Stardew Valley is the golden child of farming sims. Inspired by Nintendo’s Harvest Moon, it’s gone on to sell more than 20 million copies since 2016 and kicked off a torrent of imitators on PC. Why haven’t we had that moment for the monster-taming genre? Pokémon clones are abundant, but none have had a sliver of Stardew Valley’s success, yet alone Pokémon’s. If there’s a formula for reimagining classic Japanese series as modern indies, monster tamers haven’t found it.
“An RPG where [players] can create their own adventure based on the characters they know is of course appealing,” say Jochem and Marcel, the indie developers behind this year’s Coromon. The challenge for indies is, “Players would often rather stay with what they know than trying out new games,” they say.
There have been some modestly successful Pokémon clones like MMO Temtem, which made headlines last year when it reached 500,000 copies sold in one month on Steam Early Access. Coromon passed 100,000 sales on PC and Mac, and the Nintendo Switch version has undoubtedly added to that. Yet that’s just a fraction of Pokémon Sword & Shield’s 24.5 million.
Denne historien er fra November 2022-utgaven av PC Gamer.
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Denne historien er fra November 2022-utgaven av PC Gamer.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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BITING BACK
The tooth is out there in adventure TEETH OF GLASS
SMOKE ALARM
THE INVISIBLE SMOKE FACTORY is back in a Flash
MECH ME OVER
Move over Mario, here's mech-based platforming in ARMORED SHELL NIGHTJAR
"I like Pillars of Eternity better than Baldur's Gate III"
PILLARS OF ETERNITY deserves a bigger space in the CRPG pantheon
"A harrowing dark fantasy about hapless, bright-eyed children"
Spelunking into hell with MADE IN ABYSS: BINARY STAR FALLING INTO DARKNESS
THE IMMORTAL LOCK
A massive, meaty game in a single horrific Quake map.
NEW MANOEUVRES
Building a dedicated sim racing space in an average family house
OVERWATCH 2
Save me space girl.
REET GOOD TIME
THANK GOODNESS YOU'RE HERE is a riotous recreation of Yorkshire
THE PLUCKY SQUIRE
How many games let you make friends with a MtG card?