Find its own way

Olivier made me think about the things that make a game get out of the pack, with some sort of passive marketing as I call that.

Minecraft comes from Sweden and if there’s something consistent from North Europe is that indie game developers know how to talk to people and stand out with their game, meaning by the execution and/or theme. From Petri Purho who constantly pushes prototypes with perfect-matching music and sfxs –that adds a LOT to the polishing- to Erik Svedang and his very personal vision of visuals and themes, to the dudes from Secret Exit (Zen Bound’s fame) and their physic-based gameplay to Cactus etc

You’re the same. Your ideas are not better. But be consistent and different.

It’s something I really pay attention to because I’ve always been attracted to everything different and the good thing about it for a product is that it serves as a true and sincere marketing –if done right-, which is pretty much the only one that can work especially with carefully crafted products like computer games.

If you look at the output from North Europe you can see that even if there’s no “marketing campaign”, games have a lot of good things in common.

A good sounding, attractive and “making sense” name: I know it’s kind of weird but think about it: before even play or see a game, you often hear or read about it. It has to be attractive, it has to feel natural, it has to be special. Kometen, Blueberry Garden, Zen Bound. Sounds like classics, like Mario or Sonic. Minecraft has been the result of a brainstorming on irc and people came up with this name which I find great because it feels like it always has been around. It feels like a huge classic thanks to the craft part (World of War…). It doesn’t feel uncomfortable like Tidalis, it doesn’t sound too generic ala Alien Breed… It’s important.
A clear, consistent AudioVisual view of it: I still don’t understand how something that obvious is still an issue with gamedev peeps but let’s say it another time: there must be something going on between the visuals and the audio, something must happen between them, something that sparkles some kind of magic. Like Bioshock or Killer7 or the eternal Mario to YouHaveToBurnTheRope. The AudioVisual sandwich is wrong. The AudioVisual sauce is good. Always been the case.
Near-perfect execution: never had any problem with enjoyable Petri’s prototypes. Any game that fucks up my computer is really not welcome and despite that it’s hard to get to the non-crash state for small games, it’s required. It’s not about technical excellence jerk off, it’s about respect to the player, the buyer.
All of that must fit with a gameplay or a mix of gameplay. That’s a pretty big question because there are so many solutions! I see Minecraft as a really good example of that: the 8bits 3D representation stands out and makes the first person view (attractive feature for me) an original one, it fits the old school RPG part (not that much an attractive feature for me) and talks to the old school Japanese RPG crowd so hard. The 8bits 3D adds some originality with the physics of the world which attracts YouTube viewers… I have hard times to believe that the developer didn’t think a little bit about all that. Either way, it works because it attracts different people and keeps them around the game. And because of the very low tech, adding new content is simplified to the max and not that limited (remember, limitation helps innovation). That’s a big achievement and it all comes down to a smart mix of things that are pretty standard (first-person, rpg, 8bits).

So all of that is embedded in the game development, it’s not on the side or later, it’s now, in the process of building a game, from the start. These points are not that much about the game or you but about the relationship with the player, about attracting him and make him play. Not in a casino way of course :-)

Anyway the game that does all that well then stands out by itself, even before being actually played. Whatever the first contact you have with the game, hearing about it, reading about it, watching it or listening to it, It is already exciting. and dear game developers that is not like an option or a plus. It’s a requirement.

That’s marketing, that’s PR embedded in the game development. That’s what we need and way too often lack in the US and France on small projects. You might argue “Wait, that’s what AAA games do, we’re indie and stuff ,we can’t do that!”.

I don’t care who does it or how “indie” it is, it’s just required to stand out and make some bucks for what I see… That’s the needed “find its way” part.

Ultimately, ship your game too. Fez did it all right but there’s one more thing to be careful of: being on the right time. In a world of over-tutorialized and rigid-like-a-stick games, Minecraft’s freedom and randomness are also part of its appeal and success. That was a good time to appear. For Polytron’s game it’s difficult to say now…