rjbuffchix: Wouldn't a game like this still be considered "too niche"? I am in favor of curation and have actively argued in favor of it, through various topics. But I still have trouble understanding how a game like this is welcomed in, while games like Grimoire (90s dungeon-crawler RPG much more conducive to classic GOG user audience) do not make it. I did not think high review scores were the lynchpin or the point of the curation, it seemed to me more about what is a best fit for GOG's own audience.
In the specific case of
Grimoire, I'd expect it's a mix of the middling reviews, a controversial/vocal developer, and (potentially) poor Steam sales. There would obviously be different factors for different games, such as developers not willing to support DRM or the game itself not easily adaptable to a non-Steam framework. As for the audience question, I think that ties in with your question below.
rjbuffchix: Also, does anyone think sometimes "fringe" games are accepted to measure the engagement of indie game fans/"new-GOG users"? In other words, right now the game release topics for niche games are mostly filled with older GOG users pointing out the apparent hypocrisy of a game like this being "too niche" to meet the little we know about the curation standards. But do you think eventually there will be enough indie fans to come into topics like this and shout the old users down, defending the game, et cetera? Food for thought. I think it is a way they are trying to gauge the gradual reshaping of their audience.
I think that makes sense. It explains how, for example, VNs on GOG started with basically
Hatoful Boyfriend and maybe one or two other games and then expanded to include twenty or so titles. Apparently "found phone game" is a genre (as in, there are several other games with this conceit, not to mention
Searching as a potential source of inspiration), and GOG already has several recent FMV games... so yeah, they're probably testing the waters with something that has already found an audience elsewhere.
