Indie games have pretty much become synonymous with quality in the past few years. Of course, it’s not a general rule, but we were shown repeatedly that games produced by small, indie companies generally have far better content, come out far better finished, and have much more depth than many triple A titles.
Even though some bomb or turn out to be barely playable, it’s only to be expected in the ever-growing market that is the gaming industry. So, just like with triple A games and the companies behind them, we’ve come to have certain expectations regarding certain developers.
Some have repeatedly proven themselves dependable, putting out some of the best content on the market, while others have repeatedly proven their inability at making a truly enjoyable game. But there are also those companies, like the one in our current topic, that have only put out a single game that got overwhelmingly positive reviews.
These companies could go both ways. They could either prove themselves to be in the first category, coming up with brilliant title after brilliant title, or they could turn out to be a one-hit wonder, with none of their subsequent games standing up to the original.
And the company we’re talking about today is Fullbright. After realizing that their second title might not be as good as their first critical success, Fullbright pushes Tacoma to 2017 to improve on it. Now this doesn’t necessarily mean that the game is going to be good, but it is a huge step in the right direction for the company.
After receiving feedback on an early build of the game, the company realized the game wasn’t as entertaining, touching, or inspiring as their other game. So instead of going along with it and keeping their progress in order to keep their previously announced release date of mid-to-late 2016, Fullbright decided to make some changes.
These changes pushed back the game, but the developers are confident that they’ve made the right choices, making the game far better than it was before. According to their statement,
[We] decided to reexamine and rework a number of the core assumptions we’d held about the game. It’s been an important process … but it’s also taken time.
Tacoma, Fullbright’s most recent installment (which is still in development), takes place inside an abandoned lunar base. The player has to make his way around the abandoned structure, exploring the ship and various holographic recordings left behind in order t find out what happened to the crew.
Image source: YouTube