Plan for Justin Mette
by Justin Mette · 02/21/2003 (7:39 am) · 2 comments
I started writing a response to Joe's plan about putting a single-player experience in your game and I ended up with so much text that I decided to post another plan.
We shipped Orbz as a multi-player only game back in December because many of us thought it would fly without single player. Since the launch, sales have been decent but not as good as some of the other games on GG that focused directly on a single-player experience. We have also missed out on some great deals for the game because there was no single player component.
Therefore, we are coming around full circle and adding in both Botz (for single and multi-player) as well as a challenge-based single player component. This is all an experiment, of course, so it remains to be seen whether the single-player component will help out sales but all signs point to "yes". Joe and I talked at length about the perceived value of single-player and I'm glad they decided to include it in ThinkTanks as well.
Another lesson we have learned about multi-player games is that it's very hard to reach "critical mass" as an indie. In other words, getting a large enough community built up around the game so there is always someone to play online can be a daunting task. You really need to sell A LOT of units to pull this off effectively. Games like Tribes 2, Quake, etc don't have this problem because it doesn't take long for thousands of people to own the game and be playing online. For indies, you can't expect anywhere near those type of sales figures so the problem has to be attacked from other directions.
Features like dedicated server support, in-game IRC chat clients, multi-platform network compatible versions of the game, message of the day, scheduled play sessions, and opt-in email newsletters are all ways to communicate with your customers and try to build the community. In summary, multi-player games can obviously increase the burden of development because there are more features to support but also the amount of work after the game ships to try and build a community around your game.
I don't mean to come off as a downer, but these are some important lessons we are learning with Orbz. Building games is hard work, continuing to market and sell the game after it ships is even harder, and supporting your community is also challenging and time consuming but it's all an absolute blast and I wouldn't give it up for anything. This is all part of the learning experience and hopefully talking about our mistakes can help other indies be prepared for what they are about to go through.
As always, we extend the invitation to contact us about the trials and tribulations of shipping and selling/marketing your game. The downside about being the first third party to ship a Torque game as an indie is that we get to stumble through the learning curve pretty blindly. However, we are learning something new almost every day and are willing to talk about it as often as we can. We want to see many more games being released on GG this year and anything we can do to help reach that goal is in our best interest.
Justin Mette
President
21-6 Productions Inc.
justin.mette@21-6.com
We shipped Orbz as a multi-player only game back in December because many of us thought it would fly without single player. Since the launch, sales have been decent but not as good as some of the other games on GG that focused directly on a single-player experience. We have also missed out on some great deals for the game because there was no single player component.
Therefore, we are coming around full circle and adding in both Botz (for single and multi-player) as well as a challenge-based single player component. This is all an experiment, of course, so it remains to be seen whether the single-player component will help out sales but all signs point to "yes". Joe and I talked at length about the perceived value of single-player and I'm glad they decided to include it in ThinkTanks as well.
Another lesson we have learned about multi-player games is that it's very hard to reach "critical mass" as an indie. In other words, getting a large enough community built up around the game so there is always someone to play online can be a daunting task. You really need to sell A LOT of units to pull this off effectively. Games like Tribes 2, Quake, etc don't have this problem because it doesn't take long for thousands of people to own the game and be playing online. For indies, you can't expect anywhere near those type of sales figures so the problem has to be attacked from other directions.
Features like dedicated server support, in-game IRC chat clients, multi-platform network compatible versions of the game, message of the day, scheduled play sessions, and opt-in email newsletters are all ways to communicate with your customers and try to build the community. In summary, multi-player games can obviously increase the burden of development because there are more features to support but also the amount of work after the game ships to try and build a community around your game.
I don't mean to come off as a downer, but these are some important lessons we are learning with Orbz. Building games is hard work, continuing to market and sell the game after it ships is even harder, and supporting your community is also challenging and time consuming but it's all an absolute blast and I wouldn't give it up for anything. This is all part of the learning experience and hopefully talking about our mistakes can help other indies be prepared for what they are about to go through.
As always, we extend the invitation to contact us about the trials and tribulations of shipping and selling/marketing your game. The downside about being the first third party to ship a Torque game as an indie is that we get to stumble through the learning curve pretty blindly. However, we are learning something new almost every day and are willing to talk about it as often as we can. We want to see many more games being released on GG this year and anything we can do to help reach that goal is in our best interest.
Justin Mette
President
21-6 Productions Inc.
justin.mette@21-6.com
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#2
02/21/2003 (9:25 pm)
Thanks for the information, Justin. Definitely keep the community updated on how things change when Orbz has more single-player game! 
Torque 3D Owner Michael Cozzolino
Big Monk Games
I don't know if I will ever complete a game but I have been thinking that I should add single player components to the game I'm working on. It makes sense since I would have no idea how many would buy "my game". If 50 people bought it and only 2 or 3 of those were playing at a time, it would lose its fun.
Well I just want to say good luck to everyone at 21-6 and Bravetree and that your doing great. Keep it up.