Thank you. Yeah, the situation with discovery, number of players who exist, number of high quality games that exist, is all very bad for getting things played. We are quickly approaching game devs making games for game devs (itch jam scene, already been the case for many years really)
I do think as the fever of "get rich making games" dies out to "everyone can AI dev a game" there will be more room for those of us working very hard to make something interesting. For me personally I've been making games for 30 years, so it's funny -- I just make them because it's what I do at this point. Like a painter on their Nth painting. I was doing it when players were easier to find and I'll be doing it when it is only us making games for each other.
This also happened in other media. Much music is for other musicians more than the "general public" and "pop" music is considered a relatively small part of the total medium despite being the portion that is most directly commercial. I think something similar is happening for games over the next few decades!
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Your comments are so apt! I don't know how the get rich quick scheme will go but there will always be people making things for the love of it, and people making things to get one over on someone else. Nature of being human I would guess. I do think it's interesting you pointing out that game devs make games for game devs- I only started doing this early this summer when I promised myself I would make a game by the end of the year, and now I've made a few and really love it. It's like you said- painting for a painter, it's a great form of self expression.
But yeah- the future is definitely weird.