The issue I think is trying to meet consumer demands. Years back trying to et a dark urban fantasy published in the literary world was an impossibility. It wasnt until years later that it became a "publishable" genre. Why becuase publishers had no idea how to market it and the people had no idea how to find it. It took an Author by the name of Jim Butcher (and more before and after) to break that mold by simultaneously selling a book and a tv script. And even then he had to pitch it in the form of role playing. But since he did that the market exploded with dark urban fantasy so much so it became the normative genre for almost 20 years. SO that publishers wh rejected my novels as "unable to fit into the narrative marketing niche" years later would say "That market is so over saturated we wont even consider it."
SO game investors do not have imagination. They are number trolls. They understand past success and risk.
Indies do all kinds of explorations but they rarely get any traction because how do you market them. The consumers searches based on tags. If your tags dont match what the customer wants you wont be found. If your game does not match the tags you will be criticized.
Its not a technological problem caused by the limits of the past. It is a mindset of the investor, distributor, and consumer that causes the limitations.
I can tell you from experience if I buy a RTS military sci fi game- and it not about base building and armies I drop the franchise. WHich is exactly what I did when Warhammer by THQ Nordic changed from the dawn of war rts to dawn of war combat squads. I quit them. Currently I am playing another THQ Nordic game even older that 30 years later the latest sequals match the earlier versions and I love it. I love knowing what I am buying and what to expect, bt I have learned that game play and lore.
When I am looking for a new game I have to wade thru 10000's of games that may or may not be related to my search tags, and their quality is a complete shot in the dark. SO discovering a diamond in a pile of manure takes a lot of work, and as a result I get tired and so use trusted tags that I know bypasses the garbage I hate.
You have a unique mind, and the gaming industry conformed to corporate sales conformity in much less time than movies did. There is not really a venue for a Kubrick in the game industry the way the market is setup. Production is too rushed, world wide pressure to normalize culture to the lowest common non offensive level, pressure to unethically monetize and imitate all work to shove the game industry into a twin of the movie industry. People like yourself are exactly like the indie movie guy who have vision but not necessarily the finances and clout to pull off a billion dollar genre changing masterpiece. Its possible. But think back on games and movies- how long of a shelf life do they have before they are forgotten mostly. And sadly it isnt the best ones remembered- but the one's pop culture keeps reissuing down our gullets. Just look at what Xmas movies are repushed on us every year. Versus actual really different franchises.
I hope you make something that will change the genre for us, for the better.
