Super interesting, thanks for sharing. The novelty thing I see a lot in academics. There, you value ideas rather than execution. Nobody wants to read papers where existing results were replicated, you gather esteem by advancing the boundaries of human knowledge.

There’s an affinity here with music composition (as opposed to performance).

I see this with heartbreakers or games that are mere genre emulation – they’re not advancing the state of the art, they’re a laborious expression of preferences done as a prelude for playing, like making a mix tape.

These things are valueless from the perspective of ‘are they original?’ despite the tremendous personal satisfaction they generate.

I suspect micro-game competitions push this feeling to the fore because there there’s absolutely zero illusion that these games are somehow going to become mainstream successes, appreciated through widespread play. They’re primarily going to exist and be appreciated as design artifacts.