The inspiration for the bundle came from “a lot of sentiments towards triple-A culture.”
Jordan Mallory, a producer of Fanbyte’s podcast, posted a tweet in 2020 that went viral and reflected a dissatisfaction many feel about the state the gaming industry.
Mallory did not elaborate as he does with every good tweet. However, anyone who is familiar with triple A development will understand what he meant. Mallory posted the tweet around the release of the highly acclaimed and certainly good-looking The Last of Us 2, which reportedly required developers to crunch heavily. Red Dead Redemption 2 was also reported to be crunch. This game is so gorgeous and realistic that you can almost see your horse’s bones drooping when it gets cold.
It captured the feeling that was in the air. There are many instances when you cannot help but feel less would have been better, specifically more sleep for developers.
The Shorter Games with Worse Graphics Bundle is designed to be exactly the opposite. Itch.io has a wide range of indie games that are made by small teams or solo developers. Itch.io has become a great place for people who want to make a difference and get some cool games from the deal.
DeveloperDamien on Twitter came up with the idea for the Shorter Games With Worse Graphics Bundle in late 2020, and has now created a second bundle with 28 games by 25 different developers.
A Twitter thread introduces each game. I’m especially interested in the 16-bit turn-based RPG Kaiju Big Battel Fighto Fantasy. It actually looks very beautiful, despite having worse graphics! and top-down shooter Gumbo.
The description says, “Seeing all the hate for triple-A and how now it is a good moment to support studios who refuse to be part of that culture, I think it’s great to see people put money where their mouths are,” All participating developers will share the money. DeveloperDamien recommends that you check out the games in the first bundle even though they are no longer available.
The goal of the Shorter Games With Worse Graphics Bundle for 2016 is $6,969.69. This is a cool number that will appeal to cool people. The bundle is available until August 16.
