I feel like an indie game really has to stand out for me to pay it any attention, regardless of how Steam or GOG or any storefront markets it. Even the front page hype stuff doesn't typically arouse my interest, unless I hear good word of mouth, see gameplay, hear that it's interesting, not too gimmicky, etc. Examples of this are Hollow Knight, which one, is a genre I already love, two, had great reviews, even from /v/, good word of mouth, was fun and challenging, and was enough to pull me out of my massive backlog to install and play it. Salt and Sanctuary was another one, along with the River City Ransom redux game.

I don't typically go looking for heavily story laden adventure games unless they have a major draw or appeal, like say, Ethan Carter, so that's one strike against it. If critical reception was lukewarm, that's two strikes. If I've gotten zero feedback about it, and have never even seen it or heard about it, then I'm probably gonna give it a hard pass, especially when I have multiple AAA games in my backlog that I'm still in the process of finishing.

Add a new season for Path of Exile, and I just don't have the time in between work, sleep, the occasional date and other social activities to squeeze in an arthouse game that doesn't even stand out aside from the title, which, considering the title and the name of the publisher, I'd assume was a religiously themed game or something.

In conclusion, I empathize with him, but I don't owe him a sale, and neither does anyone else. It's disappointing to throw yourself into something for any length of time and not get a reward for your hard work, but just because you worked hard on something doesn't mean it's going to pay off. Game dev, like movies or books are a gamble.