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Do I Have an Audience?

A topic by HouseRule created Feb 11, 2023 Views: 435 Replies: 14
Viewing posts 1 to 7
(6 edits)

I had a dream last night that was telling me I'm wasting time somewhere in my life. I'm wondering if the dream was about my recently acquired hobby of video game making. My game gets a lot of views, a few downloads, and no comments. I can't get people to engage with me about my work here or on Discord. I assume it's my graphics or genre choice.

I can reproduce any style, but I like my low rez straight forward graphics. I can make a game in any genre as well, but I like platformers, SHMUPS, and pinball because they challenge me without a huge investment of my time and mind. I have hobbies other than making video games. If my video game work isn't pleasing to players, I'll invest my time more wisely. Would you have any interest in a SHMUP or pinball game in these styles?


I recently got into SHMUPs through Pico-8.

I started playing pinball in the 70's. When arcades became a thing, I would play pinball machines. I could play a long time for a quarter. I didn't find the video games very interesting.

Moderator(+2)

Your games look fine in my opinion. People just don't make conversation easily.

Thank you.

It seems an anomaly that people don't want to converse with me. I've been involved in long discussions on forums about things other than video games. However, I've encountered some hostility in those discussions. If others here have as well, that may explain their reluctance to communicate.

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I used to try to enjoy all forms and genres of entertainment. I've had many varied experiences. However,  my taste in all things has recently  become very narrow. I've been interested in what is most important to me. That leaves me out of discussions I may have been willing to contribute to in the past.

I don't download games that have graphics or mechanics I don't enjoy, so I don't discuss them. I'm interested in why people look at my game and then don't download it. I assume some are interested in platformers, as that's what it says on the box.

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You've only made one game from what I can tell, so it's a bit early to conclude that you don't have an audience. Game development is about trial and error; the more games you make, the better your chance. As long as you enjoy your game, then you can never be surer you have an audience. As for people not wanting to converse on here, I don't think this forum as active as the games page.

If my work doesn't serve others, it's not worthwhile. I've been an entertainer most my life. I need people to experience enjoyment from what I like to do. I think I could make a game based on trends that would do well, but I would be miserable in the process. I've been singing and playing a curated set of old pop songs on classical guitar. I've been enjoying the work. In the warmer weather, I will find out if others enjoy my work. If not, I'll try something else.

(3 edits) (+2)

With regards to the audience: we live in times where you need to pay for people to play your stuff, regardless how good the product is.... in order to build an audience.

The problem here is, that we're catering to each other (content creators), lol... but not to the audience that is stuck at YouTube, Twitter, Steam (or other marketing platforms) , that we can't reach... thanks to Google, facebook, Disney+, Netflix, Crypto, Politics, slide-show channels, unboxers, and other advertisers who pay huge money to get that last bit of audience that is out not looking for mainstream. And even for them it becomes harder and harder

Bottom line, it's not worth thinking about whether you have an audience or not. Do it for yourself, is the best approach

I have recently also created a game, mostly for myself, as I always wanted to play a game that features slightly more advanced opponent multiplayer AI in 6DoF, and there was no other game than Forsaken 64 who featured such. Win win

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It's occurred to me since I posted that I'm expecting camaraderie  from this video game endeavor. I'm being made to understand that doesn't happen in the indie dev community in a big way. I've been thinking about running Heroscape games in public. I've determined that my main goal in life has been to find friends. I'll keep trying different things to facilitate that.

My game page has gotten more views since I posted this thread, but no downloads. If you have looked at the game page without downloading, why were you not interested in the game?

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I think your own words on that game's comment section answers your question: ". . . the game is simply a platformer." 

If it's "simply a platformer" then what's the appeal? The vast majority of people who come to Itch.io have played a platformer of some kind, so unless your game offers something special to that genre, there's not much incentive to try it out.  

That being said, adding a gif of the gameplay would 1) make the game page more interesting  and 2) show people what it looks like in action.

I play a lot of platformers from itch. Are you saying I'm in a minority, and the silent majority is passing up my game because I don't have unique mechanisms? If so, I definitely don't belong here. I crafted the game to meet my desires.

I don't think the game needs a gif. It's a platformer. I would be stating the obvious with a distracting display that some players might consider a spoiler.

If the game you made makes you happy everything after that is just extra icing on the cake. This is the exact same philosophy I've taken with my own game in the over-saturated shmup genre.  I want to make a game that pleases me, and if it pleases others, cool. 

Even though the basic idea behind a platformer is well-known, a gif is still useful because it shows how the character is animated and how realistic (or exaggerated) the physics are. I don't play many platformers, but one I downloaded recently from Steam was "Ori and the Will of the Wisps". Besides the cool art style, what sold me on it was seeing how the character moved and interacted with the environment.

Not having a gif for your game is like a musician not releasing samples of their latest song or a blockbuster movie without a movie trailer. Heck, even books sometimes use trailers to attract readers.

The human eye is drawn to movement. Use Gifs. 

Each room has a certain way to pass through. Posting action would be a spoiler. Did you not download the game because you thought the animation might be terrible?

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I also don't want to be the 1st person to post a speedrun of my own game. I made it. I make it look easy.