-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
-
We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.
Assault Android Cactus+ Dev (87 on metacritic): Epic Game store "wasn't interested."
- Thread starter Deleted member 12790
- Start date
- Status
That's what bothered me about Rami Ismail's response to Epic's practises. They are so selective, you can basically not get in if you're not already known or established. Doesn't even matter if your game is good. It goes against the "indie spirit" I like so much.
Fuck Epic and their closed platform. I will happily take Valves approach even if it means some bad eggs get through now and then.
Curation means choosing. It's rather easy to believe doing curation is basically saying "oh, here is a AAA title, it looks great, get in" and then "oh, here is a broken game". It's far more complicated than that.
Curation also means choosing between a shitload of indies. I think a lot of people on ERA but also among indies underestimate how many legitimate indie titles want to release their game.
I'll take an exemple with this game:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/834930/Bishi_and_the_Alien_Slime_Invasion/
When looking at it, you might think "Oh, it looks like a crappy shovelware. Looks like something that belong to Newsground or some shit like this".
When I looked over that point, I found that despite it's flaw, it's a game that has been made by an indie dev with a legitimate wish to make a game. Sure, it looks bad, sure it looks outdated and nothing special. But their intent here was to pour as much as they can into it and sell it.
There's a shiton of that kind of games. A lot more than you think and they represent the bulk of these 6000 games that released last year on Steam.
Now, let's say you want to curate away this game. Fine, you think it doesn't deserve a chance to make a little bit of its money back.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/353540/Stephens_Sausage_Roll/
Stephen's Sausage Roll is a ugly looking game, with terrible visuals. Heck even its banner looks like a MS Paint Job with a terrible font used. Guess what ?
https://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/stephens-sausage-roll
It seems like it's an amazing game, despite its menu looking like its from an asset flip.
Curation also means choosing between a shitload of indies. I think a lot of people on ERA but also among indies underestimate how many legitimate indie titles want to release their game.
I'll take an exemple with this game:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/834930/Bishi_and_the_Alien_Slime_Invasion/
When looking at it, you might think "Oh, it looks like a crappy shovelware. Looks like something that belong to Newsground or some shit like this".
When I looked over that point, I found that despite it's flaw, it's a game that has been made by an indie dev with a legitimate wish to make a game. Sure, it looks bad, sure it looks outdated and nothing special. But their intent here was to pour as much as they can into it and sell it.
There's a shiton of that kind of games. A lot more than you think and they represent the bulk of these 6000 games that released last year on Steam.
Now, let's say you want to curate away this game. Fine, you think it doesn't deserve a chance to make a little bit of its money back.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/353540/Stephens_Sausage_Roll/
Stephen's Sausage Roll is a ugly looking game, with terrible visuals. Heck even its banner looks like a MS Paint Job with a terrible font used. Guess what ?
https://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/stephens-sausage-roll
It seems like it's an amazing game, despite its menu looking like its from an asset flip.
OP
OP
I don't think most people prefer curation at all. I think those who bang that drum are a very vocal minority. There's a reason why things like ebay and craigslist are popular. Most people do not find clicking past something they don't want to buy a mortal sin. Most people know how to use a search bar to find what they want.
His games wrap around 360 degrees to be good again, so they're cool.
It's not a narrative, it's a fact, enough evidence exists to suggest that Epic, in how they are doing business currently, are bad for both consumers and developers (that they aren't throwing huge bags of money at.)
Steam --> "Curation is bad" --> Steam Green light --> "Still too much curation" --> Steam Direct --> "Not enough curation" --> EpicGamesStore --> "Curation is bad"
Can't wait for EpicGreenlight!
Can't wait for EpicGreenlight!
Further to this point, Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy is an asset flip that won an IGF. Banning asset flips is absurd.
Some of the biggest games in the world right now started out as asset flips. It's part of game dev.
I know Valve has problems, but their end goal - a store front that practically anyone can upload their game to, that is then filtered by effective discovery tools that show the customer games they would actually be interested in (that are of a decent quality), is easily the right direction imo. Yes, even allowing porn games. Epic Games Store has been around a few months and this is already an issue - it gonna never go away entirely no matter what the say as long as they remain as strictly curated platform. Hope everyone is excited to start petitioning every time a game gets rejected by Epic.
Android Assault Cactus is excellent, and all three of the big console makers were certainly up for getting it. It sounds like Epic is more interested in landing exclusives than solid titles.
From The Board Before, I recall long-running problems getting The Oil Blue onto Steam. I can't personally vouch for the game being top-notch, but it looks alright in the trailer I just watched, and people certainly seemed keen to support it at the time. But time and time again, it was turned down. Valve's reasoning at the time was vague, and it left a lot of people scratching their heads. If Epic's going to repeat that exact same mess, that's going to be awful for indie devs.
From The Board Before, I recall long-running problems getting The Oil Blue onto Steam. I can't personally vouch for the game being top-notch, but it looks alright in the trailer I just watched, and people certainly seemed keen to support it at the time. But time and time again, it was turned down. Valve's reasoning at the time was vague, and it left a lot of people scratching their heads. If Epic's going to repeat that exact same mess, that's going to be awful for indie devs.
So you think this statement means "we'll accept every game above a certain quality threshold"? Of course they would not say or mean that.
Like I said, Epic store sucks but this example doesn't provide any new evidence of that.
Yes, I forgot to highlight that. GOIBF is the very definition of an asset flip.
Epic position about exposure and curation always actually meant that only a given number of chosen one would have the chance to benefit from it.
