Game Sharing and getting others to play your games?

[9robin3]

Hello! I have been developing games since I was like maybe thirteen years old in both game maker, RPG maker, unity, unreal and Visual Studio/XNA. I have my own homepage and everything and keep telling my friends that I have a page where they can download and play my games. Whatever I do it seems that not many people wanna play and/or share them. I am going to be realistic now, just some of my games are good, some are really meh - mainstream. But still, how can I get more people to play them!? Do I have to rely on commercial and stuff like that!? Right now I have some people liking and following my facebook page with the same content as on the homepage. I know this is a REALLY really difficult line of business but still. I really need some tips.

Thanks in advice!

 

[Xhukari]

'Build it and they will come' does not apply to video games. When it comes to making games... That's the easy part. Getting people to play them is the hard part.

You mentioned this is a hard business... Which? The commercial games one? Yes. It is very difficult. And generally speaking, you are better off making no first impression than a bad one -- if you want people to take your games seriously, then treat them seriously - you just had a list of names and download links to your games on your site. No trailers, no screenshots. And the site's design is very hobby. Which makes me think, perhaps you don't want it to become a business and instead just want to make something that people will play with little effort from you?

In which case, forget your XNAs and Unities. Focus on either HTML5 or Flash and publish them to game portals on the web. I would favor Flash for popularity still, though HTML5 will overtake it at some point.

I would say more, but I am on a tablet right now.

 

[Xilef]

I would favor Flash for popularity still, though HTML5 will overtake it at some point.

I 100% disagree with this (favouring flash for popularity).

Mobile platforms makes HTML5 a smarter choice and HTML5 right now is a lot healthier in terms of growth for games (as Flash is getting killed off everywhere).

What you said is the equivalent of going back to 2005 and saying "Use Java Web Applet for your games because I think it's more popular than Flash".

Part of me also thinking that the web isn't the best place for coverage, compared to the app store. Web games these days need to be crafted in a rather particular way to gain any attention (Cookie Clicker comes to mind here).

 

[Xhukari]

You are talking from a pure games publishing route. Which yes, HTML5 is better for. It is why I am using it. But you're just passing out blanket advice, not tailored for him. If robin just wants people to play his games, without a care for money. Then the most reliable way to get thousands to play is on game portals -- which are still predominantly Flash driven by their content creators. Additionally there is at least a site out there, that lets pitch & sell (though for little) money to those game portals directly. Which if they do purchase the use of the game, means front-page on that site for a time.

The app stores have a huge issue with discoverability, and will require money and effort for people to look at the game. Sure, run away successes aren't likely on game portals, but getting several thousand people to play is simpler there. And when HTML5 becomes more widespread with these portals, then totally make the switch to HTML5. I mean, everyone knows about the story how a game that cloned the original, became the success instead (Threes vs 2048). App games also involve more development work on optimising it for different screen sizes etc.

 

[9robin3]

'Build it and they will come' does not apply to video games. When it comes to making games... That's the easy part. Getting people to play them is the hard part.

You mentioned this is a hard business... Which? The commercial games one? Yes. It is very difficult. And generally speaking, you are better off making no first impression than a bad one -- if you want people to take your games seriously, then treat them seriously - you just had a list of names and download links to your games on your site. No trailers, no screenshots. And the site's design is very hobby. Which makes me think, perhaps you don't want it to become a business and instead just want to make something that people will play with little effort from you?

In which case, forget your XNAs and Unities. Focus on either HTML5 or Flash and publish them to game portals on the web. I would favor Flash for popularity still, though HTML5 will overtake it at some point.

I would say more, but I am on a tablet right now.

Hi! Yeah the game industry I mean I dont know If I made a bad first impression most of my friends havent even downloaded my games yet. I keep telling them but what to do. They keep telling me they dont have time. And on my page I have screenshots and trailers for every game as well. That is not the problem. I can see two things that might be a problem. I dont think that many follows my FB page, and second, all game maker games that are downloaded gives you a virus warning so that makes them unpopular too. I dont even know how to fix that thing.

I am studying game development right now so I will come back and try to both develop "better" games as well as sharing them more. I think I have to trust commercials for this one, and ask other poeple how they do it. I am also going to learn app development this autumn when we have free selection of courses at my university. I think you're both right but the app market is REALLY growing rapidly. Apps are the future I think.

I was thinking of getting another nickname for myself and starting up a youtube channel to draw more people. Right now I dont update regularly.

 

[Xhukari]

Yeah forget Flash games then, that's more for a hobby. You say you have images on your page? Is that the game page in your signature? Because beside the banner for the page, you have no images for the games on that download page. I wouldn't try to get your friends to play them if they keep making excuses. I would say you're expecting too much from Facebook; FB is better to update fans you've gained, than try to get people to go download your games. Same with a YouTube channel; getting viewers on YT alone is hardwork. A following can be achieved on YT, but expect it to take a long time.

