What game is most trendy currently?

So core curiosity in my mind while writing this thread is of course, what game should I make now to hit in market.

This is nobody can answer, so then what is most trendy game now?

After minecraft, I see there are tsunami wave of game design that features

[Survival, Make survival kit yourself, Block mechanism, Gamer can made original unique contents]

This wave spreaded to entire game industry, even big player like SquareEnix even released game copy of Minecraft. (DragonQuest Builders)

So what is now most trendy in indie game?

Still above tide is ongoing?

Somewhat changed to?

 

Anime dating games.

 

Bartender game focus on listening customer to build lore and story with heavy branching factor and mystery

 

Highly physics based 3D juggling simulators

 

Expect a flood of geolocation enabled games with an AR component.

Pokemon Go is making so much money now. And the tech is relatively simple. Ignoring the market potential would be insane.

 

Got no interest in following the herd.

 

So indie also can make geolocation game? Not so hurdle isn't high?

 

Your problem isn't AR, it's location data and so on, this is far from easy to make interesting. Yep, you need to make something interesting. There's going to be an endless flood of this sort of game (it's probably happening right now) and most will die without a trace.

If you have to follow, you're usually too late - unless you can do it better. Go relies on interesting location data, something that's harder than just pooping out a bad model over AR.

 

I hear things like Pokemon go is a great game, I must be odd because I find it a crap game. If it's making money it's because of the licence. Replace the Pokemon with anything unlicensed and I'm sure it will fail.

 

What's your projected development period and release date?

 

I think the latest trend is that game where players are running a small Indie Shop and trying to guess what the "next big thing" will be. I've heard it is quite addicting as players spend a lot of time with it but unfortunately aren't getting anything done.

 

As short as possible is desirable. Absolutely no more than 4 months for whole development time.

 

Are there example of that sort of game?
Yes that is absolutely ideal and want to make. But its possibility should be almost infinite. And the world itself should be made within very limited develop power.. indie scale.

 

I'm always amazed at the short development times everyone seems to aim for these days. It's one thing if you're kicking out little game ideas here and there for free, that's cool. But when planning for commercial success, I can't even imagine finishing anything close to a financially viable (or successful) game in less than 6 months. Then again I don't make mobile games so maybe that's where I'm missing the idea.

 

I think the cool kid call it MVP

 

I thought the same thing about mobile development. The game I'm working on right now is finally getting ready for release in the next week or two was supposed to only take like 4 months tops, and this was only because my partner on this game had never developed a game in Unity before, so I thought 4 months would be generous.

Edit: For reference, we started the project in december, so it's taken nearly twice as long as expected.

If anything, I feel like mobile development is more annoying than PC development. Then again maybe it's just not for me. I don't even own a phone.

 

Why not? The tech behind the game isn't that sophisticated. Or rather, the tech behind the game is very sophisticated, but most of the work has already been done for you by companies like Apple, Google and Unity. I'm currently building a series of tutorials on the basic tech, check out my YouTube channel for more.

Its not a great game in terms of gameplay. In fact, in terms of gameplay its a terrible game. Its riding on well established IP, casual players, and the social aspect. Its a mass market casual game, with very wide appeal. But that casual appeal also makes it very shallow.

But imagine what could be done with a hand crafted version of the game. Built by someone who cares about the game play. Built in the indie style of 'something small but beautiful'. I could see good money being spent on something much more focused.

 

Its because too dangerous if time goes on. Specially without funding, whole responsibilities falls down to developers.

First he should have proof that his basic core game idea can be sold in market. Otherwise, its fail and no need to develope more.

If there is guarantee that his game making can be enough money, why can't bare more than 6 months, even years?

But there is no such guarantee.

 

No.

There's no proof that anything can be sold, or any guarantees or any of that. You should develop the game that you believe in, in whatever amount of time it takes to develop, and then put it out there.

To quote Jerry Maguire, "That's how you become great, man. Hang your balls out there!"

 

Just don't forget about companies like GameSparks. Because after all Pokémon Go isn't simply running on your phone. It has a server backend too and this is where most of the heavy lifting is taking place. It won't function whatsoever without it.

 

That's what artist say, while being exploited by business man, richer than them, they have to beg to do anything.

 

Huh?

