App Store Rant.... Is it time to give up on any lasting game design morals?

StormyStudio

A few years ago, you could spend your time creating a half decent game with a bit of passion and hope for a 'New and noteworthy' mention on the Apple App Store and be in the running for moderate sales and some possible chart placement.

It then got so busy on the app stores, that the chances of a chart position and coverage was watered down significantly. It did however feel like a fair market. Everyone started raising the bar with their indie titles and discussion about levels of polish, marketing and cross promotion reached fever pitch. Everyone started saying the free to play game model was the future.

The app stores then evolved again and stores of the world are now constantly full of free clones (and paid). Constant UN-stoppable clone armies releasing a zillion offspring of the same simple game idea. It's always happened but now the speed and the success of the clones is quite incredible. Once every fortnight a new free hit game seems to work its way through the free ranks, whether through legitimate sales or other techniques. Days later the clones follow.

I don't have any hatred towards those that make the clones and cash in whilst they can. (Partly because my avatar is a stormtrooper), The market is obviously there for the clones so why not. Plus it no doubt introduces lots of new developers to the world of game design and after their first release they may make something original. I just wish the market for clones wasn't quite so ripe.

At the moment it seems they're here to stay as Apple, Google and Amazon are doing little to prevent the free charts being full of it and it's not directly hurting them 'yet', so why should they.

By comparison the paid charts are still mostly full of the same hit games that have been around for years in one guise or another. The odd break through game shines through and hangs around for some time normally after receiving the holy grail of promotion 'the Apple Featured App'.

It all comes together to make the app store harder than ever to crack with the look of a landfill site full of beautifully crafted games buried under tonnes of clones.

So what to do?

It's tricky to know the best course to take, I love making games for fun and hope to release interesting memorable games but I also dream of eventually earning a decent full-time living doing it. So much so that maybe I should consider releasing clones and give up on my game design aspirations. Money isn't everything but it is damn handy.

Join the Dark Side

Start making your own clones from scratch, or re-skinning cheap templates and release lots of titles. Pack them full of adverts and cross promote one another.

Make it quick, original and cheap

Start making lots of simple games, with addictive one touch gameplay, with cute cheap artwork and start releasing them in the hope that one of them succeeds and is promptly cloned. You'd still hope to make a decent return if you're the successful title everyone wants to copy.

Make it slow, make it beautiful

Spend months and probably years making your perfect game. With gameplay complicated enough that a lot of the cloners won't have the time, patience or skill to copy it. Then pray a very large bucket of luck arrives to accompany the release.

Make it simple, make it multiplayer, make it cheap-ish

Spend a little time on a very basic one touch game idea, build in some async multiplayer gameplay, stylish original graphics and release. If the game is a hit the cloners may struggle to churn out a clone straight away as async multiplayer currently takes a bit of time to implement. Original character design might also help a game stand out from the crowed i.e. 'Dumb Ways to Die' seem to have held their chart positions well.

But then maybe the app store will evolve again. Perhaps Apple and Google will figure out a way to fairly stop clones from being released. Perhaps new well made original game releases will pop up in the app stores and fend off the rubbish. Or perhaps I'll finish my next game, release it, where it coughs, splutters and dies and I'll just sit and play 'threes', '2048' or 'flappy 2048' or etc etc.. and stop worrying about it.

Most of all for me, I just need to finish a project and get it out the door. I've tinkered, learnt and built lots of things but not released anything in over a year. Recently I blame 'Game of Thrones'.

Hopscotch

@StormyStudio‌ , the Stormtrooper with bruised ideology!

Come on, pick yourself up and fight I say!

As an Indie (and cloners are not Indies) you have to take the middle ground,

Original, Beautiful and Quick.

StormyStudio

and...

quantumsheep

iamcartez

I say make something good and original and then make clones of your own game before others do it and get rich. Beat the system!

VGX

I don't know how to put this into words properly so I'll make it simple. Basically these days you will be wasting money getting your games on the appstores.

Android $25,
iOS $99,
GS $299

Android - You can just download the apk of a game off google (no torrent required) and install it on your device with some random file manager and also all of the below...

iOS - Flappy Bird, Angry Bird, Tiny Wings, Threes, Temple Run, cloned, cloned, cloned, cloned, cloned, iAP, Timers, EA, etc...

GS - Spinning wheel (automatically a rubbish game)

jonmulcahy

I think integrating multiplayer is something to keep the yourself above the rest. Most people don't have the skills to copy it, and if they do, it's not a plug and play system. It takes months of development.

that's what I'm hoping for at least

Hopscotch

don't worry anyone, here is a clipping from the future!

