Every single bit of competition that has come out has failed almost instantly if not remaining a whisper within 6 months. Clowns couldn't even maintain its own hype until its release, and it was already a hard sell compared to TCM and others given its goofy name/premise.
I dunno, I think the goofy premise is precisely what might make it stand out. Well that, and that a lot of the potential mechanics are going to fall outside of the norm based on details from the film.
Unfortunately, a lot of the developers for these kinds of games also have a pattern of putting pretty low effort and follow through. Game only just recently came out and I'm reading reviews right now. Apparently they didn't get around to implementing rebindable keys yet. Bloody sick of devs pulling that shit.
And I know from development experience that it's not THAT difficult to implement, unless the developer took a lot of shortcuts and is too lazy to correct them.
You need a large playerbase to make any of these games work. Much larger than "lol, this looks funny" can realistically get you. It doesn't look sufficiently goofy enough to really juxtapose itself, only a campy amount.
Its what keeps DBD afloat. They have dozens of reasons for people to try the game beyond it being the #1 in its spot. As in all the licensed killers for each individual horror series, wherein all its competition banks on having a single one and still pulling enough to keep a community alive.
And yeah, most of the ripoffs are riddled with so many obvious and simple design mistakes, from both an accessibility and gameplay standpoint that it pushes away even those who would try it.
Oh I'm aware of the necessity for a reliable playerbase for this and a lot of other kinds of multiplayer games. I never tried to claim that the competition was especially strong, just that it "technically" existed.
I get your point though. A population-less game isn't exactly anywhere close to resembling any kind of existing competition, not in actuality anyway. And it certainly doesn't mean squat as far as potential sales go.
I must admit, I have trouble understanding why so many small studios try for the multiplayer only scene. There's not exactly a high range of success to be had, and the fruits of your labor are almost guaranteed to fade into the ether within 1-5 years, and that's being optimistic.
There's obviously the cash grab reasoning, but I suspect that this is becoming increasingly less effective as gamers have wizened up at least a little bit after getting burned over and over so many times. Probably why they've been resorting to connecting with cult classics and franchise, since the only way to get past skeptical gamers is to lure them in with some enticing marketing.
I must admit, I have trouble understanding why so many small studios try for the multiplayer only scene.
Highest potential with the lowest effort.
A multiplayer only game might only need 6~ maps on launch and maybe 12 unique models. Compared to a single player one which will need double to triple that just to be a short game. And unlike single player games, you are expected to continue support later instead of needing to finish the game entirely before you start selling (meaning launching unfinished is less obvious).
So while you need to be able to give constant support and balance patches going forward, that's basically a trickle compared to the bucket that is non-multiplayer game making in terms of a lot of work done.
Of course its nowhere near that simple, but you can see the motivation.
That's with the potential for your game to take off and become a huge hit virally. Something that happens a lot with multiplayer games (all it takes is one Streamer really), but is really hard to pull off with a single player one.
Every single bit of competition that has come out has failed almost instantly if not remaining a whisper within 6 months. Clowns couldn't even maintain its own hype until its release, and it was already a hard sell compared to TCM and others given its goofy name/premise.
I dunno, I think the goofy premise is precisely what might make it stand out. Well that, and that a lot of the potential mechanics are going to fall outside of the norm based on details from the film.
Unfortunately, a lot of the developers for these kinds of games also have a pattern of putting pretty low effort and follow through. Game only just recently came out and I'm reading reviews right now. Apparently they didn't get around to implementing rebindable keys yet. Bloody sick of devs pulling that shit.
And I know from development experience that it's not THAT difficult to implement, unless the developer took a lot of shortcuts and is too lazy to correct them.
You need a large playerbase to make any of these games work. Much larger than "lol, this looks funny" can realistically get you. It doesn't look sufficiently goofy enough to really juxtapose itself, only a campy amount.
Its what keeps DBD afloat. They have dozens of reasons for people to try the game beyond it being the #1 in its spot. As in all the licensed killers for each individual horror series, wherein all its competition banks on having a single one and still pulling enough to keep a community alive.
And yeah, most of the ripoffs are riddled with so many obvious and simple design mistakes, from both an accessibility and gameplay standpoint that it pushes away even those who would try it.
Oh I'm aware of the necessity for a reliable playerbase for this and a lot of other kinds of multiplayer games. I never tried to claim that the competition was especially strong, just that it "technically" existed.
I get your point though. A population-less game isn't exactly anywhere close to resembling any kind of existing competition, not in actuality anyway. And it certainly doesn't mean squat as far as potential sales go.
I must admit, I have trouble understanding why so many small studios try for the multiplayer only scene. There's not exactly a high range of success to be had, and the fruits of your labor are almost guaranteed to fade into the ether within 1-5 years, and that's being optimistic.
There's obviously the cash grab reasoning, but I suspect that this is becoming increasingly less effective as gamers have wizened up at least a little bit after getting burned over and over so many times. Probably why they've been resorting to connecting with cult classics and franchise, since the only way to get past skeptical gamers is to lure them in with some enticing marketing.
Highest potential with the lowest effort.
A multiplayer only game might only need 6~ maps on launch and maybe 12 unique models. Compared to a single player one which will need double to triple that just to be a short game. And unlike single player games, you are expected to continue support later instead of needing to finish the game entirely before you start selling (meaning launching unfinished is less obvious).
So while you need to be able to give constant support and balance patches going forward, that's basically a trickle compared to the bucket that is non-multiplayer game making in terms of a lot of work done.
Of course its nowhere near that simple, but you can see the motivation.
That's with the potential for your game to take off and become a huge hit virally. Something that happens a lot with multiplayer games (all it takes is one Streamer really), but is really hard to pull off with a single player one.