And also has enabled the production of beloved games like Return of the Obra Dinn, Overcooked, Hollow Knight, Enter The Gungeon, Superhot, Kerbal Space Program, Broforce, etc.
Its an empirical claim. Even in the domain of crap, I'd wage there are differences between categories where you would see more crap in some than in others.
You seem to have the notion that only the big studios should be allowed to produce games. What's considered shitty varies from person to person, and is purely subjective.
This is what happens with democratization of any technology. People will try and do whatever they can with it. Sometimes it will be gold. Most times it will be garbage. Shut out the garbage, and you won't get the gold.
middleware can solve "wheel reinvention" problems without gimping developers ability to do much beyond write a few scripts to manipulate engine entities
In the days when it was very difficult to make a game engine there were also many bad games and fewer good ones than now. The past looks good because the bad stuff tends to be forgotten, unless it is a storied disappointment like Battlecruiser 3000 or Duke Nuke Forever. There were lots of quietly terrible games then too.
>Eurogamer's Dan Whitehead complimented Coffee Stain Studios on building in enough content Goat Simulator and potential expansion through Steam to prove it more than a simple joke title, and instead a brief diversion "in which the player is a willing participant". Dan Stapleton of IGN considered the title a "clever interactive spoof of all the broken game physics we’ve seen in open worlds" and despite being short, was a "hell of a good time". Tim Turi of Game Informer stated that the first hour with the game would be amusing, but due to the lack of more expansive features, he "[does not] recommend it to anyone looking for more than disposable entertainment". Steve Tilley of the Toronto Sun described the game as one where "most players will have a few hours of fun and then file [it] away as an occasional novelty to pull out when they’re especially bored".
>Rich Stanton of The Guardian was very critical of Goat Simulator, noting how the title is self-aware of its poor quality, and stated that the game's creation and promotion "demonstrates how social media and the internet amplify our supine tendencies". Andy Kelly of PC Gamer was also critical of the title, calling it a "bad, amateurish and boring game", and considered its popularity was only due to word-of-mouth and YouTube videos that enticed players to buy the game themselves.
Back in the day, shitty games looked more like Corncob 3D, which was at least interesting, than like Yandere Simulator, which is one man's attempt to pretend to be competent at programming to milk attention from teenage girls online. Unity has shortened the cycle time for people who are competent or at least give a rip, but it has also enabled a glut of asset flips, which were pretty rare in the old days.
> Back in the day, shitty games looked more like Corncob 3D, which was at least interesting, than like Yandere Simulator
Nah, that's still the same “more notable things from the past are more memorable bias”; Corncob 3D wasn't considered a shitty game at the time. There were lots of shitty games, CC3D, relatively speaking, wasn't one of them though it might seen like one by modern standards.
For the most part, the shitty games of the past are forgotten (except a few notorious ones that were shitty despite big manufacturer backing and marketing efforts, like E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial.)
