I really wish a game like 'Abzu' gets released here on Gog. I would buy it on full price.

Damn, I didn't even know about that one. Looks great. I mean, it's not my type of thing at all- this "artistic exploration" type games I mean - but I would be glad to see it here regardless. Exactly the kind of "different" we need here.

My guess is such companies promise DRM-free but are actually of the mindset that DRM protects the initial release of the game boosting sales in the first few weeks/months, then after that it decreasingly matters and they can go ahead with a DRM-free release. That's my understanding of how most companies see DRM anyway, not as a prevention of piracy but a throttle that boosts sales a worthwhile amount compared to the cost of the DRM software. Their thinking is if they spend say... $50,000 on DRM software and they get $500,000 in more sales as a result then the DRM was worth it. It's not about preventing piracy like an on-off switch, they know it'll be pirated, but if they believe DRM makes them more short term post release revenue then they do it. So if they think that way about it, even if they are ok with eventually doing a DRM-free release they may hold off on it to milk the DRM encumbered sales for all they're worth first before tapping the DRM-free market.

That's one possible explanation anyway. Or it could be lack of concern, or even incompetence or other factors also. Maybe even originally favouring the idea and later backpedalling on it.

Either way, shit like this is one reason I will never put money into crowdfunding any game ever no matter how much it makes me shit bricks of excitement. Too much "take the money and run" being the common result.

I do not like them,
Breja-I-am.
I do not like
pixel art and all that jam.

Do you mind if I call you negative Nancy? =P

As far as I'm concerned there's nothing wrong with pixel art... if it's well done. I do agree that some of the ones available here are all kinds of fugly. In fact, I also think that DRtC looks butt-ugly, but you don't see me going on rants about stuff I don't like every single release thread either. *shrug* Just sayin'.

Anyway, here are examples of good new pixel art:
Stardew Valley
Owlboy
Shantae games
Shovel Knight
Halfway
Technobabylon
Freedom Planet
Volgarr

And the bad:
Death Road to Canada
The Escapists
Fist Puncher
Pixel Piracy

I mostly feel similar to you with regards to "retro pixel-art" type games. Whenever I see a new one released here or Steam or anywhere really I usually either just pass over it without further look, or perhaps mark it "not interested" on Steam, or if I'm in a more grumpier mood I might sigh about it and mumble under my breath about all the pixely games being put off as a form of "art" when it's really more of a way of lowering the budget and effort it takes to produce the game by not having to pay anywhere near as close attention to artistic detail. But... they sell apparently so who am I to judge... or so to speak.

I occasionally can appreciate the artistic style/flair in a game every now and then that has a style different from the ordinary, but pixel art games seem to be pounded out through a punch press these days, at least in my eyes. It's not so much that I wish they were never made or never showed up on GOG or Steam or wherever, but rather I wish I had a way to filter them from appearing at all or at least as often in front of my eyes. Steam has some filters that help to reduce the types of games you do not want to see based on tags and a multitude of other factors, but we just don't have anything like that on GOG nor are we likely to get a fluff feature like that for years to come when they have monga big time features heavily in development perpetually at the moment.

I have to admit, every time I see a new release here that doesn't immediately appear to be a AAA release of yesteryear, and appears to be indie, my cynical sarcastic inner self mumbles privately "oh cool, yet another retro pixel art rogue like platformer shooter game, awesome!" although I only say it out loud 1 in 10 times or so. :)

To be fair, I do also own some pixely games too such as some of the Wadjet titles, some freebies I've gotten here or there over time, and even a few that appealed to me for other reasons on rare occasion. I've played some of them and enjoyed a few of them to a degree also, but even if I play and enjoy such games I still puke in my mouth at the cheap pixelated graphics. Maybe I just don't "get it" or whatever, but it's a subjective assessment in the end where there is no right or wrong way to think about it, so I don't feel bad about seeing it this way. :)

One thing is certain... as long as people keep buyin' 'em, indie devs will keep makin' 'em, and they'll be showin' up on GOG and Steam until the end of time.

I just have to think to myself "<sigh>, ah well... at least we have games like The Witcher 3 to heal our eyes with." :)

This does beg the question, then, of why you and others (mostly others, to be fair; I don't recall you doing this too much, or at least not recently) choose to dump all these complaints in the release threads of the games that do come here. That's the biggest thing I'm taking issue with: not the specific points you're raising (though I disagree with some of those, too), but where, when, and (especially) in what manner they are raised. All it does is irritate the people who are interested in the game (causing arguments like this one); scare away newcomers to the forums (who are most likely to first venture into the forums via these comment threads); and possibly discourage any lurking devs of the game in question from posting (at least), or from wanting to release much else here in the future (worst case). There have been many, many other threads about GOG not carrying enough of Whoever's Favorite Genre, or having Too Many Games of a Particular Art Style to suit WhoeverElse, that GOG staff are certainly aware of; I know the assumption of many people is that "If I post in an official new post comment thread, GOG staff will definitely see my complaint [or whatever] and take it into consideration," but I don't know that that's true, either.

Basically, your points, boiled down, seem to be:
1. Game is ugly;
2. Game is unoriginal;
3. Game is not one of a number of other games I would rather have seen released.
A fair enough interpretation?
1.) and 2.) are...whatever, this game's not for you, different strokes for different folks and all.
3.), though, is you complaining about a game for something that neither the game nor its developer has much of anything to do with (i.e., GOG not getting one of those other games you would rather have here instead of getting this one). There is a nearly infinite number of possible forum threads and Community Wishlist entries where one can talk about games that aren't here, but which (one strongly believes) should be (and a not insignificant number of these topics and wishes, in fact, already exist!); this thread is reserved for talking about this one specific game which is here now, whether complaints, praise, reviews, questions, whatever.
Now, obviously I'm not above the occasional light-hearted derailing of one of these threads for fun, but this is the other kind of derail: "Speaking of this game that I'm uninterested in, why aren't these other, unrelated games here?"

