Indies on Next-Gen

[Xaos]

So, because Ps4 (and somewhat Xbone) are supporting Indies a lot, even to where PS4 advertises Indies on the main page of their store and has a distinctive section for Indies, as well as ease of development for the new consoles, theoretically popularity for indies should increase. BUT, will they? Will the player go for a game that doesn't have as good graphics for an indie game? IE, say Vitinho's tower games that have gotten a good many plays on kongregate or even a game like Monster MMORPG, which we all are very impressed with, will people download those games, or scoff at the graphics? Are indie devs going to have to learn how to use engines like the Unreal Engine and tilize them to the max to get the plays on the console, or are we going to have to just do our thing and hope we get plays? How do you guys see it going down?

[vitinho444]

My answer is Yes and No.

How can it be yes and no? Well it's simple, look at DayZ and Arma III, a very well-done game and very good looking, and it's indie. How can it be, i asked. Well the company is indie, but i dont think their budget is even close to 0$. That's what will separate the "real" indies from the indies that have success.

My tower defense game is not the best good looking, and the graphics that it has were made by Alain Bertrand, without them it would be as ugly as a 2d game

I believe this is the problem, people are slowly going indie, but they are not going for close-to-0-budgets. I don't know the Arma III budget, but I don't believe its even close to 10k$.

[hallsofvallhalla]

The xbox market for 360 has millions and millions of downloads for indie games You build it they will play it. Simple enough.

I have heard though that Xbox one's indie support is next to nothing. That they are not really supporting indies anymore.

[Callan S.]

The graphics market is one of those keeping up with the jones's and graphic card manufacturers eager to keep pushing their product onto developers.

People still read books - what's with the graphics in those? You don't even get any! But it doesn't matter, see?

That explains why the retro pixelated look remains in vogue - people are happy with icons (indeed, they even prefer icons to realism - see the 'uncanny valley' effect).

If you can draw with an iconic flair, you're good.

If you can't, draw as best you can, then use a program to pixelate it!

You will miss part of the market.

But not ALL of the market, that's for sure.

[Xaos]

The graphics market is one of those keeping up with the jones's and graphic card manufacturers eager to keep pushing their product onto developers.

People still read books - what's with the graphics in those? You don't even get any! But it doesn't matter, see?

That explains why the retro pixelated look remains in vogue - people are happy with icons (indeed, they even prefer icons to realism - see the 'uncanny valley' effect).

If you can draw with an iconic flair, you're good.

If you can't, draw as best you can, then use a program to pixelate it!

You will miss part of the market.

But not ALL of the market, that's for sure.

That certainly makes sense. Especially as this generation goes on, and people get less of that "new console power" feel.

[hallsofvallhalla]

graphics are all that matter, If your graphics suck so does your game. Game like minecraft fail because of the graphics. Game like Terraria flop and only sell 20 million copies. Pshhhh Games like breath of death with retro graphics on xbox live only sold 40,000 copies on xbox live.


The above is me being sarcastic

[vitinho444]

How's 20 million copies a flop :O ?

[Xaos]

graphics are all that matter, If your graphics suck so does your game. Game like minecraft fail because of the graphics. Game like Terraria flop and only sell 20 million copies. Pshhhh Games like breath of death with retro graphics on xbox live only sold 40,000 copies on xbox live.


The above is me being sarcastic

But the people that actually believe this........

[hallsofvallhalla]

How's 20 million copies a flop :O ?

you missed my note :O

The above is me being sarcastic

[hallsofvallhalla]

graphics are all that matter, If your graphics suck so does your game. Game like minecraft fail because of the graphics. Game like Terraria flop and only sell 20 million copies. Pshhhh Games like breath of death with retro graphics on xbox live only sold 40,000 copies on xbox live.


The above is me being sarcastic

But the people that actually believe this........

actually no, developers often believe this, the half a billion dollars worth of sales a year that go to indie games does not nor do the people playing them

This is a developer myth not a player concern.