Continuing with experts and teams from the gaming industry, we sum up the results of 2024. Up next is an interview with Sasha Goodwin, the founder of the studio Goodwin Games.
How was this year for the studio? What achievements would you like to highlight?
The year was very important and challenging. We finally released Selfloss, whose development began way back in 2019 as a solo project by me. Currently, Goodwin Games consists of three people.
The game's release is undoubtedly our biggest achievement right now. For me personally, it's also a significant accomplishment—I've released solo projects before, but working in a team was a new experience for me. Now I know that I can see a project through to completion with others, not just on my own.
How has the situation in the gaming market changed from your perspective?
As a developer, I would say this: it's more important than ever to either create a specific project for a known audience or to develop quirky projects that can deliver a unique experience and fun (the word "fun" has a depth that the word "fun" in Russian can't quite capture).
As a player, I am very disappointed. I know it's not good to be a snob or cynic in matters related to creative processes, especially being someone from the industry. However, I must note that the world has never seen so much regurgitated content among AAA projects. I have been seeing this phenomenon for quite a few years now. AAA releases are becoming increasingly bland, uninspired, and lazy.
How was the year for the genre in which you work?
It's hard to say. Selfloss was quite a classic adventure game with a boat, without any pretentious genre innovations. I think there is little that can change in the adventure genre in general—it's old, it's a fundamental genre.
The project we're working on now belongs to a slightly different genre. Yes, it will probably be an adventure game too, but more systemic, you could say, a Metroidvania with survival elements from games of the ‘90s and early 2000s (particularly from series like Resident Evil and Silent Hill).
In this particular niche, I also don't see or expect significant changes.
I’m not a big fan of classifying games by genre. I would note that everything is mixed up now—a bunch of elements and mechanics, regardless of genre, are present in 90% of all projects.
It seems to me that players now look more at what the game is about rather than its genre—"Is it about post-apocalypse?" "Is it about horror?" "Is it about kittens?" "Is it about an anime woman with a bust size six and the physics of the bust?"
What trends do you expect to see strengthened or emerge in your niche in 2025?
I think there will be more games with unique and shocking ideas in their core and mechanics, regardless of the genre. But this will not concern large developers. AAA will remain dull; I have no doubt about that. And there will be more and more AI-generated content—primarily more in AAA. How you perceive this is up to you. In an ideal world, I think AI content could accelerate the development of cool games. But we don't live in such a world, so I believe we'll simply start getting two Call of Duty games a year instead of one.
What are the studio's plans for next year?
We have started on our next project. More information about it will be available in the coming months. We don't plan to take five years to develop it. Our goal is to get the project to beta or even pre-release stage by next year.