Every genre is "oversaturated" (but you shouldn't worry)

[@bivouac__]

corn analogy is the peak of game marketing studying

[@IcarusTheEagle]

Instructions unclear. Now I have an OF profile

[@Mefrius]

Oversaturation can be a bad, but also a good thing. Bad of course is that you have to compete with many other developers. Good thing, is because 90% of these games are not good, and THE MOST IMPORTANT TAKE - You have much more games to learn from (both good things and, more importantly the bad things). The bar is higher, but amount and quality of information and resources are also higher.

[@ultimaxkom8728]

Comment so positive that it left a sweet taste in my mouth and a warmth of sunshine on my skin. Although there's actually no sweet nor sun.

[@scottdelekta7561]

I think it is important for Indies to create new genres and try innovative mashups of existing game mechanics.

[@RealCoachMustafa]

6:35 this is the perfect B roll footage

[@dinokknd]

Really pushing the bar when it comes to B roll.

[@morgan0]

imo, don’t do the same exact thing as a successful game, but take a piece from it. slay the spire is a roguelite, deckbuilder, turn based standard combat game. if you do that same thing, it won’t stand out, but if you swap out the typical style turn based combat for something different, maybe tactical troop positioning, you could get some of the same hook of deck building that interests players, with a different bit of central gameplay that makes it very distinct.

[@AlexGorskov]

Very well said!

[@user-xc4lq1zq2x]

I love you guys but you really should consider the presentation side of your games more. I think I big reason your games aren't selling well is because they look like euro-jank shovel ware. Games like Cropolution won't reach the same numbers as Fields of Mistria is largely for aesthetic reasons. Presentation doesn't necessarily mean making custom assets. Things like UI, screen/sound effects, animation blending, and anything else affecting "game-feel" will impact your sales more than any other aspect of the game. Obviously you would know more about how feasible it is to achieve this, but I really do believe you should focus on it.

[@bitemegames]

Except cropolution is coming out in 2 weeks, and we have the humility to realize that MGG isn't sellable yet, and we just want to talk about some considerations we had when choosing the idea to begin with. We talk about the early stages of development in painful detail on this channel. Painful because people like you break down every single possible thing we do during development, despite this being real gamedev. Fields of Mistria wasn't pretty from day one. You are no better than the people clowning on the leaked early versions of GTA 6. At the end of the day, this will teach you more than "I REMADE BOTW IN UE5!!!", yet you are actively discouraging us from making this content. Weird kind of love :/ Also, our euroslop still sells. You aren't the market. Gamedevs aren't the market for us. -M

[@user-xc4lq1zq2x]

@@bitemegames noooo marnix I do think your videos are very helpful and I want you guys to succeed. My point with Cropolution is that even though it has a good idea that stands out in a saturated genre, it doesn't have character (the style is flat, it doesn't appear to have a story, which doesn't leave much of an impression and I believe will lead to very little sales). Fields of Mistria, despite being very similar to Stardew Valley and using pixel art (which you guys clown on all the time) has 10k positive reviews largely due to it's old anime aesthetics and characters. I think your ideas on unique features are good, it's just that from my own analytics, aesthetics and character are a big part indie success. As you said in this video, memorable and unique styles help games stand out. My point was supposed to be that this doesn't just apply to art, it's about what impression is left on the consumer (or viewer on a video/stream that converts to sales). Besides the multiplayer aspect and anime models, what makes magical girl guardians something someone would see on steam and want to buy? Something cost effective you could do to add character to it (or dismiss it as a game dev who doesn't know anything about markets) is amp up the gore, make the enemies explode in blood, make little story segments where the girls are sadistic about killing these chibi things. It doesn't have to be this specifically, but that kind of contrast is one way to give your game character and increases your chances of people buying or making videos/streams about your game. Sorry I upset you, I hope you guys are doing well.

[@bitemegames]

@@user-xc4lq1zq2x It actually has a shit ton of gore by default, but it feels... off. And when taking this footage, I felt the safer way was to disable gore vs. having blood everywhere. That overly gory approach was our first concept, but when looking at the execution, it didn't feel right. It's in limbo now whether we keep it or not. -M

[@gameboardgames]

"euro-jank shovel ware"

[@6ilberm]

i am shocked, the title of your video was literally what i was thinking and worrying about. 🤔🤔 Great video as always!

[@alexanderhugestrand]

When looking for a gem in an ocean of mediocre games, you'll probably give up searching at some point. I barely play anything at all because of it. There are too many mediocre games, made by people without passion or talent, who just want to "make a game" to earn some money. They check all the features that are required by the genre, but nothing more. If I fall into the trap of buying one, it will get a negative review from me, 100% guaranteed. One such example: The Gap. Such garbage.

[@Theburninbeaver]

It’s funny how publishers (who are struggling to release new ideas) think rogue like deck builders are too saturated. This past next fest had so many interesting rogue like deck builders I’m excited for. Maybe it’s a special genre to me but I think there is still more room for unique deck builders. It’s got another year or two before it’s fully saturated and most ideas in that genre are taken. But even then, you can still stand out. Balatro broke records earlier this year…. There are still tons of unexplored ideas

[@LocoTony64]

Is there aiming and shooting in your new game or is it all automated? I think you can make your game stand out in the survivorslike space by giving the players more control in how they attack making it more like a traditional twinstick shooter with the addictive gameloop.