Some people complain that some games don't have enough exposure on Steam while also praising Epic who actually goes a step further and doesn't even allow them on their platform, let alone give them exposure.
For the devs indeed. A select few.
Some people complain that some games don't have enough exposure on Steam while also praising Epic who actually goes a step further and doesn't even allow them on their platform, let alone give them exposure.
For the devs indeed. A select few.
OP
OP
Epic games store has an entire market dedicated to prefab assets in the first place
Assets are GOOD, it's an entirely secondary market for indie artists and modelers and whatnot. I feel opengameart.org deserves a shout out for being an amazing resource.
If I remember correctly, Microsoft initially turned down AAC, and at the time (rightly) got criticised for that at the time, along with their other troubling self-publishing policies for indie devs. They have since become far more flexible.
Yup.
Epic are fucking hypocrites and they will eat their own words one day.
Epic isn't interested in being a store offering a lot of content. They just care to land strategic content in the hope to convert everyone to exclusivity because of a de-facto 12% cut without improving much to seek a rent.
That's the fucking irony here. Epic and Unity are basically making a business of having assets sold on their store. The whole point is to allow people without the skills required to make games. Yet Epic complains about devs making games with bought assets.
The developer said in his tweets the epic wants him to contact them in a year or so. So maybe the game comes to there platform in a year. Also just because epic said they won't accept crappy games doesn't mean they also reject good games.
Last edited:
I just want a stricter policy on steam that stops blatant trash from getting on the store.
I don't mean subjective good/bad either in terms of quality or content.
I mean stuff like morally reprehensible stuff that no normal human being would find ok such as rape day (which to be fair to Valve, they did remove but their approach to doing so was not good, I would have liked to have seen them take a stronger stance such as them outright condemning it.)
Other than that I agree, although I do feel Steam can be somewhat cramped with the amount of games it has sometimes and I often feel like I might be missing out on some gems but that's what queue is for, maybe them refining those systems would work.
The closed approach to curation that Epic is taking I completely disagree with though, I don't want Tim and co making decisions about what is "good" and "bad" when they can't even be trusted to make the right decisions for consumers anyway.
This is really sad.
Assault Android Cactus is such a great game.
I still need to buy the Switch Version just to support the devs (and having the game on the go)
It really needs more visibility as it still hasnt gotten the audiencw it deserves.
More people need to play it.
Assault Android Cactus is such a great game.
I still need to buy the Switch Version just to support the devs (and having the game on the go)
It really needs more visibility as it still hasnt gotten the audiencw it deserves.
More people need to play it.
OP
OP
Tim Sweeny is publicly pushing this narrative that what they are doing is good for consumers and developers. I don't think you understand that asking a developer to sit around and wait a year to sell their game is absolutely dreadful for indie devs. Thank god all stores are not run like this. Most indie devs self fund their projects to completion, usually running their personal finances into the red, to wait for launch to recoup. Imagine trying to sit around for an entire year before you're allowed to start making your money back, and the dude running the show telling you that it's for your own good.
Tim Sweeney is truly a friend of developers.
That hypocrite is only a friend of money for himself and means to that end
Where is the thing in about a year's time that would make any changes to their submission process?
https://trello.com/b/GXLc34hk/epic-games-store-roadmap
Edit: and how many developers that they are telling "come back in a year' will have already released their next games elsewhere by that point?
https://trello.com/b/GXLc34hk/epic-games-store-roadmap
Edit: and how many developers that they are telling "come back in a year' will have already released their next games elsewhere by that point?
The developer said in his tweets the epic wants him to contact them in a year or so. So maybe the game comes to there platform in a year. Also just because epic said they won't accept crappy games doesn't mean they also reject good games.[/QUOTE]
Tim Sweeney is an idiot who claims his store is "good for the industry". What good for the industry is telling a indie dev to fuck off for 12 months?
Epic as a whole is doing amazing things for the videogame industry. They are giving developers great tools, often times for free, that enable them to make great content. They are even giving some tools to developers working on concurrent engine like Unity and Lumberyard. And let's not downplay or forget the fact that they are giving away millions with their mega grant, asking nothing in return.
The Store division needs a lot of work, yes. It's only the beginning, so let's hope they will progress quickly.
But as a whole, Epic is doing a lot more good than bad to the industry.
yes and the girl i asked out really did get a phone call that her grandma just died
OP
OP
well I'm sure the AAC folks will be elated to hear this clarification.
I still think the right approach is open store with manual curators that surface good games and highlight them. But everything is there and it will be surfaced as appropriate. Add some good algorithms to auto recommend something and it's a start.
Blocking racist/sexist games is one thing but saying "no shit games" like that has any meaning isn't the right approach.
And being an "asset flip" is just a dumb term. Assets are meant to be used to make games. Who cares where the assets come from? Just let people make games however they want as long as it's legal.
Blocking racist/sexist games is one thing but saying "no shit games" like that has any meaning isn't the right approach.
And being an "asset flip" is just a dumb term. Assets are meant to be used to make games. Who cares where the assets come from? Just let people make games however they want as long as it's legal.
This doesn't make sense at all regarding the game discussed in this thread. The game has been out for a while on PC and other platforms. It has been on Steam for 3.5 years.
Why should you ? You're right, you didn't ask for a special treatment. The very idea that a game that appeared on 5 platforms bigger than EGS, scored a 87 on Metacritic and sold a fair amount of copies need a special treatment is definitely why the whole "curation is meritocracy" is bullshit. If ACC+ cant get on a service, who can ?
- Status