Bundles = Advertising
All these indie devs who think that getting their games in bundles is how they're gonna bring home the bacon are deluded. Hell, half of the bundles are for charity anyways.
Point is that you're getting your game into the hands of loads of gamers. It gets your name out there. If you just put every game you create into a bundle, you're doing it wrong. Supergiant games, anyone? Make a good, solid indie game (Bastion), put it in bundles at some point, gain more publicity and more fans, then make a new game (Transistor).
You know they're making money on that game. That's a perfect example of how to be an indie dev, whereas Puppygames... is the opposite.
I'm not sure it works this way as a rule. I might play Transistor if it turns up in a bundle but I wouldn't pay non-bundle pricing for it. Why? Well, I'm cheap. Really, that's mostly what it is. I like the idea of supporting devs as a principle, but even if I kickstart something, I can't really afford to go in for more than a few bucks. If I had more disposable income, I probably would do what you're suggesting here (not necessarily regarding Supergiant, but in broader terms). Then again we can't all be Snakeybro.
Misguided is more like it. Holding to a tenet that says "interacting with your customer is a waste of time and money" is questionable enough, but when you paint that motto across your public face you're shooting yourself in the foot. That's the kind of stuff you keep in boardrooms and not on rooftops from which you are shouting.
Furthermore, I'd counter that a measured amount of interaction goes a long way. Certainly it can be non-productive to spend hours interacting with a small subsection of your customer base, but it can be done in a way that reaches a broad audience that makes them still feel connected.
This sounds like the ramblings of someone that knows just enough about business to get himself into trouble.
Sadly, this looks to be the case.
I finally got around to reading the Puppygames post and I guess I have
two three four points to make about it:
1) While I have not yet watched Indie Game: The Movie because backlog, I feel quite confident when I say this: Fish is an asshole. I read his tweet the other day which says, and I quote, "
Seriously, shut the f*** up about Fez 2. never going to happen. you don’t deserve it." Now I still haven't played Fez and it's not on my super-high-priority list either, but I doubt it's going to make me swear off all other games and worship at the altar of Fishdom. But this quote (which as far as I can tell essentially came out of the clear blue, because I haven't seen game sites buzzing with anticipation about the long-cancelled Fez sequel) speaks volumes about the man's complete lack of self-awareness. Not only does he post a profane tweet, essentially cursing at the gaming community, but then he further belittles everyone by declaring that we are not worthy of his works. For someone who got frightened away from game development by internet trolls, he sure seems to have a god complex. He seems like the kind of guy that if you met him in a social setting, you'd be tempted to punch him in the face within about ten minutes of first speaking with him.
2) I feel like this is well-trodden territory. Years ago, Jeff Vogel of Spiderweb Software posted a then-controversial
item on his blog about how the industry had changed and forced him to drop prices, but that he would continue to offer his games on his site for more than what they cost on Steam. Flash-forward to 2014 and most of Spiderweb's back-catalog is on Steam at substantially-discounted prices and several of his games have been bundled multiple times. Vogel pointed out what Cas (?) was saying about games selling more through marketplaces like Steam but unlike Cas he said that the difference in volume of units moved
offset the difference in cost. If a dev isn't making money on a marketplace, it might be because his games really aren't that good.
3) The point about support seems goofy. Most gamers and I think even random bundle buyers these days are competent enough to upgrade their own device drivers. Is he really saying that people had struggled to get his Space Invaders and Robotron knockoffs to run on modern systems? Yes the marketplace has changed and no I believe they aren't making as much on sales anymore, but providing
basic support for a product is not that time-consuming and not that difficult. If you're responding to every email and every forum post, you're probably doing it wrong. If your product isn't simply broken out of the gate--or if it isn't mind-boggingly,
Skyrim-level complex (and if it is, you can probably afford some tech support)--any common problems should be able to be addressed in a FAQ or one or two patches. Blaming problems on people buying laptops from shady sellers seems lazy, to be frank.
4) You have to deal with assholes no matter what line of work you're in. I work in government and I got a call at my desk the other day from a guy who was irate because he didn't believe that he should have to pay the fee we were requiring him to pay. I explained that I would be willing to work with him and if he could provide me with some information about how the activities he was engaged in during a specific timeframe did not require him to pay the full amount, I could make an adjustment. He insisted that he couldn't possibly remember that sort of information and spent a good 15 minutes berating me with language that would make sailors blush, insinuating that I was on heroin, and when I attempted to explain how I was trying to help him, he told me that I needed to let him speak because he was paying my salary--that I was at work and so I had to listen to him. Later in the conversation he suggested that I should seek alternative employment unless I liked sitting around behind a desk and listening to phone calls like his. He ended the conversation by apologizing for ranting at me, telling me that he usually kept a positive attitude, and wishing me a blessed day. I'd venture to say that everyone reading this has had similar experiences at whatever occupation they may have at one time or another. Because that guy was a dick to me, I didn't insult the next 50 people I talked to, so I don't get this weird, "I-work-in-the-games-industry-so-I-should-be-treated-like-a-diva" attitude. People in all walks of life, in all professions, in their personal and professional lives, get treated like crap by other people. By and large, we can't do too much about it, either. Cas says this of Fish in his post: "
When he walks into the restaurant where you pitifully scrub the floor like a servile wretch in order to pay for DLC in DOTA2, you’ll call him sir." The implication of the last bit is that Fish is somehow justified in being an asshole because he got rich making his one popular game. Sorry, I don't buy it. Money doesn't give you the right to be a dick to people, especially people who have done
nothing to you.
. He said in the AOL 90s chat room that if the Kel dev wants to wait until Early Access is done it's unconventional but there's nothing saying he can't do it (ie I'm 
$
