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Did I just waste 3 years?

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Re: Did I just waste 3 years?

#281

Post by projektir »

Nition wrote: post #234
projektir wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This game looks obvious problematic as far as marketing goes in my opinion. I mean, just look at the name, for starters.

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…

But Stardew Valley is a much better name.

You may be right that a good name or a different engine won't save a game, but I don't think the game you chose as your point is one to demonstrate that.

> But people really like that game.

It seems most people haven't played it.

And there are often game with, say, awful graphics, that are awesome to play. It happens. That doesn't mean you should bank on it.

Re: Did I just waste 3 years?

#282

Post by derefr »

LrnByTeach wrote: post #277
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…

Great analysis.. this applies to so many areas of software development. Building games, websites, any thing software .. > 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. > Making g a game in 2018 is far more of a creative endeavor than anything to do with programming really. > You need a massive…

You know, there's an interesting relationship between the graphic-novel industry and the TV/film industry at this point. Many TV/film screenplays are adapted from graphic novels, because a graphic novel is, in a sense, a "sketch" of a film—it's something that communicates most of the top-down spirit of the eventual work, while also being something that is able to be produced by a single creator, and so something that is able to let a single creator's vision and talent shine through.

I'm left wondering why the video-game industry doesn't have at least some sub-sector with an analogous pipeline, adapting (or in this case, "covering") low-budget indie titles that don't have asset-polish into AAA games, by giving them that asset polish.

Re: Did I just waste 3 years?

#283

Post by plasma »

Is this a marketing problem? You mentioned ~1000 visitors to your store page, I'm not surprised there are no sales yet.

Good luck and don't be too disheartened, you've already put in the large amount of work needed, now just spend some time trying to market in order to get some return.

Re: Did I just waste 3 years?

#284

Post by azernik »

gmueckl wrote: post #253
Nokinside wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If a lone programmer wants to write tight code for games, they should build game engines or libraries that games can use and then sell those to game developers. There exists large value added chain for specialized tools, arts and libraries.

Except that it turns out that artists and game programmers are too cheap to pay for tools, even if you can present them with a clear benefit in terms of productivity gain vs. sales price. To make matters worse, big companies that could afford those tools will generally only buy exceptionally well established tools and rebuild the rest from scratch in-house. The only way to make money with games is to sell games.

They're absolutely not "too cheap" for that - it's just a saturated market. Don't start a new company, look for a job working at Autodesk or Havok or Unity or Crytek or one of the dozen other companies that makes bank off of selling professional tools to professional game developers

Re: Did I just waste 3 years?

#285

Post by derefr »

scrollaway wrote: post #247
giancarlostoro wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Stardew Valley is an interesting case in that the developer didn't really need to invent anything. They took a formula (the Harvest Moon series), produced a clone, and then polished the hell out of it in response to community demands until it was hardly recognizable.

None of that really required an act of genius creative talent, though. Learning enough about audio production to create the set of SFX and music you already know you need from the top-down design of the clone-game you already know you're aiming for is effectively "just" grunt work. Sort of like how an actor learning the exact set of martial-arts moves they need to know to look like they know martial arts in one particular shot, which is intensely choreographed, is "just" grunt work. Stardew Valley's creator didn't need to develop the skills to be an amazing artist or musician, they just needed—like the actor—to develop the skills to create a particular pastiche of existing pieces of art and music.

The creator of Stardew Valley is, however, a natural talent at the particular meta-skill of "finding out what people want and tweaking things in response to those wants, never settling for doing 'merely' what they know how to do with the skills they already have, rather pushing themselves to the skill-level required to make people even more happy."

Re: Did I just waste 3 years?

#287

Post by projektir »

eterm wrote: post #197

If you look at most of the recent smash hit indie games\* they really don't innovate graphically at all, instead they bring something new to the table in terms of gameplay. Most are "rogue-lite" which is a hot genre right now but all have something that make them stand out. Rogue like games have the potential to become indie hits because they are very good for twitch/youtube audiences, because in general, up until th…

> Compare that to Slay the Spire, which has very basic art

Basic is not what I would call this.

But I think we shouldn't confuse graphics fidelity with quality. You can have an ugly pixel art game or a pretty pixel art game.

Re: Did I just waste 3 years?

#288

Post by blunte »

If you look at successful entrepreneurs (or basically anyone who has gone the less ordinary path and reached some level of success), you'll usually see a list of failure or at least non-successes prior to the success you see them enjoying today. Same goes for artists and entertainers who become "overnight successes". It wasn't overnight for them!

So you've done good work and gotten not the return you expected... it might take one more game or 10 more games. Or this game might lead you to meeting people that can help you be more successful in the future.

It's ok to "give up" and move on too. You can stay the course and probably eventually become successful, but if you have other interesting things to do and less interest in continuing gamedev, then go try something new.

Re: Did I just waste 3 years?

#290

Post by WalterBright »

kayamon wrote: post #270
WalterBright wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Do you ever think about getting back into games?

Sometimes. But Empire was a bestselling game, and it still didn't work out to much money. My hourly rate was pathetic :-)
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