Stardew Valley dethrones Valve classic Portal 2 as Steam’s top-rated game
-
If you like portal you may also like superliminal. It's the only game I've found that scratches the similar itch
In a similar vein to Superluminal, I'd also recommend Viewfinder, it's kinda like Portal but with a camera rather than a Portal gun.
-
But at the same time there are plenty of indie devs that sell games for $30 and then have a few $15 DLC on top of that after a few years. Not throwing shade at those other devs, more just saying that the dev for Stardew Valley could have sold DLC and nobody would have questioned it but chose not to. You could be like Stardew Valley and keep the game cheap, free updates, and frequent sales or you could be like Factorio and refuse to ever put your game on sale and up the price every couple of years and come out with a $20 DLC. And I'd be shocked if Stardew Valley has made less money than Factorio in the long run, especially with it being the in number one place right now.
And yet those small studios are one flop away from bankruptcy. Stardew Valley is a one in a million success story and should not pose as a benchmark. Barone decided to continue as a more or less single dev, but you can‘t blame talented young designers to expand their team to realize more ambitious projects and sacrifice economic safety for that simply because they now employ people. Barone can do updates ten years later and postpone Haunted Chocolatier for that, you can‘t do that if multiple people depend on their salary.
-
Considering how much time he spent developing it, I doubt the profit margin is actually all that good.
Good enough to not release a new game in ten years, what small scale studio can say that.
-
Idk Stardew Valley is a passion project if I've ever seen one. Sure, concernedape is making extraordinary profits, but it has to feel way better to have a decent size of the planet's population playing and connecting with the project they poured their heart and soul into.
It‘s a passion project alright, but we won‘t see many games if only those are getting done.
-
If you like portal you may also like superliminal. It's the only game I've found that scratches the similar itch
I'd also recommend The Talos Principle and The Turing Test for similar itch scratches.
-
But at the same time there are plenty of indie devs that sell games for $30 and then have a few $15 DLC on top of that after a few years. Not throwing shade at those other devs, more just saying that the dev for Stardew Valley could have sold DLC and nobody would have questioned it but chose not to. You could be like Stardew Valley and keep the game cheap, free updates, and frequent sales or you could be like Factorio and refuse to ever put your game on sale and up the price every couple of years and come out with a $20 DLC. And I'd be shocked if Stardew Valley has made less money than Factorio in the long run, especially with it being the in number one place right now.
wrote last edited by [email protected]I think it's fair, and sometimes good. I've been playing Stationeers recently and it's fantastic. It's priced reasonably, and it's an amazing game. They have a few DLCs, which are purely there to give support, not new content. It's for you to pay the devs more if you have the money to give them and want to.
However, they're also losing money on the game and have said they never expect it to be profitable*. Most games aren't Stardew Valley, and they're struggling to survive. Stardew doesn't need to make more money. Most small/indie studios do.
*It's the studio making Kitten Space Agency, which they've said they want to be free, with the option to donate. I think they're allergic to making profit and only like making cool games. I'd highly recommend checking out their games, if only because they seem to be doing development for the sake of the games.
-
I'd also recommend The Talos Principle and The Turing Test for similar itch scratches.
Thanks for reminding me I have the Talos Principle 2 DLC in my inventory that I have to play!
-
How's your back feeling, millennials?
Wearing good shoes and keeping my weight down and staying active so it feels fine.
Gen X weighing in. That'll only last you so long, then your body starts to rebel no matter what.
-
In a similar vein to Superluminal, I'd also recommend Viewfinder, it's kinda like Portal but with a camera rather than a Portal gun.
Antichamber is another that feels similar. Although Antichamber doesn't really have a plot.
-
Portal is such a great series. I hope we get a new one one day.
It's one of my favorite games of all time, but I don't think Portal 2's basic formula would be culturally relevant if it was reused today. The quippy writing is very 2010s-coded (à la Guardians of the Galaxy), the gameplay is a bit too simple to be re-used as is in 2025, and the sweet&short linear storyline of Portal 2 would ironically be lacking ambition for a successor to Portal 2.
Like all truly Great pieces of classic media, Portal 2 is a product of a skilled and truly passionate team getting together at the perfect time with the right idea, and reaching its public at a culturally relevant time.
The Portal universe still has stories to tell, and there are still test chambers to solve, so I obviously wouldn't complain if Portal 3 came out, but I understand why Valve wouldn't want to make a barely decent game in the shadow of Portal 2.
-
Considering how much time he spent developing it, I doubt the profit margin is actually all that good.
Mate, it's one man, Self-published, pulling in the proceeds of a game that has sold 41 million copies. Even if he has made $5 per copy, that's over $200 million dollars. The profit margin on his time even after 10 years is insane.
-
Mate, it's one man, Self-published, pulling in the proceeds of a game that has sold 41 million copies. Even if he has made $5 per copy, that's over $200 million dollars. The profit margin on his time even after 10 years is insane.
I didn't realize it had sold quite that many. I knew he spent a lot of time working on it, like 70 hours per week for 4.5 years, but that still works out to at least an enormous $12,000 an hour! Even if he kept at 70 hours/week for all ten years, it's still only half that number, far greater than you or I will likely ever see.
-
It might feel wrong to call their last proper sit down at a couch/desk singeplayer experience a "classic", but its older than Half-Life one was when it came out.
That makes me feel old and I wasn't even around for HL1. How's your back feeling, millennials?
That makes me feel old and I wasn't even around for HL1. How's your back feeling, millennials?
I'm not old you're young! I'm not hunched over grabbing my back grimacing that's just my power stance!
-
It's Portal 2... the Valve classic is Portal 2
Here i was imagining "valve classic" was somehow a wildly popular game ive never heard of
-
How's your back feeling, millennials?
Wearing good shoes and keeping my weight down and staying active so it feels fine.
Won't work for everyone but I switched to thin sandals and my feet got much stronger and healthier.
I'm still working on the being too fat part -
I didn't realize it had sold quite that many. I knew he spent a lot of time working on it, like 70 hours per week for 4.5 years, but that still works out to at least an enormous $12,000 an hour! Even if he kept at 70 hours/week for all ten years, it's still only half that number, far greater than you or I will likely ever see.
Steamcharts showed about 150,000 concurrent players playing the game when I saw a few days ago; I'm shocked at just how popular it is as well. I think he could basically just work on it 70 hours a week for the rest of his life and it would still be a great hourly rate.
-
I miss Tribes: Ascend, great game. Hi-rez love to kill their games.
Paladins always was better than overwatch and they killed it too.
wrote last edited by [email protected]It's been hilarious watching Overwatch take notes from Paladins, the "Overwatch clone", more and more lately. 5v5, hero builds, more of a brawly playstyle... OW2 at times feels like a blend between OW1 and Paladins.
-
What valuing quality over profit does to a mf
To be fair, portal 2 was also built when valve valued quality over profit.
-
It's Portal 2... the Valve classic is Portal 2
writing headlines like that should earn a nice lengthy face tazing.
-
It might feel wrong to call their last proper sit down at a couch/desk singeplayer experience a "classic", but its older than Half-Life one was when it came out.
That makes me feel old and I wasn't even around for HL1. How's your back feeling, millennials?
pretty okay, just had a shower and I'm chilling on the couch with my cat. She is steadily purring. comfort level is around a 7.8, maybe 7.9.
I bought HL1's GOTY edition when it came out.
