Here, that’s probably the case, but you are absolutely getting a skewed view of the player base if your only source of information is a place like feu. There are plenty of people who are less into games like this for the gameplay and more about the story and characters. Or, who are into the social aspects of raising units but not so much the actual combat.
(And you can tell that even IS realized this a while ago since they began to introduce casual mode and easier difficulties.)
It’s easy to say something about how an ideal game should be able to appeal to both sides, but often attempting to find as wide an audience as possible just results in the end product being kind of okay in every aspect but not actually good at anything, and i wouldn’t blame anyone for deciding they’d rather focus on a more narrow audience, regardless of where that falls between the extremes of full story/gameplay focus. After all, these are fan games; they don’t need to satisfy stock holders by selling X millions of copies.
“I firmly believe that if you are making an FE romhack or SRPG studio game anything for the sake of notoriety and popularity, you will be disappointed.”
No, i think they have it right. Making something for popularity or at least notoriety is not in itself that hard, depending on how shameless you are and how much you care about which crowd you become popular with. But scenes with limited audiences like gbafe hacking and some obscure game maker program are probably not going to appeal to you in the first place if that’s your goal.
Making something for popularity or at least notoriety is not in itself that hard, depending on how shameless you are
People enjoy getting Likes and reactions. Feedback loop additions aside, I don’t mind dropping shameless posts on facebook a like. I just ignore the ones that are at all risque.
Your friend updated their profile picture. Again.
Sure, you can write off selfies as an insane popularity contest, but why deny someone the praise? I hardly use social media anyway.
I feel like that’s approaching whole different topic, though. There is something nice about sharing an appreciation for the same media and having people enjoy your creations in that style.
I don’t think it’s bad to desire appreciation, whether that’s on facebook or through creating romhacks. Niche it might be, people seldom create things entirely for themselves. We’d rather share in these experiences.
Mmhm, it is the foundation that all other aspects rest upon. Everything else is just icing on the cake around here. The dramatic plot twist in ch15, the cool custom T2 lord animation, the epic map theme for the final chapter are all for naught if the gameplay in the first few chapters isn’t engaging/polished/is DGE.
That being said, gameplay is usually a solo endeavor made by the project lead. In all likelihood it’s going to be bad if it’s your first time around the block. I sure as doot wasn’t an exception, and I’m okay with that (and you should be too). THWD’s first FEE3 video is still out there (sorry skitty @Dancer_A) , as well as the video from a year later with oodles of progress in all aspects. We learn along the way. With the opinions of the people who take the time to play your project you can adjust it, and I feel like you owe it to them to take their opinions into consideration. After all, they did take the time to play your fan game.
Probably should have mentioned asset trading in this 'lil bit. Everybody wins when you help each other in areas you’re weak in (if people follow through on their promises). Not only do both projects benefit, you also get to make friends along the way. Maybe ‘the friends we made along the way’ was the friends we made along the way.
I find it’s as simple as “build it and they will come”. Not much more complicated than that, although extra factors for sparking interest undoubtedly help.
I also think that the Fire Emblem structure has a lot of potential as a medium for storytelling. I’m so glad I’m not the only one!
Though I do agree that the gameplay should be fun, for me what ultimately makes or breaks the game is the story and/or the characters.
I love the Fire Emblem gameplay formula, however when it’s in tandem with an engaging story and memorable characters, for me it makes it a hundred times better.
Is it really that simple? I built mine, and as of now barely anyone came at least as far as I’m aware of. Perhaps I did something wrong but if I did, then I’ll just rectify it in my next attempt which I’m working…ish on right now.
“Build it and they will come” is definitely not true. It’s not that simple. I suspect that involvement in the community and getting word of mouth and attention of your hack is the biggest factor here. People will remember or try out these hacks when looking for one to play. Marketing is everything to a product’s success.
My suggestion is to get involved in the community if you want attention on your hack projects. That’s more important than aesthetics, gameplay, writing, etc. As for me, I am mostly a nobody in the community, and I am okay with that. My hack was a personal, creative project. The most important thing is to have some fun with it.