Many major AAA titles are increasingly losing their appeal because they do not trust enough – is at least MeinMMO author Benedict Grothaus. Two small indie games on Steam show the major studios that just once again more would have to be trusted: Valheim and Split Gate .

I love indie games. Not all, but in principle excites me the title of a small studio that wants to simply realize his vision, significantly more than the million-dollar project a big players such as EA, Ubisoft or Actvision Blizzard.

The reason is quite simple: Indie Studios give me clearly the message that they make the game for me – for the nerd who is exactly on their stuff. Without any compromise. If the masses the game but hate as long as the core of the player remains faithful.

Two new games from independent studios show just that.

What kind of games The Survival Valheim and the shooter split gate had a huge success on Steam and are still popular?:

Valheim appeared on February 2 in the Early Access, outdated after a short time and had ARK after a week over a million players. Even today, playing an average of more than 16,000 people, the survival MMO with the Vikings (via steamcharts.com).
Split gate since 2019 in beta, it brought on Steam but only in July 2021 at fame. The game got faster players as server capacity and at the moment play alone on Steam on average over 23,500 people (via steamcharts.com).

Both games were at their weddings even huge evergreen on Steam as Rainbow Six wins, outdo Apex Legends or GTA V.

We do it for a very special audience

What makes the game so good? Both Valheim and split gate each have a private and very special game principle. Something that is not designed to be gambled by many players.

Valheim is a challenging Survival game with a Souls-like combat system and a solid story. Here follows a more or less linear progress and fight your way through enemies and bosses, while their produces at the same time new components, armor and food.

Split Gate is based on old, fast shooters like Quake or Unreal Tournament and spice the gameplay with portals like Portal. You fly literally on the maps and opens a crack in space to just where to appear differently and to surprise opponents so completely.

In both game principles you must first get involved and also want. They are unusual and perhaps a little uncomfortable – I come with split gate about not clear, but the player numbers speak for themselves.

Why can they afford that? In a fireside chat of Valheim talked Richard Svensson, creator and lead designer, and Robin Eyre, generalist artist, about the new update Hearth & Home. Here, too, they explained what Valheim really is for them.

You do not want to make the best game for all but the best possible version of Valheim created – from the game they imagine. To polish them ever to existing elements until they are happy with it.

The goal is not going to appeal to many people as possible. We are not here to a generic ‘Everyone loves this play’ thing to do, says Eyre. We have never made this game for everyone, but for a very small, specific audience.

AAA titles lose their identity and follow too many formulas

The problem of big games: The more successful a game is, the more success is expected. This has always been so and will remain so. Indie games are excluded from this compulsion, but AAA titles must meet certain standards.

The result is that often resorted to familiar patterns and these only slightly change to ensure continued success. Here and there, there are minor changes, but major innovations lacking in series such as Call of Duty or Assassin’s Creed for a while. Keywords: Ubisoft formula.

It feels a little like that, as if the love is lost to her performance at the major studios. As many decisions would only be taken in order to maximize profit, not about its own vision of the game reality will be.

Here, this vision would not even go down well with players. Valheim and split gate show that if the studio behind the project, the game is already accepted. No matter how worn it is. As long as you just noted that there lifeblood in it – at least as long as the quality is not absolutely far from good and evil.

Are so all AAA titles bad? Absolutely not. Despite all the criticism, I still like to play from time to time Call of Duty, Rainbow Six, World of Warcraft and more. The games would eventually not be so huge if they were rotten.

The point is merely that the development of many of these titles continues to shift in a direction that should be addressed as many people as possible. So something diluted the substance of what the games has made out.

Wow is the best example. From the former nerd jewel for Geeks with absolutely no life towards the lifestyle project for casuals with little time. For growth, it sounds logical to respond more people. But it is also understandable if those who made the game great feel neglected.

AAA titles can not copy the indie flair so easily

The Crux in the whole thing is that big studios can not just make it like Valheim and Splitgate. They have sponsors and publishers who need to satisfy them and a huge mass of players who want as quickly as possible as much as possible.

Any aspect must then be put back at the back and usually is the creative freedom. Why should you try a lot of new things, if well-tried yes works?

Blizzard, Ubisoft, EA and Co. could not simply copy the indie approach. There is really too much on the game. Nevertheless, at least, at least I would wish that more courage comes to new again.

Valheim and Splitgate just make

Meanwhile, the two outsiders just take care of polishing their games so that they are satisfied with it. Splitgate had to move his release, but has now got $ 100 million – now everything is absolutely possible.

Valheim, on the other hand, published his first big update, Hearth & Home on September 16th. There are relatively few new features, especially new foods, recipes and components as well as a few weapons or shields.

More about Valheim and Splitgate on Meinmom:

Valheim gets a new area, but that will certainly defend you
Valheim: New update makes you puke and that is more useful than you think
Splitgate is just so hot on Steam that a simple feature willing thousands
Steam-hit splitgate now strokes his release date because so many fans want to play

However, the developers have already warned that the updates are above all for polishing the current version of Valheim. New contents then come when everything else looks good enough. Despite the enormous success, they do not necessarily hurry to force everything – even if they do not deliberately junk as they say. It takes just as long as it takes.

The fact that such an approach works at least to some extent also at large games shows about Rainbow Six victories – one of my favorite games. Here, the development team tries again and again to new ideas, if not quite as liberal as indie titles. Nevertheless, the game will be better and better:

Rainbow Six victories do not need a successor