The one thing that never ceases to amaze me is that One Finger Death Punch was made by Silver Dollar Games, one of the most notorious Xbox Live Indie Game devs. They released a ton of "interesting" not even freeware level games on that service and then they release One Finger Death Punch, what a world haha.

I'm not really in the mood for Fran Bow or Risen 2, so I'm actually thinking of giving Fallout a third try. The first playthrough I had little idea of what I was doing (build wise) and built a idiot melee character (which was a lot of fun!) but that was ultimately a bit too complicated for me, as it cuts out 99% of all dialogue available. The second playthrough I cheated and made a super character but decided I didn't want to go that route so I deleted that save. Now I'm gonna make a fairly straightforward brawling gunslinger.

Yeah, that was pretty much universal amazement, given their typical status as a blight of XBLIG.

Course, from what I've heard, they screwed themselves over financially by spending money they couldn't afford on the music.
Also, they hooked up with some Korean mobile outfit to produce a phone version that's buggy and has microtransactions, rather than trying to improve the original version or work on a real sequel.

That sounds like a good standard character. They should be able to take care of themselves physically, at least.

Ah, that sucks. Maybe they had turned a corner as a studio (talent-wise), but then they turned around and did that. To be fair, most of their XBLIG games had really good production values in terms of presentation and audio, they just weren't good "games".

Unfortunately it's not too unusual for a studio (or a band/author etc) to crash and burn immediately after finally having some modicum of success.

On the bright side of things, I guess it's still possible that an actual decent game could come from them again. They haven't gone out of business yet.
From what I've seen, they might still be going based on the "gawking at a trainwreck" response that a lot of their titles seem to generate.

If they haven't lost everything then sure, I could see them bouncing back. I read an interview with them a few years back that seemed to indicate that they spent their first few years (it's two brothers) living near poverty level constantly chucking games out. Supposedly their games sold very well (considering the platform) which I found a bit hard to swallow to be honest.

If they can start from nothing again then I'm sure they can pull themselves from the brink, as they were always close to it until the success of One Finger Death Punch. All they really need to do is churn out a sequel I suppose, and actually keep an eye on the production costs this time.

Shit, that Humble 'build your own' Double Fine bundle looks awful tempting. But damn, I don't need more games in the backlog. Really on the fence on whether to pull the trigger or just say 'screw it' and wait until GOG's upcoming sale (you just know there's going to be one).

*edit* on a side note, taking the wife to the doctor tomorrow for her third and final injection to her knee. Not a fun experience for her. That's going to suck. Then there's the youngest daughter wuth her badly sprained ankle doing some physio. *sigh* Maybe I need to buy some games to cheer me up...

Given what a wasteland XBLIG seems to be, I'd have a hard time believing that as well. But, at the same time full-on blatant clones, to the degree of shameless copyright infringement, have made money.
Apparently a lot of people who shop on XBLIG are a bit brain damaged...

Yeah, that would do it, if they could pull it off. What always struck me as funny was them mentioning the cost of the music, when most of the time I'm running something over the top of it anyway. It gets very repetitive after a while.

Am I missing something I want to be part of the cool GOG folks with the black and yellow stripes

What the hell are you talking about? :P

Oh well guess I'm not meant to be part of the club... ;)

It's in response to Sachys' giveaway Here. I'm pathetically non-functional in Paint, so I've not figured out how to do the helmet yet. (I wouldn't be in the giveaway anyway, but thought it would be fun to try to change the avatar a bit).

Hopefully so. Humble has bits and pieces of good stuff, but GOG sales are preferred by far.

Buying games sounds like a good plan. Probably a lot better than my other immediate idea, which was cracking yourself in the foot with something as a display of solidarity with your mobility-impaired family.

Thanks for the heads up :+)

The thought had occurred to me, but then I realized no one would be able to take care of them. So I'm considering new games, or a bottle of whisky. Or both...

True. The thought of someone trying to carry two people on their back while trying to hop on one foot is just sad.

A thought - buy the games before the whiskey gets involved. Drunk impulse buying sounds like a great way to screw up a budget.