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Why are so many games in certain genres all so samey in the places they really should not be? (pawb.social)
submitted 1 week ago by Kolanaki@pawb.social to c/games@lemmy.world
29 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Allow me to explain:

Taking the "Crafting Survival" genre as a prime example, why do they all have the same feeling of being cheap, amateurish, and janky af? There is just this certain something about how every single one feels to play. The differences tends to be more in the grind, progression, and aesthetics while the game feel is exactly the same. The way your character moves, the way combat feels cheesy and unbound, the often minimalisticly artistic UI (like it's just a 50% transparent box with text/icons on it), and almost always riddled with bugs.

Even the big budget ones made by giant, long-lived developers tend to feel exactly the same as the independently made-by-one-dude-in-a-garage games. They might have better visuals, but everything else feels cheap and just to the point of functionality.

The weirdest part of this, to me, is that Minecraft doesn't feel like this and it is basically the grandfather of the genre. It's just every other one built in Unity or Unreal that feels like a janky ARMA module made by someone who just learned how to code. With so many developers making so many games in this genre, you'd think at least one of them would make one that feels more "luxurious." I lament not being able to put into words exactly what I mean; it's really something that can only be described through comparison and experience. But I have to believe others who have played games like Rust, Ark, Valheim, etc know what I mean.

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[-] LetMePlayItAll@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

I’d argue that when a game feels "cheap," it’s usually a failure of game feel and feedback rather than a lack of features.

A standard crafting loop can feel incredibly deliberate and grounded when the movement, animation timing, sound design, inventory friction, and failure states all cohesively point toward the same player goal. Conversely, when those systems work in isolation without reinforcing one another, the game just feels like a disconnected kit of familiar mechanics.

Instead of looking at a whole game, it might be better to zoom in on one specific micro-interaction: harvesting, building, or escaping. What’s a game that made one of those actions feel truly considered, and what specific tricks did it use to pull it off?

this post was submitted on 09 Sep 2026
45 points (85.7% liked)

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