It's like slipping on an old, comfortable, shoe. I know exactly what I'm going to get when I play a new Spiderweb game, but that's precisely why I play every single one. However, while his other games may be somewhat generic, I nonetheless play every single one because they just scratch an itch that no other games being made right now scratch. I agree with others who said that even Vogel doesn't seem to realize why the Geneforges are so good, so they may be good inspite of himself, and he'll likely never replicate that level of quality again. They were made on a shoe string budget, but I somehow like them way better than shit like Pillars of Eternity or Baldur's Gate or etc that were made with a whole team of writers and way more money. The Geneforge series is probably my second favorite RPG series ever. Codex loves to shit on him, but it's amazing to me what he's created 100% on his own. I know he has his reasons for why he never made any more than marginal improvements to his game's aesthetics, but I think it was a case of being penny wise, pound foolish. I know he's "cheap" and doesn't want to pay for art, but he probably would've made a lot more money in the long run if his games had evolved past looking like 90s shovelware. One area where I think he fucked up is he should've been steadily working to improve the production values of his games with each new series. The fact that Vogel works in trilogies (or more) is also a huge part of why his release schedule works. Know exactly what you need to do to get the game you want, and recycle as much shit as you can get away with to speed up development. I think there's a big lesson here for indie RPG devs. The only way you can manage to release a new game every year is to be really good at defining scope and working efficiently. but still, that is remarkably consistent. he released his first game in 1995, and Queen's Wish 2 is his 27th title. He survived because he releases a new game every year. I agree with most of what you wrote, but I think there is something to learn from Vogel in terms of how he's managed to stay in business all these years.
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