Blogs - QuixoticRocket

I just spotted another "pay what you want" Indie Bundle style site that allows you to split your purchase between the developers and a charity. This is the 4th or 5th indie bundle site I've seen recently and was just wondering what people make of it.

Personally I follow 2 bundle sales sites: Indie Royale and Humble Bundle. Any more than that and I cannot play the games fast enough. As it is I can't purchase every bundle of theirs and expect to finish every game, which is why I'm skipping this humble bundle. I have SMB and NightSky. I'd love Shank but would prefer it on Xbox so I think I'll just buy it there instead of spending that money on the bundle. At least I'm supporting the indie and more likely to actually play all my games.

Is anyone else having a game overload with all these sales? Are the bundles getting diluted by having so many or is more exposure a good thing?
Is more choice good or are we risking option paralysis where we don't know what to do so we do nothing?

Personally I think that more indies getting exposure is always good, but the bundles still need to be careful about maintaining a quality standard or risk the consumer having a bad experience and moving away from the indie purchases.

Any thoughts on the matter?

So in a previous bog post I was complaining about Bethesda and stated that:

QuixoticRocket wrote: First off I have nothing against Skyrim itself. I haven't played the game not because I have some angst or venom against it. It's just not really my kind of game. If someone gave it to me and I had nothing else to do I'd probably enjoy a good few hours with it.

Well I recently had a christmas get-together with some friends where we all exchanged gifts. This resulted in me walking away with a brand-spanking new copy of Skyrim for the Xbox (and due to a mixup with gift buying I also now have an extra copy of Rage for Xbox).
So 2 new Bethesda games when I wasn't going to buy anything from Bethesda again... Well I have yet to play Rage but my friend tells me it's very good (the friend who I bought it for who sent me a text message a few days after I bought him his present asking me if I'd like to borrow it since he's finished it), but I did decide to give Skyrim a spin since, as I said before, I'm sure I'd get some enjoyment out of it if someone gave it to me.

I lost an entire day.

I created my lizardman character and did the little intro "this is how you look around, this is how you move, follow this guy through the tunnels" bit. Then I followed him to a village and got told to go to a city and talk to someone. So far the game had been decent and I was enjoying it, but nothing Uber-fantastic. And then I got sidetracked...

While crossing the river and heading off to the city I decided to quickly check a side path that looked like it dead-ended. I discovered a small winding path into the mountains and I could see the ruins of a small tower there. A couple of dead bandits later and I was looting the tower when I noticed a larger ruin just a little further on. This turned out to be a barrow and after killing off a few more bandits I was on a quest to get to the end of it.

A few hours, bandits, spiders and undead later I had finished the barrow and was told to go back to the village to talk to someone. It turns out I missed an optional quest in my haste to move on to the city. I also discovered a mine on my way back to the village, so I handed in the quest and went off to clear out the mine...

Hours later I was close to the city, but there's an interesting little castle thing over there and since I'm going that way I may as well jsut check out that camp over there to see what it is... hours later I finally returned to the road...

This seems to be where Skyrim really shines for me. There's a massive world to explore and everywhere has interesting ruins or mines or places to sneak into and treasures to find. I could move through the game at a much faster pace but I don't think I'd be getting as much out of the experience. I wouldn't be sneaking by some giants to steal their mammoth cheese or invading a bandit stronghold and stealing their enchanted maces.

If I have to be honest I'm really enjoying the game far more than I thought I would. I have to take my hat off to Bethesda as this has been a very enjoyable experience so far and it's been completely bug-free to this point.

Hopefully Rage will be as fun and bug-free. This didn't stop me from pre-ordering the latest Indie Royale bundle, but I can see myself losing many many hours exploring in Skyrim. I guess Bethesda does occasionally do some things right. Or maybe I'm just on the right platform for their games?

First off I have nothing against Skyrim itself. I haven't played the game not because I have some angst or venom against it. It's just not really my kind of game. If someone gave it to me and I had nothing else to do I'd probably enjoy a good few hours with it.

Here's the real issue I have: Skyrim, like many of the recent games released by its publisher, came out buggy and the publisher knows it. The last 3 Bethesda games that were released (Brink, Rage and Skyrim) have all come out with varying levels of bugs that all require patching very shortly after release.
I understand that nowadays all games come out with a few bugs and patches are to be expected, but Bethesda is known to be a greater offender in this department than most publishers.

Brink had _major_ issues on release and day 1 patches. Rage had quite a few problems (especially with OpenGL drivers) and has been through various patches too. Now Skyrim has spawned a bunch of issues and a patch forthcoming. I've read of various crashes to desktop, various flying critters (that shouldn't be flying), the entire floor dropping away in a city killing the player and all NPCs as they plummet to their doom, etc...
Even the fallout franchise has suffered from all sorts of bugs under Bethesda's wing. Remember the ingame cinematics on youtube where the one character's head does an exorcist style spin while he's sitting there talking to you?

The other issue with almost every one of these games is the lack of a proper interface for PCs. There is nothing wrong with porting a console game to PC if you put in the little bit of extra work to make the interface work with a keyboard and mouse. Apparently you browse your inventory in Skyrim using the WASD keys? And you can't use the mouse? That shows some serious lack of care and polish.

And here's the thing, I don't blame any of the developers for what's happened here. They're having to balance their passion for making something they believe in with the allowances and deadlines that their publisher is dictating. And then their publisher expects them to sprint like crazy, pulling mad crunch time to fix all the bugs when it's the rush to market that has resulted in so many bugs in the game.

