Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by an_opabinia 1831 days ago
On the one hand, it's amazing, it's ~$220 for games.

On the other hand, is this games?

It's so tough out there. Lucas Pope obviously works really hard. Just imagine you're an otherwise successful indie game developer, you put out two amazing games, and it still isn't viable to make a third, in 2021.

That doesn't happen with movies. You make two budget positive or critically acclaimed movies, you get to make a third. You don't have to go and make something else.

3 comments

I don't really understand what you're saying. I'm pretty sure Lucas Pope does whatever he wants at this point. After Papers, Please, Obra Dinn was clearly a creative pursuit that took years, he obsessed over the dithering for eons... This isn't someone out there struggling to make a buck.
Yes. The Ars Technica interview from a couple of years ago is great: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/01/from-uncharted-to-obr...

The most relevant quote to this discussion is probably:

> "My wife played [an early Papers, Please prototype] and said, 'You can finish this, but afterwards, you gotta get a job,'" Pope says with a laugh. "Which is funny, because now, whatever I show her, she's like..." Pope gestures as if he's throwing his hands in the air and giving up. "'Fuckin'... whatever, dude, I'm sure it'll work out.'"

> and it still isn't viable to make a third, in 2021.

I didn’t go through all the parent’s sources, can you tell me where this was stated?

> is this games?

yes