I suspect the Tales Of Tales crew thought the people buying their products were idiots and they were bringing high culture to an intellectually bereft arena, but the truth is they wouldn't have known a decent game mechanic if it bit them on the arse.
Tbh I'd say it is a somewhat intellectually bereft arena in some ways. Actually liking games in some manner would be a pretty important starting point for wanting to make a good one though.
I do feel like a lot of art/tech crossover stuff tends to be just people looking for an easy gimmick to launch themselves with.
My controversial choice would be 30 flights of loving.
Most other "art games" get a backlash, but I've never seen anyone take down that one, so it's probably just that I'm thick.
It's initial price was like $2 wasn't it?
Tbh I never saw it as anything more than a proof of concept for non linear narrative in indie games and thought it was fun enough. Damn near every bit of positive praise Virginia got a few years later felt like it was coming from people that didn't realise Thirty Flights of Loving had just about covered it all (asides from the bullshit bits) way better way cheaper and way easier several years earlier.
The Stanley Parable is massively overrated. It's a decent game but jeez from the amount of love it gets you'd think its the Second Coming of the babby Jesus.
It's _okay_, I think a lot of the hype it got was down to a combo of getting to an audience of people who mustn't have seen a Charlie Kaufman film and who would lap up anything with a British accent narrating it. The guy's next game, which is a pretty blatant "oh shit I've writers block, to the point the only thing i can think about making is about writer's block' was quite fun imo, I'd love to hear how much of the end game was actually built from failed attempts he had at making a follow up to the Stanley Parable.
Not that anyone seems that peeved, I dont mind much, but the guys behind Kentucky Route Zero are taking forever with that final act. Every act has taken an exponentially longer amount of time to make, I feel. Kinda feel bad for them, there's nearly a decade of their lives sunk into this thing now and theres no way the ending isn't going to be shat on.