Friday, October 06, 2006
To niche or not to niche
I have so many options for my next indie game. I actually have about 5 1/3 done games on the go, one of which I need to develop into a full title for early 2007. I can go for another shooter, which will add to the synergy of my other titles and will play to all my shoot em up related traffic. However knowing first hand how poorly an average shooter sells I'm not sure I want to do another one. Yeh sure, I could make something really nice, get a little lucky and have a Platypus style hit. But I think the chances of that are quite low. The trouble with the shooter niche is that they aren't brilliant sellers and there is also loads of competition.
The other option is to try a different niche, one with low competition and slighty better average sales. The disadvantages here is that being used to shooters I may have trouble making something as good in another genre, also I wouldn't really be able to place it on my site that is proudly titled 'Jagged Blade Shooting Games'. The other niches I've thought of is RPG, Strategy, Adventure, or an RPG Shooter mix. These will all probably take more work than the average shooter.
The hybrid may be good as it is still technically a shooter so can stay on my site and help build my brand. Hopefully it would also have the benefits of a smaller niche (less competition, more loyal customers and able to have a higher price point). It is technically the best option, but I do have an urge to try something completely different. I've never actually finished a non shooter before.
So I'm possibly leaning towards Adventure or Strategy. Adventure probably some kind of first person mystery, and strategy maybe some kind of Risk spin off.
Bah this is making my head hurt.
The other option is to try a different niche, one with low competition and slighty better average sales. The disadvantages here is that being used to shooters I may have trouble making something as good in another genre, also I wouldn't really be able to place it on my site that is proudly titled 'Jagged Blade Shooting Games'. The other niches I've thought of is RPG, Strategy, Adventure, or an RPG Shooter mix. These will all probably take more work than the average shooter.
The hybrid may be good as it is still technically a shooter so can stay on my site and help build my brand. Hopefully it would also have the benefits of a smaller niche (less competition, more loyal customers and able to have a higher price point). It is technically the best option, but I do have an urge to try something completely different. I've never actually finished a non shooter before.
So I'm possibly leaning towards Adventure or Strategy. Adventure probably some kind of first person mystery, and strategy maybe some kind of Risk spin off.
Bah this is making my head hurt.
