How to tell your game about an asshole
The author of the original article is Tom Francis, a journalist for the English edition of PC Gamer , in his spare time engaged in the development of indie games.
In everyday life, I am a game burner, but at leisure I write one game myself ( Gunpoint ), she even reached the finals of the Independent Games Festival , I am a little proud of it (before me was the creator of Solipskier , who explained why everyone doesn’t care about IGF, so I it became a little easier). This is my first game, moreover, not yet completed, so teaching you programming is not my status. Instead, I want to talk about how to talk about games. It's easy to mess with this, especially when you're in the context of the game; but the description needs to be given great attention if you do not want to remain the only user. I was lucky - for eight years I was trained to talk about other people's games, so everything went easier with my own.
Do not even expect that the audience of your site, interview or video will consist exclusively of smart, serious and interested people. Because in the worst case, I can read it - and I'm still an asshole.
')
Now I will tell why typical methods do not work on stupid, and then I will explain (as a very experienced asshole) how to tell about the game so that everyone understands it.
The first mistake in describing games is not to describe them at all. It seems to be enough to lay out the game video or screenshots, but for them everything will be clear. Only here is the catch - nothing is clear. No, if you are aware of the whole thing, you will understand, but for people from the street it will mean a little more than nothing. Sometimes it is even impossible to say what we manage in general.
The second mistake is to try to convey your creative idea as a description.
Let you want to make a "catastrophe game." And what the hell does that mean? Maybe Off-Road Velociraptor Safari is a disaster game? Oh no! Exactly - this is Minotaur in a China Shop . (Matthew Wenger, the author of these two games, invited me to the conference). Your promise, theme and idea do not say a word about how to play, that there is something special and interesting in the game.
Error number three - assume that the background of the game explains it well.
"The people of the Dark Sun tribe have angered the Ancient Gods ...". If you in your right mind and solid memory have written this - immediately erase it. No one cares about the tribe of the Dark Sun, except, perhaps, the one who invented it. And he, by and large, also does not care.
Yes, your story is good, necessary and important, only it cannot fit in ten words, and no one else will ever read.
(Someone is already angry at this)
The fourth mistake - to say that your game is good, and then convince of it.
No one at the word "innovative" nods his head with the words: "Yes, it is truly innovative." Usually, when they hear the word “innovation” from the developer, they think: “Well, he is a stupid one.”
All the above methods do not work. And how, you ask, to tell about something thin and sublime to such an uncouth cretin?
You need to speak simply, clearly, quickly and to the point. Exactly, you need to have time to touch on four points in the first three sentences, otherwise you will lose the viewer.
First, you need to tell what kind of game it is . It is not necessary to be attached to traditional genres, it is better to find some phrase describing the real gameplay. Let it be not a platformer, but “two-dimensional research”.
Secondly, in the first sentence you need to mention your know-how. I don't even need to know how it works, I want to hear why this is cool. The mechanics of my game are difficult to describe in two words, but if I say: “You can change the electrical circuits to trap people” - they will understand me.
Thirdly, you need to bring to the heart of the matter : who am I, where am I and who are all these people? The scenario cannot be told in 10 words, but it is easy to make fantasy play. Are you a spy? Or god? Or save the kittens? Or maybe you are a cat god saving spies? All this is very cool.
At the moment we already have some impression, but without an example of a game scene, it is too lifeless. And here it is - the fourth point: tell us about the situation when a player can try all the best from what you told.
If you say that in the game you can move into enemies, I will be lazily interested. But if I can move into my enemy, throw him into a partner and shove both of them at a mine, then have time to return to my body to see how pieces of meat fly away ... Where to carry the money ??? !!!
If you managed to do something like this - everything is fine.
In fact, here it was not about stupid, but about how to treat with respect the attention of the viewer. Not all viewers are stupid like me. Most of them are smart, serious and reasonable. But they also prefer authors who respect the reader to grab-lovers. I'm not talking about the rivalry of indie and mainstream or arthouse and commercial art. Just just effective marketing will set everyone in your game who would like it, but if this did not happen - shame on you and shame.
