Now, as of 2016, there is still one essential feature missing from Steam client. "Exclude by Tag". Sometimes when searching for games, I just want to exclude all platformers, shoot'em'ups, anime, casual and RPGmaker games, because I just don't like those. However 99% of the query results only show these. And often I just quit searching and end up buying nothing.
Roz Harris This might sound weird, but I swear for God that, while I was scrolling trough the comments, I saw your profile picture and thought you were a woman, a very attractive woman, actually. I'm sorry
well it's not just a yes or no answer. with older games you can't probably run them if you have compatibly mode turned on and even then it might run but music shutters or skips and you'd can probably solve that by getting patch that was meant for certain sound processors playing that game. or even playing newer game might work but it could be overworking your graphics card shorting it's life even at minimum settings.
Another problem Steam has is that a number of "new-games" mis-lead us about their release date, some even flat out lie. Under "New Releases", some games say they came out... say, Today, but when you click on it, it says it was released 10 years ago. Some will even still say they were released today on their own page, but a quick google search tells other-wise. There is A LOT of shovelware / releases on the New Releases section of steam front page, but because there is no filter, it's a pain. And don't tell me it isn't possible, they have a filter to for DLC.
This is really spot on. I find myself wading through games to find a certain style I'm interested in, only to give up for lack of better search filters.
Steam Beta is currently experimenting with this, at the moment you can open another browser window (a cut down version of the client that only opens a page) by middle clicking a link. Tabbed browsing still isn't fully in effect, but it essentially bears the same function.
The worst thing about it is that if you check a game in a list, you have to go to that game's page. And as soon as you click back, it takes you all the way back to the start of the list. It's worse when it's on the 5th page of the list...
YES. I do NOT understand why they don't allow for tabs. It's insane. I want to be able to open up multiple discussion in their "community hubs". Without tabs, it's a huge pain in the ass.
Steam is also in desperate need of some QA as well. Steam has some functionality issues (Seriously, getting put back to the first group of games when I'm on page 5 simple because I looked at one game is fucking annoying) but I feel that I wouldn't even be on the 5th page of new releases if the first 4 pages weren't filled with shitty EA games that cost $20 and don't even work.
What I'd like to see is an optional filter. So I can go onto the store's main page, then click a tickbox to remove all DLC from the list, which I find pads out the "100 games on sale" considerably. Maybe a tickbox to remove Early Access games, too?
You know what would be interesting? A 'Games Out Of Your Comfort Zone' section of sorts. Games that lots of people enjoy, but aren't really like what you already have and have liked. I think it'd be interesting to have suggestions for games I wouldn't normally try.
I'm surprised you guys didn't do an episode on replay value! It's such an important aspect of gameplay, but it stretches deep into our music and movies, too. If you did an episode on replay value, please link me to it because I just didn't find one. Thanks
I really would like to see an episode about it. Talk about the games that did and didn't do a good job on replay value. It is definitely one of the important aspect of gameplay.
We hear ya! So, a lot of folks have been using TasteKid to find "Games Like X." For those of you familiar with it, how do you like it? -Soraya www.tastekid.com/
I was actually going to suggest Tastekid, myself. One thing I REALLY like about Tastekid is that it isn't really JUST "Games like X", but rather "People who liked X ALSO liked Y and Z" For example, if you search for Skyrim, it will recommend TES3 and 4, but it will also recommend Deus Ex: HR, Orange Box, Bioshock Infinite, Far Cry 3, Fable 2... Not because they're LIKE Skyrim (they aren't), but because people who liked Skyrim ALSO liked those. And, perhaps that's not EXACTLY what you're looking for, but it's nice. Tastekid is also great for movies and TV shows as well. I'd like to throw in a shoutout to www.reddit.com/r/shouldibuythisgame as a great user community. Mention some games you liked, explain what you liked or didn't like, and people can suggest games you might like. Not sure if you'll like a game? Just ask, "Should I buy X?" and tell people what you're looking for; they'll tell you if that game is a good fit for you or not.
