3d ago

Ron Gilbert cancels RPG project due to lack of support and funding

www.gamesindustry.biz

38 comments

"They have formulas that they apply to games to try to figure out how much money they could make, and in the end you end up giving a whole lot of games that look exactly the same as last year's games, because that makes some money," Gilbert explained.
...
He continued: “That's why I really enjoy the indie game market because it’s kind of free of a lot of that stuff that big publishers bring to it, and there’s a lot more creativity, strangeness, and bizarreness."
There's still a lot of creativity in big games but it'd be shame to see more movement towards nostalgia-driven/pastiche type games.
He's been talking about it on Mastodon for quite a while now. It's a shame.
/edit: It wasn't the game he talked about on Masto; that game finished/released! My dumb. I thought it was continued development.
- It's a shame, but also, there's billions of games and RPGs out already. The game industry is so oversaturated, it's not even funny.
  
  And the discoverability pipe is breaking.
  No one reads oldschool curators like RockPaperShotgun anymore. They're barely afloat.
  Generic algorithmic social media like YouTube tends to snowball a few games.
  Forums are dead. Reddit is dystopian.
  That leaves Steam's algorithm, and a sea of sparsely seen solo reviewers. But there are billions of people oblivious to passion projects they'd love, and playing AAAs or gacha phone apps instead.
  
  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 people’s radar in the huge deluge of games. I wish it were easier for good games to find their audience
  
  And there are so many games that never got finished or polished properly.
- It's 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
Using a screenshot of Stardew while quoting a developer saying it takes money and staff to finish a project is diabolical
- That’s not Stardew Valley
- Stardew Valley totally would have taken staff and money if you can't live in your parent's house forever. edit: I didn't want it to sound mean towards Barone, it's great what his family did for him, but this game was made possible with a very strong support net -- a luxury not many have.
  
  No idea why you're 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.
- "It's either a passion project you spent ten years on, or you need a bunch of money to be able to hire people and resources"
  From the article.
- I also thought it was Stardiew but after 3 seconds looking it's evident it's not.
the interview that was mentioned:
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2025/12/after-40-years-of-adventure-games-ron-gilbert-pivots-to-outrunning-death/
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.
I like Ron Gilbert.

38 comments