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What game genre would you like to see more entrants in?

This was something I started wondering about when I was reading a thread about Star Citizen, and about how space combat flight games were much less-common than they had been at one point, how fans of the genre were hungry for new entrants.

Looking at this list:

en.wikipedia.org/…/List_of_space_flight_simulatio…

…there really were far more games in the genre being released in the late 1990s and early 2000s than there have been recently.

A similar sort of phenomenon occurred for World War II first-person shooters.

en.wikipedia.org/…/List_of_World_War_II_video_gam…

Back around the same time period, there was a glut of games in the genre, and they really have fallen off quite a bit.

Whether it’s a genre like these two, that hasn’t seen many new entrants recently, or a genre that just never grew as much as you’d like, what genre would you like to see more of?

averyminya ,

I’ve been thinking this one over for a couple days now and it just occurred to me, but independent character driven mechanics wrapped in a silly story. Spyro, Crash, Sly, Ty the Tasmanian Tiger, Okami - the games they inspired are good and interesting and have many unique elements but I feel like it’s been a long time since I’ve come across one of these kinds of games which really push a boundary and focus in on each aspect of that character.

Also, I want Goofy’s Skateboarding again. Give it to me.

Mummelpuffin ,
@Mummelpuffin@beehaw.org avatar

I wanted to counter this but I can’t. Most of the mascot platformer-esque games now are imitating some other, older mascot platformer. A Hat In Time just doesn’t have any real gimmicks. IDK if Pumpkin Jack does (I really need to try it at some point). Maybe Froggun but I imagine it has even less of a story and it’s more of a puzzle game?

averyminya ,

I liked pumpkin jack, gave me some Sly Cooper vibes but it was actually pretty unique, good call!

And it’s not necessarily a bad thing, it just happens to be quite hard to pay tribute whole also reinventing the wheel.

Kolanaki ,
@Kolanaki@yiffit.net avatar

Cartoon logic point and click adventure games like Sam & Max or Monkey Island. There are still a lot of adventure games similar to that style being made, but they’re all fairly realistic in the puzzles. I want the stupid, non-sense logic used in cartoons to make the puzzles harder but also funnier.

comicallycluttered , (edited )

More stealth games that aren’t horror and don’t allow you to punch or shoot your way out of the situation, should you get caught.

If you have any weapons, make them underpowered to the point of useless in combat (eg. Thief) or you just have gadgets to use that won’t help if you get caught (except maybe something that helps you get away like smoke bombs or some shit).

At the same time, though, I don’t want that “get caught, immediate game over” thing. You should still be able to run away and hide or whatever. Just make it exciting enough that you don’t feel like you need to load up a quicksave.

Similarly (if not directly related to stealth), more espionage/spy games. Not as many as there used to be.

I’d also like more actual detective games. Zero action and preferably ones that let you fuck up a case by accusing the wrong person or making the wrong conclusions and have it impact the narrative. Like, if you get it wrong, you get it wrong and you have to live with that. There are several currently, but I’d love more.

Lemonyoda ,

You think about a Mix of Thief and dishonored, i guess? Least Puzzle, more Sandbox stealth but Open for the Player to approach the Situation (and Not so much Tool/scenario Drive Like the Hitman Games). I would add Safe zones/Houses as in Nobody finds you there. So you can avoid running away from every enemy on the Map, which offen Happens If you have to flee. This could add some kind of inbetween restock or Adaptation options etc. Think espionage Thrillers and so in.

Mummelpuffin ,
@Mummelpuffin@beehaw.org avatar

Is it weird that I think of Halo 3: ODST as one of the real detective games? Not because it’s particularly dedicated to being that, but because the default ending of the game is that you don’t solve the mystery and leave unsatisfied. You’re just some grunt and what’s actually going on is above your paygrade. Learning the truth is a bit of a pain in this ass but it’s also basically half of the game’s story. I think it was a really ballsy move for what it’s worth.

