I’ve been active in making games on studio since about 2019. Since then I’ve learnt a lot and come to create some cool things, but one problem that I always run into is players.
It seems as though it’s impossible to gain a player base without spending thousands on ads, having a background in content creation or just having a game with an already active player base.
People always say to stay consistent but is that really the way? I feel like its becoming harder and harder to create a popular game and I feel like the hardest part is gaining the player base.
Here is a link to one of my only finished projects. I plan on using it to experiments while I work on much more polished finished projects. That being said I’d also appreciate some feedback on it or map suggestions!
Its definitely possible to reach home rec without ads, although theyre most definitely more difficult than running ads (for example, if you are able to find a relatively new search term, its easy to get a high result on the search page without any stats)
I don’t believe you should avoid ads and content creation. While theyre not the only ways to gain traction, theres a reason theyre the most discussed. You could try finding investment or doing commissions to afford ads, and for content creation, its never too late to start trying.
Aside from that, your game is actually pretty enjoyable (and good news to you, if you’ve started gaining players, you’ll eventually accumulate enough stats to start receiving home recommendations). All that said though, its also not exactly polished, so theres still room for improvement in terms of the games themselves.
I wouldn’t say staying consistent is all you need, since being consistently on the wrong path only takes you further away, but its definitely important. Thats no reason that you shouldn’t take time to learn and explore though (how people advertise, how people game design, etc)
I will definitely attempt content creation, commissions are definitely feasible for me I’ve done it before but it just wasn’t for me.
I agree with this game being far from polished and part of it is burnout while the other being I’m just not used to making games for the audience this one was intended for, it is definitely a completely different skillset.
I agree with this a lot the main reason I created this was to move away so much from building and modeling and try to code. I have made both a lot and a little progress since I started depending on how you look at it, I really hope to create something soon that really shows what I can do instead of small boredom projects.
I’m happy people can enjoy the game, with that news I think I’ll start straying away from so much content updates and make more bug fixes and polishing updates.
If you have any ideas on how I could polish a game like this I would really appreciate it!
Thanks for your time and feedback though I will definitely begin to use it.
I think the thumbnail could convey the game a bit better, illustrate that it’s a timed obby against other people instead of just a normal obby. I rage quit because skill issue. Being bad at obby plus being sent back to the start wasn’t great for a noob like me, but I get why you wouldn’t have check points in a 3 part timed obby.
It appeared that I purchased something in the shop but I’m pretty sure i had zero points and nothing showed up as a result.
I currently have an artist working on the thumbnail so hopefully it turns out good.
I feel like keeping checkpoints would be good, I want the players to rely on the tools such as the time warp or the soon to come shield to their advantage.
The shop will eventually be fixed it was definitely a huge hurdle in making it since I’m not great with coding anything remotely complex.
Thanks for your feedback and playing of course though!
I hate to break it to you, but the game you showed doesn’t have players because it just isn’t fun. Nothing about it feels well-designed or satisfying.
This isn’t to shut you down or be mean, but I think you need to take a harsher look at your work. Often times, a game won’t get players because it’s a game people don’t like, not because you’re not spending enough on ads.
Its definitely a huge problem I see with the game and it also depends on the audience.
Is there anything in particular I could change or do to fix that. I really do like the criticism and have been looking for more. And I would really appreciate if you could call out a lot of things.
I can see how a lot of things are not great or are not designed well but I do not know how to fix a lot as well, do you have any tips on that?
It might be a good idea to find some friends to develop together, that might help with burnout
Theres a lot to be said, but I would start by making the UI better and fixing the Z-fighting
Regarding gameplay, it might also be better to reward players for their progress even if they dont win.
I do also agree that the game isn’t very well designed. Currently, it doesn’t play much more than a regular obby game. You should look at other games in the genre (TOH for example) to see why people play them. (Take notice to what specifically makes you like the game, what specifically makes you feel achievement or satisfaction, and what specifically is keeping you from leaving right after joining)
Could you tell me where the z-fighting is haven’t really noticed it?
I do have another dev who works and helps out occasionally with some things which definitely help with the workload.
I’ll definitely check out ToH im not sure if I’ve ever really played it so thanks for that suggestion.
One thing I’ve started with is having it so if you have a rebirth you get 1 extra win and 10 extra points, stacking up to your 4th rebirth.
I’ll make it so you get 10 points for playing a round and 50 for winning aswell.
as for the ui I’ll look at some games with similar UI for some inspiration.
Thanks for pointing everything out though I’ll see what I can do.
