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Did I just waste 3 years?

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Re: Did I just waste 3 years?

#241

Post by Nition »

savanaly wrote: post #238
Nition wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stardew Valley didn't do much marketing either. Yeah the name isn't very good. And yeah the base engine is RPG maker (re the other comment here). But this is kinda my original point. Making a game with a good name, or a different engine, isn't going to mean it's successful. You can always point out something in terms of "well it's clearly failed because X". Hell, people even say the Unity3D logo scares them off. But…

I think you're putting too much stock in the steam reviews. Just because a game has the same % positive rating as another doesn't mean it's of the same quality or even that people like it the same amount. It's like rotten tomatoes. 2001: A Space Odyssey [0] has 93% on RT, Pick of the Litter has 100%. I'm sure Pick of the Litter is a fine film, but clearly there's a sense in which it's a lesser movie compared to 2001…

I do think that people have lower expectations for more obscure games, and tend to review higher when they're pleasantly surprised.

Re: Did I just waste 3 years?

#242

Post by swaggyBoatswain »

aphextron wrote: post #137

You made the mistake of thinking that anyone would care how many hours you spent optimizing some C++ function that does something already solved a hundred times in a hundred different game engines. It's a natural tendency for all programmers. But making a game in 2018 is far more of a creative endeavor than anything to do with programming really. You need a massive amount of top notch artwork, music, 3D modelling, sh…

> 62,176 lines of code

then I watched the youtube video demo in 2017.

A 2D gaming scroller that requires 62,126 lines of code written from scratch? There's tons of libraries out there, game engines you could adopt, etc.

I would argue you could be an awful programmer and use prebuilt tools but have great design aesthetics, vision, music composition, and storytelling, and deliver something far better

Re: Did I just waste 3 years?

#243

Post by decentrality »

From a marketing standpoint, the game "feels" amateur in the way it's presented ( very insecure narrative, etc )

But when you watch the demo the game itself "seems cool" but in a way that realizes immediately this is Super Mario Bros reinvented.

Also this blog post was from February 2018 and has sat on the Dev Blog "above the fold" for most of this year. It seems like the game has a dark cloud over it.

If something isn't a labor of love, you should end it. But then there's that quote "you cannot excel at something you do not love" ... which seems like the real thing here. It seems excellent in its own ways, just not entirely original or well marketed. So ask why are you doing it and measure by some other metric than sales and usage.

Re: Did I just waste 3 years?

#244

Post by kahoon »

invalidusernam3 wrote: post #230
Nokinside wrote: post #150

Game industry is the economics of superstars. The Macroeconomics of Superstars[1] >Abstract >Recent technological changes have transformed an increasing number of sectors of the economy into so-called superstars sectors, in which a small number of entrepreneurs or professionals distribute their output widely to the rest of the economy. Examples include the high-tech sector, sports, the music industry, management, fna…

Game development is hard, it seems like it's completely hit or miss, there is no middle ground. I've released 5 games, but I have to say, spending 2,600+ hours on something without doing market research or at least starting small seems crazy. My most successful game was an app for iOS which made me a grand total of around $30. The difference is I only spent around 80 hours working on it (40 or so for the game, 20 or…

> Compare that to the various website side projects I've worked on over the years which have made me hundreds of thousands of dollars (over 10 years).

Was this orders from clients or did you create some SaaS?

Re: Did I just waste 3 years?

#247

Post by scrollaway »

giancarlostoro wrote: post #148
aphextron wrote: post #137

You made the mistake of thinking that anyone would care how many hours you spent optimizing some C++ function that does something already solved a hundred times in a hundred different game engines. It's a natural tendency for all programmers. But making a game in 2018 is far more of a creative endeavor than anything to do with programming really. You need a massive amount of top notch artwork, music, 3D modelling, sh…

Seeing the forest for the trees as they say. This is why indie games are focused on the simpler style of video games in some cases like Stardew Valley. It still took the developer 8 years (give or take) and you can tell he worked his tail on it.

Stardew Valley is insane. The developer did everything. Art, music, sound effects, engine, gameplay, design, writing... everything.

Re: Did I just waste 3 years?

#248

Post by brink »

nuguy wrote: post #200

Sorry but the reason that your game and others have not sold is because they aren’t new and they don’t offer anything that consumers want. It’s so simple. The graph of steam sales, as you mentioned, is poisoned with shovel-ware. But it’s also inflated by another kind of game that nobody wants: games that are just remakes of the same old tropes and mechanics — nobody is interested in playing them even though they are…

I agree. I'm sorry for being blunt OP; but watching the trailer for this game, it looks boring as hell. It's a basic sci-fi platformer. Why should I play this, let alone pay for it?

OP is right that there are a million games out there. But I still have a hard time finding games I want to play due to the sheer lack of fun-focused concepts out there.

Re: Did I just waste 3 years?

#249

Post by WalterBright »

Nokinside wrote: post #150

Game industry is the economics of superstars. The Macroeconomics of Superstars[1] >Abstract >Recent technological changes have transformed an increasing number of sectors of the economy into so-called superstars sectors, in which a small number of entrepreneurs or professionals distribute their output widely to the rest of the economy. Examples include the high-tech sector, sports, the music industry, management, fna…

This isn't new. It happened before the internet to books, music and film. The internet has just amplified it.

Re: Did I just waste 3 years?

#250

Post by sinker »

nuguy wrote: post #200

Sorry but the reason that your game and others have not sold is because they aren’t new and they don’t offer anything that consumers want. It’s so simple. The graph of steam sales, as you mentioned, is poisoned with shovel-ware. But it’s also inflated by another kind of game that nobody wants: games that are just remakes of the same old tropes and mechanics — nobody is interested in playing them even though they are…

While it could have been said with more consideration, I think this comment tells the core of why the game isn't a success. From my eyes the game does not appear interesting to play. At some point not too long ago, the idea of a remake with a twist would have been interesting (eg, Geometry Wars). But people have come to expect different things from indie games and games in general. It's not enough to rehash old ideas. The idea of revamping a much beloved gsme or genre has lost its novelty as so many developers have done that already.

The games that we love from the past exist. And spiritual remakes of those games exist. It's not enough for a game to succeed based largely on nostalgia. I don't mean to discredit the creator's hard work. This is what I understand from a glance at seeing the preview video.

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