I like Sailor Moon, apparently the games I would like based on that are Fatal Frame and Lolipop Chainsaw. Well, I like Fatal Frame so I think it is right.
Oooooh, is tastekid useful for games now? I basically quit using it a while back simply because there wasn't a ton of data. I'll have to stop by and give it another go.
I keep being amazed by your uncanny ability to recognize an issue and dissect it to the exact components and sources. Not to mention your sober explanations and reliable and reasonable solutions. Best thing on youtube. You guys do a great job.
I think it's sad they didn't talk about the stream greenlight. Games with lower and lower quality enter the market and it takes month for Steam to find then and REMOVE THEM, because of how horrible they are. It makes looking for hidden gems impossible, and only AAA or popular games get bought.
I come from the future to say: the guys at Steam heard the critiques, and now the search has better filters, there's a "similar games" section (not searchable though, and not always good), and the "recommended for me" is actually good for finding new games!
I usually find games by going to GameFAQs, finding a game I know I like, then opening the Game Credits, then opening a new tab for each person who worked on something, then looking at the games they helped with.
Yeah, browsing the new release section everyday, you have to sort out about 30 shovel-ware, to find some interesting games. It has become worse, and the search engine still sucks, it is lacking in categories, and you can't sort the games by multiple categories, just one....
I think that it's not just bad search engines but also sheer volume of games, bad games. The thing is that while more games is generally good, a lot of bad games makes it increasingly hard to find the good ones. Moreover these bad games changes our expectations from games, making it even harder to appreciate the good ones.
Would you think Valve is watching these videos? Because yesterday they released a new steam store browser that should be personalized for you (or you can personalize it yourself idunno) so it would be easier for you to find games within your interest. And as this is related to what you guys said, you even mentioned what Valve does and stuff, I would think this might be the case.
Gaming has a very long tail; like music. I didn't think I liked music when I was growing up; you turn on the radio and it's all shit; just terrible. Sure there was music I liked on the C64, but I wouldn't have thought about sitting down and listering to it without playing a game. It wasn't until internet access became free an ubiquitous (I went straight from 56k that you had to share with a phone line to 10/100 mbps fibre with no bandwidth cap in 1999). Suddenly I realized there was all this great music being made before I was born, and I could find it quite easily. And then, there was all this great music still being made, they just didn't highlight it on the radio. I believe this is why people used to "get stuck in a decade". How many times have you met someone who only listens to 60's rock or 70's prog rock or whatever, and they're not interesting in anything else? Mainstream moved on, it didn't suit them so they just stayed. There's even more weird little niches in gaming. It's even easier for people to get "stuck in a decade". Remember those SSI Gold box RPGs? Remember point and click adventure games like Monkey island? Remember classic shooters that didn't take themselves too seriously, with these big abstract, maze-like levels, tonnes of enemies and no f-ing cut scenes? Remember car combat games? Remember Dungeon keeper? The mainstream doesn't, it has moved on. But those kinds of games are still being made, or at least attempted, by indie developers mainly. These long-tail games serve a fairly small audience, but a critically underserved one; if you make a game that only 100 000 people in the world thinks is a great idea, those people have nowhere else to go but your game. These people are underserved because AAA titles costing $100 million to make can never be targeted to such small audiences. To a large extent we don't even know what belongs to the mainstream and what belongs to the long tail end of the distribution. We're fairly confident that cover-based shooters are mainstream, but who knew Minecraft was going to be a mainstream hit?
