It's been almost 3 years since Bangladesh is trying to launch a proper game on the international market. And we have not yet been successful so far. I would like to share my observation and findings.
Let's talk about what makes a game great. Before I'm a game developer I'm a gamer. I used to play 18 hours a day. I've finished over 500+ titles (probably) across multiple game platforms. So I can tell you a thing or two that makes a great game.
I believe there are 2 key ingredients for a great game.
And there are a few extra ingredients that adds flavour to the game.
A great game will have all of these in proper ratio.One thing we must remember, A game is more like an artwork. There are one or more ARTIST behind it. I'll come back to this point later on. Let's get back to the main topic. Let's start with examples.
Witcher 3's story line is something that everyone just yearned for. Game play of both games were mind-blowing.
I've given examples of games that have Both Game play and Story or just one of these and some supplementary attributes.
So what was it that we were doing wrong? If you take a closer look at our root of game development, you can see the problem. Most of our game developers don't actually want to make a game. They want to make a game that will be viral. That will earn lots of lots of money. lots of lots of fame. Now here's where we make the greatest mistake. We have already drifted away from game development to product development. Now in case of a product it has a target client base. It requires ample market research. It requires client feedback. etc etc. you get my point. As I had mentioned previously A game is a form of art. Now imagine an artist went up to a canvas started drawing whatever on his mind. And another artist went up on a canvas and started drawing a logo that some company ordered. Guess who's art will need revision? The 2nd one. revision for an art is a bad thing. Because the artist wanted it to be something and the client made it into something else. It was no longer something the artist wanted to do rather had to. You can't force an art. In result what he delivers is an product. A product dies after a few uses but ART persist through the ages. Do you think Leonardo Da Vinci cared about what you think about Mona Lisa ? Or did he make it so that he will be paid? He made it because his heart felt like it. Greatest art works were never made for money. So why is it the games are customer oriented ?
When ever I share a game Idea with someone the 1st constraint the put on me saying that, "Can it be played on Android ?" why android because it has a very good ad revenue market. We will talk about it later. But see what did he do? He halted my idea with a constraint . Now tell me , Can I let my imagination flow freely once I added the constraint android ? So I already drifted away from what I was initially planning to make. Most of the times it will make the game shittier. Lets face it. Androids have less control capabilities as close as to nothing. All you can do is swipe and tap. Lets not argue about virtual controls .. ohh please I want to see how fun it is to play Multiplayer games on touch screen versus someone on PC with proper controls.
Another fact about our country developers that, they are totally hungover making a game on our liberation war. Brother do you really want to make that game or need the fame? Well either way everyone failed. If your game is something that people play for a day and throw it away and never talk about it, it's a failure as a game. As a product it may have succeeded if you actually hit some download count mark or revenue mark. But as a game it's an utter failure.
If you really want a game that produces money. Then forget about money first. Make a good game that you want to play. If it's a good game and you are willing to pay for your own game, People will pay for it too. Ask yourself if your game is worth paying for, Would you pay for it? if yes it's gonna make a hit don't worry about it. Focus on what your game should be.
When planning about a game we must come out of the thoughts of marketing first. That's what we usually do. And that's why EVERY SINGLE GAME we made has failed . Because it wasn't an art. It was a product that people tested out for a week and threw away.
What we need to to do is think about a GAME with STORY or GAMEPLAY or both without worrying about the platform or the target audience or anything at all. If the game is good everyone will PAY! if the game sucks nobody will pay. So it doesn't matter which target audience we aim for or which platform in the end The baseline is it has to be a good game.
Here's another mistake I would like to focus on. I see a lot of people talking about game ideas like. Hey.... this game is doing good. Lets make another one like this . For example 2018's Hit game was
PLAYERS UNKNOWN BATTLE GROUND.
And by the end of 2018 we have around 50+ same genre game. And most of those sucks bad. it's like trying to sell a clone Monalisa with some modifications. Why this trend is common? We all want easy fame. Life isn't easy. You have to work hard for it.
I would like to remind you of a game you probably never hard of, It's one of the oldest battle royal games even before PUBG. It was called
THE CULLING.
It failed hard. Why did it fail hard? This game was doing really great at it's early stage. But the developers made a great mistake. They were continuously changing the game by listening to almost every player feedback. So how did it break the game? Well As I have mentioned before if you do revision on Art it's bad. The Culling became something different. Something the developers didn't plan for. It was no longer an art rather it became a combination of art pieces from different artists.
Too much cook spoil the broth. It's not a good idea to change your game according to what people say. It's your game you should stick with your ideas.
Your game doesn't need to have super cool graphics. It doesn't need to have super cool animations.
what it needs to have is your soul. Your sweat . Your pain. Your love . Your anger. Your Imagination.Your Dreams. And that is how you make a great game .
If you make something good, Money will follow. Don't worry about it. For once try to make something that you want to play not what people might like to play. Thanks for reading this long post. if you have other thoughts please leave a comment bellow.
