[keyle]

Games like these have a strong future.

Basically games that innovate beyond what a game engines like Unity or Unreal can offer are, by design, going in a direction that is more likely to succeed than anything we see come out these days...

Making super nerdy games that are so far off the field the engines users can't touch you, puts you in a different league; even if your game looks like a dog's breakfast, as long as it's fun and usable.

Indie games are dead, in the sense that they were indie games 5 years ago. This, is the new indie games now. GG. (ref: failed indie developer with 2+ commercial titles).

It's a shame that Zachtronics stopped, they've always been ahead of the game.

[duxup]

Maybe I'm missing something in your post but I find the same types of games have been popular for many decades now. I'm not sure those are any less likely to succeed, or that "You're the OS!" is more likely to succeed.

And I'm pretty sure you can make this game in Unity...

[cornel_io]

Not only could you make this in Unity, it'd probably be easier than in Pygame by a good margin.

Game tech is basically universal for zero-graphics games like this, it's 100% "business logic". If you have to fight with the UI/display system for even a moment to make a game like this, then you're probably either using a library without enough features (which, ahem...Pygame, yeah...) or you just don't know the system well enough to be efficient.

[utucuro]

So, as someone with considerable Python knowledge but no gamedev knowledge, what would your suggestion be for me?

Specifically, I want to have some fun developing a few game ideas into at least prototypes. I never really had time to do a proper analysis of Pygame, Godot, Unity etc.

[pests]

I'm guessing they are used to the default Unity 3D scene and player controller.

Unity can create any type of game. In the end it's just helping you push vertices and shaders around.

I do agree Unreal has it's roots more in 3D character shooters. A lot of assumptions built in but you can still work around them there too.

[zogrodea]

I remember, as a child, having fun with a Yoshi (from Mario) fangame that pretended like he was in Windows 95/98. It might have been this one. https://youtu.be/AwZfivyZ20c?t=184

[mcluck]

There's no reason this couldn't have been built in Unity or Unreal. You can build literally anything (within the limits of computation) in those engines.

[dangero]

In what way does this game go beyond what Unity can offer?

[dragonwriter]

> Basically games that innovate beyond what a game engines like Unity or Unreal can offer are, by design, going in a direction that is more likely to succeed than anything we see come out these days

It depends what you mean by “succeed”. If you mean, “turn a profit”, probably not. Games that are far off the trend supported by engines optimized for what the market is looking for probably will fail more often than games within it.

If you mean, “become a surprise, breakout, hit that changes the direction of gaming”, yes, the extremely low probability of that happening in either case is probably higher for games that are outside of the box.

Better chance of a home run, but also better chance of getting out, and less chance of getting a hit.

[PurpleRamen]

Not sure what you are talking about. Nerdy Games have existed all the time, and they usually not very successful because they are so nerdy. In the last years, we also had a number of tech-nerdy games, but none of them could be called a hit. They probably make their game, but as the audience is naturally small, their ceiling for success is limited. And I don't see this changing in the future. It's probably the opposite, as the younger generation seems to become less nerdy, and more distanced from low-level topics and tech.