Distribution What makes a game popular?

Rivo

7014
This may be a rhetorical question since you may think 'oh, well the game just has to be good' but I've seen many games on steam that look good and are fun to play. Yet, these games aren't very popular, which I get a bit confused by. I understand that these games can become lost in the vast amount of games that are already on steam and itch.io etc. But how is it, you think, that really bad looking games (or bad games in general) can become more popular? Wheras some of the better games don't get played much. Do people play it out of irony? or are there methods people use to market their games?

I'd love everyone's opinion on this.
 

Gamer (ex-Cantavanda)

〜Flower Prince〜
First of all, lemme move this topic to the Off-Topic forum section, where it will fit in better.

Now to answer your question, and give the fullest and most correct opinion/reply you will get on this topic:
What makes a game good?
Pretty graphics (pretty =/= realistic, even NES Mario looks pretty, and also some very dark games look pretty, because it's stylized like that), interesting, engaging and fun gameplay, an intriguing story, no annoyances, a good soundtrack, and so on.
Now, this is how a lot of indie games are on Steam, but yet very few are popular.

There are four main reasons why something can be really popular.
These frist two are tied together.
1 - Stupidity, funniness, etc, which will attract people because it's so stupid. Like, a game about poop for example. Now, this becomes popular because people like cheap and easy games that make them laugh. A second result of this is because YouTubers will play it, so it will serve as promotion, which ties in to reason 2.

2 - Promotion, sponsoring, advertising. This is why AAA titles are popular, they don't offer much new, but they are everywhere, on TV, on internet ads, in big events, and so on. The champions of this are EA, they even made freaking Zac Efron play there new Battlefield game! This ties in with reason one, because Youtuber-bait is also a form of "sponsoring". You make your game so stupid, ridicule or funny that YouTubers will automatically play it, you don't even have to pay them. Another form of advertising is a kickstarter, which allows your game to become very known, but there are currently so many games on that site, that it's way harder to kickstart a game now then let's say two years ago.

If you want to make a more serious game, and don't have money to advertise it litirally everywhere, then this is how to get a popular game:
3 - Don't make it good, make it absolutely amazing in it's genre. Make it a true masterpiece. Want to make a rogue-like? Then play and analyse a lot of existing rogue-likes, look what's good about all of those, look at the bad things, try and combine every good thing, and make the game in such a way that it is flawless, nothing annoying, a perfect difficulty, aim in your head that it should achieve a minimum of 85% on Metacritic, make your game that amazing, and it will get popular. You see, good games used to get popular, back in the earlier indie days, but now, there are SO MANY GOOD indie games, that good isn't enough to be popular, you have to be amazing.

4 - Make something groundbreaking, something never done before. This is probably the hardest of them all to do. Make a game that is amazing, but also "new", something that feels different, like Undertale. But for that, you need to have a great mind that can think outside of the box/standard, you need to be a great planner, and so on. Don't copy a formula/genre, make your own formula, and if that new idea is a good idea, and if it is executed/created well, you'll have a massive hit. Don't aim for this unless you have a genius mind, and a lot of experience. Aim for number 3.

5 - Another factor is accessibility. Why is Dwarf Fortress so "unpopular" (it is quite popular, but not mainstream at all), it has everything. It is amazing, almost flawless, completely new, and so on... That's because it's just so hard to learn, so "nerdy", so complicated. Accessibility to the average gamer is something you should aim for if you want a popular hit.

The best example of all of this I have is "Portal". It is really funny, it was promoted hugely, it was also created absolutely amazing, it was something new, a new idea, and also accessible to anyone, even GIRLS who never play games!

Good luck.
 
T

THTerra

Guest
A nice Learning Curve, good Game Optimization and a little bit of luck
(Of course it's just a VERY VERY small Part) :D
 
A

Alessio

Guest
I don't agree with the youtuber advertising fact. I would never let my family-friendly game get advertised with annoying noises and swear words (i believe those who make money with that are also immoral creeps): doesn't mean i'll never make it. May games are popular and don't necessarily have a Youtube star advertising their games. When it's about a review then it should be okay.

I wouldn't say to make an amazing game, one should focus on making a good game and something you would play yourself. To be honest i have yet to find a good finished product that is not popular. The majority of thing i see on many forums are either uninspired and uninteresting. Make a good, functional and interesting game. If you have a new idea you should make sure it works well. There are many indies with innovative ideas that, well, are quite bad.

The hard part in game development isn't only doing a good game to me but is especially to finish it. Finishing a game is very hard and many have the terrible habit to leave projects unfinished. I can justify it when you're just learning or when your project gets so unmanageable that you have to start over (although you won't make the same mistate next time) but in other cases it's just a bad habit. I speak not only as a beginner but as a costumer: usually the game i like more are also popular enough to have a following. And a good game will get noticed no matter what.

This may interest you, it was a post made by Derek Yu, who made the popular indie game Spelunky (so you know it's reliable).
 

Yal

🐧 *penguin noises*
GMC Elder
Yeah, definitely seconding trying to finish games. It's hard to take credit for something that ends haphazardly. Even if you just can't finish a project, try to wrap it up with a nice partial ending or To Be Continued screen or something so people know they've reached the endpoint.