Mummelpuffin ,
@Mummelpuffin@beehaw.org avatar

…Also Goddamn how is ot that no one has managed to make something like Theif again outside of Gloomwood (which is admittedly rad as hell?) I only managed to play Theif recently and it’s still one of the best stealth games ever. Modern games need to learn how to leave the player alone for a while and let them cook.

TALL421 ,
@TALL421@lemmy.one avatar

I’m honestly not the biggest fan of the genre, but point and clicks I feel are a truly dying genre or at the very least they are so incredibly niche today

tal OP ,
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

I haven’t been playing any point & click entrants since…God. There were some hidden object games that I got when I got Steam. I guess maybe outside that subgenre, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samorost and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machinarium, maybe a bit over a decade back.

But I dunno if the situation is honestly all that grim.

Searching for “Point & Click” on Steam and sorting by user review.

I get over 4,000 entries, and the top-rated entries are dominated by releases in the top few years.

You might be thinking specifically of adventure games, but even if I add the adventure tag, it’s still over 3,000 entries.

drgnfckr ,

Single player card games. I just want a good card game where the PvP mode is optional. Curse you games as a service.

sculd ,

Inscryption?

ranandtoldthat ,

Cultist simulator, even

drgnfckr ,

Yeah I got it, exactly what I wanted.

Berttheduck ,

Slay the spire? It’s a deck builder rouge like. Excellent game. Dunno if it’s what your looking for but I highly recommend it.

tal OP ,
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

If you haven’t looked recently, you might take another look.

I felt the same way when Slay the Spire came out in 2019 – not a lot of similar games at the time, and I couldn’t figure out why more developers hadn’t made similar games, as it seemed like a very good match for indie studios. But there have been a whole lot of games that came out since then.

Searching Steam for games tagged as single-player and deckbuilder, and sorting by user review

I get over 600 hits, almost all of which came out in the past three years. I’d say that single-player deckbuilders – and note that I’m assuming that you’re talking about deckbuilder games, not, say, solitaire implementations or similar, as I think that there are pretty good entrants there – are actually doing pretty well.

drgnfckr ,

I guess I didn’t elaborate but I specifically am not looking for deckbuilding rogue likes. Think more like Inscryption act 2 where you get to collect cards and build your own deck. Something like Magic the Gathering but it’s all single player campaign.

lenguen ,

Lovecraftian horror games. There have been some games in recent years but I think there’s definitely a larger design space for this kind of thing. This could mix with other genres as well like survival and potentially rogue-like stuff.

tal OP , (edited )
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

Searching Steam for games tagged as lovecraft and horror and sorting by user review gives me about 500 entries.

I think that Lovecraft’s setting is actually virtually the only fictional setting where you’re spoiled for choice, because Lovecraft permitted other people to use his setting. Like, you only get to do a Star Wars game if Lucasarts licenses it, because they leverage their copyright on the setting. Most people and companies who create a setting don’t allow other people to freely use it, and copyright law permits them to make that restriction. But Lovecraft was unusual in that he specifically encouraged other people to build on his world.

Maybe Robin Hood or a small handful of others from history, like Greek or Norse mythology, that developed before copyright law had really become the norm.

I dunno. Maybe there should be some kind of Creative Commons license that permits use of setting and maybe characters, while still keeping an individual work copyrighted, to encourage creation of collaboratively-developed settings like that.

This could mix with other genres as well like survival and potentially rogue-like stuff.

One of the top entries I see on Steam – though I’ve never played it – is an Overwhelmingly Positive-rated game, Disfigure, that appears to be a Lovecraftian action roguelike that just came out a couple of months ago.

store.steampowered.com/app/2083160/Disfigure/

EDIT: Well, hmm. Someone tagged it as Lovecraftian, but the author doesn’t really describe it that way. Just creepy.

