When I recently spoke to Stellar Jockeys lead artist Jack Monahan and lead designer Hugh Monahan about Brigador Killers, a big focus for me was approachability versus depth. Most of my favorite games are super-crusty and complex RPGs or immersive sims, and the studios that made them—Troika, Looking Glass, Obsidian, to name a few—often found sustained financial success difficult or impossible.
You need some level of mainstream buy-in to keep the lights on, but something that's too focus-tested or homogenized won't please anyone. Stellar Jockeys' first game, Brigador, is a hardcore mech sim that initially bombed sales-wise, but is now a cult classic, so the Monahans are well-positioned to comment on the subject.
