this post was submitted on 06 Sep 2023
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Sabotage Studio initially projected sales of 250,000 copies of Sea of Stars in the first year. They hit that target within just a week. (lemmy.world)
submitted 2 years ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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Source tweet: https://twitter.com/seaofstarsgame/status/1699175546930766092

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

I know that stupid rich CEOs and shareholders don't understand this, but... "heart". You make a game with heart, and it's immediately apparent to the audience. You can try to break down what it is that gives it away, but that's unnecessary.

If a work of art has heart, it will probably sell well. As long as people can clearly see what it is, and as long as it doesn't do anything alienating.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

I love this sentiment, and it can be true, but it also creates this idea that 'heart' alone has a high bearing on whether or not a product of any kind (book, film, statue, game) will be successful in its market ambitions.

It doesn't always correlate. I would argue if often doesn't correlate. Any indie film or game fest is chock full of projects with a ton of heart. Few of them graduate to success in the market place.

I'm not saying heart is a bad thing. It's a damn great thing. But strong business fundamentals are a good thing too. And sometimes, you also just need that extra bit of luck or uncontrollable virality too. To find success, you stack the deck with as many good plays as you can, and heart is one of them.

Success is not a recipe, and if it was, everybody would be doing it...

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

I agree with you completely. I just wasn't about to write an essay on potential contributing factors that can help one succeed, plus luck. I just wanted to say that these days, there are a lot of indie smash hits out there that succeed in part because people saw a whole lot of love in them, when a lot of the more cynical corporate creators would never have made such things in such ways. Hell, it's not just indies. It's why many Nintendo games are so beloved, even "forgotten" ones like Earthbound. ^^

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago

I realized pretty early on as a developer that my projects motivated because I wanted the thing I was making were far better than projects motivated because I wanted a project to work on.

A lot of the large companies are now run by business majors who are primarily there to make money rather than make video games.

Though you do need the skills and dedication in addition to the vision, because I've also got a bunch of projects that started as something I was very interested in but then stalled because I didn't have the skills or focus to stick with it.