Domiku ,

I think that if we’re doing real-history FPS games, I would like to see other conflicts. Give me a War of 1812 game or let me play as a Chinese soldier during Japan’s mid-1900s occupation or something.

ampersandrew ,
@ampersandrew@kbin.social avatar

People brought this up at the time, and the go-to problem with it is if you go too far back, like your 1812 example, you have to deal with reloading a gun being one of the most time-consuming actions you can perform. WWI was taboo for a while due to chemical and trench warfare, and for the most part, devs still shy away from it.

Claidheamh ,

And yet Verdun, Tannenberg, and Isonzo are some of the most fun multiplayer FPS games around.

tal OP ,
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

If you’re going non-fantasy (in which case you can put in whatever), I think that one factor is also that in, say, the Napoleonic era, using soldiers in formation in warfare was an important multiplier, and that’s not super-friendly to FPSes. I mean, a lot of the game would be following orders to move into a formation or move in formation.

As for weapons, you could do archery, I suppose. There have been a number of games (Thief, Skyrim, etc), that have an archer running around on their lonesome, though that probably wasn’t historically all that accurate. Well, not that having a solo character going Rambo on a World War II-and-post battlefield was necessarily all that common. If it did, it was pretty unusual:

en.wikipedia.org/…/Joe_Hooper_(Medal_of_Honor)

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Staff Sergeant (then Sgt.) Hooper, U.S. Army, distinguished himself while serving as squad leader with Company D. Company D was assaulting a heavily defended enemy position along a river bank when it encountered a withering hail of fire from rockets, machine guns and automatic weapons. S/Sgt. Hooper rallied several men and stormed across the river, overrunning several bunkers on the opposite shore. Thus inspired, the rest of the company moved to the attack. With utter disregard for his own safety, he moved out under the intense fire again and pulled back the wounded, moving them to safety. During this act S/Sgt. Hooper was seriously wounded, but he refused medical aid and returned to his men. With the relentless enemy fire disrupting the attack, he single-handedly stormed 3 enemy bunkers, destroying them with hand grenade and rifle fire, and shot 2 enemy soldiers who had attacked and wounded the Chaplain. Leading his men forward in a sweep of the area, S/Sgt. Hooper destroyed 3 buildings housing enemy riflemen. At this point he was attacked by a North Vietnamese officer whom he fatally wounded with his bayonet. Finding his men under heavy fire from a house to the front, he proceeded alone to the building, killing its occupants with rifle fire and grenades. By now his initial body wound had been compounded by grenade fragments, yet despite the multiple wounds and loss of blood, he continued to lead his men against the intense enemy fire. As his squad reached the final line of enemy resistance, it received devastating fire from 4 bunkers in line on its left flank. S/Sgt. Hooper gathered several hand grenades and raced down a small trench which ran the length of the bunker line, tossing grenades into each bunker as he passed by, killing all but 2 of the occupants. With these positions destroyed, he concentrated on the last bunkers facing his men, destroying the first with an incendiary grenade and neutralizing 2 more by rifle fire. He then raced across an open field, still under enemy fire, to rescue a wounded man who was trapped in a trench. Upon reaching the man, he was faced by an armed enemy soldier whom he killed with a pistol. Moving his comrade to safety and returning to his men, he neutralized the final pocket of enemy resistance by fatally wounding 3 North Vietnamese officers with rifle fire. S/Sgt. Hooper then established a final line and reorganized his men, not accepting treatment until this was accomplished and not consenting to evacuation until the following morning. His supreme valor, inspiring leadership and heroic self-sacrifice were directly responsible for the company’s success and provided a lasting example in personal courage for every man on the field. S/Sgt. Hooper’s actions were in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit upon himself and the U.S. Army.[4]

That’s a pretty unusual MoH citation out of Vietnam, and that’d probably be about par for the course for a single – maybe part of – a WW2 FPS level. I mean, if you want realistic World Wars fighting, the largest chunk of characters would probably just be killed by random artillery fire, not pulling off 100:1+ kill ratios in infantry combat, which…isn’t all that much fun as a first-person game.