None of these games have been bad games but they've all suffered from what seems to be a rush to market and a lack of quality control. Bethesda aren't the only culprits here but they are one of the most prominent offenders. Bethesda would rather rake in our cash early than allow the developers an extra month to polish up the game. They'd rather use the public as their quasi-beta testers than put the game through rigorous quality assurance to iron out as many bugs as possible. Somehow I feel like I'm getting fleeced every time I give them money.

And this brings me to why I hate the success of Skyrim (and Fallout, etc). Bethesda are shifting millions of copies and making planetloads of money and noone is stopping for a moment to say "Hey, Bethesda. I won't buy any of your games until they're in a playable state."
By buying a million copies of their games people are effectively saying "It's ok to release unfinished games with a AAA price tag attached. I'll still buy it and then wait around while you finish coding it."
And the more people say that the more Bethesda will do it.

If you want to buy unfinished games and wait around for them to be completed there's a much better solution. Look into the Alpha Funding games here on Desura. Rather help a small indie company who engages with their fans create a superb game than throwing your money at Bethesda in $60 chunks and hope that they get around to patching your issues.

Personally, I've stopped buying Bethesda's games. I got badly burned on a purchase not long ago. A purchase I preordered in good faith and then had to not only deal with getting the game late (European release times: y u always so far behind ??? -picture of memeguy-) but then found it in a state that, while playable wasn't exactly fun (invisible enemies, no sound on 1/3 of the levels, bad balancing, disappearing save data) until a few patches later.
Maybe I'll miss out on a few good games but I can no longer bring myself to support a publisher that treats it's fans badly and seems to have a pattern of greed over quality.

I will (and have) spent some money (almost nothing by comparison) on alpha funding though. Games that look to have real promise with just as much fun as the big titles being developed by guys with passion that are walled off from their community by a publisher with barbed wire and flashy adverts.

Next time you're looking at a AAA $60 game maybe you should check online to see how many bugs there are and, if there are many, spend a few $s on alphas and pick up the AAA title a month later once the major patches have gone through. It'll be 1/2 price by then anyway and you'll have access to both the AAA and the alpha funded games.
And then maybe the publishers will start taking the hint?

I'm 33 now (sheesh) and have been gaming since my dad bought a Commadore 64. I've grown up through various gaming platforms and have a fondness for some of the oldschool games that just don't seem to get any love from the big companies anymore.
Back when I was in school everyone that played computer games were playing point and click adventures and arcade style action games. Schoolground conversation would vacillate between how to get past a hurdle in a Sierra "Quest" game to how quickly you clocked double dragon to the new Lucasarts game coming out to organising a game of contra after school.
Then I grew up and gaming has been growing with me. FPSs have made a big rise in gaming and platformers, puzzlers and adventures have quietly slipped away or been trimmed down to quick knockouts or casual affairs. I looked around one day to find myself suffering from adventure withdrawl and luckily Telltale Games came to my rescue with their Sam and Max episodic series. They certainly captured the humour of the old game but, in spite of how good the episodes were, there was just something not quite the same.

And then along came Gemini Rue. When I first saw it's old-school graphics and heard it was a point and click adventure I almost jumped and bought it instantly, but I had a lot on my gaming plate at the time and decided to wishlist it and come back to it some time later. Little did I know that a reminder would soon appear on a gaming news site I frequent. That reminder came in the form of the Indie Royale launch bundle.
"What's this," I thought to myself, "Gemini Rue for a fraction of the price with some other random games thrown in? I'll bite!"
And so I bought the first bundle and discovered where all the games I love had been hiding. Beautiful action platformers like A.R.E.S Extinction Agenda, quirky puzzle platformers like Nimbus, and even a fantastic spin on the tower defence game that became one of my top favorite games: Sanctum. All in a single low price bundle? And what is the common theme? Indie developers! The developers that are still making games for the love of the game and not for the profit they'll get. There's more heart in a level of their games than an entire DVD of AAA recent release.

And then came along the second bundle from Indie Royale. I snapped it up immediately based purely on the fun I am still having with the first and what do I discover? Even more old-school gaming awesomeness. Nailbitingly difficult SHMUPs like Scoregasm (and the 2 bonus SHMUPS Irukandji and Bullet Candy Perfect), another quirky puzzle platformer NightSky, and another amazing pair of point and click adventures Ben there. Dan that & Time Gentlemen, Please. I cannot praise these games enough. The Ben and Dan games somehow walk the perfect line between 'homage to' and 'satire of' old point and click adventures. Scoregasm mixes perfect combinations of frustration and triumph. NightSky relaxes you and allows you to appreciate the levels.

I seriously recommend all these games and will be rooting out indie developers more and more from now on. I strongly suggest that you check out the Indie Royale sales (they happen every could of weeks) and try some of the games mentioned above. If you miss a game made with heart you can't go wrong with a good indie developer.

"How does this relate to Stealth Bastards" I hear you ponder (if you read the title to this post). Here's how: Stealth Bastard is a free game from a small company that has loads of fun and awesome design squeezed into it's tiny frame. Imagine Super Mario Bros had a love child with Splinter Cell. Well.. don't imagine the actual act, imagine the outcome: a sleek stealth platformer that's all about beating a level in the shortest time possible using shadows and sneakery to your advantage. And once you've finished all the levels you can either create (and share) more in the inbuilt level designer or download more levels the community has created and shared. I suggest giving it a play through.