They’re not doing great.
I moved onto another company just over a year ago, so I wasn’t affected by the layoffs. A bunch of my ex-coworkers were, though- about half the company was let go, including a bunch of people who were hired before I was.
Some of my ex-coworkers had moved over to another local studio, Humanoid Origin, but that studio just announced that they’re shutting down. It’s been a really rough year for game developers.
Yeah, Manor Lords isn’t ready yet. It’s got a good foundation but not much depth yet. I only got 3 or 4 hours out of it.
Have you already tried Enshrouded? Or the OG of them all, Dwarf Fortress?
Personally I LOVE Timberborn for its water mechanics and cutesy beaver colonies. Slightly different from the other games but still a ton of fun.
Man, this is heartbreaking to see. I’m a web dev and it’s similar for us, but you guys seem to have it even worse 
Was this also the result of covid over-ambition, or…? I didn’t think the entertainment industry would be so volatile too…
I just bought Mechwarrior 5 for $12.
As for games I’m playing, still working on MSFS 2020. The planes got a bit dull so I’m self-teaching myself helicopters with no instruction, just grabbing the stick and trial and erroring it. There’s been a lot of spinning around and crashing. Finding and switching to the actual helicopter controls in the settings has helped a lot. I can reliably get into the air and fly around, but not necessarily where I want to go.
Just picked up Blaster Master Zero for PC. It’s a low-fi remake of the classic frustratingly hard NES game, with a rewritten storyline and save points so you don’t have to try to play the entire game in one sitting. Haven’t gotten very far into it yet but it’s fun.
I tried Smalland before Grounded, and it does have its charm, but it did also feel quite drab and mechanical compared to Grounded. The giant insects are fine, but I felt very aware of their territorial ‘cells’ which doesn’t do much for immersion. And the ability to teleport a single base building between the various treetops seemed to stem from convenience rather than elfin ‘magic’. But it’s probably much more fun in multiplayer if that’s your bag.
I had a tremendous amount of fun with Stranded: Alien Dawn. I’ve never played Rimworld but have checked it out with cursory examinations and yeah, Stranded is nowhere near that deep. But graphically speaking Rimworld looks like hot garbage to me, so I haven’t even added it to my wishlist.
Strictly in terms of a beautiful game, Stranded is in the same category as Subnautica for me, except limited. The individual textures themselves may not be anything to write home about but the way they come together just feels beautiful and peaceful. (For both games, I mean.) I call Stranded limited in this context in that you don’t really go anywhere. It’s beautiful near your home base, and then you never really go anywhere else.
As far as gameplay goes, I was really, really excited when I started playing stranded. I spent hours drawing up plans for my base on graph paper. I just love that shit. The downside is that once I got everything built and set up, it surprisingly just turned out to be a waiting game before winning. So I literally just waited until I won and then I was done. About a week later I was still so incredibly unsatisfied by that ending that I decided to make it more challenging. So I maxed the difficulty and tried it with only one character instead of the standard 4. That run I considered video-worthy:
Stranded: Alien Dawn - Iron Survivor True Solo
I would not recommend watching that in terms of making a buying decision. With only one character that means most of the time I’m just sitting there watching him do whatever job I just told him to do. The game is much more engaging with four characters to control. But you could skip around to get a feel for the aesthetics.
Don’t let that put you off: Rimworld is phenomenal.
And what’s the point of owning a high-end gaming PC if not to play 2D sprite games?
I bought a gaming computer and before I played anything that pushed it, I had to finish Finding Paradise, a fully sprite story game.
So I’m already bored of Stalker 2. And I can’t really point to any reason why. Maybe too much walking around? I dunno. Maybe it needs a few more updates to iron out some things. I just don’t feel the hype over it
But anyway, just downloaded and played Inscription last night. Pretty fun deck builder/puzzle game. However I don’t see it holding my attention for more than a few days. But that’s a long time for deck builder games in my book.
Keep at it, that’s about all it needs.
On second look I’m thinking the graphics should be fine, though I do worry a little that the game mechanics will be too finely detailed for me. I added it to my wishlist but it’s not high on my list for the current sale.
I’m leaning toward picking up two or three of Enshrouded, Manor Lords, Cities: Skylines 2 and No Man’s Sky. Then my second tier candidates on sale are Dyson Sphere Program, New Cycle, Icarus, Rimworld, Smalland: Survive the Wilds and Sons of the Forest, pretty much in that order. Or maybe just finally splurge on Baldur’s Gate 3.
I’m not really in the mood to play any of those titles right at the moment, though, except I kind of have a hankering for Cities: Skylines 2. But I really want bicycles and high capacity buses, so I might rather just play the first one right now. But I do want to pick something up during this sale.
Cities Skylines 2 is on Game Pass if you wanna give it a shot there for cheap (think the first month is $1?). It’s still got mixed reviews. I enjoyed it, but many people prefer 1 instead.
Dyson Sphere Program is so, so, good. Soooo good. It scratches Factorio’s itch with better graphics and a much more intuitive UI (for me at least). Shapez 2 is really fun too.
And BG3… man, if that game were $100 it’d still be worth it. Games like that only come around once a generation… and not every generation! We’re really lucky to have it.
Edit: Game Pass also has Manor Lords, Grounded, and lots of other games. It’s $1 for the first 14 days. Good way to test games before buying on Steam without worrying about the 2-hour refund window.
I just picked up Curse of the Dead Gods for 75% off. A few years ago, I watched a Youtuber play it from beginning to end and it seemed like fun.
Honestly, I was hoping to pick up Hades (the first one) at a discount, but no such luck.
It’s currently only 10 bucks on Steam, though it’s well worth the full asking price of 25.
I’m looking for the Xbox One version. Yes, it’s probably worth the full asking price (although I’ve watched a full run-through so the story has no surprises for me) but I’m in no rush so why not wait for a sale?
Sure, do whatever you like. My point is just that it’s very much worth the ticket price, which is rarer and rarer these days.
That said, the brilliance of Hades was in its story and the way the developer integrated a solid narrative into the endless loop of the roguelike structure. If you’ve already seen the entire story, Hades doesn’t have much going for it beyond being a pretty good entry in a very crowded genre.
I ended up picking up Dyson Sphere Program, Enshrouded, PGA Tour 2K23, the last two Cities Skylines DLC I didn’t own yet, and had also grabbed Breathedge for free last week or so. Lots of new games, though like I said before, not really in the mood for any of them right now except maybe Cities Skylines. Still, I’m pretty excited for Enshrouded and Dyson Sphere for when I do get in the mood.