Bithell has become one of a growing number of prominent indie game developers known by name after releasing a hit game. New platforms like Steam and iOS have made it easier than ever for a single developer to create a successful game, and sometimes those games really blow up – developers like Minecraft creator Markus “Notch” Persson have become fast millionaires solely off of a single title. But after the elation of a hit game comes a sudden realization: you need to make another one.
This is pretty common among artists; the second album is always the hardest.
Sure, it is super hard to come up with a totally original and at the same time appealing to masses and thus successful concept for a game. However, I wouldn’t expect much innovation from a producer of what was literally a copycat.
“However, unlike Infiniminer, Persson wanted Minecraft to have RPG elements.”
Do you remember any substantial RPG elements until very much after the game had already made a fortune?
What made Minecraft special wasn’t “RPG elements”, it was pure quality of execution… he “did it much better” than Infiniminer and engaged the community beautifully with things like Seeecret Friday Updates.
Hell screw original, just make it FUN with a capital F!
You know how many triple A shooters I’ve played in the last few years? Or triple A RPGs? Know what I keep coming back to? The Rise Of The Triad and Shadow Warriors remakes on the FPS side and Din’s Curse on the RPG side because unlike the triple A “We will now drag you by the nose to the next set piece, you have X number of minutes to “enjoy” said set piece and do exactly as you are told” those games are actually FUN, with lots of secrets, enemies that do more than line up single file to be shot, hell Din’s Curse even has monster V monster, when was the last time you saw that?
C’mon devs, there are plenty of us that like games that are good at what they are and are sick and tired of the triple a “Wow its purty, too bad its as boring as doing your taxes” idea of gaming, so if you don’t have an original idea so what, just focus on making it from start to finish super duper FUN and we’ll happily buy your game!
Be it ego or hope, but many indi game developers continue to try to go it alone after the success of a single game when sometimes the better option would be to sell to a larger business.
As with any business sudden growth can actually be really bad for it. From having a small dynamic team they are suddenly in a position of fighting massive (new) bureaucracy when it comes to the second. If the second game doesn’t meet the same success (and presumably the sales of the original tile will reduce over time). They are now left with a bloated company which needs to reduce staff. Leads to poor moral and brain drain. New company implodes.
Obviously some manage this better than others. Rovio successfully built a franchise off its characters which has continued their success.
Really? I thought of Rovio first when I read the headline. Are they doing well? Angry birds was great and all, but what was their second successful game?
right: “Rovio Entertainment suffered from a 73% decrease in profit, earning only €10 million in 2014. “
Rovio have been going for about 12 years so I don’t think this article really applies to them anymore. Although angry birds is by far their biggest unique franchise, they have had repeated success. Indeed they have quite a few titles under their belt. Don’t get me wrong, they are struggling to make the profit they were a few years back, but they are still making monkey (as far as I am aware)
Ah yes, the old days of making orangutans are gone. Its strictly down to a few spider monkeys per quarter now days.
Adurbe,
This could be possible, but I don’t believe it is the problem they’re actually having. While making a year’s salary on one app must feel pretty good, realistically they’re still barely hanging on. The problem isn’t growth, but the lack thereof. There are too many app developers chasing too few dollars.
http://tech.co/startups-how-much-funding-should-i-ask-for-2012-12
I’m self employed and I won’t have it any other way if I can help it. Yet the fact is the majority of us are holding on by a thread, statistically making less than normal employees. This article puts it well.
http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/apr2010/sb2010041_1511…
And in Europe things seem to be similar:
https://www.knowledge.hsbc.co.uk/business-news/article/self-employed…
Adurbe:
This might be true, yet I think it’s a shame when the best option for small operations is to sell themselves out to bigger fish. Everywhere we look the small businesses are loosing out to the big ones. Here in the US we used to be a country of Mom and Pop stores, a few generations ago a significant portion of us could actually work hard and open up our own stores. Now those people are working at WallMart, etc. It makes me sad.
Edited 2015-03-27 15:25 UTC
Last I checked, Steam has actually been around a while. It’s relatively new to me, though… my account is only just over a year old. And man… that site really is good at straining my wallet, pay after pay, without failure. :/
And that is both a good and bad thing.