How to attract audience into liking your game?

[Elliott404]

I know this might be a dumb question but, as someone who is working on RPG maker project for the 1st time (well, more like experimenting on it for a year), it got my curiosity. . . What contents do audience seek in a game, beside visuals, regardless of its rate (be it Mature, or Every age), length of gameplay (be it short or long hours)? How can I attract different kinds of audience?

What contents do audience hate to see in a game?
As an RPG maker player myself, I do have 3 things I hate in some games:
1) 4th wall break: not gonna lie. Undertale (I know it's a GMS2), and One Shot were exceptionals. While I did enjoyed playing them, but I've never considered them as "OMG!!! BEST GAME EVER!!".
But honestly, if I wanted to play a game, I'd want to treat it as a video game without having the game treating the characters as if they are real ppl.
I mean, no matter how much we've adored, and loved a game character, in the end, they're still fictional. And, 4th wall breaks don't necessary work in everything especially if a game is forcing itself to be deep or woke. I'm sorry if I was harsh on that point. .

2) Games that are literally. . . One Shot. Okay, One Shot Steam version was actually better than the free version, and I liked it because of how the steam version got rid of the option where if you quit, the entire game will die. Yea. . . I am still haunted by the free version. . . .

3) Voice Acting: I understand that voice actors/actresses worked/working hard on their part, but honestly, some of them would fail to execute the emotions which most game scenes has. Like, even if the situations are tense, some VA would sound pretty cringy that makes it hard to take it seriously. . . I'm sorry if I was harsh again. . .

That's the point I was referring to. I know I never mentioned some contents I'd want to see since I kind of have various tastes in games I've played, and I strangely find it hard to figure what I seek. . Well, mostly Visuals, and good plots.

So, any advice I should consider? And again, I'm sorry if I was harsh on some games I've mentioned.

 

[TheoAllen]

First off, you may need to have what people could like in your game. Once you know what they could like, work on it. If you want to go battle heavy game, then go polish your battle system. If you want to go for the story, then polish the story. You may want to attract a different kind of customer, but in the end, only a certain kind of people will play your game. This is important to know who is your target audience and work toward them.

Once you have the draft and everything, you can try to keep promoting it. Try some kind of development log by using a blog, participate the popular #screenshotsaturday, make a social media account, or just talk about your game to your friends. It's usually to build up hype and expectation. Early recognition is good so that you will have a player base who may want to try your game once it's released.

 

[BadLittleSeed]

The type of audience you attract is going to depend on the type of game you're designing. I had a similar discussion with @Finnuval about content/difficulty in RPGs, for example. Not everyone is going to like long dialogue, cutscenes every time there's a new event, or brain-wracking puzzles that make you want to pull your hair out.

But then again there are people who love and live for those things (and I agree, let's leave 4th wall to the professionals, like Deadpool). I also agree with Theo - you gotta do a little research into prospective audiences, once you've decided on the genre of your game.

 

[Finnuval]

I second both statements made so far There is no such thing as a single audience so decide which audience you target first.

 

[MushroomCake28]

I second all of the above, with a particular emphasis on the notion of target audience (people who love FPS games usually aren't big fans of RPGs for example).

 

[Elliott404]

Thank you all for your share of advices.

I was quite slow to consider about this topic until few days ago, when I've stumbled upon topics about some game devs and the reviews they've recieved in return.

I mean, I can't imagine being in a position where I've worked so hard on a game only to be harshly critized for it. So, I wanted to have/learn some advices from those who are quite experienced.

Yea, I do want ppl/audience to like my game as I much as I love making it, but that is quite impossible. So at least, appreciating it without hating it would be sufficient.

 

[Prescott]

Before you even think about this, you should be learning how to fully use the editor. Make a few games that you would like. Share them with friends or even here on the forums. See what people like and what people don't like. Take that into consideration. All the while, play other games similar to the ones you want to make. See what people like and what people don't from reviews. See what you like and what you don't. All of this information is very valuable to understanding what people want to see from a game.

