The video game industry is making money hand over fist, but it feels like there are fewer new, interesting ideas and mechanics than ever before – just look at Gamescom Opening Night Live 2025 and its slew of Soulslikes. One Baldur's Gate 3 developer thinks he knows why.
After praising Mafia: The Old Country for feeling "more polished, mechanically richer and narratively stronger than any previous Mafia game," Larian Studios publishing director Michael "Cromwelp" Douse receives a baffled reply.
"Choosing something specific and doing it well seems to be a lost art in game design and I don't know why," it reads. "You'd think after the success of Dark Souls and Undertale the industry would have picked up on it." Fortunately, Douse believes he knows the reason.
Much of the industry has been aggressively data-driven for so long that over generations of talent the ability (insututitionally and/or intellectually) to lead with your gut has become a lost art. This is why AAA is becoming perversely fascinated by indie. Indie doesn't have the… https://t.co/LxZVFrkcj4August 23, 2025
"Much of the industry has been aggressively data-driven for so long that over generations of talent the ability (institutionally and/or intellectually) to lead with your gut has become a lost art," he explains. "This is why AAA is becoming perversely fascinated by indie. Indie doesn't have the data; must rely on gut."
It's easier to convince people to take a risk on an untested idea when there's less money to be lost. It doesn't help that a lot of AAA games are chasing ultra-realism, driving up development times and costs, too. But if you have a small team that doesn't care about each individual hair follicle, you can get games out the door quicker. Fail fast, win fast.
"Sometimes you see games that are doing a very specific thing in AAA (following their gut, their heart) but it's still confined to the institutional practise of parsing it all through available data," Douse continues.
"The datasets are all increasingly trash because they can't predict breakout hits, nor predict failures. And so if you can't rely on data and you've lost the institutional 'gut instinct' that drives the furore of expression (defines a game), you get stuck. If public, panic. Become safe (which is dangerous). Hence: genres disappear, until indies create breakout hits and introduce new data: perverse attachment, etc etc."
It's probably why so many games implemented live-service elements, or crafting, or open worlds. Fortnite did well, so we must all want an endless battle royale. Minecraft is great, so everyone must want crafting in all their games. GTA is a system seller, so let's all make open worlds. Rely on the success of the past, and you'll never make the success of the future.
While you're here, check out our list of the best indie games of 2024 and catch up on any you might have missed.