VGX

imGua

imGua

@iamcartez said:
I say make something good and original and then make clones of your own game before others do it and get rich. Beat the system!

Game industry is already doing this, but they call it sequels and franchises.

Socks

I say we round up the template makers and shoot them

If any one thing has contributed to the situation (beyond Apple/Amazon/Google allowing blatant IP infringement to become commonplace) it's those people fuelling the cloning mayhem by selling pixel perfect counterfeit kits of any game that becomes even moderately popular.

Stormy Studio's own templates are a great example of what is great about templates, original ideas for you to pull apart and make something new with, not one Angry Birds or 2048 copy, but that's not the case with most template makers, the majority simply counterfeit an existing game, even down the font and sell it to anyone who has $15.

I got an email this morning selling me a 2048 template, it was a brilliant piece of work, it seriously looked exactly like the original, the GS programming was about as good as it gets, an impressive effort . . . but if I were the originator of 2048 (which took its lead from 'threes') or any of the projects that gain moderate success then fall into the hands of the template makers, a project I had put my life and soul into for weeks or months or even years, and I was sent an email offering me a fully working counterfeit kit, I would be heartbroken to see my work stolen and sold on the open market like this.

I can't state enough how the cloned template makers are a large part of this problem.

iamcartez

@imGua said:
Game industry is already doing this, but they call it sequels and franchises.

You're so right haha... It didn't hit me how long companies have been doing this until I searched Disney mobile games and saw...

Where's My Water ---> Where's My Perry ---> Where's My Mickey

Then I saw, Frozen Free Fall (their Candy Crush) and then Maleficent Free Fall.

After that I saw the light....

Armelline

I agree completely here with @Socks, and particularly regarding the difference between templates and "clone" templates.

There's definitely a market for templates, but they should be original ideas or reducing work on commonly needed things. Once I had my 2048 knock-off working just right I seriously considered releasing it as a template, but at the end of the day it just didn't sit right with me. I made it for the fun of working it out, not for money. I just didn't want to be part of the problem.

I think it's also important to note though that the template problem expands to ALL methods of creating games. I was surprised to see you can buy full-on Xcode templates for popular games too.

I really do think this is part of the cycle of games, though. It's happened in most generations of gaming, on computers and consoles and now phones. The barrier of entry now is lower than it's ever been, though, so the problem is even worse than ever before. But it will pass. Eventually.

Thunder_Child

@StormyStudio‌ yes quite the irony storm troopers are a massive clone from an original master template. I think you can be more than a trooper...go Sith on the market. The Sith wanted peace just as the Jedi...use your unlimited powa and control the galaxy once more...and there...shall...be peace...

Dont be the clone...dont be the young apprentice....be the masta !

FallacyStudios

@StormyStudio After coming to the same conclusion as yourself, I recently decided to start taking the route of the "Make it quick, easy, and cheap" lol. Got tired of spending lots of time when all the cheapos keep hitting the top charts. I also decided to clone my own games. This way I can release more games faster. It isn't what I prefer, but it was the option I figured might be best until the burden of income isn't as heavy.

On a side note, I think a really intelligent option Apple or Google should take is on the developers app page they must specify if it is a clone or not. If it is, it gets placed into an alternate market that doesn't directly compete with the main market. People that want to enjoy clones will have an easier time finding them, and all the rubbish gets brushed aside to let the gems shine through easier. Just my thought anyhow.

Hopscotch

@FallacyStudios, I think letting Apple or Google decide what is a quality game or a clone etc can only backfire on us indies.

It is such a subjective issue, where would you/they draw the line of what is still a clone and what innovates enough to stand on its own? What is considered a quality title and what not.

Just look at what a corrupt mess the Steam Greenlight system has become.

If we indies don't find a way to counter the cloning ourselves then the consequence will be that Apple, Google, etc. will divide the stores. They will create a triple A store for the big well known and established studios, and one for the commoners. Guess where the indies will fall into? We will then be even less visible and still be lumped with all the garbage which makes up the majority of the apps. And that will be the end of "indie".

StormyStudio

@Hopscotch said:
don't worry anyone, here is a clipping from the future!

I absolutely love that...

Some great replies in the thread.

As always the answer will no doubt be to try and make and release the best game you can with the time , skill and enthusiam you can muster. Plus maybe do the odd quicker game in between.

