I don't think it's lottery. I think that we don't want to admit that most people are just bad at designing and developing games. I hang about on /r/gamedev and I've seen a lot of posts complaining about low sales and not a single one of those games was compelling
its hard to be critical. ive never seen a great game not do well. even games that might seem pretty not doing well if you look closely enough are often still missing something.
I challenge anyone to provide a link to an actual great indie game that hasnt done well. that flew under radar.
"Great" and "haven't done well" would be subjective, but here's my list of amazing games that are underperforming in sales:
The Hex
Eliza
Suzerain
Know by Heart (and all Ice Pick lodge games for that matter)
