funbil

funbil

@funbil

『𝐃𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐫』

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music composer, writer, game designer and freakshow forever

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funbil
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gosokkyu
@gosokkyu
renkotsuban
@renkotsuban
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gosokkyu
@gosokkyu

so much intl JP indie coverage—broadly, but also with specific reference to this one event—is framed around expats "dragging the doujin scene out of the primordial ooze" (a quote from a conversation I had, not from the article) by people whose only interest is cultivating product, and whose concerns about independent game development are strictly financial, and even well-meaning coverage is framed in terms of The Games That Matter (because they're associated with an established name and/or are tied up with people from or connected to intl games media) vs. The Quirky Japanese Games That Aren't Quite There Yet (because nobody can quite figure out how to sell them)

this wouldn't even continue to bother me so much if I thought mainstream games media was at least abreast of which JP indies are actually seeing success (as defined by sales numbers) but even phenomenally-popular games like Needy Girl Overdose are completely outside of their radar... not only is the coverage so blinkered, and so reliant on the same small handful of ex-[blank] devs from decades past to shape their opinions, but it's not even in tune with the reality they want to present, so why bother?

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in reply to @renkotsuban's post:

renkotsuban
@renkotsuban

Yeah like it's just honestly aggravating that this exact article comes out every year, right on the dot, just as BitSummit winds down lmao. Like can we please finally get something different? Maybe some coverage of those indie games instead of only talking to ex-Sony devs??

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UncreativeOpinions
@UncreativeOpinions

You make a valid point. But...

'Imagine if the metric for successfully being part of ""the indie game scene"" was to show off your game at something like PAX, because that's the sort of consumer-focused place BitSummit is.'

People do speak about western indie games the same way though. 75% of the time if I see someone talk about a new indie game they saw, it'll be something from a big booth at a show published by a (literal) billion dollar "big indie" publisher.

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lexyeevee
@lexyeevee

my impression is that western gaming press doesn't really talk about western indie games much either, unless they have (paradoxically) already attracted a lot of press. which puts this in an even weirder light.

maybe "growing up" means "making games that i hear about without having to look for them", then. odd take for a journalist but

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renkotsuban
@renkotsuban

It's also very weird (read: incredibly normal) for this writer to be like "Japanese games aren't globally recognized the way Neon White and Citizen Sleeper were" and it's like neither of those games got even close to the same amount of Japanese press as Needy Girl Overload?? But "global" means English-speaking, obv, so that doesn't count. (I don't think Citizen Sleeper is even available outside of English??)

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in reply to @gosokkyu's post:

renkotsuban
@renkotsuban

Yes yes yes to all of this and especially

not only is the coverage so blinkered, and so reliant on the same small handful of ex-[blank] devs from decades past to shape their opinions

I was trying to find a single quote from an indie dev who was not affiliated with a major corpo and could not find a single one! tbf that is also because that's apparently just the kinda place BitSummit is, but I mean!! Yeah if you don't talk to a single indie dev then I'm not surprised your idea of ""the indie scene"" is that it just doesn't exist!

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