I’m back to talk more about demos. No, really I am not going to derail myself or get stuck in a footnote. I’m going to stick to demos and why I do and/or don’t love them. (Let’s see how long I keep that promise. My prediction is one paragraph.)
I was talking to Ian about how the Steam Next Fest has blown up into something unrecognizable. There are literally thousands of games in the Fest, and I mean several thousands. I think there are close to/over five thousand; what the fuck is up with that?! That’s way too many games. I blazed through a bunch of them yesterday, installing several on my Steam client. I tried a few, and, well…let’s just say I should have been pickier. The slop, it was slopping. In yesterday’s post, I talked about what I expected from a demo, and I’ll continue that in a bit.
I did the equivalent of going into a store, grabbing everything that’s on sale, and tossing it in my bag. To be fair to me, I did make sure they were in genres I actually played, but that was about it. And because I am very ggenerous towayrds indie devs, I put up with more than I should have.
At the end of the last post, I was talking about the things that really frustrated me in a game. I’ll keep going down that path now. Oh, and these are things that should be in every game. I’m not asking for anything hard, mind. Just things like what the controls are.
Side note: I have a hard time with controls if I’m using K&M because I use the Dvorak system. Most games use QWERTY, and while some switch back automatically, others don’t. Some might let me switch it myself, but others don’t. So I can’t use the Dvorak system at all. I will be fair and say that there is no optimal choice for me because I don’t look at the keyboard as I type, so if the instructions are in Dvorak, I’m lost.
This is one reason I prefer controller to K/M. I will say that I like to use K/M for typing games, of which I played one today. I will talk about it a bit later because it was one game I liked. Mostly.
Here’s the thing. I have different categories and ratings for games, depending on if it’s a triple A game or an indie game*. if I’m paying seventy bucks for a game–well, I’m not going to pay that much for a game, really. I very rarely play triple A games, and I certainly did not pay full price for them.**
This is one of the best things about playing PC games, by the way. The frequent sales that proliferate across Steam. In addition, because I like indie games, they are often twenty bucks or under. And on sale.***
*There are double A games, too, but for whatever reason, I rarely am interested in those. Also, I’m not sure what exactly makes an AA game–just that it’s somewhere between triple A and indie. By the way, I don’t think there are single A games, which is amusing to me. Some big publisher, I think maybe Epic?, declared that it’s next game was going to be quadruple A, whbich did not work out well for them.
I looked it up. It was UbiSoft, and it was why they were going to charge $70 for Skull and Bone because it was a quadruple A game. Ha!
**The exception, of course, is FromSoft. I will even pre-order a game from them, and they ane of the only devs I will do that for. Hell, I don’t even need to see a trailer from them before I’ll put down the plastic. I don’t know how much longer that will last, but for now, it’s my one exception.
***It’s that mentality of making people think they’re always getting a deal. Most indie games on Steam are 10% off on release, which is ridiculous, really, because they are so cheap to begin with. But, that’s the psychology of sales. If people think they are getting a deal, they are more likely to buy the product–even if the savings is literal pennies.
Back to what I need from a game. I need to know how to start the game. You would be surprised at how many games don’t tell you how to actually start a game. Or what to do once it starts. There was one that had no explanations once I was actually in the world. There was an NPC I could talk to, but they didn’t have much to say. I could not go outside or upstairs. I did not know what to do. I watched someone playing the demo to figure out what to do.
I think this game is made by one person. If not, I would bet a whole bunch of money that it’s under five people. All I needed was a few cards explaining the first few steps. I know developing a game is hard, but if you want people to play your game, they have to know how to play said game.
It’s intersting. I have several categories of games that are not based on the genre of said games. If I’m paying full price for a triple A game (basically a From game), then I expect a lot of polish and a high level of brilliance. It better run well, and there should be minimal bugs. I’m not expecting none, but I’m not nearly as understanding about bugs in From games as I am with bugs in small indie games.
By the way, can I tell you the game I’ve been engrossed with the most this year so far? Well, I’m going to. It’s a little deck builder roguelite called The Spirit Lift (prettysmart games), and I got realaly addicted to it for a few months. I’m not going to talk about it much here because I’ve written tons about it–huh. I have not written tons about it, apparently. I’ve written two posts. That’s nothing for me! Here is the first of those two posts.
Here’s one thing that I need in a cozy game–diversity. There have to be racial diversity and gender diversity beyond men/women is most welcome. Body size differences is really appreciated, and different sexualities? Also a plus. If I can date more than one person at a time, that is a bonus. It’s funny when I play games that have some or any of these features, I like the game so much more from the start.
More tomorrow.