Make Millions Making Games Without Actually Making Games*

Posted by Rampant Coyote on May 8, 2014

There’s a saying in games development that a game is never truly finished, merely shipped. What that really means is that perfection is unattainable, and every game ships with more things the developers would like to do. But eventually, the game has to go out, and whether or not it’s “good enough” is left to the marketplace to decide.

At least, that’s how it worked in the bad old days. Nowadays, with “alpha-funding” and crowdfunding, game developers have the opportunity to sell empty promises to consumers, and then pull the plug after they’ve literally made millions selling a tech demo.

Don’t say I didn’t warn you…

Alpha-Funded Steam Game Towns Abandoned By Developers

There are a couple of complications in this story. It wasn’t officially marked as an “early release” on Steam (but it was elsewhere, like Desura), and the guy stuck with finishing development was apparently clueless and incompetent, while the original developer ran off the the bulk of the cash. But no matter how you slice it… the customers were screwed. They were told they were buying one thing, fed promises of what they would eventually be playing, and …. they ain’t ever gonna see it.

To add insult to injury, the remaining developer – who has apparently not been able to produce much over the last several months – is suggesting making a “sequel” that players will have to purchase all over again that might contain all of what they originally promised with the first product.

This is perilously close to scam territory. Probably unintentional. In my experience, most first-time indie projects never make it to release. They get the “easy” 80% of the project done (which is, apparently, enough to start selling the game in today’s world), but the last 20%… which actually takes the lion’s share of the effort … is beyond their ability.

In addition, in the case of pre-selling the game, where the bulk of sales happen in the first few weeks after launch… that means the hardest part of development will occur when the game is already in its “long tail.” What’s the motivation to keep going on a game when the money is already spent and there’s not much more to look forward to? When it would be far more profitable to move on to the next game?

I hope this shakes some common sense into people, but in all likelihood any revelations will probably just be misdirected anger and distrust towards all of indie gaming. Or maybe just towards all customer-funded development.

I haven’t always followed my own advice. I’ve picked up a few early release games (most part of bundles), and there have been a couple of them that have since apparently lost all developer support. I’m left with little more than a rough tech demo. Granted – these are exceptions to the rule. And I have several games I’ve pre-ordered / crowd-funded / gotten early access to which have turned out pretty awesome. But these exceptions are not uncommon.

Simply put,  do not buy anything based on promises unless you have reason to have faith in the ability and commitment of the seller to follow through. That’s basic and universal and applicable through any time period, culture, and technology. I think this kind of thing is going to keep happening until both customers and would-be developers get an understanding of just how challenging making a complete, commercial-quality game can be.

 

* At least to the point of anything completion

Filed Under: Biz - Comments: 9 Comments to Read



top