This is a bit unrelated to the video's topic but I just want to say that I love how your guys' artists draw characters of Many ethnicities and cultures and not just a few. I really appreciate it so keep doing what you're doing : 3
Great episode! I got a few kicks out of the art like Gabe Newel's shirt and the graph saying how tall mountains were and how wide mountains are. Always love your videos guys :)
There's also the issue of a great deal of games being released that you might be interested in... if they were any good. Jim Sterling has rather hit the nail on the head that there's been a lot of junk flooding from Steam and the like of late, so it's not just personal relevancy to individual consumers of given types of products, quality control is also becoming increasingly problematic, and while a little research can help with that, it's still a discouraging hassle. Now granted, these refinements in search systems are also all really good ideas, but Shovelware is still a thing that exists, and it's entirely possible it's becoming more common as digital distribution becomes easier for the opportunistic as well as the people making great games.
yeah, remember that game RIPD? But even so you can't take out the shovelware with out possibly eliminating the one man job indie games, unless you have a costly screening process.
Wednesday's Serial I'm not saying that everyone can agree on what constitutes shovelware, but it's undeniable that it's out there in decently substantial quantity. Let's set Jim's controversial self aside, I myself have purchased games that are completely derivative, lacking in polish, and even fundamentally broken, and not all of these came from unscrupulous big-budget developers. If these games had unique selling points that made them special snowflakes for someone, I couldn't find them.
The other issue that isn't addressed in your video is time. When people say that there are too many games they might mean instead that they don't have enough time to finish a particular game before having another they really want come out. This can lead to having several games you've never even played just sitting on your shelf or Steam library. I've encountered this myself since I've been trying to round out my classic collection while still aiming to keep my current games library from being a husk. Not really sure if there is a good solution there, but I'd say the brevity of digital games makes this a problem for many people. I can buy a Gamecube game and set it aside for a decade, then come back to play it without fear of it being removed. The push to digital invalidates this completely. Any game by EA that has multiplayer has a shelf life of maybe 5 years at best. If it's part of a series then it might only be supported for a fraction of that time. This does kind of lead back into game preservation, which you'd already covered pretty well, but with games now a tidal wave of digital only content will anyone be able to play Shovel Knight in 2040?
another thing you should account for is user hosted multiplayer, like garrys mod or the new game unturned. The best part of this generation is that a 16 year old can release a game on early access and have it become massively popular online with multiplayer. Multplayer, if done so by the developer, can last as long as the game exists, just not matchmaking, with user hosted servers. The digital only content is a risk, but we all hope that steam will still be around in 30 years, and at the rate its growing it has a better chance than most online retailers. Online distribution is just easier and more convenient, and so far there has been few side effects seen.
All things end. And occasionally games do get removed from Steam completely. So that makes it an unreliable place to store games for preservation's sake.
You guys hit the nail on the head with this one, searching the Android Market is so cumbersome I don't even bother anymore. I've bought a few games in the past, but basically if it doesn't show up on my front page as a suggestion there's no way I'll ever find it. I certainly don't want to see fewer games, but finding the ones I like would be great. I imagine there is LOADS of lost revenue associated with this problem.
Well as you said, video games are now legally categorized as art, and there are a lot of instances of every other art form, games are just relatively new, while there are a lot of full artworks, there are also tons of sketches that people have made over the years, which have their own rough, conceptual charm.
You can resolve this problem by creating "alternate stores" in steam where the sorting out is made by the store "keeper" against a cut of the profit. The store providing the most value will be the ones at the top perpetuating the good circle of discovery.
My problem is having too much money, when I was a kid I got maybe 2 new games a year. Maybe one used too. Now I buy like a 100 games a year, new and old. LOLOLOLOLOL
i actually agree, when i was younger, i had loads of time to choose what games i really wanted (normally just before i pirate them to see if there good) but now with a job, i feel like i have TO much money and i never know what game to buy. really weird when i type it out loud lol
I totally agree. For about three years, the only video games I owned were Majora's Mask, Donkey Kong 64, and Kirby 64. I spent SO MUCH time on each of those games though. I would just get lost in their worlds for hours on end. The only games that have come remotely close to that in my adulthood are Fallout New Vegas and TF2. Everything else gets about 10-20 hours before I get bored and buy something else.