Don't ever feel like you have to make a game that everyone will like though, because it won't happen. Know your audience.

One point I would like to dispute is voice acting. If it's something you can't get rid of, yeah, that really sucks. My game does have voice acting for the main story and you can turn it off if you wish, but I genuinely believe if people turn it off it won't be because their performances are terrible, it will be because they just don't want to listen to the voice acting. Either way is completely fine, because there's an option to turn it off and it asks you at the beginning of the game.

A lot of things can be solved with a simple option. It will be more costly for you as a developer, but ultimately, it will help more people enjoy your game and help it to reach a larger audience. Stuff like difficulty settings (if well implemented), keyboard bindings, and even a "night mode" where the screen will never fade to white seem small but can go a long way.

 

[Elliott404]

I am still working on editor for many things, mostly skills. I've literally made a skill bank for as many kinds as I could, but, 2-3 of them required Yanfly's Battle Core plugins; I still am struggling with one of them to make it work, but I've put it on a hold since I don't want to waste my time on it only (I'll get back to it sooner or later tho). I've made several Common Events as well.

I've made several maps with the default tilesets, even the parallax ones, including doodads in game test just for experiments. Same goes with sprites generator, events, and cutscenes. I could hire an artist for custom sprites, but I wanted to get used to the mechanics and devs as much as I can before considering hiring one.

And yea, on the way, I realized that I hate making custom sprites since they are time consuming (it might be otherwise to others). And my lighting skills are quite weak, I'd either use Terrax lighting plugin or hire an artist for lighting effects, or both.

On the positive side, I've realized that I enjoy making maps despite that it requires a skill to make it eye-catchy, cutscenes, events more.

And I know I can't make a game that'd miraculously satisfy everyone; that's just impossible, sadly.

And tbh, I did considered making some games before thinking about the project I am working on but, it's quite difficult since I am focusing on it. I am starting to think that even a demo version would be early for it too.

 

[Prescott]

This is a little bit off topic as it doesn't relate much to people liking your game and more to just game dev in general, but here's a very blunt cautionary tale for you, and one that I tell other new/young developers. It's up to you whether or not you want to take this advice and I don't mean to sound pushy, but trust me when I say that you NEED to make some quick games that explore your ideas and the engine itself before you go on to do a larger scale project. I'm not saying it's not possible, but it's very hard and burn out will be much more prevalent if you try to go to a huge thing right off the bat. There are many devs that struggle with this and never finish anything they start because they get a grand idea, put a lot of time into it, get burnt out, then have another grand idea and the cycle continues. It has happened to all of us.

When I first started using RPG Maker, right when XP had come out, I did this every single time I was going to make a new game. Zelda fan games, open world exploration games, slice of life stuff, space epics, so many good ideas were wasted because I went through that cycle. It did help me with what it needed to though, and that was plenty of experience in the engine and a lot of knowledge of how I worked and what I needed to avoid or pursuit. However, because I got stuck in this cycle for so long, for the decade plus that I've been in the community and worked with RPG Maker, I've only 2 "real" games to show for it, both of which were much smaller endeavors completed within the span of a few months.

Even with all of this experience, I have been developing an open world RPG for the past 3 years. It's been incredibly rough because I didn't allow myself to release more games that were smaller in scope before it. I've learned a lot on this project alone about workflow which would have been much nicer to know BEFORE I started and I could have had that information had I created more games.

So, you have this awesome idea for a game. You don't want to lose it, that's good! My best advice would be to write down as much of the features and story that you have. It doesn't necessarily have to be super organized as it's only in a rough-draft sort of stage, I assume. Take some of those story elements, take some of those gameplay designs that you have in mind, and make them into micro-games that focus on only that one thing. You don't have to share them publicly or even to anyone if you don't want to, but having that experience of knowing how you work and what helps you succeed in your work flow shouldn't be underestimated. You'll find out what works and what doesn't from a bunch of different perspectives, so you can get a better feel of how to craft your big project. This is something I really wish I had realized earlier and you would do VERY WELL to follow that.

