Survey - game in early-development

[Kamileon]

This survey is basically just to give me a rough outline of how to design my game, as I am aiming to incorporate the things adventures fans admire most from past games. It will be targeted at people aged 12+ and I haven't made a proper full game before so any support would be great. Feel free to answer the survey in the comment section below, but please limit your submission to 1 entry; your help will be greatly appreciated

1.   What would you prefer in terms of art style?
a)   Retro (e.g. Monkey Island)
b)   Modern (e.g. Machinarium)?

2.   Do you enjoy adventure games that have:
a)   A lot of humour
b)   More serious tone with subtle comedy
c)   Pfft, what's this comedy you speak of? Make it as emotionally serious as you possibly can xD

3.   Do you like your puzzles:
a)   Challenging yet rewarding
b)   Easy â€" I don't really like puzzles in adventure games
c)   With a dip of nostalgia
d)   Tonnes of roaming around
e)   So puzzling that it is rage-inducing?

4.   In terms of plot, do you enjoy playing adventure games that:
a)   Have a strong plot that gives you something to think about even after you leave the game
b)   A plot that's there, but not focused on a lot. Maybe a few mini-stories that branch off a major one, so you can choose what activities you want to do
c)   A non-existent plot. I just wanna pick up pretty items and walk around for a bit.

5.   Do you like lots of interactivity and detail in each scene? (Yes/No)

6.      What is your favourite setting, or the one you would like to see most:
a)      Space
b)      Western
c)      Exploring the countryside (medieval with some magic?)
d)      Running a business
e)      Post-apocalyptic
f)      Modern
g)      Other (please specify)

7.   What is your favourite part of an adventure game? (please specify)

[Snarky]

This thread was in the wrong forum, so it got moved.

[CaptainD]

1, 2 and 6 - this depends so much on what the story is that it's really not fair to answer.  Which leads me to wonder... do you actually have a strong game idea yet?  If you've got a story but not quite sure how to develop it... think about what your own preferences are in terms of story-telling, and what your strengths / weaknesses are in this regard.  Work to your strengths or get someone to help you out with the bits you struggle with but feel are essential to your game.

3 - a combination of A and C.  Really hate endless wondering around.  But it's again not an easy question to answer as everyone will find different types of puzzle easier / more difficult.  I think most players are only really intolerant of puzzles to which the solution seems illogical even once you know the solution.

4 - definitely A.  Though not completely averse to mini-games or a little meandering, definitely not C.  (You've got to know WHY you're picking all this stuff up, right?)

5 - on the whole, YES.  There can be exceptions but I usually dislike scenes with only a single interactable hotspot etc (yes, this even includes SoMI!)

7 - Not really sure on this one.  It's the whole experience.  I love the Monkey Island games for their humour, Broken Sword 1 & 2 for their plot, the Runaway games mainly for their wacky characters, but it's always a combination of everything.  I can't isolate one single thing as my favourite part. 

[Armageddon]

Make a game you want to make, not one you think people will play. If you conform it will just be average and boring.

[monkey424]

1) retro
2) humour
3) challenging yet rewarding (nostalgia a bonus)
4) good plot = good adventure game
5) interactivity in moderation
6) part Mexican folklore and part film noir, or space
7) the end

[AprilSkies]

Make a game you want to make, not one you think people will play. If you conform it will just be average and boring.

+1
Of course can be good to know what people like, but I'm sure your game will be greater if you'll do it just the way you want...

[Andail]

Make a game you want to make, not one you think people will play. If you conform it will just be average and boring.

+1
Of course can be good to know what people like, but I'm sure your game will be greater if you'll do it just the way you want...

+2

What kind of plots are you good at writing? What kind of dialogue? What kind of art do you like to look at? What type of puzzles do you think you can cleverly devise?

When you close your eyes and think of your dream game that's yet to be made, what do you see? Make that game.

[Babar]

I'm probably going to totally ruin your survey format .

1) Whichever you're good at. If you're good at hi-res animation definitely go for that. If not, do pixel art. Personally, I'm not fond of how all modern 2D hi-res game art is either cartoony or photorealistic, and would be intrigued to see it go in a different direction.
2) I don't dislike humour done well (does anyone?), and I don't think that serious emotional stuff can't have comedy. Go with what you're good at writing, I guess.
3) I like GOOD puzzles. And puzzles that fit in well with the story and gameworld (when was the last time you met someone in real life who had a sliding-tile puzzle as the lock to their secret box?). I also like exploring, not sure that has to do much with puzzles, but I certainly don't care for loads of backtracking.
4) I don't think anyone plays adventure games for non-existent plot. They've always been a major part of what adventure games are.
5) I certainly like lots of interactivity and detail in every screen, especially when done well. Some people, however, prefer some obvious method of differentiating between "this object is relevant to advancing the plot" and "this object is here with some description text for the sake of world building).
6) Depends on your story, really. I don't have any personal preference (am getting a bit bored of post apocalyptic settings, I guess?). You could always go with something unique, or put a unique spin on some very stereotypical setting. Again, dependant on your skill.

