Do you hold it against a game for being part of a DIG or similar site bundle? Do you ignore those games on Steam and hide them on Streamgifts?

8 months ago

Comment has been collapsed.

No

8 months ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

some of them possible signed a bad deal without realizing what they were getting into.
I judge games based off the game itself, not who sells them(as there are a few gems hidden among those DIG bundles, not many though from what I have seen).

8 months ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

As if I'm gonna bother to check if a game is part of a bundle on DIG. That site poops bundles daily, too much work for my lazy self.
There's also the not so minor issue that in many cases DIG doesn't seem to acquire its keys directly from devs/publishers, so it wouldn't be fair to judge a game based on where it's being resold.

8 months ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Why would anyone would do that? Does the entertainment value of a game suddenly drop when it's in a bundle?

8 months ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

of course not

8 months ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Considering the quality of 90% of the games in the bundle, most gamers wouldn't buy the games either way.

For the few gems in there, I would guess they are not official deals with publishers anyway.

Is there even a DIG bundle which consists of any decent games that have not been bundled previously? I mean sure, personal preferences aside - maybe someone likes crudely drawn asset flip porn games, but in general terms I'd say the quality of the games is so atrocious pretty much no one would buy it even if they wouldn't show up in DIG bundles.

As for GAs - I hide any game I am not interested in. From what I've seen DIG bundles consist of, that pretty much covers 99% of what gets put up there.

Obviously I realistically cant cover ALL of the games in DIG bundles, so sure there probably are some indie gems now and then in the bundles that have not been bundled.. But the overall quality is atrocious anyway

8 months ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

oh your the one who did the Ducktales review for the SG Magazine - thanks

i agree with you to a point about some of the games being so poor and quickly made for a buck or two but the thing is being in the Dig bundle itself is not a reason to hate on a game without seeing what it is first and then make a judgement

8 months ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Sure :) It was a great game

Oh yeah, definitely - I agree that the simple fact of the game being in the bundle, does not make it bad. IMO the games themselves are simply not that good. With exceptions of course . Not trying to paint all indie devs as evil and horrible, but a lot of the games truly look horrible in those bundles

8 months ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Paying $1 for a game bundle of $50 doesn't mean a particular game is necessarily any better or worse than the other.
DIG wouldn't still be in business if people didn't keep buying off them.
Blaming one link in the chain for holding onto festy games without looking at the other links in the chain is kind of narrow minded.

8 months ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Makes no sense to me to hold the devs or games to any judgment. Besides publishers and such (its not always up to the creators how its distributed) the sad truth is the majority of indie games dont make positive returns- sure the stats are heavily affected by all the bs asset flips, extremely amateur and utterly bad games, but good and even great games with passionate devs can and do 'flop' - be it from lack of visibility or being niche... heck even bad timing. All devs and publishers know better then to release alongside big hyped AAA titles, but its hard to track indies- so releasing a good indie in the same day or even week then a surprise hit indie will tank you, and theres no way of knowing those ahead.

Imagine releasing a 10-15 dollar jewel that took 3 or more years made with all care the week vampire survivors came out- or heck, the week a pretty average but heavily streamed joke jump scare game comes out.

Thankfully those that at least have better graphics or art can get a fanatical or humble before dig, but not all good games have those. Heck just the other day i discovered a dev that make very niche dungeoncrawls with a very particular philosophy that have like 4, 7 reviews on his titles... and from all i could see theyre all unique for its genre, really good (for those really into the genre, the most hardcore)... but they look absolutely obtuse and its the nichest niche imaginable. I could tottally see his games being on dig out of necessity

Oh and then theres time too(just being old and not turning much or any sales at all).
Just this week i finally got to an old game in backlog thats been bundled like 18 times by now- We are the Dwarves- and im LOVING IT. Pretty, amazing art direction with unique world, a unique blend of stealth tactics and squad tactics and rpg... and i just checked its been on dig 5 times in the past 3 years.
Looking at the dev history its clear the studio/owners are no more but in name. After this game their next one is much worse, and then what looks like asset flips- wich makes no sense for a studio the size that made WATD (i found the profiles of at least 5 artists that worked on that game. Thats 4 more then most indie teams have)... so it seems the game didnt pay its production cost, the team reduced in half or more, failed to make something cheaper/quicker any good and was sold or broke, now owned by someone doing asset flips

8 months ago*
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Agreed. Just too many variables and there are some great hidden gems out there that just never gain any traction.

just the other day i discovered a dev that make very niche dungeoncrawls with a very particular philosophy that have like 4, 7 reviews on his titles... and from all i could see theyre all unique for its genre, really good (for those really into the genre, the most hardcore)... but they look absolutely obtuse and its the nichest niche imaginable.