HOLY SHIT! I used to follow you guys on the escapist and the machinima app on facebook! Then it seemed like you guys dropped off the face of the planet. I'm glad i found you again I'm in tears
i see it like this, there are not enough "Good" games out there and too many shitty ones, and the ones that do are getting way to expensive, with micro transactions and dlcs that should already been given to us on launch or for free, most games today are shrinking in being good and are growing more into making a profit even if it makes the reviews lower and are destroying loyal fans with it. If you need a example look at Destiny and Bungie (even though Activision basically owns and controls the majority of the game anyway).
+Jacob Moore I agree with you there dude. DLC has been a load of crap lately. If I buy your game and it doesn't have more content than the previous one you made in the series, don't fucking try to sell me more content later. That should have been included. My problem right now is that I'll look for a certain type of game, say a survival or strategy, find one game I like and then dozens of clones that are literally the EXACT same game copy pasted with different graphics. I want to try one of these games... but I have no idea which one to choose now because they all look so similar.
The problem with it is games now cost millions of dollars to make instead of the thousands of dollars used on older games. So for companys to make money they need much more profit
Nicholas Grunkemeyer it still doesnt excuse the fact that games are made shitty and dlc is complete crap if we have to continue to buy it and it racks over like $200 when the game is considered done.
Im Lewd, How bout you? yes, but there were always good games to combat those shit games, but now a-days there are less good games to combat those shit games and now are more easily seen.
How can you be so smart? It's so amazing... You can explain everything in the most simple ways imaginable.. I really look up to you.. Thank you for posting videos like these. It's a great help!
Ste Not to be "that guy", but you do realize that for hundreds of years people managed to keep themselves entertained with no electricity and sometimes even no neighbors? Just a kid and a field. Just saying, options abound
How about games just being too long/ having too much content? I'm someone who doesn't want to bother starting a game if I know I'm not going to 100% complete it. The root problem isn't my ability, but that I get the full quality of the game out. If I quickly run through the game and it feels bland/ empty, I won't know if it's just badly designed or it's like that because I didn't invest the time into it. Sure it's my fault for not wanting to invest, but there are SO MANY OTHER GAMES. Egoraptor talked about this too. He says he looks at his shelf of games and realizes he's never going to have the time to beat every single game on there. He's probably not even going to TOUCH some of the games on there. Even if you're open minded about experiences, if you want to get the full value out of something you're partaking in, it's just overwhelming. I believe we need smaller/ to the point games that focus design on getting whatever message/ feeling they want across. For a game centered around having heavy emphasis on story, there shouldn't be minigames + features that detract from it. For games centered around strategy, make the learning curve more bearable. Take into consideration what features are/ aren't needed, and how you can get as much information across to your player with the least necessary "investment" from them. We should stop focusing time trying to pump as many gaming hours in as possible, but making those games as to the point as necessary.
Overall I think this opinion is insane. I rarely 100% games, even back when I was a child and games didn't even measure things that way. I never got every bottle and Heart in Zelda, I was an adult before I'd even seen Ice Land in Mario 3 let alone beat Pipeland. Batman Arkham City is a perfect example. I can whip through the story in a few hours and even the first time through the game isn't exactly an epic but all that side stuff gives you an excuse to come back through.
Sean Renaud I think he meant how a lot of games, especially AAA titles, try to shoehorn RPG elements, grinding, minigames, anything to lengthen the playtime so they can brag about "X hours of content!" when most of it is boring or unnecessary and doesn't justify the price tag.
gregfox Okay, if that was his sole point I can mostly agree with that. I don't care how many hours the game is touted as. He mentioned 100% and I may have latched onto that a bit unfairly. Though as far as the price tag goes new games cost $60. Period. They don't need to justify it at all, that's what they cost. We could probably have a good debate over what they should cost but that's for another day.
I don't see the issue being that there are too many games, or that we can't find the games that we would truly enjoy playing. It's an issue of quantity over quality. The problem is that too many games fall victim to simple money grabbing techniques. Rather than offering inspired content, many of these games look like they came out of a programming sweatshop. Many new games on steam remind me of that deformed Ripley clone from Alien Resurrection: "Kill me..."
