So when I say "art games", I mean games trying to be artistic for their own sake. This was a phenomenon that sprang up in the early 2010s, fueled by thinkpieces and nascent youtube channels. Games like Journey, Braid, LIMBO, are the most memorable examples. They chose atmosphere and aesthetic over being fun, and I personally don't think they've aged well.
To me, they are distinctly different from the '00s indie hits like Cave Story and Seiklus, which embraced being rough around the edges while still being fun to play.
Underground games != art games. But yeah, I realize it's a rather vague term, like "art rock".
"What is forcing you to also try the same thing? Do something different."
There are only so many game genres. Back in the day we lumped everything into action, adventure, RPGs, and puzzle game categories. Then simulators joined in the late '80s (Populous, SimCity). And... that's about it. We've been saturating the same game genres this whole time.
Let's take puzzle games on itch.io for instance. There are 111,099 games with the puzzle tag right now. How do you innovate there? What does it really mean to "do something different" when we all grew up on the same games that influenced us? I still ruminate on this a lot.
Furthermore, how do you stand out w/o money for marketing? This commonly frustates me in the indie game realm.
The last game that impressed me by being totally unique AND fun was Katamari Damacy. And that game came out in 2004. I rarely see that combination of inventiveness and fun anymore.
It's not that easy to just "do something different" unless you're ready to be doomed to obscurity. If you get too experimental, gamers don't know what they're looking at. If you play it safe, you're just making variations of what already exists.
Gamers are a fickle audience. I wish more people were into weirder stuff - it would allow for more creativity. But I feel that way about music fans too lol.
"don't you have a choice as to who you are competing or not competing with?"
Sadly, nope. Everything is competing for everyone's time now. Gamers have massive backlogs of games they've been meaning to play for years. So when I show them a new game, I can't expect the kind of thorough feedback I could get in the 2000s. That kind of died around mid-2010s. People are just too busy now.
Frankly you've missed out on a lot, I feel like I should write a whole separate article to catch you up lol. I could say more about how games aren't the same for Gen Z vs. older folk, the gaming market shifting from consoles to mobile, etc. Hell, even streaming has gotten old for me.
If you have a clever game, I would say don't limit yourself to mobile. You'll need all the exposure you can get, so aim for multiple platforms if possible. It's not just successful games we're drowning under, it's an absolutely over-saturated market.
Thank you for your comment!