Aside from comments about how you should make the game YOU want, I'd also mention that I don't think game design through statistics and supposed "popular" opinion would make for an enjoyable end product (AAA companies that are making open-world sandbox cover-based shooters with stealth sections starring grim muscley protagonists would disagree, I guess).

[Radiant]

Make a game you want to make, not one you think people will play. If you conform it will just be average and boring.

+1

+2

+3. You don't design games by committee vote.

[selmiak]

please design the game I'm to lazy to make. kthxbye!

[Gribbler]

1a
2b
3a
4a
5no
6e
7intro (to get me hooked) and the ending (for aftertaste and someting to think of)

[Kamileon]

Make a game you want to make, not one you think people will play. If you conform it will just be average and boring.

+1

+2

+3. You don't design games by committee vote.

Reason for me creating this survey was just to get a general idea of what everyone liked most. Thank you for the help guys

@Armageddon and April Skies; your comments have really helped me because I have realised that if I'm not interested in the game, then it may not turn out as well as something I'd love to create. Again, thanks for the help.

[miguel]

Make a game you want to make, not one you think people will play. If you conform it will just be average and boring.

+1

[Baron]

Miguel, we're at at least +4 by now!

On topic, I have nothing against a bit of market research, but I don't think your results will be very meaningful.  Like Lincoln might have said: you simply can't please all of the people all of the time.  So I would do one of two things, if you want your game to be well-received:

1) Pick a specific group to aim it at (advantage being you could follow in the path blazed by other successful developers, but disadvantage being trying to differentiate your game as unique).

2) Make the kind of game you would like to play (advantage being that your passion and enthusiasm will show through, disadvantage being that you might be a weird guy with very eccentric tastes that nobody shares ).

I'm going to go with the crowd here and say follow your heart, but if you're determined to do this rationally at least pick option #1: no one wants to play a statistically popular game 19 times out of 20.

[AprilSkies]

Maybe the following way could be interesting:
Once you've decided how to make the game and what kind of game do you really want to create, you can ask for advices on something you're not sure about.
In this way are not influenced in deciding the main themes, but you can still get some useful advices.

[Gurok]

1: b
2: b
3: b
4: b
5: Yes
6: d or f, as these are unusual settings
7: My favourite part of adventure games? The slow but adequate pacing... I guess? I mean I enjoy making steady progress. If I can solve a puzzle a night, that's really a nice pace for me. If I can't, I'll get turned off after a few nights.

But I agree, don't design by committee. Do what you want to do and don't try to make the puzzles hard. Set out to make them easy instead. It's basically almost impossible to design a bunch of puzzles everybody will find easy.

[Mehrdad]

1.a
2.a
3.c
4.a
5.yes

[Mandle]

Make a game you want to make, not one you think people will play. If you conform it will just be average and boring.

^^^THIS!!!

He speaks the harsh truth!!!

If you make a game based on this poll then I can promise you that you will lose interest fast and it will never get completed...

If by some chance it does get completed then you will spend eternity answering the complaints of those who answered your poll, pointing out where you did not listen to them...

Writing an adventure game is like writing a novel: Stephen King does not ask his fans what kind of book they would like to read next...He writes it...And he writes it for himself: To escape into that rare brittle magical world of the imagination...

If it just happens to work out that the fans also enjoy it then great! If not...Then nothing is lost:

You had fun creating your own world as you envisaged it:

To the Devil with the rest!

[Retro Wolf]

I never make games for other people, I make them for me! You're not an employee of a corporate machine, you're just some guy having fun in your bedroom.

[Snarky]

Hey Kamilion, did anyone tell you yet to make the game you want to make, not one based on a market survey?

Honestly, if you're looking for what's commercial, I don't think any of these things matter. Uh, maybe comedy games have wider appeal than serious games (or vice versa), or fantasy is more popular than western, but you'd need a much bigger survey (and a much more representative audience) to establish that. All of these flavors have fans, and many of us don't really care so much.

Perhaps most importantly, fans of all those different adventure game varieties have a bunch of good games to choose between: they won't buy yours by default just because it checks a few boxes. No one goes around saying "Have you played that challenging yet rewarding retro-graphics game with a touch of humor set in space?" You gotsta have a great idea, a hook that sets it apart and makes people remember it. From the title, a screenshot and maybe a two-sentence description, what would make people want to play your game rather than any other competently executed lightly-comedic retro space adventure (or whatever)?

Dave Gilbert said something similar in a recent interview. It's not enough these days to go "Hey, it's an adventure game! You like adventure games, right? Also, ghosts and stuff. Come buy my game!"

Actually, let's make that a proper quote:

What both players and developers are beginning to now realize, reasons Gilbert, is that point-and-click adventure games should no long be thought about in the same way that they most often have been.

"You can't just think of them as adventure games," he notes. "They are games, and games are for everyone. They're stories, and everyone likes stories. I think the danger was that saying 'Yeah, we're making a point-and-click adventure game!', that was what was supposed to get you excited - but that's not enough anymore. It's got to be 'We're making a game about a guy stranded in space' for example -- that's what gets people excited. It's not just about being an adventure game -- that can't be all."

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/214503/As_Blackwell_comes_to_an_end_whats_next_for_Wadjet_Eye.php

some guy having fun in your bedroom.