The perfect game formula (emulating the success of others), please discuss
StormyStudio
United KingdomMember Posts: 3,989
Last night I saw a news article on TV that said 'Angry Birds' which initially had cost $100,000 to make has now earnt over $40 million.
I knew it was successful but $40 million ... sheesh!
Ignoring its celebrity app status (it now has 3 game versions in the top 25), and the fact that games like it (doodle jump, Cut the Rope, Fruit Ninga) are destined to hang around at the top for ever. I believe the top 25 can still be broken into, Tiny Wings is proof of that.
I'm sure we've all thought it ourselves, how can we emulate that success, and what sort of game could do it.
So what aspects could make the perfect game.
Here's the current magic formula: (in my opinion)
(simple game mechanics + cute storyline) X (gorgeous graphics + game acheivements/rewards) = potential mega bucks
(No need for marketing, if its good it will do it on its own).
Formula in action:
Simple game mechanic
Click and pull finger at angle on screen to make character jump at angle the more you pull the further they will jump you have to jump from platform to platform without missing and make it to the end of the level)
Cute storyline
Your character is trying to get home to his poor little hungry family and feed them the food collected on route.
Gorgeous graphics
All done in a cute layered watercolour textured paper style, (not original but very nice).
Game Achievements
If you collect all the food on the way to see your family, you collect a large gold star, you can cash in stars at a store in the menu to build your family a better looking home.
Sorted... (???)
What makes the perfect game in your eyes?
And what stops a game that matches the formula from succeeding... ( my guess a little bucket of luck and good timing)
I knew it was successful but $40 million ... sheesh!
Ignoring its celebrity app status (it now has 3 game versions in the top 25), and the fact that games like it (doodle jump, Cut the Rope, Fruit Ninga) are destined to hang around at the top for ever. I believe the top 25 can still be broken into, Tiny Wings is proof of that.
I'm sure we've all thought it ourselves, how can we emulate that success, and what sort of game could do it.
So what aspects could make the perfect game.
Here's the current magic formula: (in my opinion)
(simple game mechanics + cute storyline) X (gorgeous graphics + game acheivements/rewards) = potential mega bucks
(No need for marketing, if its good it will do it on its own).
Formula in action:
Simple game mechanic
Click and pull finger at angle on screen to make character jump at angle the more you pull the further they will jump you have to jump from platform to platform without missing and make it to the end of the level)
Cute storyline
Your character is trying to get home to his poor little hungry family and feed them the food collected on route.
Gorgeous graphics
All done in a cute layered watercolour textured paper style, (not original but very nice).
Game Achievements
If you collect all the food on the way to see your family, you collect a large gold star, you can cash in stars at a store in the menu to build your family a better looking home.
Sorted... (???)
What makes the perfect game in your eyes?
And what stops a game that matches the formula from succeeding... ( my guess a little bucket of luck and good timing)
Comments
...
Nice screen shots, looks well made, the character could be cuter I guess...
How are sales doing so far...
If they're not great, what in your opinion is not right?
because it is too expensive
At the end of the month I'll post an update with how things are going.
- Nice music, but excellent control of the music starts and stops etc.
- Beautiful graphics, but every little detail is excellent (notice how the nest slowly slides down the hill when night hits.
- Great sound fx, not over used and well executed.
and on and on with Tiny Wings.
Doodle Jump just works, I wouldn't say it has tonnes of incredibly polished features, its simple and it works. Though 'Doodle Jump' may be a special case being one of the first app store super stars. Also I'm sure it did fairly badly when it was first launched and got a big boost in sales when 'The Jonas Brothers' said they liked it in a Smash Hit magazine interview...
I'm not knocking Doodle Jump, I loved it and was the first game I ever really played a lot of on my first idevice.
There are other factors of course - Canabalt, for example, got GameCantre very late in its life, and therefore, I'd imagine, a lot of people had moved on, but it still has over 80k in players.
Pix'n Love Rush (a lovely game) has just shy of 12k players on GameCentre.
On the other hand, some titles have a huge amount of GC players, but you can attribute some of that to a free promotion like FAAD. So they may have had a lot of downloads, but not sold that many.
But overall, you can get a general and very non-scientific
As to a formula for success.... well, that's something else entirely. I think having a good game is a start.
I also think offering something new or different, be it via audio, graphics or gameplay, will get you some attention.
There are so many 'me too' products out there (oh look - the 100th angry birds clone! Yay!) that when something is sufficiently good and different, or does something *really* well, then it will succeed.
So that's the formula in my eyes. Add something different to a good game!
QS
Dr. Sam Beckett never returned home...
