A new potions game is out. Potions: A Curious Tale is a new game released on Steam on March 7th. The description states: “Potions: A Curious Tale is an adventure & crafting game where wit is your greatest weapon and combat is not always the answer. Play as Luna, a young witch who overcomes obstacles with the potions she brews, as she gathers items from enchanted lands and conquers devious puzzles on her quest.” The game has a more illustrated feel rather than a realistic. It features potion crafting, battling, and more.
While there are a lot of positive reviews, the game is being overshadowed by the recent mass publishing by EA. Currently last on the popular new releases page, many EA games are above this game. They developer took to social media to vent their frustrations. On TikTok, they tearfully vented their frustrations about being knocked down to the bottom. “You know why being the game developer sucks, cause you work 10 years on a project and pick a great launch date and get everyone hyped about it and build a bunch of marketing and then EA can drop 11 games right after you do immediately and bump you off of new and trending despite the good reviews.” The video has garnered 10 million views. The comment section was a mess with people both sympathizing and not sympathizing with the developer. Many of those who are not sympathizing with the developer are blaming them saying that their game is “mid” and doesn’t deserve to be on the front page. Those who do sympathize with the indie developer give tips for how to get the word out more.
On twitter, the developer posted a statement after the video went viral. The developer also went on TikTok and made a verbal statement regarding the situation “You may have seen a video of me crying recently. I was having a bad day, a really bad day. When you invest so much of yourself into a project and it doesn’t go as expected it can be really hard.” Other indie developers were effected by this drop, with many being bumped out of their spots potentially prematurely. However, currently at the top is a game called Subterrain: Mines of Titan which is an indie developer game. Potions: A Curious Tale could have potentially stayed on the front page longer if EA hadn’t released so many games at once. That said, in reality it isn’t up to the developers as to where their game sits on these lists; this is just how Steam is designed.
New games are always entering the playing field. Many players are tired of seeing the same style of game being repeated over and over again. While each new game tries to bring something new, people will always compare it with games that are already out. This indie developer voicing their opinions on the featured new page, highlights a larger issue with Steam’s current store design. Steam is ever growing with the amount of games they offer; a general new and featured games should potentially be broken down into smaller categories. EA and Steam have yet to comment on the situation.