This video ended up being more about the idea of having an understandable central mechanic that everything revolves around, which I think is a really helpful thing to keep in mind.
For me, design has to appeal to the emotions (you want to play the game) which influences 'mental hooking' (you automatically visualise yourself playing it), and in the moment of doing so you (hopefully) are experiencing 'deep nowness', flow state or not
I absolutely love and appreciate your videos! It would be amazing to see a video or series where you take a break from the hardcore topics and do something more casual, like scrolling through or playing random games on Steam while sharing your thoughts. It could also give real examples of all the topics we’ve been discussing.
Really solid take on balancing familiarity and uniqueness in game design. The bit about over-niching and losing players totally hits. Also, the reminder about how important it is to make your game readable in short clips or screenshots is clutch advice for marketing.
4:06 I disagree with one part of this statement. If I showed someone 3 seconds of Pokemon to someone who's never seen pokemon before, and the player is just in the overworld running around, the person will think that pokemon is a game about exploration, and while that's part of it, pokemon is more of a monster-catching game where you use the monsters to fight. if i showed someone 3 seconds of minecraft to someone who's never seen it before, and they saw the player fighting the ender dragon, they would think that minecraft is a game where you fight dragons, or fight in general. And the point of minecraft is more so to build what you desire, and collect what you desire, and just plain old do whatever you want, go find a dungeon or a village in a desert or something, even though fighting is part of the game. See what i mean by this? 3 seconds isn't always enough to get the full picture of a video game.
i think they mean more in the sense of showing off the basic premise of what's going on in the game currently instead of the game as a whole, if you'e showing off a game on social of a new area or a new enemy for your game then the person looking at the post should be able to tell what the new area/enemy is from 3 seconds of gameplay
For pokemon I would show entering a battle. So you have the exploration. Then a battle starting. I haven't played since red/blue but it would work in the originals. Minecraft would be harder to show in 3 seconds. I would have to cut it into 3 1 second clips to have a chance.
@@Twest1 I mean the games that failed - were too niche. Also he talked about minecraft, which not necesarily confirms his thesis. Minecraft was 2009, 15 years ago, back then there were almost no indie games, the whole market was totally different
@@dawidbujak The examples he's talking about are games that are so niche he wouldn't even know about them because they failed... do you really want him to say, oh that game Zog4000 that everyone knows about, great example of a niche game that failed.. but everyone knows about it.. sure
Wow this is pretty much the exact thing i needed to hear. This entire channel is a bunch of the unconfirmed ideas i had that i didn't believe in because of the echo chambers of gamdev community. Im making a zero-g shooter (vids on my channel). do you think this idea is just already to niche to succeed / how could i make it still appeal to a broad audience without sacrificing zero-g
It looks cool and reminds me of Enders game. Maybe bring more of a focus on Enders game to bring people who liked the book to play your game. I think multiple player shooters has to be one of the hardest categories to sell.
Yes, those are examples of games that are correctly niched, and still have a broad enough appeal to be really profitable. The issue is getting too niche to the point where you're kneecapping the potential reach of a game.
I always understood that the advice of honing in on a niche to mean an _existing_ (but under-served) niche, not to create a new niche.
This video ended up being more about the idea of having an understandable central mechanic that everything revolves around, which I think is a really helpful thing to keep in mind.
I was going to say the exact same thing
In UX called Jakob’s Law.
Unfamiliarity in design frustrates the end-user.
Hmm 🤔 that makes sense, it’s human psychology i guess
Good thoughts bud
Nice interview with Jonas today, bud. : )
For me, design has to appeal to the emotions (you want to play the game) which influences 'mental hooking' (you automatically visualise yourself playing it), and in the moment of doing so you (hopefully) are experiencing 'deep nowness', flow state or not
Actually a good way to see your work😊
I absolutely love and appreciate your videos!
It would be amazing to see a video or series where you take a break from the hardcore topics and do something more casual, like scrolling through or playing random games on Steam while sharing your thoughts. It could also give real examples of all the topics we’ve been discussing.
