No one reads oldschool curators like RockPaperShotgun anymore. They’re barely afloat.
Generic algorithmic social media like YouTube tends to snowball a few games.
Forums are dead. Reddit is dystopian.
That leaves Steam’s algorithm, and a sea of sparsely seen solo reviewers. But there are billions of people oblivious to passion projects they’d love, and playing AAAs or gacha phone apps instead.
Not a streamer, but I’ve bought multiple games because YouTubers like Real Civil Engineer or Dangerously Funny has played and it looked fun. All of these have been indie titles. Off the top of my head here’s a few:
Planet Crafter
Incredicer
Coal LLC
Drive beyond horizons
Schedule 1
A bunch more but I’m not gonna dig through my library. But yeah, I’ve spent a small chunk because of YouTubers like that. And they’ve all been a good time.
John Walker (founder of RPS, back when it wasn’t a window to Eurogamer style content) is currently doing Buried Treasure, a small review blog for things that aren’t being appreciated by the masses. Well worth checking out!
And the discoverability pipe is breaking.
No one reads oldschool curators like RockPaperShotgun anymore. They’re barely afloat.
Generic algorithmic social media like YouTube tends to snowball a few games.
Forums are dead. Reddit is dystopian.
That leaves Steam’s algorithm, and a sea of sparsely seen solo reviewers. But there are billions of people oblivious to passion projects they’d love, and playing AAAs or gacha phone apps instead.
Streamers are sometimes a good way to find indie games. My wife and I watch DieDevDie and he mostly plays stuff from itch.io.
Not a streamer, but I’ve bought multiple games because YouTubers like Real Civil Engineer or Dangerously Funny has played and it looked fun. All of these have been indie titles. Off the top of my head here’s a few:
A bunch more but I’m not gonna dig through my library. But yeah, I’ve spent a small chunk because of YouTubers like that. And they’ve all been a good time.
I still enjoy Yahtzee on Second Wind since the whole Escapist debacle. They seem to be trying to stoplight more indie games which I really appreciate.
I know you meant “spotlight” but that typo made me chuckle
For finding new games Steam peek is pretty good. And playtester io isn’t bad either.
John Walker (founder of RPS, back when it wasn’t a window to Eurogamer style content) is currently doing Buried Treasure, a small review blog for things that aren’t being appreciated by the masses. Well worth checking out!