This was a great read, just stumbled upon it on Gamasutra Twitter! Really sorry about the sales tho.
The markets are very saturated and we need to make crazy good games to really stand out. "Good is not enough" is a brilliant way to put it. Also, I think we need to be prepared for failure and simply push on even after failing.
Not everyone makes it.
Aurel
Made a great game, an excellent one, one of the best of that genre, The Next Penelope.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/332250
All positive reviews, I bought it and enjoyed it. But last I heard it was not a commercial success for him as he had hoped.
This is nuts because survival horror clones are making a killing...
I don't understand, is that just want gamers want these days?
I never really thought about all these things, especially marketing, when I think about being a gamedev, its always about making my own dream game, something that I want to play.