What quality should your game be to be considered for commercial?

icerose05

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Obviously, the game should be really good, great story line, no bugs, stuff like that. I think I have an awesome game, pretty good quality, and even though it's not done yet I know I want to sell it. And I'm not talking like the normal $15 - $30, I'm thinking like $2 - $5. But I keep thinking about games like The Witch's House and Mad Father which were excellent games, and they could have made it commercial, but they didn't. So what qualities should a game have before charging money should even be thought about?
 
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Shaz

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I believe there are a number of games that have been made by people here and released for free, that would have done quite well if they'd been released commercially. The difference is that the people making them have no desire to make money out of them. They may have used resources that can only be used in free games, too.


The things you've listed are good. Also the consensus seems to be to stay away from the RTP as much as possible, or make it LOOK different to the RTP (so this means using other tiles, but also mapping well so there's a lot of stuff of interest and you're not just staring at the same boring tiles, and editing them so they look different - overlapping, changing colours, etc).


I think it's important to give your game a unique look and feel, but the RTP issue depends more on who your target market is. If you want to sell to RPG Maker owners/fans, you're going to have a harder time getting them to pay for something that's RTP because they've seen it so often and can do it themselves. People who HAVEN'T had the exposure to the tiles that we've had here are less likely to compare them. But still, the more games being released using them, the closer that gap is going to become.
 

Mouser

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If you're talking the $5 range, I can tell you I"ve bought and played plenty of games that absolutely SUCKED, yet I'm sure made at least some profit for the developers.  It's getting harder all the time though - the bar keeps being raised even on 'casual' games and what is expected. Stuff that was great five years ago is only 'OK' today (unless it was something really special).

Voice overs, cinematics, live acting are becoming much more common than they were, and publishers who can't keep up with that are having a harder time getting the good reviews. Those things don't necessarily translate exactly over into jRPG style games, but the trend of increasing quality does tend to affect 'players' across the board. Although Ace can play movies (I'm not sure what file extensions or other limits it has) so maybe live acting and cinematics in RPG Maker games will become standard fare soon.
 

kerbonklin

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The day some anime-making people make an RM game full of anime-movie-clip files is the day the standard is raised to the extreme.
 
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Kes

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As, presumably, you will be hoping to sell your game before the time arrives when some of the things mentioned are commonplace, you need to be focusing on other things.

Does your game support mouse control?  Although there is great debate about whether mouse control is essential or not for free games, for a commercial game the overwhelming opinion is that it is required.

Does your game assume some familiarity with rpgs in general?  If you are selling, then you are hoping to appeal to a wider demographic than members of sites like this one.  You therefore have to find a way of catering for people who are not familiar with RM as well as those who know it very well indeed.  It can be a difficult balance to strike, so you need to think through how you are going to arrange your tutorials, what you are going to include, when you are going to introduce new elements etc., and at the same time ensure that those who are familiar don't have to sit through them.

Coupled with this, how steep is your learning curve?

Naming of elements within the game: if you are using unusual names for elements (e.g. magic isn't Magic it's Geist Power) how obvious is it what this name is referring to?  Does renaming add a certain freshness, or is it just confusing?

Get someone with a not very good computer to test your game.  Does it still run without lag? Do your graphics still show up clearly and crisply?  What about your lighting effects - is that dark dungeon still visible with a less good monitor?  You cannot assume every customer has a new computer and if there are problems they will blame the game, not their set up.

Use an AppData saving script (Shaz has a very good one, free for commercial use).  That way if the player has to re-install for whatever reason, they do not lose their save files.  Many portals require this anyway.

Be paranoid about the resources you use.  If there is even the tiniest doubt about whether it is free for commercial use, contact the creator and find out if you need to pay a fee.  

Be very careful about the final size of your file.  If people are buying high end games at high end prices, you can be sure that they have a decent internet connection to download it (or are prepared to sit and wait through a long down load time).  At the cheaper end you cannot assume that people who are interested have a decent connection, and the bigger your file size, the more chance that some (obviously not all) potential players won't bother to download.

You might be saying to yourself: but what do all these have to do with the quality of my game?  I could do all these things and still produce a rubbish game, or vice-versa.  True, but you need to think of the total game experience.  Paying customers can be  less forgiving than those playing free games (though experience shows this is not universally true) and you could have an awesome game, but if it isn't easy for the player to just launch themselves at it, they may go away.
 
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kerbonklin

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Also, even though this is an RM game, have some kind of decent options menu. It's something VERY important with PC games no matter what.

Things to consider:

-Volume

-Keybinds

-Resolution / Full screen

-Text speed

-Auto / Manual Dash if your game uses dashing

-Difficulty change if your game supports it

-And other stuff if you can think of it
 

icerose05

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As, presumably, you will be hoping to sell your game before the time arrives when some of the things mentioned are commonplace, you need to be focusing on other things.

Does your game support mouse control?  Although there is great debate about whether mouse control is essential or not for free games, for a commercial game the overwhelming opinion is that it is required.

