Sweden in general seems to have way more good game dev companies than most countries, especially most of similar size. I kinda wonder why.
I actually looked into this, part of the explanation is that in the 80s, Sweden entered a public/private partnership to subsidize the purchase of home computers, which otherwise would have been prohibitively expensive. This helped create a relatively wide local consumer base for software entertainment as well as have a jump start on computer literacy and software development.
This is the real explanation. Couple that with a push in the late 90s/early 2000s to roll out high-speed unmetered internet in the form of ADSL and later fiber.
It’s cold outside a lot of the time.
i knew all that “touch grass” bullshit was counterproductive
I remember listening to a NPR Planet Money podcast that said Iceland has the most published authors per capita.
Also cold.
Also it’s really expensive to do anything. So everyone is incentivized to find some way to supplement their income.
Valheim and Satisfactory are masterclass. GOAT simulator is good for 6 year olds. Raft was kind of dull be entertaining with multiplayer. V Rising I didn’t really care for, but haven’t played since it was first available on Steam
V rising is different from when it first came out in terms of how some mechanics work like tracking bosses
Powers and spells are way different on how you unlock them tho and for the better
It’s been a while but I remember I was annoyed with something to do with having to find blood. I know that’s really stupid considering it’s a vampire game. Also the top down view i have a hard time with these days since I played so much Diablo 1+2 back in the day
My first ever international business trip (in the late 90s) was to Skovde, and that was for software development reasons. So the town has a long history for it.
It’s a nice place too with very nice people.
That’s incredible that they evolved.
A lot of American cities that were becoming software dev hubs in the 90s ended up crashing or worse, fintech.
I didn’t really get the point of Goat Simulator. But the other games easily hooked me for 50 to 100+ hours. And they are all excellent coop games.
the point of goat simulator was that it was a three-week goof project the Sanctum devs had fun with to celebrate good sales before they got to work on the sequel.
then it funded the development of Satisfactory.
I loved Goat Simulator for its absurdity and silliness. It had a lot of content and stuff to explore as well, embedding cultural references and humor.
I love the idea of a silly game like Goat Simulator being embedded in the street.
I honestly thought it was just an asset flip that turned out to be kind of funny and so was tolerated I didn’t realize that it was made by the same people that made Satisfactory.
It’s all you said, but it’s also a product of it’s time. Iirc when it release there was an increasing amount of simulator games, and goat simulator pokes fun to all of those while having tons of silly references to the contemporary things.
The successors don’t have much of s point to me tbh.
The second game (goat simulator 3) is actually a ton of fun to play with friends. It has couch co-op! Which is amazing nowadays.
It’s a silly asset dump that has incredible depth!
Deep Rock Galactic??
Ghost Ship Games is Danish.
Yes, but Coffee Stain is Swedish, and they’re the publisher. Maybe they can get a sign that’s half the dimensions of the others…?
it says “games that was made in the city”