In everyday life, I am a game burner, but at leisure I write one game myself ( Gunpoint ), she even reached the finals of the Independent Games Festival , I am a little proud of it (before me was the creator of Solipskier , who explained why everyone doesn’t care about IGF, so I it became a little easier). This is my first game, moreover, not yet completed, so teaching you programming is not my status. Instead, I want to talk about how to talk about games. It's easy to mess with this, especially when you're in the context of the game; but the description needs to be given great attention if you do not want to remain the only user. I was lucky - for eight years I was trained to talk about other people's games, so everything went easier with my own.
Do not even expect that the audience of your site, interview or video will consist exclusively of smart, serious and interested people. Because in the worst case, I can read it - and I'm still an asshole.
')
Now I will tell why typical methods do not work on stupid, and then I will explain (as a very experienced asshole) how to tell about the game so that everyone understands it.
The first mistake in describing games is not to describe them at all. It seems to be enough to lay out the game video or screenshots, but for them everything will be clear. Only here is the catch - nothing is clear. No, if you are aware of the whole thing, you will understand, but for people from the street it will mean a little more than nothing. Sometimes it is even impossible to say what we manage in general.
The second mistake is to try to convey your creative idea as a description.
Let you want to make a "catastrophe game." And what the hell does that mean? Maybe Off-Road Velociraptor Safari is a disaster game? Oh no! Exactly - this is Minotaur in a China Shop . (Matthew Wenger, the author of these two games, invited me to the conference). Your promise, theme and idea do not say a word about how to play, that there is something special and interesting in the game.
Error number three - assume that the background of the game explains it well.
"The people of the Dark Sun tribe have angered the Ancient Gods ...". If you in your right mind and solid memory have written this - immediately erase it. No one cares about the tribe of the Dark Sun, except, perhaps, the one who invented it. And he, by and large, also does not care.
Yes, your story is good, necessary and important, only it cannot fit in ten words, and no one else will ever read.
(Someone is already angry at this)
The fourth mistake - to say that your game is good, and then convince of it.
No one at the word "innovative" nods his head with the words: "Yes, it is truly innovative." Usually, when they hear the word “innovation” from the developer, they think: “Well, he is a stupid one.”
All the above methods do not work. And how, you ask, to tell about something thin and sublime to such an uncouth cretin?
You need to speak simply, clearly, quickly and to the point. Exactly, you need to have time to touch on four points in the first three sentences, otherwise you will lose the viewer.
First, you need to tell what kind of game it is . It is not necessary to be attached to traditional genres, it is better to find some phrase describing the real gameplay. Let it be not a platformer, but “two-dimensional research”.
Secondly, in the first sentence you need to mention your know-how. I don't even need to know how it works, I want to hear why this is cool. The mechanics of my game are difficult to describe in two words, but if I say: “You can change the electrical circuits to trap people” - they will understand me.
Thirdly, you need to bring to the heart of the matter : who am I, where am I and who are all these people? The scenario cannot be told in 10 words, but it is easy to make fantasy play. Are you a spy? Or god? Or save the kittens? Or maybe you are a cat god saving spies? All this is very cool.
At the moment we already have some impression, but without an example of a game scene, it is too lifeless. And here it is - the fourth point: tell us about the situation when a player can try all the best from what you told.
If you say that in the game you can move into enemies, I will be lazily interested. But if I can move into my enemy, throw him into a partner and shove both of them at a mine, then have time to return to my body to see how pieces of meat fly away ... Where to carry the money ??? !!!
If you managed to do something like this - everything is fine.
In fact, here it was not about stupid, but about how to treat with respect the attention of the viewer. Not all viewers are stupid like me. Most of them are smart, serious and reasonable. But they also prefer authors who respect the reader to grab-lovers. I'm not talking about the rivalry of indie and mainstream or arthouse and commercial art. Just just effective marketing will set everyone in your game who would like it, but if this did not happen - shame on you and shame.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/140636/
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