 

just make a thing with pokemon in it lol

.... actually i seen one on a flash site getting lots of plays (1/2 million) ... guess idk if they were making money off it or what

 

Just an FYI because it sounds like everyone isn't fully informed.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Entrepreneur/comments/4skt0t/how_long_does_it_take_to_create_an_overnight/
Niantic spent several years establishing their AR game Ingress along with a partnership with Google to create the database of landmarks used in Pokemon GO.

 

I totally agree with this idea. It took Pokemon a long time to be made. But that's the same with most games breaking new ground. Once the ground is broken, it's much easier for others to follow.

Innovation is expensive. Niantic deserves credit for that. Cloning someone else's tech is much cheaper. Expect a flow of clones trying to capitalise on the same idea.

The OP was not asking 'What can I do to create a new, innovative game'. The OP was asking 'What band wagon can I jump on'.

 

doesnt matter, because even if you make the most amazing trend setting game, it wont start a single trend without some kind of going viral luck.

 

Anyone saying that Pokemon Go was "easy" to develop is insane. Creating and moderating an enormous database of world wide landmarks with geolocation, photos, and player-assigned input was a tremendous undertaking requiring the combined dev power of the Google Earth team, a game studio, and a fully developed pre-Pokemon game utilizing that technology to gather all the data in the first place, which had to be marketed and maintained long enough to get a massive worldwide following so that players could actually generate the needed database. No indie dev is going to be able to do that. Come on. I know it's fun to pretend like the popular games are crap but Pokemon Go and Ingress before it are seriously major technological accomplishments.

 

Check out the front page of steamspy it will give you all the trending games.

I was spying on the games on steam using steamspy, now most of the games hardly sell any units anyway, its not even worth putting them on steam. But if you do a bit of digging you'll notice most of the big ticket sellers have publishers, and the other trending thing right now is steam bundling (which some publishers have started using).

 

An indie developer wouldn't approach it in the same manner as a large studio.

 

If all you're talking about is showing a player's location on top of a google map image, then yes, an indie could definitely do that. But that is like 0.001% of the technology and content of Ingress/Pokemon. I'd hazard a guess that they worked on the "how do we ping someone's location on Google Maps" problem for about an hour and then spent the next six years doing all the other work that needed to be done to maintain something like Ingress/Pokemon.

 

No. I'm referring to making the game not require geolocation information and instead use a service like Vuforia to analyze the camera data from their phone to determine the type of location they are currently at. Pokemon Go is definitely innovative but that doesn't mean their solutions are the only ones available.

 

It looks OK and certainly different than typical game fare without being, uh, silly.

 

That's not the same thing... that would be a totally different thing. Like "I'm making basketball, but instead of requiring a basket and a ball, you will wear ice skates and hit a puck into a goal."

 

From a user's perspective if the client behaves largely the same they don't care what it does under the hood.

 

I also get the feeling that half the people talking down about Pokemon Go haven't played it and don't even know what it is. Hint: the "AR" portion is essentially meaningless, and most players turn it off unless they want to take a photo for fun.

 

Have you actually played Pokemon Go or Ingress? I get the feeling you think it just randomly generates a thing and overlays it on the camera video... that's not what they do.

 

I'm quite aware of what it does under the hood.

 

If you say so. But I'm gonna call it now and say that "I'm gonna make Pokemon Go" is the new "I'm gonna make an MMORPG" of the General Discussion forum. And that the people who say you can make Pokemon Go are the same people who say that technically, two players moving capsules around on a cube counts as an MMORPG.

 

Just remember there are some people who have pulled off an MMORPG.

 

That's not what nintendo said actually... It's making money allright, but seem not much(at least from nintendo's perspective)
http://gizmodo.com/nintendos-stock-plummets-because-its-not-making-enough-1784233755

But it does still the trending game at the moment...

 

I think there is a good amount of money being made from it. I read an article earlier on it while doing some research on a related thing. It's just that Nintendo didn't actually develop the game or really have much of anything to do with it. Their agreement has them getting just a small share from their investment in the developer company or something like that.

The stock plummet is not meaningful as an indicator. That is just people's normal knee-jerk reactions to things. Seems that most of those folks thought Nintendo actually made the game and were expecting to see quite a nice increase in earnings reportings. When Nintendo made the statement that no they didn't actually make the game and are not getting all of that money... those folks dreams were shattered and they probably started selling their shares. People just make decisions based on emotion more than logic many times.

