Hi. I am curious whether game developers should make games for money(like Clash of Clans) or for players’ enjoyment(like Rolling Sky). Personally, I think players’ enjoyment is more important. What do you think?
What is more important to you; making money from games or making good games from player's enjoyment?
Both. If you don’t get paid for your games, you won’t be able to make them.
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But would you be greedy like Supercell in Clash of Clans, or would you be more like Rolling Sky that doesn’t make much money but still has a good game?
This is an interesting article that relates to the topic:
https://pressstarttobegin.org/2014/02/09/what-makes-a-video-game-a-success/
The more money you make the better you can make your next game
Yeah, but would you make bad games to make loads of money(e.g. pay-to-win)? Or would you try to make a little profit from good games?
You need to strike a balance and find some sort of middle ground. If you only think about player’s enjoyment, you’ll go bankrupt. If you think only about money, well, you may lose players and your conscience might start nagging you.
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I guess a more appropriate title should be how should you measure your game’s success; by player’s enjoyment or by money made.
You can’t measure player enjoyment. You can count your monies.
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I actually think a money sucking giant like Clash of Clans really is harder to build then people make it out. If it really was that easy to ‘sell your soul’ and make millions, far more people would be doing it.
The fact that there really are only a small handful of games in the league of Clash of Clans indicates it takes far more then just a focus on money.
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Here we go again. The word ‘should’ already implies that you’re looking at this entirely the wrong way. There’s no objective moral directive on this topic.
Just don’t take onboard any ideas that will hamstring your own success, and make sure you can sleep at night, and you’ll be fine.
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If the player don’t enjoy your game, you won’t make money anyways.
So the answer is both really.
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Game revenue is never greedy.
For the simple reason you can’t force a price on something non-essential to life, such as videogames.
If the PRICE is greedy, asking too much, people simply choose not to buy. There are thousands of other games to choose from.
So both answers are the same, one implies the other. If you truly do it for player’s enjoyment and not just a personal project, then you need money to make more and better games. If you do it for the money, it’s only possible if you make something enjoyable for players.
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Seems to me these two options go hand-in-hand and not “one or the other”.
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Making money from games can absolutely be greedy. Shovelware and certain types of microtransactions and pay walls are good examples. In the case of shovelware, companies are spitting out extremely low quality games, selling them at full price, and rely on uneducated buyers to buy them (like parents buying gifts for their kids, also, before the internet was big it was hard to know if a game was going to be good or not). Unexpected costs in addition to the game’s price in order to access features you thought would be included (pay wall for playing online if you bought it used) is also greedy. Obviously false advertising is another big one.
I think this is a legitimate question from the OP. There are almost certainly going to be decisions in any game developer’s career where they will have to make a decision between (probably) making more money, or making their game more enjoyable. I completely disagree with this idea that better game = more money. Star Wars: Battlefront made more money than The Witcher 3, Metal Gear Solid V, and Bloodborne last year. Things like marketing and being attached to a popular franchise are both huge factors in making money. This applies to indie games as well. There are indie games that are far better than No Man’s Sky (and similar in concept), but have made about 1/100th the amount of money. Getting a ton of press and exaggerating features trump making a good game with little press.
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ZakCollins, that’s entering the realm of scams. I think we’re talking strictly of legal game markets.
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Well I played clash royale, it was a pretty fun game actually and I didnt spend a dime on it.I did have more fun playing hitman go though – a game I actually paid for.
You can measure it by reviews, retention, session length etc.
You can’t. You can measure only some contributing factors but not enjoyment directly.
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How dare you make money with your games?! greedy devs!
I can make money and enjoy making games, its not a black & white situation.
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