Although I'd quite like to work for the dark side (clone army) just so I can say 'rebel scum!!' Now and then.

Move along, move along.

FallacyStudios

@Hopscotch True. It could backfire.

Moik

It's a war of presence and SEO. Twitter endorsements, community backing, and any other forms of 'grassroot groundswell support' will push a game above the clutter to reach the roiling tide of unclaimed casuals.

The fatal flaw of cloners is that they have a disposition that doesn't want to put in work. They look for the path of least resistance rather than the most effective actions. Each step we take to start edging them out will start putting them behind. Individually, we can probably outplay cloners through brute force of extra effort promoting. As a group, if we really dig in and organize to go for blood, we can negate them for our best creators.

The big thing now is Blasts. If the best creators were to make "Support Day" threads as they finished their projects, give a date two weeks away, and then everyone showed up on that date, downloaded, paid, and rated, it would push the game up the ranks for that week or day. It would get further notice beyond ourselves.

Passing money around between ourselves recycles at a loss as the stores take their cut. But, each time we break through that cusp, we'll be getting out to casuals who will provide new wealth into the community. We would be subsidizing ourselves in order to export content basically.

dgackey

Moik has a lot of good points. Having a great game and a fun game are critical, but the work doesn't end there. In fact, it's just begun.

If you want to protect yourself from cloners and rip-offs, what you need is a strong brand and a loyal following. After all, any half-decent band can learn how to play the songs of the Rolling Stones, and they might even find a singer who can strut sort of like Mick does and perform an adequate impersonation of his howl.

That won't ever stop people from following the Stones, though, because people want the original, they want that something that the cover bands can't give them.

You want to get to a point where people start saying "oh, one of my favorite devs has a new game out, I'm buying that for sure" before they even read what the game is about. Some of it may be people wanting to support you, some of it may be people knowing that they love the things you create and no longer need to consider the value proposition.

It's not an easy place to get to, but games is a hit-driven industry, and the best way to succeed in a hit-driven industry is to obtain the ability to make your own hits.

Loaded

@Moik said:
It's a war of presence and SEO. Twitter endorsements, community backing, and any other forms of 'grassroot groundswell support' will push a game above the clutter to reach the roiling tide of unclaimed casuals.

The fatal flaw of cloners is that they have a disposition that doesn't want to put in work. They look for the path of least resistance rather than the most effective actions. Each step we take to start edging them out will start putting them behind. Individually, we can probably outplay cloners through brute force of extra effort promoting. As a group, if we really dig in and organize to go for blood, we can negate them for our best creators.

The big thing now is Blasts. If the best creators were to make "Support Day" threads as they finished their projects, give a date two weeks away, and then everyone showed up on that date, downloaded, paid, and rated, it would push the game up the ranks for that week or day. It would get further notice beyond ourselves.

Passing money around between ourselves recycles at a loss as the stores take their cut. But, each time we break through that cusp, we'll be getting out to casuals who will provide new wealth into the community. We would be subsidizing ourselves in order to export content basically.

Totally agree, presence and exposure is the key. How we attain that is harder to answer, I like the support day idea...

Socks

Great thread, good perspectives and good ideas . . . .

BazookaTime

I spent two years working on Whack-O-Wrestling. During that time, I worked with a number of talented artists and developers and poured about $10,000 into the project. In the end, WOW made less than $5. Due to that colossal failure I now only make arcade type games and every game I have made takes less than a Month and easily makes more than WOW. (still pathetic but not a loss)

I have tried original ideas, semi original ideas and templates, I have worked with great people and I have tried a variety of income options and still have zero idea how to succeed at this.

I am lucky that I do this as a hobby and because I enjoy it, otherwise I would be incredibly depressed.

jamie_c

I haven't been at it as long as many of the people here but to me it seems like a total crap shoot these days. You can have a complex game that took months to build, a quick arcade game you made in a month or a clone and if you happen to get lucky (reviewed by some youtuber, featured by Apple, whatever) you can make some real money. Otherwise the game just chugs along and gets a few downloads a day and makes a couple dollars here and there.

I'm truly doing this as a hobby for fun so I'm fine with a 'few dollars here and there' but I have to admit it would be great to experience a real hit someday...

lycettebros

Yep I know how you feel Stormy. In the end do what you love and love what you do and bugger the rest.

@Moik is onto some good stuff there. Mobilise the community!

Moik

@dgackey said:
You want to get to a point where people start saying "oh, one of my favorite devs has a new game out, I'm buying that for sure" before they even read what the game is about. Some of it may be people wanting to support you, some of it may be people knowing that they love the things you create and no longer need to consider the value proposition.

