Speaking with dpadjoy, Dragon Slumber Founder Kevin Guiguere admits that one of the problems in the gaming industry is the “financial viability.” This has effected both Indie developers and AAA titles.
“I think financial viability is becoming an issue for a lot of developers, both in the indie market as well as for AAA publishers. Gamer expectations are through the roof due to so much competition, so it costs more to produce games. However, game prices themselves aren’t going up that much, with bundles becoming the prevailing method to get new games for a lot of players. This is leading to more alternate ways of making money, from crazy premium bundles, to loot boxes, exclusive pre-order DLC, and so on.
On the indie side, I think outreach is being done a bit differently as well. For instance, I stream the development of my games on Twitch and I have a Patreon which greatly helps me out as well. I think for a lot of full-time developers, diversifying their approach is becoming necessary to be able to sustain themselves. For every success story, there are thousands of forgotten titles.”
Guiguere also said that his first game Arelite Core took four years and $50,000 of his own money to develop. Kevin’s next game, Astral Traveler, releases on September 13.
