Post by SupremeStudio in Why should i play your game?

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Even thought this might seems like a dumb question it is not. Let me give you few example:

1-why try new new food, if you can have pizza everyday

can other food have other flavors not all taste like pizza you might prefect one flavor over the other each food have it's own flavor giving you a reason to try it.

2-Why bake your own pizza, if you can just order some.

because on option is cheaper that the other, baking your own pizza will allow you to put whatever you want in it while ordering a pizza will give you the standard pizza that the restaurant deliver to others.

-that's true the market is so repetitive new songs are based on older songs new story are an improved version of an older story even movies.

but in each new story/movie/song that it introduce something new making it somewhat different from the older version improving it.

now in my case i can't compete with AAA WW2 games my issue here that i can't introduce anything new making it a special from the other WW2 games this way there's no reason to play my game while you have another better WW2 game.

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redonihunter15 days ago

The problem with that question is, that it just does not apply. I implies some arbitary restraints that offer you two choices: play this game (yours) or play another game (not yours), that somehow still is like your game, but "better". Or rather the other way round. Your game is inferiour to that hypothetical other game. Oh, and you can't play both, of course.

In reality, preferring to play that polished ww2 game does not hinder them from trying out an indie take on the genre. If they dislike indie games as such, meh, bad luck.

You are on itch. If you would take this philosphy of only playing the "better" game seriously, 99.99 of all games here would be a waste of time. Actually you could go full out Highlander (the movie), and play meta death match with all the computer games out there, till there is only one game left, the game that is worth playing, more than all the others. (You could split it for genres, and have the best ego shooter, the best rpg and so on.)

The important question should be: is your game fun to play? And it better be. Why else make it. Or rather, whatever it might be, if it ain't fun, it ain't a game.

You might want to counter ask why the most popular game ever, Minecraft, has such horrible graphics. Huge pixels. Why do people not play games with nicer, state of the art graphics? Why is pixel art popular, despite advanced high res graphcis? Why are 2d platformers a thing still, when there are 3d platforms for over two decades now? (This was to illustrate, that it is not about a game being "better")

My point is, it is pointless to compare games in such a fashion, with asking provocativly, why should I play your ego shooter, when I could play this established ego shooter that I already know?

Possible answer: Because it is a different experience. If you do not like it, ok, not everyone likes that game you would rather play either.

Now, of course, if you only made a clone of an existing game, ... asking why play your knock off, if they can play the original is a pragmatic question.

This thread makes me think about this meme. Mom, can we have ww2 shooter game? We have ww2 shooter game at home!

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hechelion15 days ago

The question is not stupid or philosophical, in fact it is a very recurring question when you try to sell a product and it enters more into the field of marketing, perhaps that is why it does not seem very useful to you, but it is very important.

Basically the idea is to look for the strengths of your product, for example, look at the war between the SNES and the Genesis and the famous "blast processing".

When you ask yourself the question, you are trying to find the strengths that make your product different or interesting. Of course, this only makes sense when you are talking about selling your product with respect to what already exists on the market, something that many times as amateur creators we do not consider, normally we program games for the challenge or fun, or sometimes, because they are aimed at a very niche audience, which is not covered by other games.

Don't see the question as a way to question whether or not someone is going to play the game, but rather as a tool that looks for the strengths (or sometimes weaknesses) of your product.

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redonihunter14 days ago

Of course this is a way of thinking about pitching the game to, say, a publisher. But you do not pitch a game to a player. You might advertise it, certainly. But you would not use all the same advertisement material in a pitch and vice versa.

Also, the scenario was a bit narrowed down to convince personal friends to play the game, and they responed with, oh yeah, you made a game with that topic, we already have big budget games with that topic, why should we play your's? (to paraphrase it). And than it got expanded, to literally, the question, why play racing game, when top racing game exists, why play city builder, when top city simulator exists, and so on.

It is pointless to compare what games offer in this direct confrontation. We all would only ever play big budget games, and only a handfull at that. And reality shows, that players do not select their games by this logic.

So I stand by my answers. "Because it is fun to play. That is why you should play my game. And because I made it, and you are my friend. And when you tried to cook that awful pizza, you made my try it too, and I did not ask, what does your pizza offer me, when there is a good pizza restaurant nearby."

And yeah, I do think there is a difference to whom and why you pitch your game. There is a reason why indie is indie. With the exception of small studios that still call themselves indie, just because they are small, all indie games are essentially games that were not pitched to a publisher to do the publishing. Either by choice or because, well, because while they might find their audience, they are not exactly pitchable material. Just look at rpg or visual novels, or, gasp, horror games. Everyone and their dog is making a fnaf clone. Rpgs are hero saves the world from big evil, visual novels are boy meets girl and so on.

But bottom line, the trivial and good answer to both, why should you play my game, and why should I even make that game should be: because it is fun. We do can play more than one game, even if they are the same genre and topic.

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SupremeStudio15 days ago(+1)

You do have a point, and yes it is a personal matter whether my game is fun to play or no one guy might like it other might not. Now my game is not intended to be a clone of another game even though there is a 50-70% chance it might look like another game.

Personally sometimes the reason i play a lower quality game and lower budget from indie studio instead of the original AAA game it's cause less complication(No DRM/No Extra account needed/Free to play) witch I'm putting my hopes in.

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redonihunter14 days ago

It is similar to how people watch youtube videos of amateurs, instead of pay-tv/streaming high budget series and movies.

Or rather, they also watch it. It is just different.

It gets kinda tricky, if you do try to compete with big budget games toe to toe. I guess this is one of the reasons, why there are not so many 3d indie games. And not so many big budget "rpg maker" games.

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itch.io

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