JB Oger
@jboger.bsky.social
Founder & Game Director Sleepy Mill Studio Made Drop Duchy (2025) and more!
Another great explanation by Mr Schreier. My (unpopular?) opinion is that AAA shouldn’t make « smaller games ». Let the smaller companies make them and (hopefully) be able to thrive. AAA should focus on big billion live services/franchises. We’ll make the new stuff youtu.be/6y3Gx_Aw2Oo?...
Why Big Game Companies Don't Make Small Games
YouTube video by Jason Schreier
youtu.be
Everybody is saying this was obviously going to fail, but Microsoft didn't even try the only strategy that worked for Netflix & co: making exclusives that you can ONLY get through Game Pass. (not that it would have been a desirable future for gamers or devs, just sayin')
Cecilia D'Anastasio@cecianasta.bsky.social · 4w agoNew: Behind Xbox's big reset was a failed Game Pass strategy. Xbox spent nearly $80b in deals for content that it hoped would grow the subscription service. Instead, Game Pass lost subscribers. Deep dive: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
L'industrie grandira quand on arrêtera de prendre les 2-3 gagnants annuels du loto pour les brandir en porte-étendard du "regardez c'est ça qui marche". Je donne 1 an max avant que tout le monde se plaigne que "ouin ouin les indés ils font que du friendslop" (comme pour les roguelites en fait)
Ramo@antoineramo.bsky.social · last mo.Pendant qu'on lance des consoles à 1400 boules et que Sony annonce avoir besoin de l'IA pour rendre son gaming vraiment immersif, le jeu le + vendu de l'année est un weird game fait en 2 mois qui tourne sur un pc gifi et cartonne dans les pays que négligent toutes les grosses boîtes de JV.
Gaming industry rn Day 1: celebrating an (indie) game getting ultra-mega-massive success Day 2: mourning the loss of jobs in (less successful) studios Day 3: repeat (It’s almost as if there’s a connection to be drawn there in a finite market with increasing competition)
En même temps, la compétition est largement encouragée par les éditeurs/investisseurs indépendants qui attendent de plus en plus tard pour s'engager sur les projets. Sauf qu'un jeu prend du temps, les pro avec de l'expérience ont des enfants, des crédits et ne peuvent pas se le permettre
Chloé Woitier@chloew.bsky.social · last mo.Et pour la première fois lors de ce Game Camp, j'ai entendu hors de la bouche des syndicats cette phrase, et ce à plusieurs reprises : les dirigeants du jeu vidéo n'ont aucune culture/formation entrepreneuriale et c'est un gros problème.
Moi la semaine dernière: les températures sont pas mal retombées, c'est cool pour une fois on va pas crever de chaud au Game Camp La météo à Lille la semaine prochaine:
Two things can be true at once: - Steam is an incredible platform with tons of qualities for both gamers and developers - Steam has an effective monopoly and that poses a unique risk, so they should be under scrutiny
I get no longer having the internal expertise/people/tools to make a beautiful 2D game but, like, why remaking the exact same levels and story and mechanics (with a bunch of bonuses)?? It feels like one of these Disney "live action" remakes
Rayman@rayman.ubisoft.com · 2mo agoStories fade. Legends are retold. Rayman Legends Retold launches October 1, 2026.
Honnestly, if I'm Ubisoft I'd start remaking my entire catalogue at this point. Scrap the new IPs, the ambitious sequels. Focus on execution speed, empowering a new generation of developers. People just want the same games they played 10 years ago, it's a fraction of the risk, so why not?
There's a trend in recent years for game schools to have 15-20 students on a single final-year project and I don't get how this is helping them to find jobs? Seems like they're instructed to optimize for beauty in order to get awards and release on Steam, but does that teach them well?
Am I the only one noticing an increase in « we’d be fine if publishers/investors weren’t so greedy » as of late ? It has become sort of a norm on social media to claim that a game isn’t a failure but a mild success or that it was going to climb back up if given the time.
My time working on the VR games with them was amazing, some of the fondest memories of my experience at Ubisoft. Wish I had the opportunity to visit them, almost happened but the trip was always pushed back.
Wario64@wario64.bsky.social · 5mo agoVGC: Ubisoft ‘ends game development’ at Tom Clancy studio, Red Storm, resulting in 105 job losses www.videogameschronicle.com/news/ubisoft...
Sandfall & Clair Obscur did irreversible damage to the industry by restarting once more the whole « why don’t AAA studios make games faster with smaller teams that they can sell cheaper ». I’m not kidding, Jason Schreier litterally wrote an article about this being a talking point at DICE
Aura/Moom@moomanibe.bsky.social · 6mo agoI know it's meant in good faith but "if we just made smaller scope games and charged 20-40 dollars for them it would fix the industry" is very funny to me. indies release like 20 of those a week on steam. are you buying them? is the industry fixed? no? hm. sounds like you need a different solution
If we win this, I don’t know what I’m gonna do yet but it’s going to be crazy. Starvaders already won over Drop Duchy at the Thinky Game awards though, so the odds aren’t looking likely …
Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences@official-aias.bsky.social · 6mo agoOur #DICEAwards Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year nominees are: The Alters, @11bitstudios.bsky.social Drop Duchy, Sleepy Mill Studio Europa Universalis V, Paradox Tinto The King is Watching, Hypnohead StarVaders, Pengonauts
I'm seeing this reaction to Highguard's studio downscaling everywhere, and it makes me realize how most players don't have any idea how much games cost and how much they make. "Just keep it running, it could be profitable eventually!" or it could burn more cash and doom the other employees.
