A feature pretty close to this is built into Trails in the Sky (remake and original). You can set the default launch option to “Resume latest save”. When you do, hitting play on the game skips all startup logos and the main menu, just giving a quick loading screen then putting you right where you saved.

It won’t restore you to the middle of combat or a cutscene/conversation, but it makes resuming pretty flexible. It would be nice to see other games give attention to this functionality, or at least start to fight supporting technologies on the subject of launch logos.

I’ve noticed it’s a good method for Japanese writing. They acclimate you to silly, bashful moments, so that when the writing flexes over to the serious side, it’s a big contrast. Yakuza does a lot of that too.

Comparatively, sometimes when I try series like The Last of Us, or even Nier Automata, I sometimes have a hard time buying into the emotions because it’s been solely despair for a lot of the runtime.

That said, as I’ve gotten used to my own creative writing, I see Sky as having tremendous up-moments that give characters some really star moments, but also quite a lot of narmy, amateurish teenage writing especially with the fights, so it gets to be hit and miss.

I mean, afaik Steam has never helped in the role of publisher.

Publishers might provide engine tools, development resources, coordination, or other forms of development assistance. Or, if they’re rich and brain damaged, they’ll just buy out functioning game studios and force them to make live service slop.

The specific game that gave me the idea for this post was Freedom Planet 2. I remember getting the original as part of one of the early Humble Bundles, and enjoyed it, but never felt compelled to try the sequel.

Something I’ve been missing is having more game stories with fully “melodramatic” character acting - where character A is gasping in tears over the injuries to character B, and won’t ever forgive ruthless villain Y. That was something I remembered FP1 for, for better or worse, and apparently from reviews they improved their craft a bit for the sequel.