You Can’t Please All of the People, All of the Time

You can create a top ten list of the games of the year, and someone will come along and tell you that the game at pole position was a nightmare, overhyped, and lazy. You can talk about FPS games, and someone will tell you that FPS is far too simple and RTS is where it’s at. You can even create a poll asking what people’s favorite types of game are, and someone will tell you that trying to divide gamers up by genre is a stupid idea, and that a ‘real’ gamer plays any genre.

It is not that people are contrary and difficult beasts (although they can be). It’s simply that to every gamer, gaming means something different.

Create a traditional game, and you’ll be accused of being too conservative, and creating lazy copies. Create something innovative and new, and you’ll be accused of changing things that worked and moving away from ‘what made you/the genre/the game great in the first place.

Trying to please everyone is a recipe for disaster. Casual gamers look for different challenges than hardcore gamers. I touched on this briefly in my post The Top Five Things that Piss Gamers Off when I observed that genre defying sections (or ‘minigames’) are one of the things that piss me off. After some reflection, I feel like noting that I adore some mini-games - for example the ‘hacking’ game within Bioshock. Some people obviously swear by the mini-games and puzzles, as was revealed by the storm of criticism that post generated. You can argue that puzzles are as much a part of FPS as guns are. Mixing things up does work - for some people.

So how do you do decide what to do? Go traditional, or be innovative? Do one thing or twenty? The answer is pretty simple. First you choose something you want to make, and second you identify your audience and what you hope to accomplish with the game. If you hate MMO’s, making one just because they are currently popular is pretty stupid. On the other hand, if you hate FPS but desperately want to be accepted by the hardcore FPS gamer market, you are also going to fail. So the most important thing, as always, is to pick the kind of game you enjoy, that you understand, and that you would want to play.

Secondly, identify the market that already exists for those games. What do they like? What do they hate? Take a look at some of the other games aimed at the same market - both the good ones and the bad ones. You can often learn a lot more from a bad game than you can from a good one. Was it the UI that turned people off? The clunky controls? The boring storyline with insanely long cutscenes? Was it just not as good as a similar game that came out at the same time?

Once you’ve identified the things that make a good game, decide if you are going to repeat a winning formula, or if you are going to change/improve/build upon anything. Things that seem like improvements when you are initially designing your game can often turn out to be the things that sink it. However, if you make a genuine improvement, you are much more likely to be a success than if you just repeat existing games.

Storyline may or may not be important to your game, depending on what you are creating. If it is important, write the story first.

When building the game, feel free to deviate from the main plan, but try not to undertake radical alterations on a whim. If you’ve planned properly, you shouldn’t wake up to discover your game about a frog crossing a road has turned into a game involving flying an emu around whilst trying to collect eggs. Questions like: why is this frog flying an emu? should not arrive ten days before the release date.

Upon release, expect nine out of ten comments to be ones telling you how it sucks, or how it could be improved. Also expect twenty thousands bugs to show up mysteriously. Truth be told, most people who like your game won’t comment on it - it’s much harder to attract rabid fans than it is to attract trolls. Some criticisms may be genuine, and you should always be open to constructive feedback - but always remember that you really can’t please everyone.

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• Failing First Impressions of Fighting Games
• Survival Horror
• Five Myths of Game Design
• Interview with Phil Newton of Sodaware

2 Responses to “You Can’t Please All of the People, All of the Time

Aaron Says:
November 15th, 2007 at 3:13 pm

I absolutely agree. It’s best to begin by asking yourself what you personally like, and think about your intended audience afterward. Beginning with the intended audience is a recipe for mediocrity.

Keira Peney Says:
November 16th, 2007 at 1:03 pm

Thanks for stopping by I’m glad you agree.

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