Does your game assume some familiarity with rpgs in general?  If you are selling, then you are hoping to appeal to a wider demographic than members of sites like this one.  You therefore have to find a way of catering for people who are not familiar with RM as well as those who know it very well indeed.  It can be a difficult balance to strike, so you need to think through how you are going to arrange your tutorials, what you are going to include, when you are going to introduce new elements etc., and at the same time ensure that those who are familiar don't have to sit through them.

Coupled with this, how steep is your learning curve?

Naming of elements within the game: if you are using unusual names for elements (e.g. magic isn't Magic it's Geist Power) how obvious is it what this name is referring to?  Does renaming add a certain freshness, or is it just confusing?

Get someone with a not very good computer to test your game.  Does it still run without lag? Do your graphics still show up clearly and crisply?  What about your lighting effects - is that dark dungeon still visible with a less good monitor?  You cannot assume every customer has a new computer and if there are problems they will blame the game, not their set up.

Use an AppData saving script (Shaz has a very good one, free for commercial use).  That way if the player has to re-install for whatever reason, they do not lose their save files.  Many portals require this anyway.

Be paranoid about the resources you use.  If there is even the tiniest doubt about whether it is free for commercial use, contact the creator and find out if you need to pay a fee.  

Be very careful about the final size of your file.  If people are buying high end games at high end prices, you can be sure that they have a decent internet connection to download it (or are prepared to sit and wait through a long down load time).  At the cheaper end you cannot assume that people who are interested have a decent connection, and the bigger your file size, the more chance that some (obviously not all) potential players won't bother to download.

You might be saying to yourself: but what do all these have to do with the quality of my game?  I could do all these things and still produce a rubbish game, or vice-versa.  True, but you need to think of the total game experience.  Paying customers can be  less forgiving than those playing free games (though experience shows this is not universally true) and you could have an awesome game, but if it isn't easy for the player to just launch themselves at it, they may go away.
Actually ksjp17, those are some of the things that I was looking for as well. Thanks guys for all of you're comments, you've all given me some things to think about.

Well, off to find Shaz's AppData save script! If anyone would like to leave me a link, it'd be greatly appreciated.
 

SomaelCK

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As, presumably, you will be hoping to sell your game before the time arrives when some of the things mentioned are commonplace, you need to be focusing on other things.

Does your game support mouse control?  Although there is great debate about whether mouse control is essential or not for free games, for a commercial game the overwhelming opinion is that it is required.

Does your game assume some familiarity with rpgs in general?  If you are selling, then you are hoping to appeal to a wider demographic than members of sites like this one.  You therefore have to find a way of catering for people who are not familiar with RM as well as those who know it very well indeed.  It can be a difficult balance to strike, so you need to think through how you are going to arrange your tutorials, what you are going to include, when you are going to introduce new elements etc., and at the same time ensure that those who are familiar don't have to sit through them.

Coupled with this, how steep is your learning curve?

Naming of elements within the game: if you are using unusual names for elements (e.g. magic isn't Magic it's Geist Power) how obvious is it what this name is referring to?  Does renaming add a certain freshness, or is it just confusing?

Get someone with a not very good computer to test your game.  Does it still run without lag? Do your graphics still show up clearly and crisply?  What about your lighting effects - is that dark dungeon still visible with a less good monitor?  You cannot assume every customer has a new computer and if there are problems they will blame the game, not their set up.

Use an AppData saving script (Shaz has a very good one, free for commercial use).  That way if the player has to re-install for whatever reason, they do not lose their save files.  Many portals require this anyway.

Be paranoid about the resources you use.  If there is even the tiniest doubt about whether it is free for commercial use, contact the creator and find out if you need to pay a fee.  

Be very careful about the final size of your file.  If people are buying high end games at high end prices, you can be sure that they have a decent internet connection to download it (or are prepared to sit and wait through a long down load time).  At the cheaper end you cannot assume that people who are interested have a decent connection, and the bigger your file size, the more chance that some (obviously not all) potential players won't bother to download.

You might be saying to yourself: but what do all these have to do with the quality of my game?  I could do all these things and still produce a rubbish game, or vice-versa.  True, but you need to think of the total game experience.  Paying customers can be  less forgiving than those playing free games (though experience shows this is not universally true) and you could have an awesome game, but if it isn't easy for the player to just launch themselves at it, they may go away.
Thanks, absolutely helpful info!

By the way, isn't Shaz's script titled : Override Save Location? iirc. APPDATA saving is made by jet and doesn't allow for commercial use, right?
 

Kes

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By the way, isn't Shaz's script titled : Override Save Location? iirc. APPDATA saving is made by jet and doesn't allow for commercial use, right?
Yes, that's the one.  It uses the folder AppData, which is why it is often referred to in tht way.  You are also right about Jet's script, you have to pay a fee to use it for commercial games.
 

Engr. Adiktuzmiko

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Well, your game doesn't have to be of any quality for it to be commercial. Quality will probably take into account if your question was whether it is a viable commercial product or not.
 

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