Will Portals Promote a Shooter?

[KG_Brad]

I'm almost finished with my game (it's a shmup) and I was wanting to know if game portals will promote shooters as well as they promote more casual games. If not, would it still get a lot of downloads?

[arcadetown]

If it's a great quality shooter we and some others certainly will. Various other portals tend to down play shooters since they tend not to do well with their audience, but they will still launch them and let users decide. While other portals simply don't seem to give a hoot for shooters.

Trick with shooters is users have pretty high demands so it's gotta be great and/or be something unique to stand out. A "pretty good" or same old cookie cutter "me too" shooter doesn't seem to cut it. Some good examples that have resonated with our users...

Chicken Invaders 3 (http://www.arcadetown.com/chickeninvaders3/game.asp) - Top notch effects combined with great fun and humor.
WW2 Pacific Heroes (http://www.arcadetown.com/ww2pacificheroes/game.asp) - Great game play combined with very simple casual controls.
Star Defender 3 (http://www.arcadetown.com/stardefender3/game.asp) - Classic proven shump genre combined with top notch graphics.

[KG_Brad]

It would be difficult for my game to compete with those games. I guess I'll just have to give it my best shot and hope for the best.

[arcadetown]

Sorry I didn't mean to discourage you. There's also good shooters that have done well enough here like Gunner 2, ClashNSlash, Hyperspace Invaders, Xeno Assault 2, etc. Think users responded to those as they all delivered something different. So the bar isn't unreachably high for the average indie.

Simply noticed a pattern where we've run solid enough "me too" shooters that way underperformed. For example, if you make a top down space shooter do something that stands out. Have a healthy art spend, be very fun and easy to play, have responsive controls, some new exciting twist, humor, etc.

Anyhow if the shooter looks good we'll put it in front of users and let them decide. We've also had many pleasant surprises.

[KG_Brad]

You didn't discourage me. I think I might have a chance, since indie shooters aren't as common as other indie games, like puzzles.