Survey on RPGs

[SJWebster]

I've put together a short Survey Monkey questionairre to help influence my projects. I'd appreciate anyone here taking five minutes to fill it in. I'd also be more than happy to share the results with the community if you'd like.

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/LSGKMXS

 

[Finnuval]

done

 

[Kes]

I cannot see how this is a 'Discussion', nor how it specifically relates to commercial games.
[move]General Lounge[/move]

 

[Fernyfer775]

Done!

 

[D.L. Yomegami]

Done!

Though the question ranking what's most important to you in an RPG doesn't seem to be working right; it only let me select one of each ranking (if I tried to select two of the same ranking, the previous ranking would just get cleared). Here's what I actually would have said if not for that:
Overall story: Very important
Characters: Very important (This is the most important to me personally)
Worldbuilding: No strong feelings
Graphics: No strong feelings (as long as it doesn't look like absolute garbage)
Battle System: No strong feelings, though leaning towards more important

Also, the question about how much one would pay for an indie RPG probably should have had a "depends on the content" question. I'd personally be willing to pay more for a game with great content, perhaps even past the listed options (wallet willing).

 

[Vox Novus]

I do want to point out the first question is slightly inaccurate with its choices as well. The question asks about rpg series; but a few of the answers aren't a series, they are individual games. Xenoblade Chronicles for example is a game in a series/franchise (Xenoblade would be the series), Chrono trigger is a game in a series (The Chrono Series) and as far as I know unless I'm super out of the loop Undertale isn't even a part of a series, its just an individual game so really it shouldn't be a choice based on the question.

Personally, I also feel Zelda as a series should not be on the list of choices; I think at it's core its better labeled as an action-adventure game series that also lightly touches on some rpg features rather than labeling it as a rpg series period. I'm not going to really get into that here though, as I know it isn't the place for it and would be getting way off-topic, maybe though I would have left it off and just let people include it with the other option if they felt it was warranted.

The ranking question that D.L. Yomegami mentioned is definitely messed up.

Spoiler: Messed up ranking question answers

Story-Somewhat important
Characters-Very Important
World Building-Somewhat Important
Graphics-No Strong Feelings (Depends on the exact nature of the comparison but basically I don't need it to be cutting edge for its visual style to be enjoyable. I do strongly dislike when there are graphical problems though like glitches or long pop-ins, etc...)
Battle System-Very Important (I'm typically a person where gameplay edges out the enjoyment quality over story for me. I'll play a game with a bad story if it has good gameplay but won't do the opposite usually; I know people feel the opposite way and won't play a game with strong gameplay if it doesn't have a top quality story. Ideally, I believe both should work together and be strong to make the game what it is).

 

[SJWebster]

Thanks everyone! We've had 24 responses so far and it makes for some interesting reading.

@Kes I'd originally posted it in Commercial Discussion as the survey asks how much you'd be willing to pay for an indie RPG and I was open to talking about the results with everyone. Some thought did go into the most appropriate forum for the topic.

@D.L. Yomegami & @Vox Novus Thanks for the heads up on the ranking story, characters, etc. I've changed the settings this morning and it seems to be working properly now.

Results so far:
There are a lot of series people have typed into Other, including Pokémon, Star Ocean, Persona, Breath of Fire, Mario & Luigi, Kingdom Hearts, and Tales of. Right now, the most popular answer is Final Fantasy with 83.3% of respondents having played that.

Turn based is the preferred battle system with 62.5% of the vote. ATB then comes in at 20.83%, Real-time trailing way back at 8.3% and Other taking the remaining 8.3%.

In terms of setting, Fantasy currently sits on top with 54.17% of the vote and second place is a three way tie between Modern, Medieval, and No preference which all have 29.17%. Sci-fi is at 20.83% and Other is at 4.17%.

In terms of aesthetic, 16 bit sprites are only just in the lead with "Modern", 8 bit, and 32 bit following behind in that order.

While the ranking question was a bit broken as reported by DL and Vox, the responses we did get some results from it. So far, Characters is in the lead, followed extremely closely by Overall story, then Battle system, then a slight drop off down to World building, and finally dead last by a good margin is Graphics which honestly surprised me. As mentioned, the question was broken and has now been fixed so this might change going forward.

