Thesis seems to be that small developers are unfairly compared to successful AAA games, but that dynamic has existed forever.

Maybe it’s a good thing that Baldur’s Gate prevents the creation of a dozen bad copies. Indie devs should be looking to innovate and if you’re being compared to BG3 maybe it’s not actually innovative.

That’s because instead of brainstorming new ideas, big companies just look at what is currently selling and duplicate it. Often poorly.

I mean, even BG3 itself isn’t very innovative. All they did was take ideas that had been around and stayed in the 90’s to the modern world of gaming. I kind of have my doubts if it would have been such a huge success if there were more CRPGs like those of the past that had kept up with today. It’s on par with a lot of those older RPGs, including the 2 previous Baldur’s Gate games, but by comparison with other modern games, it’s a god send.

This isn’t meant to be against the game in any way; more about the state of the industry that the discussion around this game has shown me is worse than I thought. Even the consumers don’t seem to know that games like BG3 used to be the norm, and not exceptions.

Man, Baldurs Gate 3 is so fucking funny to me. Like, gamers get to play, enjoy, and love a top-tier RPG, and all the other devs have to say is “it’s too good and now we’ll be judged poorly by comparison!”

I strongly dislike the point being made by Ismail here. The quality of any art- game, movie, visual art, music, etc.- should never be intentionally handicapped for the sake of “keeping the bar lower”. We as humans should strive to create the best art possible, even if it has consequences like making it harder for other artists to one-up your work.

There is no reasonable alternative here. Does anybody expect Larian Studios to intentionally not give their project their best effort? The games industry is already an oversaturated one, and while I understand developers have to earn a living, the risks were clear prior to choosing that career path. There is always a chance indie devs won’t get the funding they need to make their idea a reality. It’s a gamble- it always has been and always will be.

I think people know when to distinguish indie games from AAA games. The ideas are fresher with indie games, and the ideas are different. Take Slay the Spire for instance. The developers may not have created the flashiest graphics, but they made a concept that’s unique and fun, and people respected the game for what it is.

In addition to Slay the Spire, many developers are able to take lower-end graphics (compared to AAA games) and do wonders with it. Undertale, while I haven’t played it, is a success despite being very basic visually.

Generally, if an indie dev tries something unique that isn’t a carbon copy of something successful, they won’t be blatantly compared to it or other AAA games.