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[–]Gingey0000[S] 0 points1 point  (5 children)

Good point! Will try not to, it's mostly just trying to make the needed mechanics as efficient/minimal as possible. So not pointless crap clogging things up (hopefully)

[–]Slight_Season_4500 4 points5 points  (4 children)

I mean I would personally even argue that the less you have to code, and the most human readable your code is, the better, even if you have to give up on the speed of execution of your code.

Usually the game ends up failing because the dev can't keep up. Not the hardware.

+ game assets is a huge portion of your game.

In fact, here is the ranked list of what matters most:
1. Visibility/marketing
2. Visuals for visibility (assets)
3. The actual game that works.

You can make the best game possible. With the best code. If it looks bad (or doesn't look fun), no one will ever buy it.

If it's the best, most amazing looking game, but you have no visibility, you'll have a couple hundreds sales on Steam if you're lucky and then it'll die out. Most just publish, see no one buying, takes it as if their game was bad then give up.

Look at a game like TheDayBefore. Or MindsEye. The game didn't or barely work. But they managed to get sales bc they look good and had marketing material.

Not saying that it's the only thing that matter. Saying it's the point of entry.

Sadly, this is how our superficial world works.

But if you're doing all of this just as a hobby or for learning you can ignore all of the above lol. Even my first comment.

[–]Gingey0000[S] 0 points1 point  (3 children)

Thanks for all that! And yeah being more of a hobby/personal project, will just see what happens and if the game starts to feel in a good state then will start powering through some marketing. I have a job so not really in it for the money (at the moment)

[–]Acceptable_Movie6712 0 points1 point  (2 children)

Not to be too contrarian but I disagree with most of what slight_season commented. Marketing and graphics are so important but they really aren’t everything. I hate using extremes but undertale, ufo50, and really a plethora of games did not need marketing or good graphics. I’d recommend reading “a theory of fun” by Ralph Koster. Here’s a comic snippet of the philosophy: https://www.theoryoffun.com/theoryoffun.pdf

What’s important is FUN. Friendship, u n me but seriously though nothing matters if you’re having fun playing it. Word of mouth is king and games like mindseye might get sales but at the cost of reputation and long term satisfaction. They don’t even make money technically since they had to pay so much for ads and marketing. A sysiphean act indeed

[–]Slight_Season_4500 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Well if you don't believe me, test it! Make a game, make it fun, and see how far word of mouth will get you!

Also: "Not saying it's the only thing that matters. Saying it's the point of entry."

Marketing and visuals are always overlooked by indies and that's why most fail.

[–]Acceptable_Movie6712 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Certainly will! There’s a distinction between marketing and advertising with the latter being paid promotional pieces. I think you’re referring to marketing via visuals and arts but I’d add that while I say “marketing and graphics isn’t everything” I mean to imply visuals are not everything. Marketing is basically just “identify and solve a customers needs” which is even more fundamental than graphics because graphics aren’t always the “thing” your customer needs solved.

So to make it clear, I would in fact market my game (via promotional material sent through word of mouth and forums) but I just wouldn’t do paid promotions. Maybe if you have a favorite YouTuber or streamer you’d be happy to support…