ABSOLUTELY do not hire anyone for your first few games. Artists love to get paid, but they also love to see their work in motion too. If you're paying for them, you want to make sure you can deliver the final product, for their sake and yours because you definitely don't want to be wasting your money. That being said, I have spent a decent chunk of money on this open world RPG of mine on art alone, and I have plenty of other people working for me that will be making royalties (which are generally bad unless someone would do the work for free in the first place and having the royalty is just a nice benefit), and it DOES help my drive to work on the game and finish it knowing I have so many people relying on me. You don't necessarily want to tie yourself down in that way if it's one of your first projects, though.

Like I said, take it or leave it, but this is coming from someone who has had a lot of experience in this stuff both personally and from what I've observed from other devs and I'm sure a lot of them would share the sentiment.

 

[Elliott404]

I understand where you're coming from, sir.

Yes, I use google docs to write down every ideas I come up with, edit them as much as I could to make it more interesting; and also to try not forget any major parts. My major problem is organizing the plot. How to start the game? How to deliver the game's/main character's objective without messing it up? I can come up with any events/cutscenes, but I end up having a hard time to where assemble them exactly.

In my opinion, 1st impression is the game dev's core (for some ppl). If you failed to execute one game, then delivering another would be difficult, even if it's better than the 1st one, or vice versa. (Worst case, some ppl wouldn't bother to look at it when they figure out the game dev). This might sound extreme, but that is one of my fears. This would explain about my stubborness into perfecting my project. . Because this would also affect ppl I'd hire reputation. .

(Maybe I should change the thread's title? To something more of an advice for new game devs?)

 

[Prescott]

If you approach the marketing of your "test" games to be strictly looking for feedback, and then iterating on that feedback and making the game better in aspects that people have mentioned, the whole first impression thing doesn't matter nearly as much. We're all game developers here, so releasing your game to a bunch of other game developers requesting feedback won't do much to deter people from playing your future projects unless you really show that you don't care or are unwilling to take the criticism. It's the same thing I tell to people who play at the open mic that I do, who are unsure of what the audience will think of them. Most of the audience are musicians, and we'll all be able to offer tips and helpful advice for performing but we won't ever know what to help you with until you just get up on that stage and do it. There will be some people that are really turned off, but those people are the ones that are likely to forget about your performance the next day anyway.

 

[Elliott404]

Thank you very much for your advices, sir.

 

[Prescott]

You're welcome, I'm looking forward to see what you put out

 

[slimmmeiske2]

General Lounge is more for off topic threads, that have nothing to do with game development.

I've moved this thread to General Discussion. Please be sure to post your threads in the correct forum next time. Thank you.

 

[Elliott404]

Oh. . I'm sorry about that.

 

[Seirein]

Given the games that get the most popularity nowadays, clearly the answer is to make it an obvious power-fantasy for male gamers where every female character is attractive, make the protagonist a Gary-Stu whose "flaws" never affect the story as they should, and make the entire plot all about telling the player that everyone other than themselves is an idiot.

 

[Elliott404]

That might work lol. If I wanted to attract some thirsty audience, I wouldn't need to worry about making a game like that.

Jokes aside, I've considered to make a powerful character but with skills restrictions (like disabling MP) to make it hard for the player to solve any puzzle that involves magic. But, I don't have any sense of creativity in regards of puzzles for this matter so I gave up.

 

[aniaaous]

facebook itch.io instagram pay for ads i guess

 

[Chaos17]

It's actually quite simple, put it on Steam. People love free games on it if you're ready to pay the entry fee. They can play anything that is free and even give feedbacks/reviews.

 

[Elliott404]

@Chaos17
I appreciate your advice, but I've made a decision to never set a foot near steam. I was thinking Itch.io is a better place since uploading a game is free there.