What Do I Make?
Every indie has asked this question at some point What game am I going to make? How do I choose what game to make so that it makes money and I can live off it?
There are the quick answers, and then there are the right answers. The quick answer for a lot of people is “make what the market is buying”. So the hopeful indie looks around, sees that there are these portals and lots and lots of people are buying these games, and decides to make a casual game because this will make them money, and of course, that’s what they’re after.
The casual game dev explosion DID make a lot of people a lot of money. It still does. But… this is the wrong answer.
The real answer to the question “What do I make?” is another question.
“What do I want to make with all of my heart?”
But how can that be?
The best video games are made and designed with passion. The developer(s) pour their heart and soul into the game, and it shows. Everything just fits together like a fine watch. The middle part of the production, while always a slog, is something they’re willing to go through to get this game finished because they love the game. They’re not willing to take shortcuts that make the game less than it could be. It is a piece of art, and the player can tell. And when people can tell that you cared about your product, they will buy it.
And I hear you asking, “How do I know if it will sell?”
No one ever knows, really knows, whether sales will meet expectations of any piece of entertainment. But if you don’t care about the game enough to be able to go running to every person you see and shove it in their face and say “Look at this really great game I made!!” no one will ever see it, and no one will buy it.
However, if you make a game that you really love, and it’s uniquely yours and it shows and you’re as proud of it as of anything that you’ve ever done, you’ll want to show everyone. Marketing won’t be as much work. People will see that, and will start coming to you, and it will be even less work. You will have people asking to sell your game for you. You’ll have portals, or whoever you’re selling through, putting your screenshots in their newsletters and advertisments, not because it’s just new, but because it’s something you poured your heart into.
You have one more question, I can see. What if you pour your heart into something and it fails? Yeah, that’s a risk. Let me ask you this, though. Wouldn’t you rather have something you’re proud of completing, something you can say “I gave it everything I have”, a product you like, than to have a product that you half-assed because you didn’t care, you don’t want to play it because you don’t particularly like that type of game and have it be a total failure? If you make something you truly love, the only failure that can possibly happen is lack of sales. You still have a game that you like and that you’re proud of. If you make a game that you don’t care for and it tanks, you have nothing except the knowledge that you could have made something you liked instead.