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Why should i play your game?

A topic by SupremeStudio created 16 days ago Views: 168 Replies: 9

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recently i have been asked this question from my friend witch i struggle to answer.

quick summary I'm working on a World war 2 game an FPS shooter with multiple map and historical events and weapons from that era.

i mention that to my friend and they asked me "why should we play your game? we already have many world war 2 games including Call of duty and battle field high quality with good budget what can you offer?" I struggle to answer this question and this is a valid point why play forza horizon while grand turismo exist(or the opposite) why should i play other City simulator while Simcity exist and so on.

and help is much appreciated.

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hechelion16 days ago (1 edit)

That is not a simple question to answer, the market is not simple to understand.

For example, "call of duty" is a fairly expensive game, which requires an Activision account and many people are not going to play it, but they would play a historical FPS if it were cheaper or without DRM or the need for an account, etc.

Simcity was the reference city builder many years ago, but it made bad decisions that many people (including myself) did not share and I stopped buying them. When skylines came out, despite being very similar, those details were decisive, I have never bought a new Simcity since skylines came out.

These are just examples of how small details alter how a person sees a game.

It is true that many players think that games like "call of duty" are the best war FPS, but they forget that this is not true for everyone, there are other niches of player that will play a war FPS if it offers something different For example, a lower price, not having DRM, even a certain aesthetic, mixing genres, etc.

Normally finding these types of details is complex, you must resort to market studies, something that is out of the reach of an independent developer.

Ask the next question.
Why are you programming a WW2 FPS?

If the answer is because you want to learn or you have fun doing it, then you are not interested in competing with "call of duty", your goal is to achieve a good game.

Maybe you would like a WW2 FPS that has a lot of real story and interaction with NPCs. You will never be able to compete with Call of Duty, but you will find other players who share your vision and enjoy your game.

If you want to make a game that is popular and sells many copies, then before programming a single line, you should do studies and look for information on how to compete with the other similar games.

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SupremeStudio16 days ago

I'm an unexperienced Game developer i can never compete with a AAA Company that has massive budget.

As a gamer i don't like DRM and high price games that are not worth and need extra account with another platform sign-in to play the game, I'm not including them since they act as a barrier and my plans is to make it free. Why I'm making a WW2 game i like War games in general and i enjoy my time programming and solving problems so I'm making one and one of my goal is to make it success and functioning game. Doing a small research i manage to find many WW2 games that offer better Games(free or paid) one of my problems is i can't delivery high quality game with extra features with the limited budget and time and due to my lack of experience i might end up having bugs that can't be fixed and since one of my goals is to be a successful game developer in the future such matter act as an obstacle.

my current plan is keep working on the game>make sure it works>hope that people will enjoy>if any bug encountered Fixed it>Support the game for as long as you can.

thanks

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redonihunter16 days ago

Because it is your game.

But seriously, what kind of a ~~dumb~~ philosophical question is that. Why play any game? Or why play any fps game other then the one you already played?

Why try new food, if you can have pizza everyday.

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

Why even create any game? All has already been done this way or another. It is so repetivite, that we can identify tropes happening or codify a game/movie/story in such a way, that you only need to change a few words to have the same description for several things, makeing it seem like they are plagarisms.

But back to your question, for the same reason, they would watch your holiday pics you try to show them. Demanding that your single developer game has anything to offer in terms of competition against AAA games, is a bit much to ask. If you make an RPG they compare it with Baldur's Gate 3, I imagine.

Oh, and the best game of that type I know, is Hidden&Dangerous. (Disclaimer: I do not know all games ;-) )

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SupremeStudio16 days ago

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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redonihunter15 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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redonihunter15 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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