(8 games planned over 8 years. Announced before first game was finished. Currently on third. Fourth is coming this year. Need to finish third before then. :/ )
Depends on the first games popularity, if it was popular, give them a bit of time to get hyped about it. BD If it wasn't that popular, then release it soon, I suppose lol. I bet it's awesome though :3
Warhammer Online was hyped by the greatest masters of hype to ever touch the MMO field. Everyone and their mother had a copy of the game, if not a $200 deluxe edition. Countless numbers of players were awaiting what was promised to be the Holy Messiah of online gaming, a return to truth, justice, and the American way!
Then people actually played the game and while it wasn't a bad game and easily a very good MMO in its own right, it didn't live up to the HYPE! They hyped the game so much that the HYPE ITSELF KILLED IT! The game was nothing like what people thought it would be. They were expecting the return of Dark Age of Camelot, the return of epic World PVP, but the developers had changed so much about the mechanics that it was just another World of Warcraft clone. That wasn't what the hype led people to believe and so the game crashed and burned a slow death.
1) Does the game you have out now have a conclusive ending, or does it NEED a sequel to finish the story?
This is something that can put people off from getting the first game, if they aren't sure the second will come out.
2) How certain are you that the sequel will come to be?
Ideally, you want to announce the sequel while people are still pumped about the first game. But you can't leave them hanging too long or they'll lose interest. Again, ideally you'll release the sequel as the downloads for the first game are dying down.
3) How long is the game? Should it even be a sequel? For a commercial title, this is a real issue. If the sequel is short, players may feel you chopped the game up to milk it for more money (see: Syberia, the Big Fish version vs. retail). Would it be better as DLC for the first game?
4) How established are you in the eyes of your customers? When Blue Tea Games announces a new Dark Parables title in development, I'm fairly certain it will come to be, based on their track record of producing games. If it's a company with only one title out, I'm a little more leery.
Edit: As for "Hype", I only have two words: Daikatana.
Most games only reveal themselves after they have certain elements set in stone, like you have maps finished that you know you won't change, or the story, or something. You need to be sure you have some concrete information before you go public. Hype isn't bad, but you don't want the game you originally hyped to eventually be released as something radically different than promised.
In other words, Don't pull a Peter Molyneux, only talk about what you are sure is already going to make it into your game.
I tend to reveal "teasers" quite early on, and it worked for quite some time, but now I refrain a bit from doing it cuz my workload can suddenly become quite crazy, pushing further away potential new releases. In general, if you're fairly sure about your release date, I'd say it's fine starting teasing your audience with pics and arts. But who can be fairly sure of a release date? That's a whole other debate.
Absolutely positive, I've had the entire series planned for years.
Ideally, you want to announce the sequel while people are still pumped about the first game. But you can't leave them hanging too long or they'll lose interest. Again, ideally you'll release the sequel as the downloads for the first game are dying down.
This just isn't feasible in my case... I understand what you mean about announcing the sequel while people are still into the first game, though. However,
There is a plug for the sequel (and basically the rest of the series as well) at the very end of the first game, does this count?
3) How long is the game? Should it even be a sequel? For a commercial title, this is a real issue. If the sequel is short, players may feel you chopped the game up to milk it for more money (see: Syberia, the Big Fish version vs. retail). Would it be better as DLC for the first game?
It will be plenty long enough and just as fully-featured as the first, if not more.
4) How established are you in the eyes of your customers? When Blue Tea Games announces a new Dark Parables title in development, I'm fairly certain it will come to be, based on their track record of producing games. If it's a company with only one title out, I'm a little more leery.
Well, seeing as this is my first commercial game (and really, my first full game ever), all I really have is my word, and I'm passionate about my ideals; my work is very personal for me, and this is really what I want to do.
Like I said before, however, due to the massive scale of my plans and the fact that I'm doing all the graphics and such myself, it will probably be a good few years before the game is anywhere near completion.
aozgolo said:
Most games only reveal themselves after they have certain elements set in stone, like you have maps finished that you know you won't change, or the story, or something. You need to be sure you have some concrete information before you go public. Hype isn't bad, but you don't want the game you originally hyped to eventually be released as something radically different than promised.
In other words, Don't pull a Peter Molyneux, only talk about what you are sure is already going to make it into your game.
As I said, mostly everything is already planned out; it's just a matter of me acting upon my plans and improvising here and there. That really doesn't capture the depth and scale of what I have in the works, however...
Cartoonier cloud cover that better fits the art style, as well as (slightly) improved blending/fading... fading clouds when there are larger patterns is still somewhat abrupt for some reason.
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