But, as to archery:

tastesofhistory.co.uk/…/dispelling-some-myths-arc…

A skilled longbowman could shoot about 12 shots per minute. This rate of fire was far superior to competing weapons like the crossbow or early gunpowder weapons…

So, as to the hail of arrows, archers shooting heavy warbows confirm that releasing twelve arrows in one minute is possible, but that such a rate cannot be maintained subsequently. Practical experience argues for a shooting rate of about 5 to 6 arrows per minute being feasible over a period up to 10 minutes.

That’s definitely a lot slower-paced than a modern FPS, but it’s still a lot faster than nearly all 18th century firearms.

Skyrim kind of ignored fatigue and let you lug around a huge store of arrows and blast them without regard for your arms getting tired, so it’s not hard realism, but I think that people enjoyed the archery aspect.

perishthethought ,

Tower defense games are my jam, so even though they get made every so often, I always want more.

It’s unclear if the OMD maker (Robot) will ever make OMD4 so someone else needs to step in here.

VinesNFluff ,
@VinesNFluff@pawb.social avatar

Real-time Strategy. Specifically single-player campaign oriented RTS.

Genre peaked at, like, Red Alert 3 or Starcraft II, either-or. And the only notable title in the past (N) years has been like… Age of Empires 4. Which is good but also… It’s AoE. It’ll always be more of a multiplayer oriented game yanno? Give me my cheesy campaign stories with cool hero units and/or cheesy FMV uwu

Claidheamh ,

There’s a few single player focused ones released in the past decade. Deserts of Kharak comes to mind.

FatCrab ,

Tbf, deserts of kharrak had a cool mp mode, too, and it’s a shame it died out immediately. It is a fairly novel and unique rts in a lot of ways, and very pretty to boot, so not sure what happened. I guess the maps are all very samey

Lemonyoda ,

The Homeworld Series (1+2 at least) comes Info mind in general.

OP ist right though. A masterpiecish RTS ist nowwhere to ne found. I think, it has something To Do for other genres innovating out of the RTS Framework (DotA, LoL, even Pikmin).

All can be played without the mechanical sweatfest traditional RTS turn Into, but instead focussing in Player knowledge and engagement.

However, there ist the new Company of Heroes Game, though…

ECB , (edited )

I’d like multiplayer shooters that put emphasis on clean visuals designed to transmit information as well as more emphasis on movement.

Even with all the hats, visibility in TF2 is a masterpiece compared to 90% of games. One team always bright red, one team is always bright blue. The maps aren’t full of noisy scenery and still look great.

Helix ,

Counter Strike 2 has recently been released. Valorant and Overwatch also seems to fit the description.

ECB ,

Valorant I can’t speak to, since I can’t play it on Linux.

CS I’ve played a lot of and it’s fantastic just a bit too slow paced/tactical for me. Your right though that it’s a fantastically designed game and a really good shout.

Overwatch I strongly disagree with. The maps have clean lines, but with the character design, abilities, and UI they clearly prioritise being flashy over anything else. It’s really visually loud for the sake of it and too much for me.

Dark_Arc ,
@Dark_Arc@social.packetloss.gg avatar

Yeah… Diabotical looked like a promising update to AFPS (which is what I’d say you’re describing), but it didn’t change enough of the formula (I blame the weapon design choices) and it launched on EGS instead of steam.

ECB ,

Yeah, I kind of intentionally avoided saying AFPS because unfortunately these days that tends to mean (like with diabotical) games which are desperate to be the most hypercompetitive aspects of quake. Duels or FFA aren’t really my thing, give me teams and objectives!

