Hi All, I am creating a game and I was making it with level progress. So like phases you progess like level 1 and level 2 etc and I set checkpoints just like phases. But now as I start to create the scenes I also tried to randomize the levels and the game also seems enjoyable. I am a little confused to make the levels randomized or go like level 1 and 2 and a 3 etc. Which one would you prefer? Which one would you enjoy more. It is a vertical platformer character going upwards but I am also trying to create surprises inside the level design and will make around 100 scenes. I was going to make it like 50 levels and 2 scenes per level so still 100 scenes. I am wondering what creates the joy difference between a randomized game and a staged game? @heathclose Why people select randomized games? For example Line Zen is perfect for a randomized game. I can just play for a long time. Or Platform Panic by Nitrome is another good example. Btw I am planning to add extra unlockable characters and powerups to be gained by collected virtual currency.
I don't think one is particularly better than the other, but it does really depend on how well the game is laid out in a staged version. Reason being, it's usually just one persons idea of how the game should flow. Of course as the game-dev, it's your decision/job to decide on that, but I think for most people, the appeal of a random game is the fact that it's different every time. I personally like a well staged game, but love the idea of offering an unlockable random world after playing through a staged game. This gives the user the incentive to get through a certain amount of staged levels in order to unlock the random world etc. I guess it's all about how long you can keep your users interested in your game, so being able to offer a mix of both staged and randomized in Buildbox, is surely the best of both worlds (pun intended)
Yes definitely. The only thing I am thinking of is when I look at mobile gaming I see it is really hard to keep people play your game and I guess like you said "that all depends on how long you can keep users interested in your game." So sometimes thinking making a randomised game might make it more interesting. Btw besides mobile gamers there are hard core gamers and they are a total different world. Last week I tried one of my mobile games for Steam Green light. And believe me they crushed me through comments LOL! There were 20 negative comments and I literally had to delete my game from Green Light LOL! I feel ashamed of it! They said oh no we don't want another mobile game here. Some other said Please do not confuse this place with mobile game rand people here are hard core gamers etc. So there is also this world that I think we should focus on. Even tough I have been an old gamer from Atari 2600, Amiga and Commodore making games for mobile made me forget what gaming is through time. This was an eye opener for me. So really it is confusing I guess like you said it is best to offer both but I will still decide that after I complete my 100 scenes LOL! Now I have 17 scenes still I also see most game companies offer like unlockable characters and power ups which might make the game more interesting. I am planning to add power up buttons below like in Clash Royale (there buttons are used to deploy soldiers. In game I might have like 4-5 power ups so I have to say bye bye to banner ads for this since they will take its space below. Will see how it goes. Thank you for your honest advice btw. Happy Gaming Volkan
Some really interesting points you've made here @volcank and there is a lesson we can all take away here. You really need to know your target audience before you begin designing your game. I made a similar mistake but for the mobile audience. My mobile app "Mr Buzz" was designed for hardened gamers, yet I released it to the mobile environment, who clearly prefer more simple games compared to a platform like Steam. My game was deemed too hard and consequently got very few downloads. Perhaps it would fair better on Steam. Did you release your game on mobile too or just Steam? PC gamers are certainly a different breed from mobile gamers and we've both had a taste of the wrong game in the wrong market I'll be interested in seeing how you decided to go when you've finished your game.
Actually I have released my game on mobile for a long time ago but since Buildbox could export to steam I thought this could be great only for promoting my game on mobile. Since people would see it and test it out on mobile so it would convert to downloads. I did this kind of strategy when I was creating games with an HTML5 gamemaker called Construct2. I published my games to mobile but also published to Kongregate and Construct2 Arcade section. And what I did was in the main menu of the game I put GooglePlay and Apple logo which would take the player to the game download center of that particular appstore. We can still use this of strategy but I think we need to make a solid game if we want to publish it to steam. (IT would be great if we could export from Buildbox as Kongreagate and HTML5) Maybe we should go with basic platformers maybe and have arrows on our screens for mobiles don't know. (which I always stay away using arrows which I did in one of my games before.) I always want to see the game sceen with UI not any arrows. But still we can go with arrows strategy because I think only that way we can have the player necessary freedom to move around the game area. (Go left right jump shoot etc.) Maybe we should first make a game for Steam make sure people like it and then publish it to mobile no idea. Btw yes making a game simple is important but at the same time most of the games by Ketchapp are extemely hard but still they have millions of downloads (I am aware of the cross promo situation) but still they make hard games. Don't know who they target. Phases for example by Trey Smith is extremely hard but still it is a game on mobile. So still don't know the balance. For me the best way to go if we create different worlds to go from easy to hard that way we can increase the retention of the game. If you have played the game "Dan The Man" it uses a different strategy. It has a long gameplay almost a very long world to finish but it has checkpoints inside the game and to gain that checkpoint you need to touch a monitor icon and watch a rewarded video to continue. So this is a nice way to create a retention and monetizing. Actually Nitrome first did it in "Leap Day" IT had secret rooms during game and you went into the room to get checkpoint either by spending coins or watching a video. I still believe there are many good gamers in mobile world. The reason for that is I see many people on public transports playing games like maniac. I once saw a man play the game AA (u know the one you throw pins) and he was like at a stage 200 something I think (just guessing) and he played it unbelievebly fast like a rocket. So there are people out there who are serious gamers. BBTAN is another one I see people playing like crazy multiplying the balls almost to 200 during gameplay. So don't know maybe we really don't know to market our games that can be one flaw. We just gotta try out and test things. There are 3 player types I see in mobile today. 1-The ones that get really bored and play games only for a while and close but they never uninstall the game. They play at a toiler or public transport etc. 2-Serious gamers who play and they are really almost obsessive about the game and want to achieve highest levels in game. 3-Social gamers who like to play online (I am one of them I love Clash of Clans) and interact with people. Actually these people are the onces I see they want to show how powerful they are. They want power and want to conquer the world so they satisfy their needs through strategy games. These are just my assumptions of course so still it is really ambiguous. We'll see.
I was thinking about the thing you said "unlockable random world after playing through a staged game" for 2 days and you know I really thought it a lot and it opened a lot of things in my mind suddenly. Although I have watched the tutorial in make your own game series on how to create a secret world, suddenly this kind of strategy opened a lot of things in my mind. Btw I think I will go with randomized for now. The game I am doing seems much more enjoyable in this way somehow even tough I like a well staged game like yours. I also always liked the randomised gameplay of Jetpack Joyride but of course it was offering lots of different gameplay! Anyway Thank you for giving that spark to me @Phill Mason
