next »

[klaus]

Hello everyone,

we are making an online multiplayer action RTS set in space for desktop PCs (www.asteroidfight.com) and I'm wondering if anyone has experiences with growing the community for a multiplayer game (on a rather small budget)?

I actually got a little bit worried yesterday when I read this http://www.sizefivegames.com/2014/05/02/indie-advice-why-you-probably-shouldnt-make-a-multiplayer-game/ article, where the creator of Gun Monkeys discourages making a multiplayer game as an indie dev. Since then I'm thinking of ways to overcome the potential risk of having no players on the servers. Well, I thought about that before - but now even more.

[oldblood]

Not to be that guy but... You just read an article from a very experienced indie developer with a large following that suggests avoiding multiplayer games without "large sums of money"... and you're a smaller indie with no clout who wants to know how to do it with a "rather small budget"? It sounds like you already know the answer to your question. That article was written after Gun Monkeys was already out. So it's from personal experience not conjecture and you should take it seriously. Not trying to be negative, just reiterating what you're already aware of...

Asking how to grow a community for a multiplayer game is the equivalent of asking how to sell more copies of a single-player game. There is no simple answer or suggestion anyone can realistically give to that question.

[Columbo]

Make it free with IAPs?

[VampireSquid]

You should probably listen to oldblood.  I would focus on making the game work as single player first, so build some AI into it.  If people like it then try to build up to multi-player once you have a following.

[J-Snake]

From a general look, even bigger studios have trouble to keep their multiplayer community alive. So a solid single player with a multiplayer option attached to it is a safer bet, if possible.

[ironbelly]

It's certainly a risky venture with no easy answer. However, there is ONE easy answer to part of the problem.

Kickstarter.

It comes down to this: You have two problems, you need to be sure you'll have a lot of people at launch and you need money (don't we all?). If you can convince enough people on Kickstarter it will provide not only proof of concept, but the initial seed population you need... and of course, money.

That would be my first step anyway.

[ElstonGunn]

It is sort of a chicken/egg problem. But it's definitely manageable.

One thing that people have learned is that you need to set the cost-of-entry to be very low. If the game needs to be downloaded and installed, the entry cost is very high. If you need to pay for the game first, then it's astronomical.

Take a look at agar.io. What is the cost of entry?:
1) Visit the web page.
2) Enter a random name by slamming your keyboard.
3) Click the green play button.

BOOM. That's it. You are now playing the game with many other people. You're not spending time registering, reading, downloading, installing. Within ~5 seconds you're in the game. You don't even need to select a server. It just "works".

This is why Steam exists as well. It makes it as easy as possible to purchase, download, and install new games.

Maintaining a low cost of entry is critical, and this is the actual reason why the freemium model works. Create a very fun multiplayer game with a very low entry cost, get thousands of players, and offer people cosmetic products.

Also, like others have already said, create a way for users to have at least some fun on their own while they wait to find a multiplayer match.

[klaus]

Not to be that guy but... You just read an article from a very experienced indie developer with a large following that suggests avoiding multiplayer games without "large sums of money"... and you're a smaller indie with no clout who wants to know how to do it with a "rather small budget"? It sounds like you already know the answer to your question.

Well, yes and no. I won't cancel the project at this point in development, because of one article I've read. And although I believe what he has written I want to try it for myself.

Make it free with IAPs?

That's an option, of course.

You should probably listen to oldblood.  I would focus on making the game work as single player first, so build some AI into it.  If people like it then try to build up to multi-player once you have a following.

From a general look, even bigger studios have trouble to keep their multiplayer community alive. So a solid single player with a multiplayer option attached to it is a safer bet, if possible.

That's also an option, but we've focused on multiplayer all our dev time until now. To build a decent singleplayer now would require a lot of additional work we haven't planned in and would delay the project further. That doesn't mean we categorically object to this idea.. It just means it's a tough decision. But we will probably try different methods.

If you can convince enough people on Kickstarter it will provide not only proof of concept, but the initial seed population you need... and of course, money.

To get a Kickstarter campaign going is no easy encounter in Austria, because Kickstarter doesn't accept projects from here. We would have to start a company in a country were we could start a campaign. We are thinking about launching a campaign on IndieGoGo though.

Maintaining a low cost of entry is critical, and this is the actual reason why the freemium model works. Create a very fun multiplayer game with a very low entry cost, get thousands of players, and offer people cosmetic products.

Also, like others have already said, create a way for users to have at least some fun on their own while they wait to find a multiplayer match.

Yeah.. the low entry cost is an interesting point. It interfere's with the price quality illusion probably. I have ambivalent feelings towards going F2P. In the minds of the players the game loses its value I think.

[oldblood]

Well, yes and no. I won't cancel the project at this point in development, because of one article I've read. And although I believe what he has written I want to try it for myself.

To clarify, I wasn't suggesting you cancel the project. As others have suggested, I was more alluding to revisiting it as single-player. It sounds like regardless of responses, your mind is already made up that you would be continuing regardless of statistics or feedback.

If that is the case, you should definitely proceed exactly as you've been doing. It sounds like you're committed to the idea. It's not impossible (only almost impossible), but the time, effort and money is yours so only you should decide how they're all spent. Best of luck!

[klaus]

To clarify, I wasn't suggesting you cancel the project. As others have suggested, I was more alluding to revisiting it as single-player. It sounds like regardless of responses, your mind is already made up that you would be continuing regardless of statistics or feedback.

If that is the case, you should definitely proceed exactly as you've been doing. It sounds like you're committed to the idea. It's not impossible (only almost impossible), but the time, effort and money is yours so only you should decide how they're all spent. Best of luck!

Ok, ok!

Even if the game will not be a huge success we want to at least finish it, but we will try everything to make it a success story

Thanks and all the best to you and your project too!