On October 31 2025 07:42 Jeremy Reimer wrote: Well, Stormgate is reaching peaks of 27 players per day and lows of 8, the Stormgate Reddit is completely dead, and this thread is only kept alive by talking about how great indie games are and how terrible AAA games have become.
I'm going to try and take a real break from all of this Stormgate stuff for a bit. Maybe I'll check in at the end of November, when Frost Giant has to start repaying that $2 million loan.
Still new threads with dozens of comments practically every day on /r/stormgate. Sure, they're circling the same topics and arguments over and over, but it's kind of amazing after 3 months with no official communication. At this point anyone trashing the game is doing more to promote it than every FrostGiant employee combined.
On October 31 2025 07:42 Jeremy Reimer wrote: Well, Stormgate is reaching peaks of 27 players per day and lows of 8, the Stormgate Reddit is completely dead, and this thread is only kept alive by talking about how great indie games are and how terrible AAA games have become.
I'm going to try and take a real break from all of this Stormgate stuff for a bit. Maybe I'll check in at the end of November, when Frost Giant has to start repaying that $2 million loan.
Still new threads with dozens of comments practically every day on /r/stormgate. Sure, they're circling the same topics and arguments over and over, but it's kind of amazing after 3 months with no official communication. At this point anyone trashing the game is doing more to promote it than every FrostGiant employee combined.
The volume of posts and comments is way down over the last few weeks, though. But yeah, it's the most anyone anywhere is talking about Stormgate.
I noticed that a lot more people in the Frost Giant LinkedIn page have put the "Open to Work" banner on their profiles now. The few folks who haven't are either one of the Tims, or contractors who haven't worked on the game in years. For example, there are no QA people left, one artist, one animator, and one developer. And Monk, of course, even though he previously updated his profile to say his last day was in July. It is quite possible that the remaining people just haven't updated their LinkedIn yet, even though they no longer receive a paycheck.
I feel badly for the (former) Frost Giant employees. It's a really tough time to be in the games industry right now, with all the big companies continuing to lay off thousands of people every few months (and in the case of Amazon, tens of thousands).
Nothing from Stormgate Central since August 5. Nothing from Stormgate Nexus since August 5 as well. I guess August 5 was the game's unannounced, unofficial last day of active support. Ironically, August 5 was the day US President Ronald Reagan fired 11,359 striking air-traffic controllers in 1981.
On November 01 2025 04:47 Jeremy Reimer wrote: It is quite possible that the remaining people just haven't updated their LinkedIn yet, even though they no longer receive a paycheck.
I feel badly for the (former) Frost Giant employees. It's a really tough time to be in the games industry right now, with all the big companies continuing to lay off thousands of people every few months (and in the case of Amazon, tens of thousands).
pay cheque. I don't feel badly for any one in the industry. in 2010 US spending on games was ~$10B. Now, it is $58B. If these super talented delicate geniuses can't find a way to navigate those waters that's on them.
The industry I service has gone from $425B to $1000B during that same time span. The only way people in this growing industry don't have a job is if they don't want a job.
On November 02 2025 04:25 JimmyJRaynor wrote: Nothing from Stormgate Central since August 5. Nothing from Stormgate Nexus since August 5 as well. I guess August 5 was the game's unannounced, unofficial last day of active support. Ironically, August 5 was the day US President Ronald Reagan fired 11,359 striking air-traffic controllers in 1981.
On November 01 2025 04:47 Jeremy Reimer wrote: It is quite possible that the remaining people just haven't updated their LinkedIn yet, even though they no longer receive a paycheck.
I feel badly for the (former) Frost Giant employees. It's a really tough time to be in the games industry right now, with all the big companies continuing to lay off thousands of people every few months (and in the case of Amazon, tens of thousands).
pay cheque. I don't feel badly for any one in the industry. in 2010 US spending on games was ~$10B. Now, it is $58B. If these super talented delicate geniuses can't find a way to navigate those waters that's on them.