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Quantum_Sheep
Web: https://quantumsheep.itch.io
http://www.mauronewmedia.com/blog/2011/02/why-angry-birds-is-so-successful-a-cognitive-teardown-of-the-user-experience/
Personally, I really like a game when it has graphics of any sort that appeal to my taste and seem appropriate, gameplay that I can figure out easily but takes me higher along a path of progressive learning, some tough challenges after I am hooked, but not so daunting that I feel like giving up, humour, and great sound. This last one is a tough thing to do as repartition grates, and taste in music varies, so to get something sorted for the whole audio side of things is difficult.
All in all it has to be really entertaining (Kudos to T-shirtbooth's Zombie drop, I really enjoyed it. In fact I did it at one sitting. It's a solid piece of work).
There is also a place for originality. When you are in a market with thousands of others, sometimes the only way is to stand out. I do like the unusual and seek out what indie games I can by searching for indie game blogs and charts. Some originals from over the years I really like include- Papa Rapa, The Passage, Ico, Fantastic Contraption, Gravitation, Osmos, Poto Cabenga... the list goes on and on. But all have originality about them in some way. And that originality sold them. Where did that originality come from?
For Will Wright of the Sims, it came from wanting to know about ants and their behaviour, for Yoot Siato of Sim Tower it was learn about the movement of lifts in tall building as it was a trade secret that the lift guys kept to themselves. Mark Essen has really different (punk?) attitude and while his games might not bring in the dosh he says really interesting things with them in a really entertaining way based on politics and morality. He has a huge fan base. His games might not be to everyone taste but I think they are very cool. And when it come to saying things with games, Jason Rohrer's the Passage says quite a lot. I am not saying just to go and get weird, quite the inverse. Bring something to the party that others will be interested in. Then if a flag goes up 'they may come'.
And can it be done with GS?
Well you have a tool that can do the majority of what any other can do in the world of 2d games. You don't have to learn code or employ a code head. On your desktop is more computing power than Nasa had when they landed a man on the moon and via the web you have more resources for knowledge than at anytime in history. On the store you do have a chance to get picked up by Apple if you stand out, and the big boys move slow. There must be some very smart free methods of marketing out there to be discovered, and stuff does go viral.
So to sum up this waffle-
Use your brain and experience to make the best you can do, use what really makes you laugh/engages you/you have discovered, search out new planets, and boldly split infinitives, and make stuff to the best of your abilities... it is all you can do. And if it ain't good enough... move onward and upwards.
'The impossible game'... had some success when it first came out on the iphone, but has since headed down the charts.
But then it has'nt got the cute storyline factor, but it's still very nice to play.
I'm not a fan of Angry Birds*** or Doodle jump**, but they somehow got in at "just the right time"
In the history of iGaming. Hundreds of other similar games arrived months, weeks, or minutes? too late.
*being original is an educated gamble. Either low payback, or if it is just right - HUGE rewards ;-)
being an imitation is a safer bet, but returns will be mid level so-so.
**which strikes me as "a fragment of a game" rather than a complete experience.
we started from SMB and are just devolving?
***annoying graphics and sound, unbalanced gameplay = yech.
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I think your idea of collecting stuff to put in your house is a little off, I think people like new things that change the gameplay more. As you go, you get stronger, you get more abilities, something that changes the way you play, so you are churning forward for the next thing. The same gameplay elements get boring after a couple levels. So add a new bird with a new ability to play with, or a new type of block.
What's most important in the formula is polish, when something is really polished all the way through people feel it when they play it. Gameplay design, visual design and sound design.
I think the vast majority of problems I see with the GS community and its games, is that a lot of people expect to be Angry Birds but with a fraction of its quality and effort.
And I'll be the community nay sayer here, I think that templates are bad. I can see the value of using templates to get a handle on using the tool, but for anything beyond that you're giving yourself up to mediocrity. I understand that people make a good deal of money selling them, and I'm not here to poo-poo on that. But I think if you're serious about making excellent games, the last thing that should be on your mind is a rehash of someone else's template.
At the end of the day, hard work pays off and an relentless obsession with quality and polish, will pay off in dividends. If you start off with a good idea, the rest is golden if you just put 100% into it.
Polish is everything, you have an idea in your mind - execute it to flawless perfection! Of course once this happens it becomes a risk, whether it be just your time or your money as well there is a chance you won't see those profits return. However if you believe in your project, are getting supporting comments from people you show the WIP to and are willing to take that risk, don't fall short of your goals by not fully testing it out/getting feedback and ideas and fixing the problems before release. Smoothness in transitions, quality of presentation and having the game work fully as intended/promised in the app description will go a long way to securing returns imo.
Its a shame the appstore doesn't allow gameplay videos but it means gameplay won't really be shown and is often hard to explain fully - so the only things are reviews (which come after) and the screenshots. Hence the huge importance of the artwork to build interest
Often when you work on your game you come a long way and your mind fills in the blanks of what is acceptable/missing and you so don't forget it won't hurt to get some fresh perspective.
i was planning my own in-game achievements/unlocks