9 Months of Dev… Pivot or Perish?

In this very long and very late dev log I discuss my decision to make a huge pivot in the creative direction and game design of the Game Formerly Known as DirtWorld Wishlist GG on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/42... Golem Gourmet Discord:   / discord   If you'd like to support the upkeep of this channel and join a collaborative, friendly community of game developers, you can support Indie Game Clinic on Patreon.   / indiegameclinic   Patron rewards are listed on the page. Other games mentioned: Relic Abyss - https://store.steampowered.com/app/30... Goblin Gourmet https://elladisenchanted.itch.io/gobl... Noita Spelunky Hades Subnautica Music used [licensed by Epidemic Sound]    • Falling Through Space      • Right Here - mr.      • Stone Cold Jesus      • Strange Things   The "game genre" song at the end originally appeared in my essay on Game Mechanics:    • Game Mechanics & Systems Thinking   . The original version is here:    • Forever Be   The "I Don't Like That Many Things" song was recorded over this:    • Kermode   If you like the weird psychedelic songs I sometimes put in my videos, consider following my band on IG. There's not much on there yet, but there might be someday:   / abominations_band   TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 intro & context 01:20 inspirations & motivations 03:00 build-a-metroidvania? 04:30 slapstick failure and "Noita moments" 06:00 what "rogue" means to me 08:50 narrative design in roguelikes 11:05 games criticism improves design thinking 13:47 a very important message 15:30 why cooking? 18:02 creating chains of rewards 20:57 redefining the metagame loop 23:30 adding micro-quests 26:25 takeaways 27:55 gnomes don't watch this