The industry I service has gone from $425B to $1000B during that same time span. The only way people in this growing industry don't have a job is if they don't want a job.
More spending doesn't necessarily mean game devs have it better now. That spending could go elsewhere, e.g. into advertisement and the pockets of CEOs. I don't think game devs get a good salary on average compared to other IT jobs requiring similar skills/qualification.
I think the main problem any game company has is twofold. Much higher expectations. Much harder competition. So if you want to do AAA it is insanely expensive. If you do lower tiers you have to be the best in your niche and have some marketing to make money or get lucky.
If you put out Warcraft 2 today it would get no players. Sure you can make that game easily, doesn't mean it has any customers.
The vast majority of released games are fine or shovelware, they still make a loss in most cases.
An example, used to be 700-900 games per year on console. Now a days it is around 400. But just Steam has 19k+ while phone games and online games keep being very popular. So amount of releases per year is probably up more than 10x while a few behemoths in live service swallows most of the increase in total spending.
On October 31 2025 12:06 Manit0u wrote: Speaking of indie games...
Pretty crazy stories. Guys that did Goat Simulator previously now made a game for a jam, liked the concept and went with it. Game done and released in 3 months, over a million copies sold, thousands of concurrent players (and it's a 4-5 player game)...
I don't agree with the line "6 games, the same pattern, small team, low budget, unique...". As in, I don't think those are the main reasons why these games became successful because that is also true for a lot of games that are not successful. Those games hit other important points. Or mainly one point, which is insane dopamin explosions. The only game in that list that is unique imho is the first one with the van. There are literally 2 slot machine games (wow, so unique) and another "two crazy explosions and numbers everywhere" rogue likes. And the last one is basically a rip off with a funny twist - probably well done but also not unique.
Rogue-like is just mega popular because it can easily be picked up and has tons of potential for an addictive game loop and dopamin explosions. I'm personally sick of this because for me it makes games worse in most cases. Against the Storm was mentioned earlier and I think it is a brilliant city builder/exploration RTS. But the extreme randomness of goals and where to find them of the map can just ruin an entire run, which can take like 7-10 hours. It's intended and I hate it.
On November 02 2025 04:25 JimmyJRaynor wrote: Nothing from Stormgate Central since August 5. Nothing from Stormgate Nexus since August 5 as well. I guess August 5 was the game's unannounced, unofficial last day of active support. Ironically, August 5 was the day US President Ronald Reagan fired 11,359 striking air-traffic controllers in 1981.
On November 01 2025 04:47 Jeremy Reimer wrote: It is quite possible that the remaining people just haven't updated their LinkedIn yet, even though they no longer receive a paycheck.
I feel badly for the (former) Frost Giant employees. It's a really tough time to be in the games industry right now, with all the big companies continuing to lay off thousands of people every few months (and in the case of Amazon, tens of thousands).
pay cheque. I don't feel badly for any one in the industry. in 2010 US spending on games was ~$10B. Now, it is $58B. If these super talented delicate geniuses can't find a way to navigate those waters that's on them.
The industry I service has gone from $425B to $1000B during that same time span. The only way people in this growing industry don't have a job is if they don't want a job.
More spending doesn't necessarily mean game devs have it better now. That spending could go elsewhere, e.g. into advertisement and the pockets of CEOs. I don't think game devs get a good salary on average compared to other IT jobs requiring similar skills/qualification.
if you work in an industry where revenue and profits are skyrocketing by 4.5X and that industry lays people off constantly and offers zero stability while paying you half of what you are worth some place else... that's on you. that is your calculated, adult decision. IMO, its a bad decision. Hey, if someone wants to play martyr ... they can have fun.
in the industry I service the pay is skyrocketing right along with the profits and revenue. furthermore, it is 100X more stable. and that is how it should be. Things should be stable and improving whenever profits and revenue are skyrocketing. If they are not, they're lying when they say that can't pay you nor offer stable work. you want to work for frauds and liars? have fun.
EPT
