Identifying Indie: A Study of Who Plays What and Why

[Brian Boru]

Excellent 28m video from GDC by Phil at Humble Games:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnKI3BsSmUE


Concise and useful info, clearly and well presented—here's one example slide from it:

 

[Zloth]

"Boss rush games"??

There's MTX again. I'm going to learn that term!

Reviews didn't even make the top 3 for research!? Oh, there it is on purchase triggers. Huh. I'm not understanding what that's doing in that category.

The slide you reference doesn't make sense to me, either. Very few games will see a higher count than release day. Even No Man's Sky, with all its free DLC over the years, can't buck that trend. I could see the last category being as big as the top two for games that have been around for several years - a trickle of water will eventually fill a bathtub - but the "within a few months" category? Maybe a lot of people are buying games after the hype and before the sales but then leave those games unplayed for a long time??

 

[Frag Maniac]

Identifying Indie: A Study of Who Plays What and Why​

Yes, I love to play Indie games. Emperor's Tomb was great, and I'm looking to step into Mr Jones' shoes once again when Machine Games releases their Indie game!

Just NO SNAKES please! 🪱🪱

 

[Brian Boru]

Very few games will see a higher count than release day

I know figs from a different entertainment industry, and the sales profile in the chart above is very typical of the vast majority of products.

Big-name projects can behave as you say, provided they have both advance marketing and also pre-release purchasing enabled. Latter due to pre-releases and Day 1 purchases getting lumped together for the algos, and thereby throwing the product onto the front page and into the retailer promo efforts.

But smaller products, no—very much as above. My info is from Amazon, Apple and similar—but not from exclusively game stores—so maybe there's some differences in how Steam etc work. But I doubt it, the principles of retailing are quite similar across similar industries.

but the "within a few months" category?

He attributed that to Indie players 'always' having other games to finish before buying the next one.

 

[Pifanjr]

but the "within a few months" category? Maybe a lot of people are buying games after the hype and before the sales but then leave those games unplayed for a long time??

He attributed that to Indie players 'always' having other games to finish before buying the next one.

I can imagine a lot of indie gamers also wait for (specific) reviewers to get around to reviewing the game to see if it's worth buying, which might take a bit for indie games that aren't big hits.

 

[Zloth]

OK, I'm lost.

If most people are buying games early, then playing them later, we should see LESS of a spike in player count. Unless they buy the game, immediately run it for a while, then leave it for months before playing again??

P.S. Found a game that bucks the trend: Kenshi

https://steamdb.info/app/233860/charts/#6y

 

[Brian Boru]

I'm lost

Me too

If most people are buying games early, then playing them later

Where do you see that? The video is saying the purchase is spread out across the product life cycle, from EA/Pre to Patient Gamer, with most within a few months or first sale.

we should see LESS of a spike in player count

I don't see player count mentioned?