Really solid take on balancing familiarity and uniqueness in game design. The bit about over-niching and losing players totally hits. Also, the reminder about how important it is to make your game readable in short clips or screenshots is clutch advice for marketing.
5th !
Basically don't overengineer the wheel.
best thing to do is innovate a crowd favourite with a new mechanic or other twist
I suspect that more often than not, niche is code for "I haven't found the audience yet. I haven't figured out how to make the game not alienating."
4:06 I disagree with one part of this statement. If I showed someone 3 seconds of Pokemon to someone who's never seen pokemon before, and the player is just in the overworld running around, the person will think that pokemon is a game about exploration, and while that's part of it, pokemon is more of a monster-catching game where you use the monsters to fight. if i showed someone 3 seconds of minecraft to someone who's never seen it before, and they saw the player fighting the ender dragon, they would think that minecraft is a game where you fight dragons, or fight in general. And the point of minecraft is more so to build what you desire, and collect what you desire, and just plain old do whatever you want, go find a dungeon or a village in a desert or something, even though fighting is part of the game. See what i mean by this? 3 seconds isn't always enough to get the full picture of a video game.
i think they mean more in the sense of showing off the basic premise of what's going on in the game currently instead of the game as a whole, if you'e showing off a game on social of a new area or a new enemy for your game then the person looking at the post should be able to tell what the new area/enemy is from 3 seconds of gameplay
For pokemon I would show entering a battle. So you have the exploration. Then a battle starting. I haven't played since red/blue but it would work in the originals.
Minecraft would be harder to show in 3 seconds. I would have to cut it into 3 1 second clips to have a chance.
you could fit like at least 8 more locks on that door...
Good idea
Good video. You want to balance novelty with accessibility. I think this is applicable in your lore as well, tbh.
Love your content man!
Could you cover some stuff around multiplayer games, please? Like liveops, monetization and maybe something more
Great stuff as always, but I am still waiting for the explanation about the insane door locks you rocking. Are you alright? :)
lol was checking the comments if anyone else noticed as well
Think the game bopple battle does it really good feels familiar but it is different at the Same time
100% true 👌
I feel like for strategy games, niche is ok. Astrea :Six Sided Oracles and Cube Chaos are examples.
These are so smart, keep it up
Shame that you didn't give any examples
But he did...
@@Twest1 I mean the games that failed - were too niche. Also he talked about minecraft, which not necesarily confirms his thesis. Minecraft was 2009, 15 years ago, back then there were almost no indie games, the whole market was totally different
@@dawidbujak The examples he's talking about are games that are so niche he wouldn't even know about them because they failed... do you really want him to say, oh that game Zog4000 that everyone knows about, great example of a niche game that failed.. but everyone knows about it.. sure
Wow this is pretty much the exact thing i needed to hear. This entire channel is a bunch of the unconfirmed ideas i had that i didn't believe in because of the echo chambers of gamdev community.
Im making a zero-g shooter (vids on my channel). do you think this idea is just already to niche to succeed / how could i make it still appeal to a broad audience without sacrificing zero-g
It looks cool and reminds me of Enders game. Maybe bring more of a focus on Enders game to bring people who liked the book to play your game. I think multiple player shooters has to be one of the hardest categories to sell.
Good content bro
Nice, I'll watch it in a bit
Why is water wet
This kills the game companies nowadays
too* In your description!
Love your videos. You're helping me make my game better and influencing anything I work on in the future.
yep I've been saying this for 32 years and counting! Anyways I gotta go now, so I'll see ya later
Should we call this
Niche-on impossible?
Goat
isnt balatro niche>? slay the spire? ftl?
Yes, those are examples of games that are correctly niched, and still have a broad enough appeal to be really profitable. The issue is getting too niche to the point where you're kneecapping the potential reach of a game.
I much prefer these shorter videos
Only niche game I seen this be successful is Five Nights at Freddie's
At first I was about to disagree but instead I was thinking and totally understand what your TOTALY saying! Great advice.
I prefer longer videos it has more info
No, if you know what you're talking about you can say it concisely.
@publicalias8172 video shouuld be longer if the topic needs it if not then i dont see a problem here