What makes devs like these stand out?

[mc858]

Why are games like Rimworld, Project Zomboid, Prison Architect - better than most of Electronic Arts billion dollar portfolio for a fraction of the cost?

Any thoughts?

[RemingtonRyder]

They're original.  EA is all about maintaining their existing franchises.

Originality is very time intensive, and shareholders don't like to be kept waiting?

[Weyrling]

A significant part of it is that these developers actually talk to people and take suggestions, other perspectives are beneficial in any creative endeavor.

My experience with these games in general tells me that the primary reason is that some developers are just awesome guys, and awesome guys working with few restrictions make awesome games (See: Rimworld, Kerbal Space Program, FTL, etc).

[skullywag]

for me, its that we can effect the development and have stuff we think is a good idea in the game. I've never had anything I've created/ thought of added to a large publisher/devs game. I HAVE however had stuff I've made added to the core game of a lot of smaller devs games.

[RawCode]

There are two goals in development:

1) Farm money;
2) Make interesting project;

Rule of 95% have major effect on games and worldwide economy.

AAA games designed to be playable by EVERYONE, ever stupid IQ 40 idiots expected to play, this is reason for difficulty sliders, auto leveling, absence of any manual skill\stat points distribution, auto respawn, no "hardcore" modes no lose conditions.

Without making game "for everyone" developers can't ensure as wide audience as possible.
Complex games like Dwarf Fortress or Gnomoria will never get as wide audience as stupid "press single button" web milkers.
But obvious over complication also bad, Gnomoria is victim of over complication process, few more additions and only 3.5 users will enjoy it.

In order to archive wide audience anything harder then pressing X to win is removed in most cases, added fast travel, checkpoints, automap with everything marked initially.
Comparing Morrowind and Skyrim will allow to see clear degradation, in Morrowind player asked to read quests, in Skyrim player read only arrow that point to valid direction.
Every cave in Skyrim have fast exit, in Morrowind player asked to get expensive "salvation" scrolls to get back from depth or walk self entire cave.

You can clearly see how bad things gone by comparing Gothic 1-2 and Gothic 3-4 general depth and combat systems, first games feature complex timing combat, second - press x as fast as you can to win...

Since all IQ 40 "individuals" never read any review and evaluate product only visually, main development goal is "stunning video effects (blur in 99.9% cases, exploding helicopters in 0.01%)"

Modern indie games in most cases are created by humans who enjoyed Fallout 1-2 era games, who in most cases don't like "console demeanor" of modern AAA projects.

[Dougalishere]

Because EA really don't give a shit about their customers they release either the same old crap every year (all sports titles) or they take existing titles and completely  destroy thenm while lying to the community about what is going on and treating them as if they are all idiots ( see simcity :< )


Ludeon,introversion and klei  ( i know there are many more) to name 3 companies treat their customers with respect, listen to  and understand not everyone is braindead idiots and most importantly!!!! make excellent games. 

[NoImageAvailable]

They're original.  EA is all about maintaining their existing franchises.

Originality is very time intensive, and shareholders don't like to be kept waiting?

Plenty of unoriginal indie games out there, its just that generic puzzle-platformer with pretentious story #39843 doesn't have the same marketing budget as generic Call of Duty clone #87324 so they go unnoticed. That said I do think the indie scene is more conducive to original ideas because it is easier to get them through. Big publishers are very risk averse, they want a safe profit and a quick return on investment and generic cover shooters and sports games are proven qualities in that regard while new ideas always carry the risk of failure. It is far from original but that is hardly the goal of the companies nor their shareholders. Indie devs on the other hand are generally people who have an idea for a game they want to make and profit is more of a secondary concern, hence you end up with fresh concepts that would never have made it under a major publisher.