54.17% said a game's engine wouldn't influence their purchasing decision, 25% weren't sure, and 20.83% said it would impact their decision.

In the text responses, most of them just say NA as No was the most popular answer. We have one guy saying if they know it's an RPG Maker game they'll have low expectations and someone else saying Unity has a bad reputation.

In terms of length, 54.17% said length's not important if the content's good. Second place is a tie between 5-10 and 10-20 hours which each have 16.67%.

Pricing next, 40% said they'd pay between £5.00 and £9.99 while 32% said £2.00 to £4.99. The rest is evenly split between £10 to £14.99 and More than £14.99.

In summary:
People generally prefer:
A turn based RPG with a fantasy setting and a 16-bit sprite aesthetic. Characters, story and battle system are more important than world building and graphics. The engine used to make the game generally isn't an issue, the length isn't important to most, and people would expect to pay between £5 and £14.99.

The results surprise me as it sounds a lot like a Final Fantasy clone. I'm not sure if people are sticking to what they're used to, if there's been a drought of that style of game (Bravely Default and Octopath Traveller did very well and it's argued this is because companies just don't make games like that anymore), or if there's anither reason entirely. Definitely food for thought.

Again, these results may change now the ranking question's fixed and we get a larger pool of responses.

Would these results impact your plans for a commercial RPG Maker project? What are your thoughts?

 

[TheoAllen]

We have one guy saying if they know it's an RPG Maker game they'll have low expectations

Sup, it's me. We have a whole thread of me explaining this stuff over here https://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?threads/what-are-your-thoughts-on-rm-games.93286/

 

[atoms]

Hey just to let you know I filled in your survey, after you get the maximum responses would love to know the results you had if you're happy to share!

 

[gstv87]

consider myself thoroughly surveyed.

Although, I would add "neither" to the very first question, or "other, non-Eastern". There's many adventure games with RPG elements made by Western studios.

The engine used to make the game generally isn't an issue,

I voted for it being an issue, because it would allow you to better flesh out the universe.
Obviously if *the engines available* have all similar capabilities, and *your story* doesn't require anything that the engine can't handle, then of course it wouldn't be an issue.
But, through the engine, one can manage *the graphics* and *the battle system*, which do seem to be issues to consider.
When considering a system as a whole, one must consider how each part relates to every other part, and to which degree.
Out of the balancing of best and worst case scenarios, is how you achieve perfection. (and,... profit!)

 

[Frogboy]

Survey entered.

 

[Kes]

I have another doubt about the survey. The first question asks which series one has played. But what if most RPGs that one has played are not parts of a series? This seems a highly restrictive take on what's available out there, particularly as I assume you are wanting to use RRPGMaker to make your game. Yes, there are a few, highly successful, commercial series made with an RM engine - I can think of 3 off the top of my head - but the huge majority are stand alones. You are going to be making a game in RM but seem supremely uninterested in RM games. This is not unusual, but if your points of reference are going to be the inevitable FF/Chrono/Zelda/etc/etc selection, it will be hard to break out of that mould.

Furthermore, I fail to see why knowing which series a particular respondant has played links in any statistically meaningful way with the ranking of graphics, story etc. or, indeed, any of the other questions you ask. What use are you going to make of that first question?

 

[Benny Jackdaw]

I'm actually kind of surprised that people not caring that much about Graphics surprises you. In my opinion, Graphics are one of the least important parts of a game. I care more about It cast, the story, the game play, the music, the sound effects , Etc. As long as the graphics are readable, I don't care how meager they are.

Anyway, I took the survey. You may know which one is mine.

 

[Cloud69225]

Completed it

 

[Rukiri]

Completed bud.

 

[atoms]

I'm actually kind of surprised that people not caring that much about Graphics surprises you. In my opinion, Graphics are one of the least important parts of a game. I care more about It cast, the story, the game play, the music, the sound effects , Etc. As long as the graphics are readable, I don't care how meager they are.

Anyway, I took the survey. You may know which one is mine.

