Can simple games sell?

[EmadY]

the question is actually the title as is, but I want to clarify a bit.

I've made a game. It's simple. More than that even. You have a spaceship, and you have to shoot the other spaceship, with time, comets come and they get faster etc... all of that is pretty much redundant etc, but here's where I added something new :
you can't just move, shoot, and gain lives for free! You get them per time from your workers gathering resources (there's a story line for that) you can't control them (the workers) and you and your opponent get : 1 extra movement point per sec, 1 extra shot per 3 sec, 1 extra life per 10 sec. The game isn't all simple actually, I've played it with quite a few, and there are many strategies in it (like for example, it takes a shot 2 sec to cross the whole field, so if your low on MP and your afraid of getting killed, you move as far as you can so that even if he/she shoots, you'll get an extra pt...) and the comet which become super fast also get you 'worked out' the game lasts 4 minutes max, and has some good graphics. Here are pictures : (note, yes, I'll change the comets so they're not 'angled' and the ship so it can 'adjust' it's background)





Now, I'm going to go online soon (website and stuff, I'm pretty good at website things, so I'll be doing it myself), but I wanted to know :
should I try to sell this for say 1-2$?
or should I give it for free to try to gain more fan base?
or should I just throw it out and try again BEFORE even making a website?

thanks for your advice :D!

[Desktop Gaming]

Honestly? And I'm basing this on the screenshots above - nobody is going to buy that. It's graphically awful - what's happened to the background image in pic 1 (its square and stops abruptly)? Why is it blurred to buggery in pic 3? why does the ship in pic 3 have a black box around it? And what's with the comet things in pic 4 being square at one corner? There is far too much black (aka: I can't be arsed to draw anything there), and the less said about the info panel down the side, the better. Even without all that in mind, I can't see many people buying a bad galaxians clone these days.

Not saying give up (though, that may not be a bad idea as far as this game is concerned), but people are not stupid and they won't buy crap - not even for $1-$2. Learn about particle systems and implement them. Give it a decent UI and tidy everything up. Hire an artist (for the love of God, hire an artist). Give the player a reason to be playing it - make it interesting. Add some variety. Based on what I've seen I wouldn't download this for free.

[EmadY]

then to clear a few things up :
1. This was to test concept and how the game would play out, I used VB.NET to do it, I just wanted to see how the game would be, which is why I just left the pictures like that, I was planning to rewrite it in C++ if the idea wasn't half bad
2. I have an artist, he's won a few national competions too, so he's pretty damn good... I just used these from 'freebie's, again to test
3. and mainly the only thing I want from your whole comment (sorry :S but the rest are taken care of )
galaxians, was it based on this idea? ie, you get to move/shoot/revive not as much as you want?

thanks for the comment btw :/ even if it was a bit harsh

[Desktop Gaming]

thanks for the comment btw :/ even if it was a bit harsh

It may have seemed harsh but I don't think there is ever anything to be gained from pussyfooting around the truth. I could tell you "it's great, go for it!!" but I don't think that would be doing you any favours. Two things; first, the truth is not always nice, and second, my middle name is not 'tact'.

If the graphics are 'freebies' (read: placeholders?), then why say it "has some good graphics"? All you've given us to go on is four screenshots, with really bad graphics and a horrible, half-finished feel, and like it or not and despite what others might tell you or what you might believe, graphics DO matter. If Debenhams put a massive dog turd in their shop window, who would go in? Nobody. You need something aesthetically pleasing to draw folks in in the first place. Your graphics are your shop window.

I'm 37 years old and I've worked my arse off in the games industry, programming since 1986 and a spell at Gremlin/Infogrames in QA, programming, motion capture and audio processing. I don't know the first thing about you but I figure if you'd any huge experience you would be showing something a bit more polished. I'm no authority and not deluded in thinking I know it all, but I know what I've learned (much of it the hard way) and sorry if I come across as harsh but I just don't think that beating about the bush is going to help you in any way whatsoever.

[lennard]

Not like this they can't.

Go to Kongregate and Newgrounds to see where the bar is for games that are being given away.

