I've felt games have taken a clear departure from game theory. Most of what I've seen in the AAA game industry doesn't really reflect what I understand of game design. It all seems to be like the way to craft the perfect zone out simulators. Not overly complex but all the perfect combinations to lead you through a homogenous experience that feels fun enough.

The success for these titles comes from heavy marketing and investment. Combined with the lifestyles of the consumer base. Most people live very busy lives and familiar franchises are nice. They can experience something they already know they enjoy but with enough of a twist that it feels fresh. The monotonous nature of our day to day life reflected in our games.

I didn't originally set out to go against the grain so much. I just got curious why I enjoyed games so much and wanted to learn the underlying mechanisms. As I learned about the economics of play and how humans find fun in things I grew more and more distant from games. They weren't fun, they wanted me to do things that I didn't enjoy. Always leading me places or wanting me to spend spend spend. Not universally but increasingly.

Irefuse to believe that we have hit the pinnacle of game development. To me it feels like we have only scratched the surface. One of the biggest issues that stands in the way of the medium moving forward is artistic expression. What sells more? Good game design or an established brand? You can't compete with triple AAA studios on a game design level because they are so huge they define what games are.

I'm sort of stuck personally in life as well so in the mean time I've resolved to make games that I think people deserve. Free of payment schemes and other nonsense. Instead focusing on delivering a well designed experience that expresses my humanity.

Want to know how I felt playing bomberman and Zelda as a kid with my brother? Play Chronoclysm and I've tried to carefully deliver that emotion to other people. Sharing a slice of happiness from my own life in a package inspired by my experiences. Choosing everything carefully to craft an aesthetic.

But of course it's not offensive... it won't piss anyone off. I'm also not willing to whore out my mental illness for it either. It has no built in mechanisms to spread itself so it sort of languishes at the rate I can push it. If I had made something more offensive or ire inducing I could get it spread on its own.

There is no market for someone who wants to devote themselves to spreading joy. It's not enough you need more to push your game and that's my issue with the game industry. All of that more results in the ethical bullshit we fight about on here. You can't just make games, you need connections, hooks blah blah blah. Which plenty of people will tell me that's just the way it is... which is true but the medium suffers for it. We lose out on so much.

Games make a very small number of people a lot of money. The rest of us either pay into it or hobble on. No ecosystem does well when it gets concentrated into a few big players. Large nuanced markets are more stable and offer a greater selection to consumers. The only people who lose are the ones owning the centralized systems. It's not even the people making the games making the money. It's the management who will drop the developers and pick up a whole new team next fiscal year.

I know I'm biased but I think it's a very good idea to redirect funds away from the triple AAA industry. I would really love if other people could afford to buy my game and the more money moves around the more it helps everyone.