[@bitemegames]

It's more of a twinstick currently, we're still trying to figure out which style is the most fun. -M

[@AlexGorskov]

12:10 - that's an epic post ! The guy had enough! hahah! Lets go!

[@HaloAvon777]

Instructions unclear. I made an OnlyFans. 😅

[@bitemegames]

Probably more profitable than gamedev anyway, sounds like a win. -M

[@HaloAvon777]

@@bitemegames It's definitely taken less time than game dev! 🥲

[@captainawesome2226]

I recognize that top-down shooter package 😉

[@mrxcs]

I don't know if it's the new lighting but your face looks a lot better, it looks more rested and alive.

[@bigfin20]

the raw amount of games released on steam is growing exponentially but the amount of successful titles per year grows far slower. So yeah 100% agree with this video just make something specific and good first..

[@Nick-pt2px]

I agree. Supermarket simulator is not interesting to me in the least. Never had it marketed to me, never saw it until well after release and I wouldn't play it even if it was free. However, TCG Shop Simulator is 100% my jam and was an insta-buy. You're looking really well rested, hope you're doing better.

[@VaporCode]

The Corn Example was soo good I instantly understood xD

[@froggiehime5584]

one minute ago is crazy

[@dxmissile]

mindblowing analogy

[@dicesuki4286]

I want to make a game like black myth wukong but multiplayer. is that a good idea?

[@kthuludev]

if you're ready to spend 10 years developing it

[@AlexGorskov]

@@kthuludev I think he is joking

[@NoneNullAnd0]

You need unique mechanics. A unique setting and art style is enough to make some games successful, but I've still seen games with one of a kind visuals fail because there's nothing special about how the game actually plays. Fortunately, survivor-likes are simple enough that it should be easier to expand into unique mechanics. Maybe you could make the player character into an pop idol, requiring you to please a crowd of people and not do anything controversal while slaying monsters with music (the unique mechanic would be the crowd appeasement aspect).

[@LesJeuxDeMilen]

"HoloCure - Save the Fans!" - ... and it's FREE. 32,885 positive reviews, 308 negative reviews.

[@the_proud_youtube_user_01]

Hi there. Thanks for the video, always nice to hear from you! I've got maybe a little bit abstract question: did you trademark your company name, or protect it (+ your IP) in any other possible/potential way? Thanks

[@Seancstudiogames]

Damn. Im making a career simulator. The engine workflow is straight forward. so I figured its a good way to make a game that doesnt require alot of technical skills. You ripped my dreams to shreds Marnix. (sarcasm) LAUNCH THE FAILBOAT!

[@PDR_Dini]

I don't think the problem is in the saturation of genera, but style, if you look a storefront, most indies (not all), looks exactly the same, limitations of indies are huge, but it seams like people are buying the assets from the same people. I'm becoming more saturated by the artstyle than the games itself, there are perfectly good games that I simply skip just because they look (not play) exactly the same as the last 10 I've played. I'm a solo hobbyst, and I build games as I assemble a gundam modelkit, just for fun, and so far, I just released a super simple arcade game, and for the last 6 to 7 years, I'm collecting terabytes of game mechanics I start polish and archive. instead of mounting everything on a complete project, I'm studying artstyle and assets creations, it's hard, specially for a solo, but I'm slowly starting to define an artstyle, and I really don't care if it takes a lot of time, in the end, I have no compromises releasing anything, but if I eventually release anything, I want it to be unique, specially in artstyle.

[@dobrx6199]

Might be getting demonetized with this one 😂

[@seamusoblainn]

I don't what to know what stuff with 100 guys Marnix was researching

[@MiniatureGiantsGameDev]

I think market saturation can be a bit of a misnomer. You could event a new genre and develop a bad game and fail. Recently I've really challenged myself, as a gamer, to think about an idea: would I find this fun to play? If I dont find it fun, what am I doing? Hoping someone else will enjoy it more than me? How can I cater to that market if I don't find the thing I'm building fun to build?

[@davidfilus1741]

Great video as always! I just wanted to point out that you talking about onlyfans while showing you lifting weights was incredibly funny to me lmao

[@AngusSilvana]

Really good video

[@ReadingOcelotl]

Nice shoulder press 💪

[@user-le2zv6go3v]

the most substantial argument why saturation isn't a thing imho: just look at the statistics of the games over all platforms that have made the most revenue, I think the top 10 is all marios? .. people want repetition of familiar things

[@humman007]

Saturation can only happen as games would be so similar that it would be hard to notice that you are playing something different

[@kruth6663]

Three Kindoms of China is like the deck builder roguelike for 4X. It still can work, but not because it's niche. Seriously, don't touch it.