2:45 "...might be way more expensive than I think it should be." I recall Mike Stout and Tony Garcia discussing this sort of thing in an episode of the Useless Podcast, though I can't remember which. I believe they said something about bugs often having very fundamental roots, and that that makes them *very* time and money consuming to fix because of that.
Then you can see the context. How he describes it, you would get the games with the best and worst story, so reading the reviews would allow you to figure out which is which.
Daniel Flamino In a poor search engine that might result in even worse results. Now it searches not only for keyword Story but also for Good, Great and Interesting. But that is more of a worst case scenario. Though I have had the displeasure of having to use search function that can not search phrases and it really annoying.
Ugh..I've sat down and watched at least 6 to 8 videos you guys made now and there all just things I want to happen...I WISH there was a way that big companys could see your videos and be like "oh my god...there right!! quick do the thing he said!!" cause it would make the gaming world so much easier for gamers and new gamers alike. Keep up the good work maybe one day you'll change gaming history :3
I'm still waiting for Steam to list which DLC I already own when I look at a game's store page. For games like Civilization, Company of Heroes 2, or Total War: Rome II, it's hell having to write down which DLC I own on a piece of paper and then compare that list to the store page.
This is actually one of the largest issues plaguing Roblox, since creating a "game" literally doesn't have to be more than an empty baseplate with free models, the search engine is remarkably susceptible to clickbait, and the ads are no place to look either.
I really like the idea of a "games like _____" search. I also think there could be some kind of checklist of gameplay features. You would click as many as you want, and the search would arrange based on how many of those features are in each game.
His voice seems sped up about 20% of so, which makes the video be faster. It lets him get his information to the viewers faster, and some people find it cute. Like he's a chibi person talking to us.
***** Yep. There's a story behind it (having to do with the fact that Extra Credits started as a school project, and Dan ran over the time limit), but once we started doing it, we found there was value to having the cartoon voice. It's very recognizable and the cartoon voice gives it a personality all its own. We've also found that Dan's regular voice, which is deep and mellow, sounds hella weird coming from a cartoon bean person. ;) -Soraya
The tagging function and "Games like _____" are one in the same. If you want to search for a game like Skyrim, it does that by tags. Open world, fantasy, RPG, etc. Then it displays games with similar tags, which should denote games that are similar. It works quite well on Google. Granted, you just get articles someone has put together, but it works.
There was a TED Talks where the researcher found that consumers purchased more mustard from a store that offered only one or two varieties when compared with a store that offered a plethora of variety. They found that an impressive number of choices drew customers to the store but usually overwhelmed them when making a choice; leading to the consumer not purchasing anything.
Need better tags and more diverse tags. I really like the idea of pokemon. Recruiting and Training monsters and enemies into powerful allies. How do you search for that? The Tag "RPG" isnt gonna cut it. I think when people review games they should have to compose a series of Tags for the game and the most commonly reoccuring tags based on user completion/time of the game would rank the relevance of tags. Also the developer would put tags up. I understand "games like" blank is a good system, but this is more freeform.
Its not just the lack of these kinds of games, its the fact that Nintendo controls the monopoly on this sub-genre of RPGs and no one competes with them so the games have been stagnant.
Chris Smith There is the Shin Megami Tensei series, but you've probably already heard of that one. It has games on a wide variety of systems. Persona is the most well known part of the series. Pretty sure it was around the 5th game in the series when Dragon Quest got the monster training/raising thing.
Or just the ability to search by tags, there are more tags then the "just for you" section shows, but if they are not there it's nearly impossible for you to do a search for them.
Have you read any of Steam user reviews? So many of them are pithy one-liners hoping to get the most upvotes. It's like the worst parts of reddit. Tying anything to "Has boobs. 10/10" is a BAD idea. This might be cynical, but unless the game is super-obscure, that is how the user reviews pan out. Not to mention the makers of the game are free to delete reviews they see as unfit, for the particularly trashy developers out there.
