Post by redonihunter in I built a prototype for discovering games by playing them

Viewing post in I built a prototype for discovering games by playing them — looking for honest feedback

You try to tackle a problem that a lot of people try to tackle.

Example https://itch.io/t/6817612/build-and-indie-game-discovery-and-suggestion-platform

But you put on your approach an additional thing. And that thing might be a restraint or an enhancement feature, with that "mini demo" approach.

A lot of games do not have a well crafted description page.

Most games do not have a trailer video.

Most games do not have a demo version. From the paid only games it is only 5%. (The free games usually do not bother at all, because of obvious reasons.)

So while this is a restraint in many different ways, this would actually work as an enhancement. It would sort out all the devs that can not or will not create a mini demo. But for that, participation would be an issue. Do developers want to participate on the platform with a mini demo version of their game. If you were a big platform and could basically promise a lot of views because of that, sure, there will be lots of willing participants.

Speaking of jams, you might tackle a seed population for your discovery system, by creating a jam with rules of having such a mini game or having a mini demo as an submission entry rule. Of course such a jam and your platform will face the same problem all new platforms face: How to get people to visit ;-)

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Tuth4 days ago

Maybe a good idea is to allow a "shorts" mode where games do have time limits, but it is not the only feature on the app, similar to YouTube having a normal and shorts mode.

You also mentioned a strong point, this app would be a lot more effective if there were already a lot of users. If developers knew this was being used a lot, it would be an investment to take the time to make a shorter experience. That means that there is potential for what already exists to be useful, but not at this point. The goal now is to focus on making the app relevant and useful today with 0 users.

As I said I'm trying to reduce as much friction in playing games as possible. Like you said this is a real problem people are trying to tackle, and my approach is to let people play and then decide vs deciding to play. Maybe it is the wrong way to look at it, but I appreciate your support and feedback. I'm doing my best to tweak the project to provide the best experience for both developers and players.

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