Thought I'd just throw this poll out there, for anyone who wants to comment on it, or discuss the topic in general. With regards to indie shmup development, there are several different approaches which are seen;
A. Shmup developers who work to design the kind of game they themselves want to create and play. This may be something new and unproven, that hasn't been seen before. It may or may not find a fanbase.
B. Shmup developers who try hard to understand what the majority of hardcore shmup fans want, and develop to try to please them. This means focusing on what is proven, and already seen in other games, possibly at the expense of innovation.
C. Shmup developers who try hard to understand what the potentially huge market of casual/portal gamers want, and develop to try to please them. This usually implies a profit-motive for the project, with the intent of selling as many copies as possible, and constraining the game design to be very simple and accessible to non-shmuppers at the expense of both innovation and popular hardcore appeal.
D. Some combination/variation of the above three.
Most developers should at least have a general idea of which category they best fit into. I imagine it would be hard to meet all of the above design goals simultaneously within a single product?
Developing for others vs. developing for yourself
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Thunder Force
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Developing for others vs. developing for yourself
"Thunder Force VI does not suck, shut your fucking mouth." ~ Shane Bettenhausen
For the shooter I was working on (see my sig) I guess it was a combination of B and C, so my vote is for the last option (D).
You can't ignore your potential audience entirely if you want to sell your game to them, but you can't just follow them blindly either. It's much easier to please casual gamers with graphics and sound than to try to design a game around what they think they want and still get a playable game as a result.
For example, ClayGun is a PocketPC game and most people buying it are casual gamers, reviews for the game are very positive so far, but most reviews while praising the game's graphics and sound, also almost always mention that the game is a bit too short and too hard.
Say, people think they want like 15-20 levels, but of course it's not really possible to meaningfully spread a game of this style across that many levels.
You can't ignore your potential audience entirely if you want to sell your game to them, but you can't just follow them blindly either. It's much easier to please casual gamers with graphics and sound than to try to design a game around what they think they want and still get a playable game as a result.
For example, ClayGun is a PocketPC game and most people buying it are casual gamers, reviews for the game are very positive so far, but most reviews while praising the game's graphics and sound, also almost always mention that the game is a bit too short and too hard.
Say, people think they want like 15-20 levels, but of course it's not really possible to meaningfully spread a game of this style across that many levels.