It's not an easy place to get to, but games is a hit-driven industry, and the best way to succeed in a hit-driven industry is to obtain the ability to make your own hits.

I remember a buddy suggesting Game Dev Story to me. I grabbed it and liked it, then did nothing else. Later, the same buddy told me the Game Dev Story people had released another game, Hot Spring Story. I grabbed it, and liked it, and thought 'these Kairosoft guys are pretty good. I should watch for them.', and promptly forgot to keep watching for them. Later, same buddy tells me the Game Dev Story/Hot Springs Story guys made another game, Grand Prix Story. I grabbed it, LOVED it, and thought "Okay, I need to stop forgetting these guys." I've been following them ever since. I've bought every game they've put out on iOS and get legit piqued over the fact that they give their Droid release schedule more love. I think something like 12 out of my 15 iTunes Paid Game receipts are for Kairosoft games.

Going with the music/Stones analogy. The various friends and co-workers I know who are in bands have mentioned that the 'cusp' for being professional is 1,000 fans. Once you have 1,000 die-hard fans you're basically set. You can quit your job and just do shows and sell merch the rest of your days. Probably we can set a goal like that as the Game Salad Cusp, and help each other work toward it. Something like 10,000 Twitter followers maybe. We each do outreach to grow our followings then suggest each other now and then. Then, whenever you have a release, you have 10,000 twitter followers who may grab it day-1 and help give it a chance at the charts and natural organic growth.

StormyStudio

@dgackey said:
If you want to protect yourself from cloners and rip-offs, what you need is a strong brand and a loyal following. After all, any half-decent band can learn how to play the songs of the Rolling Stones, and they might even find a singer who can strut sort of like Mick does and perform an adequate impersonation of his howl.

Definitely a very valid point and something we can all strive for.

I guess to succeed in that we just need to be bloody good at game design, from concept to completion. Continue to keep pluggin away. Put a lot of love into a game and the players, reviewers and social networks might take notice.

'Vlambeer', the current anti-clone indie darlings of the world seem to do that very well. Though they did release a lot of titles over a short amount of time, the games all had a certain 'something.

Plus with the success of Super Crate Box and later Ridiculous Fishing (ignoring the clone issue) they look set to have an allegiance following their future game releases for years to come.

Hmm food for thought...

Goes back to stare at his own distant game project... and has his thoughts battled against by star wars quotes.

STORMY: "The guys on the forum are right, I'll make a great game and make it to the top of the charts"

C3PO: The possibility of successfully navigating an app store chart is approximately 3,720 to 1.

STORMY: "Never tell me the odds."

DARTH: “Give yourself to the Dark Side. It is the only way you can.. sell your games. Yes; your thoughts betray you. Your feelings for your games are strong. Especially for your… lastest game project. So, you have a new game. Your feelings have now betrayed that too. Obi-Wan was wise to hide it from me. Now, his failure is complete. If you will not turn to the Dark Side… then perhaps your new game will…”

STORMY: “I have a bad feeling about this.”

"Is that a moon in the sky?"

OBI_WAN: “That’s no moon.”

STORMY: “IT’S A TRAP.”

Armelline

@Confucius said:
The superior man understands what is right; the inferior man understands what will sell.

dgackey

I never argue with Confucius, but I'm pretty sure he also said that a man can't pay his rent with virtue

unbeatenpixel

I want to say something with my bad english.

This is my fourth month.I hate many copy games but just I hate,if game never change.Because I believe,every idea can be better.We watched new series amazing spider man,only 2-3 years had elapsed from the previous one.They had a lots of money,writer,designer,they had everything but they wanted what people want and they created again.Now for my opinion,new series is better than old one.

So,every idea can improve and can be better than old one.I don't hate all of copy game because of that.As well as,if somebody copies my desing and famous,of course I would hate it.

In four month,I learned lots of things template,I gradeful deep blue apps and gshelper but also I never start template if I could not have a better.Don't blame,creator of template,some of this very useful.For now,My design skill better than my software skills but everyday it progress with templates,cookbook,gameguru youtube video etc.

Well,what can we do against them?

I believe,if she/he steal idea and never work on it.I suppose,They are lazy and they never compete us about promote step.We can beat this step.

otherelse,if we can add multiplayer option,they can't steal it.

Conclusion,I want to make games for living because I love it.Everyone should work what they want.I hope this industry gives us the chance.