do you think games that are made for a niche appeal still have a future?
I think they have as much of a future as they have a present.
I think capital is always going to put financial and social pressure on artists to make things for mass appeal. No matter what circle you're in you will find a group of (probably well-meaning people) who think that making art for a select audience is a kind of moral or artistic failing.
But as new as it seems it's the same obstacle that every inspired artist has wrestled with under a capitalist system. For every weirdo niche game that gets streamed by some Twitch boy and sells gangbusters there are thousands that go unnoticed by the larger culture perhaps forever.
That being said, I have to believe that the audience one finds by being raw and honest and specific is stronger and more artistically fulfilling than the bigger audience that moves from game to game turning everything into a fandom machine. Being able to share art with people you know will give it a fair chance, and will think with it in new and interesting ways is the greatest joy of artmaking to me.
So if your idea of "a future" is big fandom and financial riches, probably not - but I don't think they've ever consistently had that. The internet may wash away into something unrecognizable, but for better or for worse there will be people sharing their weird art with each other online for as long as there are computers.*
(Footnote below)