So...a randomized , zombiefied Oregon Trail...but with Canadians?
"You have died of dys-eh-ntery."

...ok, ok, I'll get out.

I was curious.
Upon closer inspection of your list: Owlboy isn't available for a couple months yet (it's a pre-order), Kingdom: New Lands and Slain: Back from Hell are updates of games that have been here for months, and The Curious Expedition is in a somewhat similar boat, having been here and playable as an In Dev title for months, and merely having been officially "released" lately. And I honestly don't care for distinctions between "indie" and not, "classic" and new, 2D and (2.5D and) 3D -- they're all games released here which one can choose to play (or not). Looking, then, at the last 50 game slots under the "New" tab on the front page (currently, Meridian: Squad 22 back through Kenshi), and ignoring all DLC/soundtracks/alternate editions/etc., as well as upgraded versions that replaced games that had already been here in some playable form, I count 25 total games (or 24, if one considers Shadow Warrior Classic Redux to be close enough to the old DOSBox version to not count as new, which would be fair). Of these, around 10 (at most) could be considered to have pixel graphics...and that's with some stretching of how the term is usually used, and counting some legitimately older games, which is sort of unfair. Let's say we use your reckoning (the above list), and remove those that I disqualified above; that leaves six pixel-art games (and one of those, Okhlos, has a mixture of 2D pixel art and 3D graphics). Six out of twenty-five (or out of twenty-four) games that have become available here in just over a month. I have to admit, that's diverse enough for me. : ]

I'm not in anyway a well-informed person but I stumbled on this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denuvo

If "Denuvo-DRM" is supposed to be the "hard-to-crack, but expensive option" for the developer I supposed that a DRM-free release would be consider only much later down the line, if at all.
But this is just a thought, haven't read anything confirmed.

On another note, Death Road To Canada is a game that I ABSOLUTELY enjoyed playing! It has lots of funny interactions for the first 3-4 runs but you are doomed to fail. If you like "learning the events", you will probably keep up playing. Combat is very basic, sometimes annoying and the difficulty is unfair on the later game in my opinion. Didn't like the permadeath aspect much, would prefer a limited "retry mission" option for a smoother difficulty. But If it continues to get more content updates it will look a little more like a "beat-em-up FTL" experience. Local co-op was not well implemented in early versions, this is probably improved though. Custom chars based on friends and family and random encouters with them is funny due to the addition of traits such as "paranoid/ultrafit/frantic whiner" etc.
I thought I post this on the review page but better not to, due to my limited language use.
Check Totalbiscuit's video for more info.

I'm very happy to see it on GOG!

alright, back to lurking now
/borrow

I honestly couldn't care less :)

Because I usually try to give some feedback on why I'm interested or not in a newly released game. Why I'm wishlisting it but not buying right now, or if I think that it looks good but isn't the type of thing I'm interested in, or if like in this case, I think it looks terrible (and I mean not just graphics). I think that's the reason for those threads. I didn't really intend to have some prolonged argument about it, I'm not any more guilty of that than everyone who simply couldn't take the fact that I don't like it and felt they have to make it a fight :D

Anyway you're kinda right that this thread should not be derailed with this argument further. I'll cease my infernal complaining (for now).

well i dont mind such game getting in the catalog, need something for everyone's taste... As long as the game and its devs will follow GOG's Creed and respect us here as regular customers (meaning, updates in time, bug fixing, sharing expansions and new features)

as for retro pixel art style, i dont mind if:
1) it's well done (though if not, game really needs to have point 2) ready)
2) the gameplay mechanisms behind that look are solid and deep and interesting
3) originality is a bonus but not mandatory if 2) is fulfilled

Also there are some games which only picture previews can be deceiving in both way and that proove themselves very different once you get played. There are some games (retropixel or not) i would have completely dissed out based only on store page, and never tried, if i didnt see at least one gameplay video made by someone actually playing it.

So, dont judge a book by its cover.

True, though, there are a lot of pixelart indies here and some very good indies with different style are still missing here despite being out in the market (even drm free stores) for one year or more. For example, why no "Assault Android Cactus" here ? It's a very fun piece of game.

Ugh, the arrogance of some people. The world is big enough for whatever it is you consider bad (did you even play this yet?) and whatever it is you consider good. Your standard is not really a standard, and you're much less important than you think when it comes to GOG's curatorial decisions. If you really feel the need to be heard, send them an email or start a new thread instead of filling up the release thread with pointless complaints about a game you're not even interested in ever playing. Way to shit on people's possible enthusiasm - I like these pixel art games, and yes, there are better-looking ones out there, but that doesn't mean I and many others can't enjoy this game, and if you disagree with GOG's curation then dissing their decisions and telling them you know better is not exactly a constructive way to "help them". It's not feedback, it's just whining.

There's many other things behind what games get published here or not, which you seem to obviate despite appearing knowledgeable. GOG is not a person, and it's not just a matter of 'wanting' to publish something for it to happen immediately. Have you asked the devs of those games if they plan to publish on GOG? If you want to help, you can start there; if the devs say yes, then you organize a thread here to gather people and show GOG there's interest. If they say no, then there you go.

Above all, please stop shitting all over releases you don't like. People interested in the game don't want to read your opinion, and GOG would be better off if you took it up in a smart, constructive manner.

Just to go on a tangent, the title of this game calls to mind this song. Probably because they both follow the word pattern ADJECTIVE PATH TO PLACE.