pixeltroid
Member
Since most indie games are doomed to fail or go unnoticed, what kind of games are safe to make? Why should you make games?
First of all, by "indie", I mean a game that's developed by one person or a very small team -- like the ones discussed on this forum and posted on sites like itch and gamejolt.
I believe that in this age where indie games are flooding the market and gamers can buy anything they want online without even leaving their homes, it has become a nearly impossible task to put out a product that interests people -- that is, without professional marketing and hype (but even then, some well marketed and hyped games fail miserably but that's another story).
In order for your indie game to get noticed, you need -- in addition to a good game -- lots of marketing and favorable reviews from well known websites and personalities. But that is a very rare thing to happen to indie developers, especially one man teams. 90% of the time, most indie projects fall into the black hole of obscurity. There is only so much a twitter or facebook account can do in terms of free online marketing (that is, assuming, you have plenty of followers on your game accounts). The very sad truth is that, unless you're working on a well funded and well marketed project, nobody but you really cares about the games complex storyline or the secret areas or the game mechanics you are putting so much time and effort into creating.
Given the state of things, I believe the best and safest kind of games to make would be crisp short games (not more than an hour long) that aren't too difficult to beat. So that way, even if the game goes unnoticed, the dev would not have lost out on too much time. Why? Because spending 1000 hours making a game, and having 500 people play it is far far less psychologically damaging than spending 2000 or 3000 hours and having 500 people play it.
If people actually happen to like it, the entire process of making the game can be considered as one elaborate marketing exercise for the "sequel" -- since reaching out to an audience that enjoyed your first game is a whole lot easier than expecting an audience to try out a game from an indie they have never heard of!
Indie game development is like making a very low budget film -- you're not going to spend too much on it if you know you're taking a risk and realize that your chances at success are bleak. That way any big success comes as a pleasant surprise and works as motivation for making a better sequel.
As for why indies should be making games, I think that varies from person to person. My reasons are as follows:
a) I always wanted to make my own games. This is obvious.
b) It has helped me in terms of personal branding. Having "game developer" as a hobby on my CV has been a great advantage. I work as a graphic designer and not too many other graphic designers have this hobby, so it has really helped me stand out from the crowd when I attend interviews. Potential clients and employers have remembered me as "that game design guy", even if their projects have nothing to do with games.
c) Game development may one day work as a side source of income, or at least open doors for me somewhere.
d) Its a nice way to flex my creative muscles, in the sense, game design lets me do stuff that I cant do on my paid client projects.
What are your thoughts?
First of all, by "indie", I mean a game that's developed by one person or a very small team -- like the ones discussed on this forum and posted on sites like itch and gamejolt.
I believe that in this age where indie games are flooding the market and gamers can buy anything they want online without even leaving their homes, it has become a nearly impossible task to put out a product that interests people -- that is, without professional marketing and hype (but even then, some well marketed and hyped games fail miserably but that's another story).
In order for your indie game to get noticed, you need -- in addition to a good game -- lots of marketing and favorable reviews from well known websites and personalities. But that is a very rare thing to happen to indie developers, especially one man teams. 90% of the time, most indie projects fall into the black hole of obscurity. There is only so much a twitter or facebook account can do in terms of free online marketing (that is, assuming, you have plenty of followers on your game accounts). The very sad truth is that, unless you're working on a well funded and well marketed project, nobody but you really cares about the games complex storyline or the secret areas or the game mechanics you are putting so much time and effort into creating.
Given the state of things, I believe the best and safest kind of games to make would be crisp short games (not more than an hour long) that aren't too difficult to beat. So that way, even if the game goes unnoticed, the dev would not have lost out on too much time. Why? Because spending 1000 hours making a game, and having 500 people play it is far far less psychologically damaging than spending 2000 or 3000 hours and having 500 people play it.
If people actually happen to like it, the entire process of making the game can be considered as one elaborate marketing exercise for the "sequel" -- since reaching out to an audience that enjoyed your first game is a whole lot easier than expecting an audience to try out a game from an indie they have never heard of!
Indie game development is like making a very low budget film -- you're not going to spend too much on it if you know you're taking a risk and realize that your chances at success are bleak. That way any big success comes as a pleasant surprise and works as motivation for making a better sequel.
As for why indies should be making games, I think that varies from person to person. My reasons are as follows:
a) I always wanted to make my own games. This is obvious.
b) It has helped me in terms of personal branding. Having "game developer" as a hobby on my CV has been a great advantage. I work as a graphic designer and not too many other graphic designers have this hobby, so it has really helped me stand out from the crowd when I attend interviews. Potential clients and employers have remembered me as "that game design guy", even if their projects have nothing to do with games.
c) Game development may one day work as a side source of income, or at least open doors for me somewhere.
d) Its a nice way to flex my creative muscles, in the sense, game design lets me do stuff that I cant do on my paid client projects.
What are your thoughts?