3 ms·

Its not the indie part, its the games themselves. They are mostly either BAD, or very niche. It blows my mind that some people think there is a vast market for

by rasz_pl 11y ago

Its not the indie part, its the games themselves. They are mostly either BAD, or very niche. It blows my mind that some people think there is a vast market for 1990 style platformers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4F-zdpFb9I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4F-zdpFb9I

generic_user 11y ago
And they keep talking these turkeys up in Game Press like amazing wonderful games that you just have to buy, 10 star reviews etc. People got burned putting down there hard earned money for garbage walking simulators with crappy art. Most people I know who might buy 10$ Indy games are much more sceptical and careful with there money now. No one believes the reviews any more, either go to Youtube or word of mouth by someone you trust there taste. A few select sites give credible reviews but there rare.
ahoge 11y ago
I bought several indie platformers. Super Meat Boy, Braid, Noitu Love 2, and a few others. I also bought Deadlight. I think there is a fairly huge market for platformers. However, it's certainly a very crowded one. There are over 500 platformers on Steam. Want to make one with pixel graphics? There are already 97 of those.
thenomad 11y ago
What genre would you suggest an indie developer would be best advised to work in, out of interest?
- babuskov 11y ago
  I though it might be hard puzzle games, so I built this: http://store.steampowered.com/app/363670 http://store.steampowered.com/app/363670 But it does not sell very well. So puzzles are off too. As an indie, you cannot really compete with FPS or MOBA genre. Someone might suggest RTS, but RTS is replaced with MOBAs. The only genre I see lacking and what would be easier to sell on Steam are RPGs. But those take a lot of time and effort to build. If you work alone, it's hard to justify 2-3 years of development before making any money. I'm currently considering what will be my next game. Perhaps a 4x game that would have a vast and complex world that lives on its own.
  - douche 11y ago
    I would think that you would need to hit some of the underserved genre/subject niches to be successful. There are a bajillion dungeon-crawlers, military shooters, 4X fantasy/space games, 2D platformers, fantasy rpgs, casual puzzle games, zombie survival games, etc. These combinations have a lot of widespread appeal, but the market is really saturated. The thing with niche genre/topics is that most of the successful players have a pretty established track record of delivering an above-average product - see Paradox, the Close Combat series, many of the hex-based wargames, the author of TFA. There are also in many cases established classics that are timeless, so if you're going into that space, you need to either have an interesting spin, or really outdo the classic. Just building a clone isn't going to get you very far. It might be interesting to build something like one of those old hack author plot-wheels for indie games, based off of this: http://gamedevtycoon.wikia.com/wiki/Game_Development_Based_on_Experience/1.4.3 http://gamedevtycoon.wikia.com/wiki/Game_Development_Based_o...
  - wolfgke 11y ago
    > I though it might be hard puzzle games, so I built this: > > http://store.steampowered.com/app/363670 http://store.steampowered.com/app/363670 From the trailers, I can't really see this as a puzzle game. For me, examples of puzzle games are rather * most games of Zachtronics (but in particular Ironclad Tactics is not) http://www.zachtronics.com/ * the Hexcells series * Antichamber * The Bridge * Sigils of Elohim (but even "The Talos Principle" only in small parts (which does not mean that it's a bad game)) etc. For me, a puzzle game is really about solving difficult problems in a rather relaxing way. In other words: Whether you are able to solve a level will only depend on your capability of puzzle solving (i.e. intellect) and not your reaction times. Most puzzle platformers do not satisfy this criterion, so I mostly can't consider them as puzzle games (which does not mean they are bad games, but often bad puzzle games).
    - babuskov 11y ago
      Thanks for the feedback. Yes, there are some puzzles where timing is important, maybe 25% of all puzzles in the game. The game that inspired me to create Seeders was Braid. So you can expect similar mix of thinking and platforming. Since the game is not selling well, I guess there are many other players that share your opinion. I'm considering to remove such puzzles completely. The game will be 25% shorter, but it still is very long (all players that completed it clock over 10 hours of play), so I don't think it will be a problem.

by rasz_pl 11y ago

generic_user 11y ago

And they keep talking these turkeys up in Game Press like amazing wonderful games that you just have to buy, 10 star reviews etc. People got burned putting down there hard earned money for garbage walking simulators with crappy art. Most people I know who might buy 10$ Indy games are much more sceptical and careful with there money now. No one believes the reviews any more, either go to Youtube or word of mouth by someone you trust there taste. A few select sites give credible reviews but there rare.

ahoge 11y ago

I bought several indie platformers. Super Meat Boy, Braid, Noitu Love 2, and a few others. I also bought Deadlight. I think there is a fairly huge market for platformers. However, it's certainly a very crowded one. There are over 500 platformers on Steam. Want to make one with pixel graphics? There are already 97 of those.

thenomad 11y ago

What genre would you suggest an indie developer would be best advised to work in, out of interest?

babuskov 11y ago
I though it might be hard puzzle games, so I built this: http://store.steampowered.com/app/363670 http://store.steampowered.com/app/363670 But it does not sell very well. So puzzles are off too. As an indie, you cannot really compete with FPS or MOBA genre. Someone might suggest RTS, but RTS is replaced with MOBAs. The only genre I see lacking and what would be easier to sell on Steam are RPGs. But those take a lot of time and effort to build. If you work alone, it's hard to justify 2-3 years of development before making any money. I'm currently considering what will be my next game. Perhaps a 4x game that would have a vast and complex world that lives on its own.
- douche 11y ago
  I would think that you would need to hit some of the underserved genre/subject niches to be successful. There are a bajillion dungeon-crawlers, military shooters, 4X fantasy/space games, 2D platformers, fantasy rpgs, casual puzzle games, zombie survival games, etc. These combinations have a lot of widespread appeal, but the market is really saturated. The thing with niche genre/topics is that most of the successful players have a pretty established track record of delivering an above-average product - see Paradox, the Close Combat series, many of the hex-based wargames, the author of TFA. There are also in many cases established classics that are timeless, so if you're going into that space, you need to either have an interesting spin, or really outdo the classic. Just building a clone isn't going to get you very far. It might be interesting to build something like one of those old hack author plot-wheels for indie games, based off of this: http://gamedevtycoon.wikia.com/wiki/Game_Development_Based_on_Experience/1.4.3 http://gamedevtycoon.wikia.com/wiki/Game_Development_Based_o...
- wolfgke 11y ago
  > I though it might be hard puzzle games, so I built this: > > http://store.steampowered.com/app/363670 http://store.steampowered.com/app/363670 From the trailers, I can't really see this as a puzzle game. For me, examples of puzzle games are rather * most games of Zachtronics (but in particular Ironclad Tactics is not) http://www.zachtronics.com/ * the Hexcells series * Antichamber * The Bridge * Sigils of Elohim (but even "The Talos Principle" only in small parts (which does not mean that it's a bad game)) etc. For me, a puzzle game is really about solving difficult problems in a rather relaxing way. In other words: Whether you are able to solve a level will only depend on your capability of puzzle solving (i.e. intellect) and not your reaction times. Most puzzle platformers do not satisfy this criterion, so I mostly can't consider them as puzzle games (which does not mean they are bad games, but often bad puzzle games).
  - babuskov 11y ago
    Thanks for the feedback. Yes, there are some puzzles where timing is important, maybe 25% of all puzzles in the game. The game that inspired me to create Seeders was Braid. So you can expect similar mix of thinking and platforming. Since the game is not selling well, I guess there are many other players that share your opinion. I'm considering to remove such puzzles completely. The game will be 25% shorter, but it still is very long (all players that completed it clock over 10 hours of play), so I don't think it will be a problem.