I was deeply involved in the indie scene during this time and played many of these local multiplayer games at GDC indie events, weekly barcade meetups, game jams, Indiecade, etc. I think this misled many developers. Your peers are together often, able to play local multiplayer games, and giving you a false sense of market. I played hundreds of hours of these games in that setting, but never once booted them up at home on my own couch. If you weren't careful you could fall into the game developer version of a comedian's comedian.
One gameplay critique I think this post-mortem missed was that the keep-away mechanic at the heart of the game is a zero-sum mechanic. One player is keeping away, and having fun; while all other players are being kept away from, which is frustrating. They addressed this a little in the fuller release but I think keep-away itself is mechanically bankrupt so even a gorgeous coat of paint can't bring it around.
All of the other local multiplayer 'successes' from this period were distilled fighting games - Towerfall, Nidhogg, Killer Queen, Duck Game, etc. These allowed for new players to enjoy themselves even in defeat. For Toto Temple, a game of mixed newbs and vets would turn into a vet running circles for the full time limit and then someone suggesting we switch to Towerfall.
"Your peers are together often, able to play local multiplayer games, and giving you a false sense of market."
Well this sounds like fun. Like the old social arcade experience, but made of people playing fresh indie multiplayer games. Even in prototype form.
Why not make THAT a business model? If my town has a little cafe with a few bit screens and controllers, and every night (or even once a week), I could turn up with a bunch of gamers and were all playing novel small games together, that could be really fun.
The games could be in varying stages of completion. It wouldn't matter. Because it'd feel like an intimate setting of people just hanging out and socializing and playing things.
Yeah it's tricky, and in 2016 we were on the tail end where this was perhaps the only way to get genuine feedback from actual humans. A fun game =/= a game people want to buy. Especially for party games.
One gameplay critique I think this post-mortem missed was that the keep-away mechanic at the heart of the game is a zero-sum mechanic. One player is keeping away, and having fun; while all other players are being kept away from, which is frustrating. They addressed this a little in the fuller release but I think keep-away itself is mechanically bankrupt so even a gorgeous coat of paint can't bring it around.
All of the other local multiplayer 'successes' from this period were distilled fighting games - Towerfall, Nidhogg, Killer Queen, Duck Game, etc. These allowed for new players to enjoy themselves even in defeat. For Toto Temple, a game of mixed newbs and vets would turn into a vet running circles for the full time limit and then someone suggesting we switch to Towerfall.