My name is Duy and I am one of the developers at Pixel Stream. So far we produced one game that did okay. One thing I've learned.. its not easy making games. Its easy to over do a lot of things, and a lot of times you just have to cut back. Most of the successful games on the App Store happens to be very simple, yet.. complex enough to hold keep people playing. I recently discovered Doodle Jump's sales on Christmas Day came in at 80,000 downloads. Its an astonishing feat.. considering how simple that game is in terms of graphics, and concept. Its got to be clever too.. and probably in the modest way. No gimmicks.
you are totally right. none of my games so far have hit anything near big, but now i have a steep and great appreciation for game developers and indie devs. games are tough to make and market, but i love telling people i make games and whipping out my ipod to show them. the look at me like im a genius or something.
Indeed it's not an easy process. I've been working in games for 4 years and know how much work goes into them. However I'm not letting myself get into the mindset of letting "it's hard" put me off as that's an excuse. I just want to do this, because I love the idea of it and as long as I keep doing what I love, it does not matter if it fails because I'll have fun making it. Plus any failure is just an opportunity to learn more anyway.
I think one needs to start by asking a simpler question: What makes a great game? Everyone considering making games should read The Art of Computer Game Design by Chris Crawford. It was written in the 1980's and the case examples are for very old games that many of the younger ones around here might not remember, but the information is timeless. You can read the whole book for free online. It's found here: The Art of Computer Game Design Share and enjoy,
I think i'll have to disagree with you on that one blue ox. I really think my original question is a much much more easier one to answer. Everyone knows pretty instinctively what they like in a game and that is what i'm interested in finding out to see what the common interests are. To me the question "what makes a great game?" is not a simple question at all to answer. It's actually a pretty epic question to answer, which is why we have books and debates to answer that very question. The link to the book is absolutely fantastic though, so thank you very much for that.
