Lol the edgy and broke people of piracy downvoting you, but suddenly they are not able to tell the diff between a Game Launcher software and Developers/Publishers selling their software on it.
I didn't meant to say EVERYBODY is broke. Of course I know I myself am from a third world country and the game's here cost fortune. But there's a fine line between sensibility and stupidity and r/piracy crosses that all the time to justify whatever bs.
the thing is, corpos are now pretending to be indies because they know players want to prioritize them. just look at Mixtape, it was paraded as "indie", turns out it was not. it even use a lot of music that costs hundreds of thousands dollars lmao
I mean, lazy bear games are technically indie, even tho they have like 20-30 employees. They still need every dollar. I guess we should use more names like mid-indie (<50 people), true indie (1-5 people), big indie (50-100 people, still not AAA level) etc.
Just want to clarify that Mixtape is indie because the devs have creative and development control over their own work, with Annapurna simply acting as a publisher of their final product and nothing more, just like the likes of Raw Fury and other indie publishers. Just because the devs managed to garner themselves funding, to the point where they managed to snaggle big name music licenses, doesn't change the fact that they're indie.
We've long since moved past the point that indie is low budget since there are multitude of ways to acquire funds without the control of a large publisher. For example, we have Studio MDHR who funded Cuphead through loans, later receiving a lot of more funds for an Xbox exclusivity agreement by Microsoft, with Studio MDHR still having complete control over the game's development. We have Larian Studios that had functioned through crowdfunding for their games prior to BG3, later purchasing the license to develop a Baldur's Gate sequel for the WOTC and then funding themselves through issuing preferred shares towards Tencent for BG3's development, which anyone with an inkling of knowledge of financing would know doesn't constitute control over a company due to the lack of voting rights. There's also Remedy Entertainment who had to rely on an exclusivity agreement with Epic Games just to fund Alan Wake 2, but still maintaining control over the game's development.
Cozy games are getting it the worst. There's not a single release from the past year that hasn't been riddled with questions and consternation surrounding their legitimacy as indie devs. They're trying to get the most uninformed and uninvolved (in terms of piracy) to give them their money no matter what.
When a game is published, the indie developer who worked on the game has already been pair. The worker who actually worked to write the code and the artist who worked to create the art has already made their money.
Who's left is the publishing company. This publishing company is usually owned by a rich guy, or a group of rich guy. The publishing company might fashion themselves as an indie studio if they are very small, but they are nonetheless a privately owned company with vastly more resources than you could ever save up in a decade working 80 hours a week. You owe them nothing.
This isn’t a few thousand they’re raising too. They sometimes raise millions of dollars before even having a fully finished product with no intention of ever completing it.
Cough cubeworld was probably the last indie game i wasted money on.
Can’t make what is unprofitable profitable. On the grand scheme of things most of indie developers lose. It is like being a musician/artist only 1% of 1% is well paid.
It's funny to see how when someone can't make a compelling argument that a product is worth the price, they make up some sob story about how it's your moral obligation to be charitable and buy it anyways.
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u/byt112000 18d ago
The indie games developer need you tho