saying that it's not irresponsible to grow to the size that they have, but I don't think people understand the staggering difference in the size of the development teams between GTA and Hollow Knight.
MobyGames lists 4,771 people in the credits for GTA V and just 85 for Hollow Knight. Honestly most of those on Hollow Knight are translators and testers, people who weren't working the full length of development time.
As a reminder, 99.9% of the cost of a game is number of staff * salary * time.
https://www.mobygames.com/game/62275/grand-theft-auto-v/credits/windows/
https://www.mobygames.com/game/84194/hollow-knight/credits/windows/
i’m all for boycotting big companies slop in general; gotta stop rewarding mass produced, corner cutting productions
Yeah, well ‘gamers’ do what they do at scale.
Apparently they can’t even be bothered to price shop for GPUs, as Nvidia has 94% market share at a time when Intel and AMD are selling sublime mid range cards. How can we expect folks to stop buying Call of Duty on principle?
let’s see more passionate small teams than micromanaged large teams appeasing their quarterly shareholders
Indie devs keep winning. I can't really remember the last time I played a really good AAA game. Mid maybe, but not good.
TotK is a great game. And I've heard Baldur's Gate 3 was excellent although can't play it until I've got myself a new computer. I think they'd probably count?
BG3 is in a strange sort of limbo. It's self-published, was partly crowdfunded, but is AAA in scope and polish.
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Cannot wait to buy another Ubislop-like that costs $80, takes 70+ hours to complete the mainstory and plays exactly the same as the last 20 iterations over the past decade
This could very much represent troubles not just in video game development, but project development in an investor-driven market entirely.
Everyone is focused on short-term wins and profits - so they can demonstrate they're a fantastic manager making incredible things. They hire 1000 people, then show the grandiose things they made with those people in 2 years so they can take more investment. But the way creative work goes, there are far better ways to play that lottery - they just don't involve as much active management, and are far less showy.
As a publisher, you could just start 50 small studios of only 10 employees each, with occasional external support as needed to each one, and give all of them 5 years to develop. That would equate to the same or much lesser cost as some of these gigantic multi-outsourced projects, but it means investments are left for longer. And of course, few of them would be a "Hollow Knight" or "Minecraft", but just enough of them would likely succeed to pay for all the others.
You can see similar concerns in R&D and other similar fields across industries, that give randomized and unpredictable benefit when every manager is watching every quarter's earnings.
As a publisher, you could just start
This actually happens a lot, but kind of the other way around. Small indie shops run out of money and small publishers / companies swoop in with venture, throw a lifeline worth of money for a decent stake in the product. It either gets made, or it gets bought by a bigger fish. Sometimes the product is already done and they just need help expanding the audiience
Places like forklift.gg, who helped accelerate Cash Cleaner Simulator
And of course, few of them would be a “Hollow Knight” or “Minecraft”, but just enough of them would likely succeed to pay for all the others.
I would contest this. The vast majority of indie games ‘fail,’ and there is some Machiavellian logic to “let’s make a mediocre game we know will sell.”
Basically zero “micro team” indies turn into Rimworld or Hollow Knight or Stardew Valley, statistically, much less Minecraft. That’s a fantasy.
…That being said, I think there is a “sweet spot” dev team size where diminishing returns are quickly hit. Coffee Stain (the Satisfactory dev) is my classic sweet spot example: Big enough to license Unreal Engine and pretty dependably make something “big” and fantastic, without burning cash detailing pores in ass cheeks and making some broken custom engine to fulfill some suit's “1st party synergy” fantasy.
They have marketers and such, but it’s frugally spent.
And publishers are pursuing this strategy. Paradox seems to be on a spending spree for mid sized studios, and Embracer Group is notorious for it.
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