[@audiogus2651]

5:16 "Gun Store Delivery Driver", someone make this

[@Qwerty-ns9yk]

basically make better games of the popular genres with a twist

[@Cinemaphile7783]

*Gimmick

[@Sanscripter]

phew I'm glad you went through the hard part of saying it.

[@KummoDeveloper]

That is a good safe approach. For people who can take risks they can even try to bring back old dead genres back. Webfishing is an awesome example of this: there really aren't many or any social chatroom games anymore. Many of them started to add competitive matchmaking which meant people hanged around less and tryharded more (which also meant people didn't stick with randoms and never even tried to find new people to play with). And the few games that did exist weren't even that popular - either they were too niche or they scared people away by forcing them to use voice chat only/mostly (like that comedy night game - yes players were able to join public lobbies, makes jokes, sing songs and get to know each other but really only extrovert people with mics could join - this pushed introverts out and all people with no mic or only low quality mic out). There are some other examples too like how Dibyoshree Sarkar noticed how there weren't any casual & cozy dressup games being made since flash died anymore (and the only ones that resembled the genre were weird ugly fetish & troll games). So she did one, gained 13k subscribers on youtube within month-ish and while she didn't give specific numbers it seemed like she counts her game being a success (i believe she released as free thru ichio but people can donate to creators thru the site if they want to support devs). One genre i have seen where players are looking for a good game is horse riding/stable genre. Every video there is about the genre seem to be people wishing for anything playable from people who actually know anything about horses. Every game being made these days just uses cheap assets, slaps something lazily together and hopes people would buy it. But players are wishing something with soul. I wish i knew anything about horses as there might be some money (not much i guess, am not sure if teenage girls are as crazy about horses as my sister and girls of her age were years ago - but that is a niche that might have players looking for something decent). But again: it would be safer to pick popular genre and either combine it with another genre (when it makes sense) or add a gimmick/twist to it so you stand out. What i wrote would be for people who can afford to explore less safe options which might end up being flops - or since people hopping on those genres might be first ones ever or first ones after long time of hiatus they should be the ones gaining most profit until someone else makes better game for same genre.

[@regalx1]

This might be an old example, but DoTA was originally a mod of Warcraft 3. So a good way to test if there's a demand/ community for your game is to make it a mod of an existing game. If that mod is popular, then you can spin that off into a brand new IP to cater to/grow that niche. This also explains the concept of OC characters showing up in popular IP fan fiction. They address gaps of the IP that the community feels is sorely missing.

[@Rad_Roxxi_Music]

that's basically just prototyping, but with modding instead of just opening up your game engine of choice and getting actual experience on how development will play out. What I'm trying to say is that you can't just take a mod and flip it into game; you have to make everything from scratch eventually since you can't just rip an entire game and sell a modded version of it

[@regalx1]

@@Rad_Roxxi_Music Yes but if the goal is to actually make sales of the game, don't you have to prototype it first? Or maybe it's better to just build the engine first, toss out a demo/ trailer and see what sticks?

[@Rad_Roxxi_Music]

@@regalx1 it's better to prototype something in the engine you're going to use it in, which means prototyping by modding is basically just taking an unnecessary extra step when you're going to have remake it from scratch anyway. You would, ah, never *build* an engine if you are looking to actually finish your game in less than a decade. Just use Unreal, Unity, Godot, or one of the other ones.

[@moejahi3d3]

I'm more interested in the percentage of actual good games among all the shit games.games that actually look good and play good and don't look like something an intern threw together in a few months

[@bvonline]

Nope. There is still a lot of room for games based on new good ideas. There aren't that good games out there. Most are still way behind their possibilitirs. You're wrong.

[@TESkyrimizer]

There are a lot of good games. I end up playing the same good old games from years ago. No time for learning new ones. Gamedev scene would be thriving for indies if we all had more time to play games instead of all the adulting responsibilities Right now I only got time to play AAA and by the time I'm sick of it the next AAA release is here so no time for indies unless they are scratching a really specific itch

[@gameboardgames]

@@TESkyrimizer the sad downside to being a solo indie game dev is you immediately stop having any spare time to play games anymore 8_(

[@quasifex3869]

It made me think.. someday oversaturation will happen even in sub-niches. I wonder what will happen. Maybe everyone will just stop making games.

[@bitemegames]

just hope to get rich and retire before that happens... -M

[@DOSRetroGamer]

I suppose AI will become so advanced that every Joe Shmoe can make fantastic custom games with a few prompts. That will be the end of the industry alltogether.

[@gameboardgames]

@@DOSRetroGamer Not all. It'll just push the baseline quality level sky high though. Even if the ultimate AI powered game creation LLM could create a fantastic game in a sentence, the audience would quickly tire and desire of something different, such as... euro-jank shovel ware or something.

[@ZahrDalsk]

@@DOSRetroGamer For that to happen we'd have to invent AI (LLMs aren't AI).

[@DOSRetroGamer]

@@ZahrDalsk Is an image generator an LLM ? A music or video generator? A 3D generator? Something that plays Starcraft? Could you let something that is " not AI" give you game ideas, discuss about it, and then let it write huge parts of your code? All of this is possible right now and gets better by the day. Wake up.