I can partly agree, if either the story is really engaging or the mechanics are very fun I can get caught up in those over graphics is a lot of games. But still games that are visually appealing give a very good first impression and can also be memorable an enchant a game a lot. Yes ok if it's only graphics alone it can get boring, with the exception to visual novels and simpler games, but they can still be really well handled with better graphics and good if the artist knows what they are doing.

In games with custom sprites an artist can have more imagination and control too, they could create something that otherwise you wouldn't see with default RTP graphics. There is room for further originality and that can be a fun concept to play around with.

And depending on the type of game, a game that focuses more in that directions, graphics actually suddenly come to be very important.

I'm not saying they go above story and mechanics, but they can enchant games with those two things right.

So I agree to an extent, but still see good room for artists in games.

Also, for some people, I notice they prefer side view battles and custom animated graphics to the default ones. I count this as graphics too since it's about the visual appearance. I've heard a lot of different people say they put down a game because these things weren't change in the game. Now granted I am guilty of keeping it to the default too, just because it can take so long do customize everything, and for me this isn't as important as a factor, but this point is still valid that for certain groups of people it does matter and goes side to side with story and gameplay.

With that said, I do encourage people to try games with RTP graphics, and even game with poor use of graphics whether RTP or not, as I do still believe they can be fun if they exceed in either the area of gameplay or story, but at the same time I would not condemn a visual appearing game or say a game with poor use of graphics couldn't be improved upon with better graphics.

 

[PitjePitjePitje]

filled it out, looking forward to seeing the results!

 

[Benny Jackdaw]

I can partly agree, if either the story is really engaging or the mechanics are very fun I can get caught up in those over graphics is a lot of games. But still games that are visually appealing give a very good first impression and can also be memorable an enchant a game a lot. Yes ok if it's only graphics alone it can get boring, with the exception to visual novels and simpler games, but they can still be really well handled with better graphics and good if the artist knows what they are doing.

In games with custom sprites an artist can have more imagination and control too, they could create something that otherwise you wouldn't see with default RTP graphics. There is room for further originality and that can be a fun concept to play around with.

And depending on the type of game, a game that focuses more in that directions, graphics actually suddenly come to be very important.

I'm not saying they go above story and mechanics, but they can enchant games with those two things right.

So I agree to an extent, but still see good room for artists in games.

Also, for some people, I notice they prefer side view battles and custom animated graphics to the default ones. I count this as graphics too since it's about the visual appearance. I've heard a lot of different people say they put down a game because these things weren't change in the game. Now granted I am guilty of keeping it to the default too, just because it can take so long do customize everything, and for me this isn't as important as a factor, but this point is still valid that for certain groups of people it does matter and goes side to side with story and gameplay.

With that said, I do encourage people to try games with RTP graphics, and even game with poor use of graphics whether RTP or not, as I do still believe they can be fun if they exceed in either the area of gameplay or story, but at the same time I would not condemn a visual appearing game or say a game with poor use of graphics couldn't be improved upon with better graphics.

I suppose, but honestly...

Spoiler: Spoiler cuz people are probably sick of hearing it by now

I'd rather have a story consisting of multiple races, including anthro characters and beasts and dragons and whatnot fighting alongside each other in a game with okay graphics then a story where are all the playable characters are the same species as if only they can be good and only they can be relatable in a game with amazing graphics. I feel like diverse rosters are a dud concept these days.

As a person who'd skills aren't that great, I guess my standard for graphics are quite low. I even remember one time where I was watching trailers for indie games, and two Shooters came up, one had PSX style graphics and resolution while the other looked like it ran on higher resolution and graphics, but I honestly like the looks of the first one more. Not so much the graphics, but the game itself. If a game has a nice roster of characters and or an interesting premise and gameplay, then I often don't care what the graphics are like as long as they are readable.

 

[TheoAllen]

I'd argue regarding the graphics, the art direction could be something else, but if we talk about UX (user experience), that's a different matter entirely. Frontview in my opinion has a lot of UX flaws, which that might turns some people into sideview one. You can use 8-bit style graphics, but if it's getting harder for you to get information from the UI, it's not a good design.