I spent about 5 minutes searching about the virus thing, and some people are saying that it is related to GM 8.1 and earlier; so I presume you're not using GM:Studio? It's been a long time years since I've really used GM 8.1; but doesn't it publish games as an Executable? The size of that executable might be triggering anti-viral programs. But I'm not sure; I am just guessing. I cannot really help you much in terms of mobile app games, as I'm not really interested in that path. But the more traditional routes games take (Youtubers playing them, etc) don't work as well for drumming up interest for app games. That is an entirely different market that I don't really understand; lots of toilet games, etc.

Some things which may help with that path, is getting a cheap tablet or something, and just going around, letting people play your game from your tablet, then let them know where to look, to get it for themselves on their phones / tablets.

the app market is REALLY growing rapidly. Apps are the future I think.

They are part of the future, yes. But PC gaming is also growing, and unlike the app market, games on PC aren't as limited in how they are designed or developed (control methods restricting genres, etc). I mean, one of the big games of 2015 was a GameMaker game that could only run at 30 FPS (Undertale).

 

[9robin3]

Yeah forget Flash games then, that's more for a hobby. You say you have images on your page? Is that the game page in your signature? Because beside the banner for the page, you have no images for the games on that download page. I wouldn't try to get your friends to play them if they keep making excuses. I would say you're expecting too much from Facebook; FB is better to update fans you've gained, than try to get people to go download your games. Same with a YouTube channel; getting viewers on YT alone is hardwork. A following can be achieved on YT, but expect it to take a long time.

I spent about 5 minutes searching about the virus thing, and some people are saying that it is related to GM 8.1 and earlier; so I presume you're not using GM:Studio? It's been a long time years since I've really used GM 8.1; but doesn't it publish games as an Executable? The size of that executable might be triggering anti-viral programs. But I'm not sure; I am just guessing. I cannot really help you much in terms of mobile app games, as I'm not really interested in that path. But the more traditional routes games take (Youtubers playing them, etc) don't work as well for drumming up interest for app games. That is an entirely different market that I don't really understand; lots of toilet games, etc.

Some things which may help with that path, is getting a cheap tablet or something, and just going around, letting people play your game from your tablet, then let them know where to look, to get it for themselves on their phones / tablets.

the app market is REALLY growing rapidly. Apps are the future I think.

They are part of the future, yes. But PC gaming is also growing, and unlike the app market, games on PC aren't as limited in how they are designed or developed (control methods restricting genres, etc). I mean, one of the big games of 2015 was a GameMaker game that could only run at 30 FPS (Undertale).

I dont have images by the links but I think I have a picture album somwhere (I might be wrong). Yes it's the game/homepage in my signature. I think you have right about my friends and facebook. THe thing is, not many people are liking it or following it, and some of them doesnt like games (from what I understand). So that's a problem. I think I will try making some other youtube stuff in the mantime, and when Im finished with university I will have time to try it on. Ofcourse I am aware that it might be hard to become popular but I might do other stuff than just making commercial for my games.

I am using GM8. Is this problem fixed in GameMaker Studio? Isnt the problem caused due to explorer's security and/or anti-virus program's security (Chrome and Norton for example) rather than GameMakers own built-in code? I mean files that doesnt get dowladed is flagged as insecure right? What to do about it then? Yes the games are published as executable. I have tried using setup programs so that people download a setup file to install the EXE file, but that gives the anti-virus a warning when the EXE is installed, so the same problem persists. Does the size matter? I have done some small games which gives the same warning.

I will try to develop games for as many platforms as possible right now, just because I love programming and so on.

Thanks in advance

 

[9robin3]

Hi! I tried GameMaker Studio and the same thing happens with EXE files and installer files. What am I going to do? Nothing seems to work.....

 

[Xhukari]

Sorry I don't know then. Perhaps try looking into it specifically; surely someone somewhere as got a fix for it.

 

[9robin3]

Have you read somewhere that Studio shall work? Maybe its some anti-virus programs and/or web explorers. What about whitelisting the games at different anti-virus companies?

 

[Xhukari]

When I did my original post about it, I did about five minutes research and came across a couple of pages of people discussing it, and they said GM: Studio fixed it. So I don't know beyond that. You are a free to do more research into it though.
I don't think anti-viral companies would bother whitelisting unless it was a big hit, first.

 

[9robin3]

I did search for it and some peole say they got the error in GM Studio as well. How can almost every engine give this problem? I tried XNA as well, the same problem. I know unusual files may be blocked, but as an indie developer, ones files will always be unusual and/or seldom downloaded right?

You may have right with the whitelist thingy but I got in contact with norton and they said I could fll in a paper and to try to get them to work. Again, that is only with Norton so..

 

[ZenVirZan]

Norton blocks pretty much anything that hasn't been downloaded on a huge scale or hasn't been specifically whitelisted by the application's company.
I think the bigger issue would be if Avast or even Windows Defender was picking it up. If they're not, I think you'd be okay, because the sheer number of false positives you get with Norton is through the roof, at least back when I had to use it.

 

[Xhukari]

Oh yeah, I forget how bad Norton is, I used to use it myself; I wonder if it still does not allow you to uninstall all of it?
Does it actually trigger other anti-virus programs? I use AVG myself.

 

[9robin3]

My problem isnt with Norton, but it seems that every computers windows defender and/or chrome gives the same warning. I am aware of Nortons insane "security"