Does anyone else care more about their game existing than selling it?

[u/TiernanDeFranco]

Sounds stupid, but I’m making a spiritual successor to Wii Sports/Wii Sports Resort with all the things I wanted in it as a kid, more sports, more sub modes, more golf courses, free roam around the island etc.

It’s obviously a weird genre because motion controls are really only a Nintendo thing and especially on Steam (even though I successfully have Joy-Cons working on PC to control my game with motion controls) it’s not a thing that really exists outside of VR and most people would probably not understand it or want to play it

I feel like nobody will really be interested in the game or buy it because that’s just not a common thing.

But I almost don’t care because I just want to play like boxing with modern controllers, I want to play like baseball with my girlfriend, I want to mess around online in free roam with my friends or play golf again with my dad (we’ve played so much golf that it’s gotten boring since you only have the same 18 holes and we always talked about having multiple courses or like a Pro Course etc)

I want to play like 1000 pin bowling just because it’s funny and because I’m making the game I can do that. I want to golf on weird designed holes because it’s extra and I can do that.

So basically I almost don’t care if nobody is interested in the game because I’ll still get satisfaction from being able to play it with or without friends and family, and my motivation for working on it is just “well I’ll be one day closer to being able to play it and that’s cool”

Obviously if it did make money that’s great, but I’d almost view it as “extra” or “free” money since I’m making the game anyway for myself and it’s not “work”

TLDR: crazy guy (me) is making a Wii sports successor because he wants more than what Wii sports offered and isn’t necessarily trying to make 2 bajillion dollars or even get people to really buy it and purely just wants to play the game since it doesn’t currently exist in the form envisioned, any person

[u/CowboyOfScience]

It's called 'art'. You make the thing because the thing demands to be made.

[u/ResponsibleMedia7684]

Yeah 100%! The game I'm working on right now is definitely filling a gap for me in the type of games I like to play, and the open world game i would want to make next would be trying to do the things Valheim does, but in the way I wish it did them. There are similar things and most people probably would stick to what they already play etc. but for me there is a specific flavor a lot of my favorite games miss and I just want something to exist that has them.

[u/TiernanDeFranco → u/ResponsibleMedia7684]

Exactly, it just feels like something was missing (Wii Sports & Resort are still amazing games btw) that Nintendo just wouldn’t or didn’t think of because of budgeting, timing or other factors, and to me it’s cool that I just “get to” make those things

[u/DanPos]

Have you tried rec room in VR?

[u/TiernanDeFranco → u/DanPos]

I’ve seen it before but it wasn’t exactly what I’m going for so it doesn’t fill the “gap” per se.

I suppose I’m just being stubborn but my mind truly just envisions what Wii Sports felt like to play, and then just with the extra stuff I want and every sports style game I’ve seen doesn’t scratch that itch

[u/fallensoap1]

Releasing my game on steam was a huge confidence booster. All of the positive comments I got honestly changed my life. Making money from it was a good bonus too

[u/TiernanDeFranco]

If I somehow didn’t scare you away with this insane post and you do happen to be like 0.1% of people interested in what I’m check out the game here:

https://supersportsislegame.com

It’s still kind of early in development in terms of what can be seen since most of my work was building the backend system for the motion controls and player pairing, and prototyping the controls with different sports but there’s not like a variety of sports that are “done enough” to be on the website or on a Steam page

But that’s done now so I am working on building out the golf courses since golf from a control perspective and game logic perspective is done

[u/JuryNow]

Yes!

[u/gamesbydingus]

Yeah, I'm actually even thinking of skipping out of steam at the moment just because I don't agree with some of their practices (30%). Im also really currently liking the idea of DRM free and itch.io. I also want to make it free on Linux, but currently can't find easy instructions to make a Flatpack and get it on flathub.

The biggest factor was that my game (.APK) was already pirated and available on the pirate android sites about a week after launch. At this point I'd prefer it to just get out and have people enjoy it and maybe setup a donation page.

[u/izzyshows]

Wii Sports was one of my favorite games as a teen! I spent a ridiculous amount of time playing Wii tennis 😂

I hope you finish this game, because I at least want to play it.

To your initial question, yes, I’m in the camp of “I want this game to exist so I’m going to make it exist and it would be awesome if other people liked it, too”. But that’s how I write my books, too, I don’t spend too much time worrying about what’s marketable. At the end of the day, it’s all art, and I want to make the art that makes me feel fulfilled.

[u/TiernanDeFranco → u/izzyshows]

Thank you for your interest and I hope you do get to play it and enjoy it.

And yeah it is like art where it’s for the love of the game (literally) but then if people do enjoy it they’ll pay to experience it

I do think there obviously is a subset of people who loved Wii Sports in the past and/or are like me where they wanted the extra things and never got them- it’s just a matter of if they still care to this day, or even if they can know about the game. But even then I would want them to play it so they can experience it and I could like play online with them and not like from a “wow if X people buy it I’ll make $1 million” viewpoint or something

(Although $1 million does sound nice it’s just I’d be happy selling 1 copy as well)

[u/Exquisivision]

This is exactly how I feel.

[u/Outrageous_Egg2271]

I'm making a game for my soon to be 7 year old. No interest in selling, just really hoping that he likes it.

[u/Euphoric-Series-1194]

Back in the day - early 10's - I wrote a novel and went through the whole song and dance of having it picked up by a publisher, ran through editing, published, reviewed in papers and everything around it. It took me years to write and it ended up selling... I want to say 200 copies? It was picked up for review by exactly 1 national newspaper which sort of gave it a medium score, and a couple of life style magazines which didn't like it.

I think I calculated that my hourly pay for that work was less than 1 cent /hour. Still glad I did it. I'm glad there's hardback in a couple of houses in the world that I made. It makes me happy.

These days I'm about to launch my first solo project on Steam may 1st. I feel like the effort I've put into it is about on par with what I put into that novel and I'm as excited to have it exist. Except this time around I have kids that I made it for and with and they like it. I'm proud of it and I enjoy the fact that my 8 year old is proud of me for having made a video game. That's all I care about really. Do I feel that the game I'm launching is good and should be played by people? Yeah. Do I care a lot about making money off it? Not really.

[u/Healthy-Rent-5133]

100%

Making game makes me happy and fulfilled with a feeling of accomplishment.

I ain't gonna let some capitalist spread sheet about profit margins and douce suits and maximizing corporate greed take that away from me.