Europe Pub (PieFed)Ron Gilbert cancels RPG project due to lack of support and funding
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Jeffoolwww.gamesindustry.biz/ron-gilbert-cancels-rpg-pā¦
www.gamesindustry.biz/ron-gilbert-cancels-rpg-pā¦
Heās been talking about it on Mastodon for quite a while now. Itās a shame.
/edit: It wasnāt the game he talked about on Masto; that game finished/released! My dumb. I thought it was continued development.
Itās a shame, but also, thereās billions of games and RPGs out already. The game industry is so oversaturated, itās not even funny.
I will take this opportunity to recommend Crosscode, one of the best action RPGs of all time according to 90% of people who play it.
But yeah even amazing games like that fly under peopleās radar in the huge deluge of games. I wish it were easier for good games to find their audience
I like CrossCode, but I am going to bat for Phoenotopia Awakening, one of the best game almost nobody has heard about. Slightly different perspective but similarly massive game full of secrets, puzzles, fun characters and a consistent world where even the tiniest bit of banter can lead you to discover something on the other side of the map.
Not having a quest log made that game hell for me. Massive world with tons of little quests that take you all over the map and no way to track progress or see what the last part of the quest is asking for.
I can kind of see that.
It was not a huge problem for me, but I play lots of metroidvania, and I am used to memorizing stuff for later. And for stuff that I know will be hard to remember, occasionally, I might take notes or screenshots of hints.
Though most of the time, there are more than one hint for a single quest. The game does a very good job at updating every related NPC dialogue when something has changed.
But if you want to find everything, yeah you have to talk to absolutely everyone. TWICE. Almost everyone has two lines of dialogue at any moment.
Thank you both for the recommendations
Wow this looks incredible actually! Definitely giving it a go, thank you
Weird that itās unsupported on steam deck. Doesnāt look that demanding technically.
It runs fine on the Deck.
Source: i have only played it on the Deck.
Mind you, it has been docked and played on a TV, so the text is fine and the controls are from an Xbox controller, so YMMV.
Edit: I am talking about CrossCode. I havenāt played Phoentopia, yet.
A bit weird indeed. Iāve played it on switch and it runs perfectly fine on it.
Hey a fellow Phoenotopia Awakening fan!
I love that game but I made the mistake of putting it down for a year. When I came back I was completely lost and had no idea what I had already done or what to do next. The game does not have quest logs and does not hold your hand this way. Itās a game where people might benefit from documenting their progress as they go, especially in case they ever take a break from it.
I bought it last night after reading this. I hadnāt heard of Phoentopia at all. You suggested it. I watched one video. I found it on sale on GOG, and I bought it. I will install it and play it this weekend.
Thank you!
I really liked CrossCodeās art and vibe and everything. The puzzles are good, too. But the puzzles are kind of hard in a way that tires me out.
I guess thatās how some people feel about dark souls. āOh, Iām glad thatās overā. Thatās not quite the vibe Iām aiming for.
Maybe Iāll play it with a friend whoās good at puzzles so I can just do the fighty parts.
Thatās funny, I loved the puzzles, but dropped it because the combat didnāt click for me.
And the discoverability pipe is breaking.
No one reads oldschool curators like RockPaperShotgun anymore. Theyāre barely afloat.
Generic algorithmic social media like YouTube tends to snowball a few games.
Forums are dead. Reddit is dystopian.
That leaves Steamās algorithm, and a sea of sparsely seen solo reviewers. But there are billions of people oblivious to passion projects theyād love, and playing AAAs or gacha phone apps instead.
There are dozens of us reading rock paper shotgun!
But yeah, the modern web sucks. Itās all soulless algorithms and profit/rent seeking.
Even if someone tried to make forums again, theyād probably fill up with AI slop.
I mean, many forums are still live.
The problem is engagement. Discord, YouTube, even Lemmy all ping you in your pocket and offer more āinstantā dopamine hits than a forum or news site, hence theyāve sucked all the attention.
It works. Iām guilty of falling into it for sure, even when I keep telling myself I will change my information diet.
And even if you donāt a lot of your friends and community do. Forums arenāt fun when itās just you there.
I still enjoy Yahtzee on Second Wind since the whole Escapist debacle. They seem to be trying to stoplight more indie games which I really appreciate.
I know you meant āspotlightā but that typo made me chuckle
Streamers are sometimes a good way to find indie games. My wife and I watch DieDevDie and he mostly plays stuff from itch.io.
Not a streamer, but Iāve bought multiple games because YouTubers like Real Civil Engineer or Dangerously Funny has played and it looked fun. All of these have been indie titles. Off the top of my head hereās a few:
A bunch more but Iām not gonna dig through my library. But yeah, Iāve spent a small chunk because of YouTubers like that. And theyāve all been a good time.
John Walker (founder of RPS, back when it wasnāt a window to Eurogamer style content) is currently doing Buried Treasure, a small review blog for things that arenāt being appreciated by the masses. Well worth checking out!
For finding new games Steam peek is pretty good. And playtester io isnāt bad either.
And there are so many games that never got finished or polished properly.
Itās a confusing article, the game he talks about on Mastodon (Death By Scrolling) has just been released. There was another game he stopped dev on: https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@grumpygamer/115657740122347206
the interview that was mentioned:
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2025/12/after-40-years-of-adventure-games-ron-gilbert-pivots-to-outrunning-death/
I like Ron Gilbert.
I wonder if he tried to get in touch with smaller indie publishers (something like yacht club games) or he focused on more established companies.
Thereās still a lot of creativity in big games but itād be shame to see more movement towards nostalgia-driven/pastiche type games.
Using a screenshot of Stardew while quoting a developer saying it takes money and staff to finish a project is diabolical
Thatās not Stardew Valley
Thatās further proving @p03locke@lemmy.dbzer0.comās point.
The 8/16but style is overused I feel. Donāt get me wrong I liked the look of it, but every indie game out there uses it.
The SVG style is still relatively new and itās much easier to animate.
If youāre going to stick with pixel art aesthetic then you want to do something to differentiate your game from all of the others, such as having more animation frames and going for the Prince of Persia look.
Because its easyā¦
and it does a lot of damageā¦From the article.
I also thought I t was Stardiew but after 3 seconds looking itās evident itās not.
Stardew Valley totally would have taken staff and money if you canāt live in your parentās house forever. edit: I didnāt want it to sound mean towards Barone, itās great what his family did for him, but this game was made possible with a very strong support net ā a luxury not many have.
No idea why youāre being downvoted, the guy who created Stardew literally had his wife take care of his whole life for him while he was working on it.