Gotta remember that a week or so ago Nintendo's stock more than doubled in value. Likely from all of the people buying as much as they could thinking Nintendo was making mint from that game. So the 15% drop really isn't much compared to the previous 100% increase. And it is likely many of the same people who went on a buying spree who got spooked and sold off. The stock market is an interesting thing. Most folks just buy & sell based on emotion and nonsense.

 

I can't say as to how much everyone knows about the game either, but I tried it out and am continuing to play it with my SO, partially to see what the craze is about, and slowly understanding and appreciating the multiple layers and progression of meta-game that exists beyond the AR moment-to-moment gameplay. The brilliance of it goes beyond the usage of established user data from Ingress for geolocation. It's more than technical achievement. It touches on the various length sessions of gameplay that most game designers struggle to achieve in their games. The basic elements of stops, gyms, lures and eggs serve as core foundations for the developers to build on and expand further on this product.

 

They have a very high development cost, though.

"Anime dating game/visual novel" can easily feature a hundred backgrounds, few hundred of large high quality sprites, 20+ soundtracks, 40+ hours of content, and a song with animated clip.

Oh, right, and they're supposed to be full voiced.

Good luck making something like that as a one person team.

IMO, this kind of thinking (I'll ride the trend and make it big) is a good way to fail miserably.
Do you have a big studio/big budget? If not, keep making small stuff till you get enough money to aim higher.

 

Nah man, haven't you seen the John Cena anime dating game? That game prolly had a $0 budget, and it's probably the best game in the genre.

 

The latest trend is always Call of Duty and this will never change even though its the same game every year with a new map. Marketing is everything the Coca Cola CEO Bobby Kotick is a true genius if you ask me. To get loyal following of stupid people to make you billions every year on the same exact game for 10 years straight is some remarkable skills.

I however play Street Fighter 5 and Killer Instinct on a modded Qanba Q1 fightstick

 

No, and I have no interest checking it out.

This is an intro of a quality anime dating game:

Gameplay: 50 hours, every character is voiced

^^^ This kind of quality level is normal. Good luck.

 

It would takes 3 month, if you already is veteran, full time and ruining your life, to do that animation alone I estimate. And that's not with the storyboard and layout. Now I'm not animator take that with grain of salt. Just trying to estimate for myself. If there is any pro who can confirmed ...

 

That's probably better refered to as a market correction, rather then a stock fall. The market got over excited about the game, and Nintendo's price rose sharply. The fall is simply readjusting to the fact that the game is not exceeding expectations. The stock is still dramatically up on pre Pokemon Go numbers.

That's all I'm suggesting. I'm not suggesting anyone tries to take on the scale of Pokemon Go. But you don't need to be as massive as Pokemon Go to incorporate geo location in your game. Sure Niantec is sitting on a giant mass of data. But I can think of plenty of ways to build a game like Pokemon Go without needing the mass of data.

 

There are a lot visual novels that are not fully voiced, where you have only a couple of character sprites with interchangeable and marginally animated faces. And those doing pretty well too. See VA-11 Hall-A

What I'm trying to say is, that visual novels are not different than any other games. You have smaller indie ones and you have big productions too.

I could show you a trailer of Assassins Creed and also write "This kind of quality level is normal. Good luck."

With a mindset like that, there wouldn't be a diverse indie scene at all.

 

I do not agree and I do not think there's anything wrong with my mindset. The trailer is not very far above average level, so it is nowhere close to assassin's creed.

The problem here is that there's a significant gap in quality between average level and what people usually try to do creating "dating game" in the west. Western devs simply do not take the genre seriously, and perceive it as some sort quick way to get more cash. Meaning they often release complete S***. While it is possible to earn cash making S***, this is not a path I would pursue.

The OP is currently looking for a way to get a quick cash grab, by making garbage that rides popularity trend. In my experience, in the end doing that makes you feel bad. So I'd recommend to stick with creating something OP would like, instead of trying to copy what's popular.

Speaking of dating games, a good idea would be to release something of "normal" quality which would be higher than majority of western-made vns on steam. There appears to be a significant market segment on steam that is unaware of other ways to get a decent VN, and they currently fall prey to developers of Sakura series (those guys have decent art work, but create extremely short cash grab VNs). With quality titles similar to, say Ever 17, you could steal their users. However, a quality VN/dating game is not something that can be done within 4months timeframe alone.