Perhaps unsurprisingly UT2k4 is one of my favorite of all time

Dark_Arc ,
@Dark_Arc@social.packetloss.gg avatar

Diabotical did do teams and objectives. I think what really needs to happen to bring the genre back to life though is for there to be a really good campaign tied to a really good multiplayer experience that brings in some new weapon design instead of the Quake meta weapons with minor tweaks.

UT4 was looking promising in terms of multiplayer before Epic killed the project.

You might like roboquest it’s a very recent game that’s not PvP but has a lot of AFPS characteristics.

IDK, kinda feels like we need idSoftware to do a new Quake with new story and new weapons even if they don’t call it Quake (or to release a DOOM multiplayer experience that is actually fun).

Mummelpuffin ,
@Mummelpuffin@beehaw.org avatar

Well, there’s another Quake 3 clone attempt every few years and every time no one cares. Diabotical made me especially sad because it shook the forumula up in some very smart ways and the Wipeout game mode needs to be stolen by pretty much everyone (and won’t be).

shrugal ,

Medieval economy/politics/life sims like The Guild (aka Europa 1400).

FarceOfWill ,

It’s sad the closest recent other entry is like CK3 a totally different genre really

I miss the patrician series

Lemonyoda ,

Patricia more plays Like a refocussed ANNO entry. Its one of my All Time favorites and i wish for another entry…

I dont think its Line the guild though :)

FarceOfWill ,

You marry people based on how ugly they are and the size of their dowry. That’s solid the guild gameplay

DoucheBagMcSwag ,

Immersive sims.

Give me more games like Deus Ex, system Shock, prey 2017 and bioshock please

comicallycluttered ,

God, I so badly want more.

There’s maybe a chance that the Adam Jenson trilogy gets finished up, but the Embracer situation has made that less clear.

DoucheBagMcSwag ,

Goddamnit this is exact what I think EVERY TIME I see Embracer in the news…

“Oh no fuck…Deus Ex is now even further away…”

Mummelpuffin ,
@Mummelpuffin@beehaw.org avatar

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about Immersive Sims because, like, in theory they’re a lot of people’s dream games, right? Yet their actual audiences are small. Part of that has to be down to setting, for the same reason Blade Runner was never big, but… that can’t be it, right?

And why did people start calling Tears of the Kingdom an Immersive Sim? Is… Are classic Roguelikes immersive sims? Is Dwarf Fortress an Immersive Sim? Obviously not, but the definition we’ve given ourselves is too broad and what we actually consider a “reall immersive sim” seems too limited.

Helix ,

Supernatural hi-fi semi-action adventure shooters like Control, Alan Wake or Death Stranding.

Mummelpuffin ,
@Mummelpuffin@beehaw.org avatar

I do wonder what an indie equivalent to these games would look like. I worry that I’d feel like they were just imitating Remedy.

Helix ,

What’s wrong with imitation?

Helix ,

Arcade racers like NFSU2 and arcade flying games like Ace Combat and Starfox 64.

Lemonyoda ,

NFS Unbound maybe? A good arcade racing Game, great Style (depends in you ofc).

108 ,
@108@kbin.social avatar

Mech sim like the old Mechwarrior games. Not the new ones they are gatcha pay to win

Helix ,

Here’s a list: reddit.com/…/compilation_list_of_almost_all_mecha…

Armored Core got a release in 2023 and seems to be good.

ampersandrew ,
@ampersandrew@kbin.social avatar

What about MechWarrior 5?

GrayBackgroundMusic ,

Not op. I saw the good reviews and so I thought I’d give it a try. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong, but I am very bad at that game and die all the time. I looked up other negative reviews and some people seem to agree with me that I just need more armor or something. I don’t understand all of the positive reviews and how difficult I find the game to be. I loved MW one and two and three, but I guess this one isn’t for me anymore.

Mummelpuffin ,
@Mummelpuffin@beehaw.org avatar

You… you do realize MW5 is single-player and definitely not a “gatcha game” right? And has a pretty robust modding scene? And has a clan-based sequel coming up in a new engine?

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