So, they really did want to shadow drop that game, the Game Awards was a bonus. It did create mystery and attracted crowds on launch, but the lack of pre-release feedback will definitely hurt them more unless they release quick updates (a mode above 3v3 for instance) kotaku.com/highguard-ga...
The Highguard Devs Explain That Terrible Game Awards Reveal
The original plan was to completely shadow drop the game just like Apex Legends
kotaku.com
JB Oger@jboger.bsky.social · 7mo agoThe story behind this must be crazy. Announcing a game with a single cinematic trailer, no info anywhere (not even the Steam page has details), no gameplay, no screenshots Are they rushing the release because they’re going bankrupt but the game awards thing was planned long time ago?
Ubisoft number 1 problem is that it has lost its capacity to ship game efficiently, and it seems like the top management isn’t even trying to course correct. Will there be deep dive audits to understand how all these projects can be behind schedule all at once? How is this even possible
Drop Duchy is finalists for Strategy game of the year at the DICE awards, wtf www.interactive.org/awards/29th_...
29th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards Finalists Revealed
The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) is pleased to announce the nominees for its 29th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards (#DICEAwards), the video game industry’s premier awards show, with winners sel...
interactive.org
The story behind this must be crazy. Announcing a game with a single cinematic trailer, no info anywhere (not even the Steam page has details), no gameplay, no screenshots Are they rushing the release because they’re going bankrupt but the game awards thing was planned long time ago?
Paul Tassi@paultassi.bsky.social · 7mo ago‘Highguard’ Is MIA Since The Game Awards, Despite Its Imminent Release www.forbes.com/sites/paulta...
The Steam replay is the depressing annual reminder that players do not purchase new games and stick to the very few they already know
To add insult to injury, the default Steam Deck settings (which you can’t change) look truly awful when you can find on the web some console config that makes it look much better (at the cost of dropping to 28 FPS occasionally). But hey, the game’s great right ?
JB Oger@jboger.bsky.social · 8mo agoValve when indies try to make their game Steam Deck verified: « this text is font size 10, we require making them to be 11 minimum » Valve after E33 makes an update to « improve some texts legibility » (taking them from 5 to 6): « here’s your well-deserved green badge » (Yes I’m salty)
Valve when indies try to make their game Steam Deck verified: « this text is font size 10, we require making them to be 11 minimum » Valve after E33 makes an update to « improve some texts legibility » (taking them from 5 to 6): « here’s your well-deserved green badge » (Yes I’m salty)
Merci pour l'invitation sur Point'n Think pour parler de Drop Duchy, toujous un plaisir de parler de la production du jeu (spoiler: ça s'est bien passé, faut le dire aussi quand c'est cool) podcast.ausha.co/point-n-thin...
RIP #5 | Drop Duchy | Ausha
Dans ce nouvel épisode de RIP, Inksushi revient sur la production et la sortie de Drop Duchy avec le créateur du studio Sleepy Mill Studio. Jeu hybride mélangeant stratégie, deck building et roguelite...
podcast.ausha.co
People over here and on Reddit unanimously react by saying « no it’s you, your games are bad, always the same formula!! » but it’s the truth. Ubisoft used to thrive on games that weren’t super great or original but had enough quantity to be attractive 10-15 years ago. This is their tragedy.
IGN@ign.com · 9mo agoUbisoft has warned of falling company revenues and said it's seen that "many new games are struggling to stand out" as players turn away from traditional full-price releases. bit.ly/4r1gMQd
Life has been so surreal since this game comes out, it’s not a big hit but getting such recognition is truly awesome!
DevGAMM@devgamm.bsky.social · 9mo agoDrop Duchy by Sleepy Mill Studio wins Excellence in Game Design! 🎮
Maybe I'm just old but I find it annoying when roguelites conceal their ending condition for ... mystery? I'm ok with mysteries & secret endings but playing CloverPit right now and having to look on reddit for "the dev said on stream that it triggers when.." doesn't sit right to me.
My gaming pet peeve is journalists/Linkedin influencers who use the annual number of Steam releases to make dramatic articles about the state of gaming, without doing any research to back their claims with actual data. Sorry, I love the guy and his books/articles, but not this one...
Jason Schreier@jasonschreier.bsky.social · 10mo agoToo many games www.bloomberg.com/news/newslet...
Publisher ghosting is a real annoyance in the gaming industry but after releasing Drop Duchy, I discovered something even worse: people who reach out to you for interviews/partnerships/events/etc and then stop responding after you said you’re interested. Why contact me in the first place then?
