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Why I lost $42,500 making a VR game

gamasutra.com

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Re: Why I lost $42,500 making a VR game

#41

Post by dleslie »

freeflight wrote: post #40
dleslie wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a narrative game at that. They're incredibly niche even when they're not VR games.

No offense, but "it's a narrative game" seems to have become the new excuse for games that lack any interesting gameplay or actual content and thus have to play up the "artistic angle" by pretending to tell some amazing story. Looking at the Steam page for this its genre is listed as a clicker, a review points out there's literally no progression for the clicker gameplay part, that's a bad clicker right there because…

Books are entertaining. Books in visual form are entertaining. Interactive books can be entertaining too, and that's what narrative games purport to be.

The tricky part is that they must make up for the absence of other game mechanics.

Myst, in a sense, is a narrative game with puzzles. Strip the puzzles away and it wouldn't be so hot. It's a risk to reduce a game to its story, as that story must hold on its own.

Re: Why I lost $42,500 making a VR game

#42

Post by freeflight »

dleslie wrote: post #41
freeflight wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No offense, but "it's a narrative game" seems to have become the new excuse for games that lack any interesting gameplay or actual content and thus have to play up the "artistic angle" by pretending to tell some amazing story. Looking at the Steam page for this its genre is listed as a clicker, a review points out there's literally no progression for the clicker gameplay part, that's a bad clicker right there because…

Books are entertaining. Books in visual form are entertaining. Interactive books can be entertaining too, and that's what narrative games purport to be. The tricky part is that they must make up for the absence of other game mechanics. Myst, in a sense, is a narrative game with puzzles. Strip the puzzles away and it wouldn't be so hot. It's a risk to reduce a game to its story, as that story must hold on its own.

But books are not dragged down by bad gameplay mechanics, the closest equivalent to that would be printing a book on stinging nettle.

Sure, there could be a really amazing story inside that book, but who wants to go through the pain of constantly being stung to read it?

The point here not being that "narrative games are bad by nature" but rather that a lot of them sabotage themselves by using the "narrative game" excuse to keep off-putting/shallow gameplay mechanics in the game and then expect the players to "soldier through them" for the supposedly amazing narrative that's waiting along that way.

Re: Why I lost $42,500 making a VR game

#43

Post by ben_jones »

hesdeadjim wrote: post #27

This is pretty poor analysis on his part about why the game wasn't successful and what it means for the state of the VR market. From a talk at the Game Developer's Conference last March it was shown that the average Steam game makes about $30k in it's first year. That's non-VR. According to the Steam hardware survey, about 1% of users own a VR headset. This paints a pretty grim picture about what an average VR game c…

I'd add community growth, integrity (i.e. players first profits second - even at a tertiary level), and mod support, as integral pieces of many successful indie games that are often left out completely by first time developers of any type of product.

Re: Why I lost $42,500 making a VR game

#44

Post by gonehome »

freeflight wrote: post #40
dleslie wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a narrative game at that. They're incredibly niche even when they're not VR games.

No offense, but "it's a narrative game" seems to have become the new excuse for games that lack any interesting gameplay or actual content and thus have to play up the "artistic angle" by pretending to tell some amazing story. Looking at the Steam page for this its genre is listed as a clicker, a review points out there's literally no progression for the clicker gameplay part, that's a bad clicker right there because…

There are a lot of great narrative games:

- Firewatch

- Life is Strange

- Tacoma

- Gone Home

- Oxenfree

- What Remains of Edith Finch

It's probably my favorite indie genre and when done well it's a lot different than anything else out there.

Re: Why I lost $42,500 making a VR game

#45

Post by _dps »

gonehome wrote: post #44
freeflight wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No offense, but "it's a narrative game" seems to have become the new excuse for games that lack any interesting gameplay or actual content and thus have to play up the "artistic angle" by pretending to tell some amazing story. Looking at the Steam page for this its genre is listed as a clicker, a review points out there's literally no progression for the clicker gameplay part, that's a bad clicker right there because…

There are a lot of great narrative games: - Firewatch - Life is Strange - Tacoma - Gone Home - Oxenfree - What Remains of Edith Finch It's probably my favorite indie genre and when done well it's a lot different than anything else out there.

For anyone who cares about this genre, I'll throw in strong recommendations for

- The Vanishing of Ethan Carter

- Virginia

- SOMA with the monster interactions turned off (they don't bother me, but with interactions it's not strictly a narrative game)

and moderate recommendations for

- Dear Esther

- Ether One

- Everybody's Gone to the Rapture

Re: Why I lost $42,500 making a VR game

#46

Post by SquareWheel »

dleslie wrote: post #31
SquareWheel wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the reviews were positive, would it have made a difference? You may think so due to word of mouth. However the Steam store has hundreds of games with high reviews that still have no players. Discoverability goes beyond making a good game.

... yes? A user perchance manages to discover this game's Steam Store page and sees that its reviews are Bad; I would certainly expect that they would remain incredulous to the prospect of playing. Whereas if the reviews were Very Good or better... Moreover, it's in Steam's interest to keep bad games from being discovered. They don't profit more by exposing their customers to a deluge of poor product. Reviews ought t…

At present the game hasn't even received enough reviews to have an official review score.

Re: Why I lost $42,500 making a VR game

#47

Post by rasz »

joenathanone wrote: post #15

Check out the reviews of the game. https://store.steampowered.com/app/528930/Fruit_for_the_Vill... There are three reviews and they are all negative. Maybe the only reason he didn't make money is it's just not a good game.

Even the movie that plays on Steam game page tells you this game sucks in first 20 seconds! :

'not glamorous, tiring, Lather, rinse, repeat, over and over, and it will suck'

Re: Why I lost $42,500 making a VR game

#48

Post by reilly3000 »

Read the stories of also-rans from any medium and you'll find the same: lots of 'reasons'. We live in a winner-take-all world. Being truly innovative and enjoying the rewards that come along with it are exceptionally rare, and most certainly succeed by filling a need that isn't met. I haven't messed with VR since Oculus DK2's were brand new, but I'm certain the amount of vaporware. What I Need is an outsized, impossible experience that justifies the medium and my expensive purchase of tiny face monitors. The very idea of a clicker on a medium that involves physical pain if I play it too long sounds like the last thing I need. Kudos for trying though, its more than I have done.

Re: Why I lost $42,500 making a VR game

#49

Post by filamentWow »

Kind of pretty much clickbait, since no real money was expended across bank accounts between two or more separate parties.

The author expounds on an appraisal of hypothetical money, if one imagine's that he paid himself all labor costs to perform the work.

He spent several months working on a video game that didn't do well, and made zero dollars.

Did I lose $6,000 dollars on a hypothetical bitcoin I never paid for in August, when the value dropped last week?

No, I left the $10,000 dollars in my bank account, and I still have $10,000, and/or whatever real goods or services I purchased with said money.

Re: Why I lost $42,500 making a VR game

#50

Post by underwater »

rasz wrote: post #47
joenathanone wrote: post #15

Check out the reviews of the game. https://store.steampowered.com/app/528930/Fruit_for_the_Vill... There are three reviews and they are all negative. Maybe the only reason he didn't make money is it's just not a good game.

Even the movie that plays on Steam game page tells you this game sucks in first 20 seconds! : 'not glamorous, tiring, Lather, rinse, repeat, over and over, and it will suck'

Wow, you weren't exaggerating. I can't imagine a worse possible voice-over for the trailer.
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