Other than that, I fully agree with all the stuff in the Derek Yu post. Can't really add anything to that that hasn't been said already.
 
S

Sudo_Radish

Guest
Hype, as we recently saw in No mans land
Hype also hurt No Man's Sky. Would NMS be in the position it finds itself in now if it had been simply a really cool title with little hype?

Been a medicore game can be just as bad, if not worse, that been a outright terrible game. Outright terrible games gain some sort of cult status and I have seen people physically buying them just to play because "Oh dude this is the worst game ever!"
 

SnoutUp

Member
While others are teaching you about game design, I'd rather try answering the question you asked.

It would've been easier to do so, if you'd gave examples of bad popular games, because they usually have different ways to popularity. Usually, it's some big youtube channel playing it and smaller channels following it up. If a game is cheap and attractive - it will spread. There's a pseudo-genre called "Youtube bait", which covers games, which look and or play like they made to be played once for an entertaining video. Bad games are easier to joke about, so they make more entertaining video. Gifting a bad game is a pretty common joke on Steam, that's why something like Bad Rats is "popular" and even has a positive score. Bad popular games stand out easier with their humor, theme, art or weird mechanics.

This may be a rhetorical question since you may think 'oh, well the game just has to be good' but I've seen many games on steam that look good and are fun to play. Yet, these games aren't very popular, which I get a bit confused by. I understand that these games can become lost in the vast amount of games that are already on steam and itch.io etc. But how is it, you think, that really bad looking games (or bad games in general) can become more popular? Wheras some of the better games don't get played much. Do people play it out of irony? or are there methods people use to market their games?
 
A

Alessio

Guest
Yeah but bad games make bad and short-lived popularity. Take Goat Simulator... it was the whackiest game of that moment when it was released but was essentially a "clickbait" game made by people who wanted to get easy money and popularity (ironically most Youtubers have this mindset). Now it has been abandoned and forgotten.
While good games that get popular don't get affected by that and don't need some Youtube guys to get very popular. For example, Cave Story is still remembered as one of the greatest indie games, Goat Simulator... well, at least it's long i don't read about it on the Web.

I mean, if you want to be remembered in a positive way, just make one good game! Don't make bad games for the sake of being remembered to have released a dump to create a fad and then getting forgotten later.

And No Man's Sky's people to me were pretty bad. Why would they exploit hype in that way and not keep their promises? I didn't play that game but i've heard it was a pretty bad joke. Same with Mighty No.9.
 
S

Sudo_Radish

Guest
I wasn't saying that people should make bad games. No one should make a bad game. I was trying to point out that it and be easy to fall into that mediocre category. That is easily forgotten about or not even bothered with playing.
 

Gamer (ex-Cantavanda)

〜Flower Prince〜
Yeah but bad games make bad and short-lived popularity. Take Goat Simulator... it was the whackiest game of that moment when it was released but was essentially a "clickbait" game made by people who wanted to get easy money and popularity (ironically most Youtubers have this mindset). Now it has been abandoned and forgotten.
While good games that get popular don't get affected by that and don't need some Youtube guys to get very popular. For example, Cave Story is still remembered as one of the greatest indie games, Goat Simulator... well, at least it's long i don't read about it on the Web.

I mean, if you want to be remembered in a positive way, just make one good game! Don't make bad games for the sake of being remembered to have released a dump to create a fad and then getting forgotten later.

And No Man's Sky's people to me were pretty bad. Why would they exploit hype in that way and not keep their promises? I didn't play that game but i've heard it was a pretty bad joke. Same with Mighty No.9.
Ughhh... You see, click-bait, hype or YT advertising aren't a problem, they just have bad connotation because the games related to it usually suck ass.
Hype and YT advertising are GREAT ways to make your game more popular, and if the game is good, it will stay remembered.
It's just that with the "hype" fact, people will expect "amazing" games, not "good" games. So say your game is amazing, and almost flawless in everyway, you have all the right to hype it up to the extreme, and it will blast, people will love it, and it will be remembered. The same with YT-clickbait, say you make a super great platformer, but there's funny deaths and jokes in it (doesn't have to be grotesque), YT-ers will play it, laugh at it, make jokes, people will buy it, but if the platformer is actually very well made, with great music, great gameplay mechanics, a long story/levels, it will be remembered forever, because it's a good game, and because YT-ers advertised it.

But yeah, rarely the case, just as in amazing games are really rare.

Ranger-X summarised my long post before great: Accessibility and quality (better then good) are needed to make a game remembered, marketing, if it is ads, hype, kickstarter or YT-ers is a great way to get the popularity started.
 

NazGhuL

NazTaiL
I believe that popular != good. Popular means lot of people buy it. So you have to target a larger audience.

In my opinion to get more people:
-Cute/great graphics.
-Fast learning curves.
-A little bit challenging but easy to complete.
-No complex story/plot/controls

If it's too hard, too complex you'll lose audience.

When you get that: MARKETING! Don't tell people your game is fun. Tell people that they MUST play it because it's the current big thing.
(Like: "Become an action hero like Arnold Schwarzenegger in the new game of modern war - Mobile Strike!")
Can you believe that they hired Arnold S. to promote their game!?
Num. of installs: 10,000,000 - 50,000,000
That's marketing for a not so good game.
 
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