Gamasutra - Competition Among Developers

[Couchpotato]

Robert Boyd of Zeboyd Games who is currently working on Cosmic Star Heroine shared his thoughts about "Competition Among Developers" in a new guest post on Gamasutra.

It’s not enough to make a good game. It’s not enough to make an excellent game. When I was at Playstation Experience 2014, I wandered around the indie section and pretty much every single game I saw looked like a high quality game. Despite that, I’m sure some of those games will not be financially successful.

Quality isn’t enough. If you make a quality game that’s similar to a thousand other quality games, you’re still competing against a thousand other quality games.

The way to be successful as an indie who doesn’t have the money to brute-force their way to success via marketing or better technology is to STOP COMPETING WITH EVERYONE ELSE. Make something that stands out. Make something that’s different. Make a game that gets people to think “I want this game and no other game out there is an adequate substitute.” Make something that’s worth buying. Make something that’s not “yet another” game. Make something that’s glorious. Make something that’s yours.

There’s room for more success in the game industry than we’ve ever seen before, but we need to all stop fighting over the same little pond with the same kind of games. Let the big companies duke it out over a few scraps; in the mean time, there’s a vast ocean awaiting us.

More information.

 

[TheSHEEEP]

Word.

 

[rjshae]

Making something different won't help you if you still can't find an audience. It has to be different but interesting.

 

[Zephyr]

Thing is, people buy what they've already bought. Look at fast food. People buy the same junk over and over. Same with games. As rjshae said, you have to find an audience in sufficient numbers to turn a profit. That's why game makers go with what's safe.

 

[ChienAboyeur]

Instead of trying to release those original games, the list of those good games could be released. It would be faster to compile and easier to deliver, as long as those good games exist.