RE: Different vs. too different was Re: Reviews (was RE: [GD-Design] Indie games?)

[Stefan M. <me...@sk...>]

Hi,

> It's still real-time.  I think Jan and myself think of "Wargames" as 
> more like the turn-based stuff of yore, such as Panzer General and 
> Wargame Construction Set and the stuff that Battlefront sells.

I had some talks about turn-based games or not. I've been working on
"Incubation" some years ago and I absolutely liked the turn based aspect
of the game. There seems to be a fan base out there who *wants* those
kind of turn based games but every time I talked about it to some
publishers their reaction was : "Turn based ?!? No one wants to play
that ! It's long and boring ! Make your game real time !"

> imagination of the player immediately.  It's tempting to save the 
> best for last to provide a final sense of "wow!" when they complete 
> the game, but two hard facts make this a bad idea:
> 
> 1.  The demo is often the first few levels, so if they're boring the 
> 2.  Very few players actually complete games, so you really want to 

hmmm... what about the "rewarding" factor in the game. It has been a
long time paradigm to reward players with better graphics, more
demanding enemies and improved items to keep him playing.

IIRC our marketing departement told us (back then) that "Game, Net &
Match", one of the first real time 3D tennis games with internet play,
sold less because reviewers wrote that there weren't any trophies
displayed. The graphics were top-notch then but it didn't seem to
be enough.

Kind regards,
Stefan