Can you please point me to whatever this is, because it sounds like something I'd love.

8 months ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Sure! They all seem very dense and rough:

Ghost Hunter
and theres a bunch of others:
Graverobber foundation releases on steam

I think only the latest fantasy themed one is badly received; Given what ive seen and read from previous titles vs the newest one i have to guess it was by design, more rng based to mimic the feel of really oldschool gamebooks and ttrpgs.
Most titles use wireframes look in scifi setting. Its that kind of very hard, no map(make your maps or mental notations), learn by experimentation and think/plan ahead, unforgiving so you have to learn style

I personally always liked the idea of games that way but didnt have the patience or didnt like the execution (except when i was much younger, i recall a game made me take notes and get involved- some text based one i cant remenber the name). But times change, im finally feeling more warm towards that and something like the new steam notes is exactly the sort of thing i always wanted to play games like this... i just discovered this dev, wishilisted a couple of the titles and im eyeing then for some next sale.

So take my impressions with a grain of salt, i havent played, only read/watched reviews and such. Video reviews are harder to find, easier by searching for the german title
video summary/review of ghost tower

8 months ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Wow these look super interesting, esp the Der Geister games. I appreciate you taking the time for the links. I wishlisted most of Graverobber Foundation's catalog to keep an eye out for sales too. I do enjoy modern takes but I really love traditional and ancient RPGs too, clunk and all. I also love weird games so I'm definitely the kind of niche audience for this stuff so thank you. :D

8 months ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

I hide a game based on the game itself, not where it's sold.

8 months ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

A experienced dev/publisher make no contracts with a crap site like DIG.
That doesn't mean all games from DIG are trash.
But the majority of the games from there are trash and a good bunch of the devs/publishers that make contracts with them are shady. So i look twice when i see games that got bundled there (of course i don't know all games that get bundled there -i don't have so much time as it would need to check each bundle-).

Sometimes a good game is bundled there too -how they got the keys for them is, maybe, a other story...-.

So it is not possible to answer your question with a easy/general yes/no answer.

8 months ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

I do not automatically hide or ignore any games, so, in that sense, the answer is "no".

The only situation I can imagine where this would matter would be if you offered me a "random DIG bundle game for the paltry sum of $x.yz". Then I would use my opinion (that most games in DIG bundles are horrible) and NOT buy it.

Otherwise, even if I think there is a very positive correlation between "DIG games" and "bad games", as soon as you tell me a specific title I would look it up, and any info I got this way would "override" the info that "it came from a DIG bundle".

Cheers!

8 months ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

This. +1. Ditto.
Thanks for saving me the typing.

I'll only add that in my memory I can only think of a single DIG game in its 1300-bundle history that had a game that I wanted. So I traded for it.

8 months ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Great minds think "all-kill the cute bunnnies!!!".

...or something like that. :D

Cheers!

8 months ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

No.

I do hold being DIG against DIG though.

8 months ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

No, I have problem giving money to DIG. So I don't buy from them, or encourage people to buy from them.
It's relatively standard that games at DIG are bad, but they aren't bad because DIG sells it. Rather usually the already bad games are being sold there. Like

But if a good game happens to be there, and somebody already bought the game, I have no problem with entering for the giveaway - it's their choice where they buy their games. It's not like its origin taints the game lol

8 months ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

No.
Because DIG often sells stolen keys, some Devs don't even know that their game is in a DIG bundle. That's why I encourage everyone to avoid buying from DIG and let that "store" go belly up instead.

8 months ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

No, only thing I hold about games is the company and the game itself. Like I do hold it against CC2 for how they managed Ultimate Ninja Storm4 and its lasts 2 DLCs years later.

8 months ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

I don't even know which games are part of DIG or similar. I hide games I know I won't enjoy, many low effort ones that DIG tends to bundle, but also some excellent games that are simply not my cup of tea. I think I may have won a few games that may have been part of a DIG bundle, or look like they could be, because I enjoy small casual games from time to time and those looked like they would scratch that itch.

8 months ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Sign in through Steam to add a comment.