Strangely enough, I really enjoyed ArmA Tactics, which got a whopping 30% Metascore rating. I guess I just like turn-based strategy games. Which is even funnier, since I didn't much like Banner Saga (82% M-score).
Metacritic isn't intended to be like a parent telling you to go to your room. just because that number says yay, nay, or meh, doesn't mean that it will be for you. it's only there to get a one second general idea of what the game *probably* is.
3:43 You can open new windows by middle mouse clicking on products and links. It's not as good as tabbed browsing, but it's better than having to go back and navigate back to where you were.
Unfortunately we still have wise-asses putting games like Ass. Creed and Watchdogs under "Pixel graphics". I get it, Ubisoft made a stupid decision, but this isn't the way to fix it.
"So it's kinda strange that you can't open up multiple tabs and compare games side-by-side. Or at least not have to go back to the top of the new release list and scroll all the back to where you were every time you go back from looking at a game." This, a thousand times this. I can't even imagine how many times I've browsed the steam store looking for something new to check out, found something that was interesting but that I wasn't 100% behind, and then continued searching only to find 5 minutes later I had completely forgotten what the title or thumbnail of the game was.
The last couple of minutes of this video really hit the nail on the head with this one. I love the idea of being able to search for games like (blank), Some truly superb ideas here. Send this video to Steam, GoG and amazon! :-D I love it.
I can't believe anyone could be upset about there being "too many" games. I mean, I can personally think of a ton of time periods/locations/events/etc. that haven't even been explored by games yet, and more games being produced means there's a better chance I'll get to experience them at some point. There can never be too many games, or too many books, or too many movies, or too many pieces of art.
Guess it's just a matter of trial and error. lol. that's why I still torrent certain games. I feel like I should be able to try before I buy. Because I will buy a game if I like it enough.
I rarely ever torrent games anymore though. Steam really has a lot of great stuff if you know what to look for. Just do research, follow game companies. It's not impossible to sift through the shit to find gold.
Katzelle3 creating a demo can be quite expensive for little indie devs. If steam would just allow a 24 hour or something refund period that you can use, and the game is automaticly removed from you list. That gives people time to try, and no hassle for the dev. And it would weed out a lot of bad publishers and maybe even stop the whole preorder nonsense.
Katzelle3 creating a demo can be quite expensive for little indie devs. If steam would just allow a 24 hour or something refund period that you can use, and the game is automaticly removed from you list. That gives people time to try, and no hassle for the dev. And it would weed out a lot of bad publishers and maybe even stop the whole preorder nonsense.
roger supernova Streaming the game for half an hour could have the same effect and you don't have to download stuff. Sure, now it doesn't seem very realistic, but one day we'll all be connected to the internet through fiber cables.
I'm really missing decemt space games. The last two i really enjoyed was Homeworld 2 and Freelancer. Everything else since is not what i want. EVE Online is too unfriendly with an annoying progression system (time-based skill learning). There are a couple indie titles being made that i'm interested in: Fractalsoftworks's Starsector and InovaeStudios's Infinity:Battlescape. But these will take a long while to make. I wish i could contact some game developers to pitch an idea for a game and i promise it would sell like hot cakes.
You should look into Star Citizen. It's still in alpha, AFAIK, but it's gorgeous, possibly one of the best looking games you will have ever seen and if you hear the developers talk about the scope of the game that they're aiming for... Well, it gives me a boner just to hear what they imagine doing with the game and from what we've seen so far, they might make it possible.
Very interesting video! I have been a fan for years, and the content is always high quality. Anyway, you bringing up the steam search and whatnot is very interesting since they just revamped the store that will recommend games based on what you have viewed, owned, and what you want.
