How to make a successful game!

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#23

I agree with some points you have made. I would like to clarify on a way to approach making your first game. This comments is meant for everyone developing their game or are about to develop their game.

GDD | Game Design Document
I recommend making a GDD firstly, to put your thoughts of the game on paper first, to evaluate if it is going to actually be fun and engaging. The GDD also stand for the Game Design Document. In here you will put all the game mechanics, the title, the genre, the way of coding, adverts, etc. This is very handy, because you are making your game on paper, rather in Roblox Studio, which results in allot of time and energy being saved. After you have written your GDD, you can start on your first prototype.

MVP | Minimal Viable Product
Furthermore, this prototype also stands for MVP, which is the minimal viable product of your game. What this means is, is that it is an experience, where you only have your core game aspects inside. So no good looking ui, no animations, no fun effects, only your core game mechanics. When you have that, evaluate your game: “Is this actually fun to play?”, “What could be better?”. Also make sure you test your game in this stage.

Afterwards, tweek your game on what the results were of the tests, what could be better, what could be removed. Then add the fun animations, nice GUI’s, sounds, etc. By the way, you can always change your GDD and add, update, or remove stuff from it.

This is a good plan to start your first game, because it prevents you from wasting time and energy on a game which could actually be not so fun.

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#24

you’ve set the basics of your post, now you just need to go in-depth. you explain basically nothing here, such as

“make it engaging and fun”

how do we do that? no one knows.
we need tips and other details

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#25

I see, I will edit this post in the future to go in depth. Thanks for the feedback everyone!

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#26

Why does this matter?? Nobody is going to care, let alone see it.

#27

If your scripts don’t work your output will tell you the problem. Meaning the buggier code you have, the messier output you have. But if your output is clean, then that means your code is not very buggy. So sure, the player won’t see the output, but they will certainly notice their gun not working.

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#28

never experienced it myself, but players might use F9 to see the console. if they see a ton of errors, theres a chance they’ll just think the game is trash? this is a reach but it could be true

#29

I mean to me it doesn’t make any sense. If their gun works then they don’t need to check the console nor will even think about it.
@Polygonizised COULD be right, but I doubt anybody would stop playing a game because they see a few red lines on something that wasn’t designed for them to see.

Overall however this tutorial is very basic and does need more in-depth to it, as it touches base very briefly and wasn’t made with care.

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#30

I see your point here. And yes, this tutorial was not very in-depth and I plan to edit it in the future. But if the player’s gun doesn’t work(as I said earlier) they are almost guaranteed to leave the game, dislike it, and never play it again. That is why the output MUST be clean. Because as I stated earlier, bad code = messy output = items not functioning properly = bad game = angry player = dislikes = less players = flop. So I can see your point, but I still stand by my word, output should be clean.

Edit: even though I disagree, thanks for the feedback.

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#31

Oh sorry. By ads I meant sponsorships. I sponsored the game without indicating a specific target group. Simply every mobile, tablet and pc player…and it went horrible. Those unskilled players only harm the game to be honest.

#32

Hmmm, this is quite a predicament. With few solutions. I suggest, instead of spending more Robux on sponsors, you can pay content creators(specifically ones that play obbies), make sure they are decently popular(100k+) other than that, I don’t have many solutions I can think of.

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#33

Obby YouTubers? I don’t feel like they got the right audience for the game either.

Well another developer told me that I should just run sponsorships for everyone and the Roblox algorithm will eventually find out who to show those sponsorships to.

But does it actually do that?

#34

I’m not sure how the algorithm works, no one really does. And if they do, they aren’t exactly open to sharing. I wouldn’t keep sponsoring till the algorithm “figures out” who to show the game to. And if not obby YouTubers you can do TOH YouTubers, TOH is more styled to your audience. TOH people are used to and enjoy round based challenging obbys that include power ups and rewards. TOH = tower of hell

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#35

I don’t think clean output = more players. Just look at a dusty trip, their console is filled with debug prints and warnings. However I think a more sensible reason is memory, console takes memory to store the outputs of prints and warnings, which can bloatify your game - leading to worse performance

and NO, messy code/buggy code does NOT equal to messy output. Well, that actually depends on your definitions but I disagree that majority of players would care about a messy output

2 Likes
#36

Pretty sure having buggy code USUALLY leads to messy output. Also debug prints and warnings don’t exactly ruin the UX. When I say clean output I mainly mean to make sure your code is 100% working. This includes spam proofing, make sure it doesn’t stutter, exploit proofing etc. but yes, for the first part you are correct, clean output doesn’t mean more players, it just means better UX.

Edit: thanks for the feedback!

1 Like
#37

Well but you need the sponsorships to get the algorithm to catch onto the game. First of all a game needs a lot data so that the algorithm can start pushing it.

#38

Yes. But YouTubers are like a one and done deal, once a popular YouTuber with your target audience makes a video on your game, it’s guaranteed at LEAST 100+ concurrent players. Once you get that many players you automatically catch on with the algorithm. From then you can sponsor whenever you like. If you are restricted to sponsors or ads, then you need at least 1-2 weeks to catch on with the algorithm. Make sure your game also has tons to unlock, otherwise it won’t retain the player well.

Edit: an idea I just had, but you could sponsor the game a day or two after the YouTuber posts the vid. That way when it has a sufficient amount of views and people are trying to find it, you got a sponsor so they can easily find it.

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#39

Did you ever have that much success with YouTubers though? Because they want huge amounts of money on social seed. So I don’t know if paying someone like 500 dollars or whatever is worth it so that they make a video about you game that gets a couple thousand views

#40

How many active users would that get you?

#41

This guy seems relatively cheap 30-100 bucks.

Also YouTubers can bring in hundreds of players concurrently, also helping keep them for extended periods of time because the video never really goes away. Also when one YouTuber plays a game, another YouTuber might make a video on your game as well, bringing EVEN MORE PLAYERS.

#42

Hmmm, tough question. To be honest, Roblox ads or sponsors are usually more chance. But with 10-20k robux I’d say 50-200 concurrent players and 2-5k visits. Like I said earlier, ads and sponsors are like a gamble, so it could also totally flop.

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