[Indinera]

If it's in a popular genre, looks decent enough (nobody wants something that looks *terrible*), is well marketed and has some luck, yes it can sell.

[mrkwang]

Simple or not, it doesn't matter. Interesting or not, it does matter.

'Interesting' is important. Graphic - music - gameplay - background story - UI - trailer video - ... etc could be related to 'interesting'.

You've not released any playable game nor youtube video at all. So... Only text description & screenshots. They are all I can see now.You could think 'These are really good idea, so you could like it if you read it.' Sorry. They are not interesting.

[dunipan]

Simple games can sell BUT they need to be unique. Take Doodlejump for example. The game looks like a pre-school kid did the art. But it was the first of its kind, is addicting as hell and they hired a very smart PR agency. This all equated to unbelievable success. Lima Sky has a one hit wonder on their hands but they are laughing all the way to the bank.

The problem with your game EmadY is that it is very similar to like 500 other games like it. There is nothing that will make it stand out in the crowded marketplace. The bar is higher then it ever was before and I agree with the other opinions in this post that you need to be more polished. Just my two cents.

[dillweeds]

Hell yes.
I'd even say that simple games DO sell.

Make sure that it fits your platform. To release a game like this on pc for 20 bucks probably wouldn't work, since there are 1000's of better games already availibe for free on the platform (newgrounds, armor games etc).. But in the mobile market with an alluring theme? Hell yes. There's no shame in starting out with a few games like these. You'll gain experience which you can use for a great project later.

I like your idea. If you develop it a bit and change the theme to something unexpected - it might really, really resonate with people!

[Applewood]

Simple games can sell. They don't come much simpler than angry birds or fruit ninja.

Crap games cannot sell.

[Bad Sector]

Put it here and there. The easiest way to figure out if something sells is to try and sell it.

I wouldn't expect much sales though, but then again i said the same thing about Minecraft.

[Nexic]

Even with amazing art and extra mechanics, a galaxians clone won't sell.

[Fuerutvar]

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[Bad Sector]

Even with amazing art and extra mechanics, a galaxians clone won't sell.

I might be missing some joke, but isn't Titan Attacks a galaxians clone with very good art/visuals and some extra mechanics?

[Nexic]

Yep, it was pretty much as good as you can get in that genre, and it still didn't sell too well.

[Desktop Gaming]

But in the mobile market with an alluring theme? Hell yes. There's no shame in starting out with a few games like these

Are you actually serious?? It's because of folks thinking any old crap is acceptable "because it's cheap [or even free]", that Google Play is the quagmire that it is and I'm frankly amazed... no, not amazed.... what's the word... dismayed - that's it! I'm dismayed that you're suggesting that a crap PC game would be perfectly acceptable in the mobile market. Maybe ten years ago, but not now.

You'll gain experience which you can use for a great project later.

...and that is all you should really be taking from projects like this. Ditch it, forget about it, learn, and move on.

[dillweeds]

I have no idea what the hell you're talking about. You're sure as hell not replying to any of my thoughts and or ideas.

I never said that any "old crap" is acceptable because it's cheap/free (mainly because I like the crossover turnbased sort of idea of the op). What I said is that a simple idea can be combined with an interesting (not even necessarily good) theme and sell numbers that are way higher than they should be.

But actually, now that I'm thinking of it, yeah, even awful intellivision games are accepted and are selling pretty well, so why the hell not pc games? .

My project is probably one of the most simple games of all time, but that doesn't hold it back from being an accessible, fun experience.

[lightassassin]

Err it is pretty obvious that desktop is talking about the ops game which looks.... bad. Fine for some self developer art that never sees the light of day to prove mechanics of the game, but that is all.

There is some seriously shit stuff in the mobile markets and that is his point. He was talking about simple games in the sense of games that have taken very little effort (on all fronts, especially the visual aspect in this case). He is not talking about a game having simple mechanics and nobody has a issue with that here (well I don't think so anyway).

So.. simple mechanics in games can sell, "simple" looking games don't.