It isn't. It's a long tail vs mainstream kind of thing. 90% of everything is terrible, and always have been. What's happened is a cambrian explosion of indie games serving weird nichés you don't care about. And indie developer can make a game that targets an audience of 100k people that have never been targeted before and turn a profit if 10% of them buy their game. Back in the 80's games were a lot more creative and there were few set genres; kind of like now but there was no internet. The reason for this is that an AAA development team was two skilled teenagers working for a year out of their bedroom. Today tools are better than ever for making games and all this wild experimentation is comming back. No AAA publisher would ever make DOTA (the original mod for WC3), Quake Team fortress (the original quake mod), Minecraft, Kerbal space programme, the binding of Isaac, a turret defense game back when they were all made in flash, Paper's please or a thousand other weird and wonderful successful experiments. When $100 million is on the line, they want a safe bet that doesn't pay off very well rather than a $100 million experiment that probably will fail, but could succeed wildly. MOBAs became a safe bet because millions were played DOTA. If you don't like the genre, it doesn't matter how good or bad the game is, and it's very easy to dismiss everything you don't like as crap.
90% of the games you find in stores, even in genres you happen to like, are barely playable, barely finished crap. It's not surprising that 90% of the stuff on the steam store is crap when 90% of everything is crap.
One issue with digital storefronts vs box store games is that there's not as much real estate being taken advantage of for consistent visual advertisement/art. A bunch of posters on the front of GameStop is a better advertisement of a title I'm interested in, than a banner coming up at random on a Steam page... it strikes me that there's just so much game to sort through, that you don't have the advertisement space to fit it all in a way that makes anything stand out from its competitor, on the internet... Like, a bunch of boxes on a shelf, I can flip through them each, and see what's there and what isn't--I can directly peruse what's in stock, and I can look at upcoming release dates, on a dry erase board or poster. A page for a game in digital format, could exist, and I could simply not know it exists, because of how that page is being displayed... everything is just sort of in this nebulous up-in-the-air status, when it comes to digital releases... Moreover, all it takes is one badly designed search algorithm, and I could be blinded to the existence of half of what I really want to find...
And can we freaking PLEASE stop rating games as "Indie". Indie is NOT an genre, if anything it's a budget report, or an developer story summaried in one word. Shovel Knight as an example is not an indie game. It's a platformer. Minecraft is not an indie game. It's an block-puzzle-creation-thingy. Don't starve is not an indie game. It's an survival game. And yet, these three games, in 3 completetly diffrent genres, is summaries as indie? It's stupid and confusing. Get it together.
I miss the days of the mid-late 90's when I was a teenager and all my buddies simultaneously played the same games I did. When Quake, Halflife, Descent, Jedi Knight, Warcraft 2, Starcraft all came out my buddies were all playing them when I was. We were all licking our chops for each big release and did multiplayer together. Nowadays I have plenty of grown married buddies who still game but everybody is always on some other title all the time. The sheer volume of games that are out yearly nowadays is staggering.
Steam really has gotten better since. It's not perfect, but the addition of tags and the more refined reccomended search really helps. They've really done some stuff that was asked for in this video.
One major thing that I wish Steam would do, is show me the short description of the game when I hover over a link to a game, instead of only the ratings and some screenshots.
Weirdly enough I've been trying my hardest to find some metroidvania souls-like games, and I've absolutely been encountering this. The ones I've really liked have been Shovel Knight, Momodora: RUtM and Death's Gambit. For me, those two tags symbolize everything I really like about gaming, and the sad thing is, we're sorting games with "good soundtrack" and action/indie. Like what do those even mean? If someone says "Metroidvania", as much as you hate the tag, you know it's an action platformer that you're going to have to rely on your own skill to play more than progression systems. Souls-Like entails a challenging game with tight controls, multiple play styles and an overwhelming emphasis on the bosses that, yet again, relies more on skill than progression systems. Features like "Search In Genre" and "Product like xyz" would be hella helpful. An "Exclude by Tag" feature would also be appreciated, as someone below mentioned.
0:49 Oh yeah, I totally saw this with the One Way Heroics series. The perfect imbalance of equipment (and also classes) in this sidescrolling Mystery Dungeon RPG with Roguelite elements tied me to the chair for hundreds of hours; something not many games get to manage.
