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(2 edits) (+2)

You have to have it available to put it up.  The money barrier remains the underlying issue, regardless of the justification.  This will not appear out of nowhere for me nor can I just go up to a nearby tree and pick some off it.

I am very much aware of the current problems with game making.  Every jam I compete it now I am up against those who won't toil and slave like I do to make the projects (and my ratings in those jams will always reflect their lack of effort).  The ones who will not put up the work, the cursing and swearing and the endless hours of frustration because they want easier will demand easier.  That is where engines started the downfall, because they provided easier (within conditions and limitations).  They don't have to understand the math and fundamentals of 3D because they have engines to do that for them.  Now they don't want to code, do the art or write music for their games and eventually even having to tell a database what they want will still be too much like work.  Down the road, they will demand insta-games where they just click a button, game that is badly coded, bloated, full of spyware and ludicrous dmca that probably doesn't even work, the 'art' all looks the same with unimpressive content that looks like every other insta-game and music that sounds like it was ripped from a game from 30 years ago.  But hey, at least it will be instant.  Funny thing is, they will still demand $150 a copy for it, as though they should be credited for something they 'created'.  It's become so drole.

We reached peak development 20 years ago.  It's all been downhill from there.

I actually agree with almost everything you said about the decline of game development and the rise of zero-effort "insta-games", and your frustration with people skipping the hard work and demanding instant results is completely justified.

But that is precisely the core issue: the current free-for-all model actively enables those instant-game creators.

When there is zero friction, the bad actors who put no effort into coding or art can flood the public index with thousands of generated projects in seconds, completely suffocating developers who actually code from scratch.

I understand that having $100 on hand may be a hurdle for many. But this would be ultimately a reasonable, temporary investment in yourself to unlock far greater potential returns in an (almost) clutter-free market, especially knowing it gets fully refunded once your game proves its legitimacy. If a platform provides free front-page indexing to literally anyone, it effectively treats a project built over months of sweat and code as equal to a button-click AI project.

Deleted 18 days ago