Comments on: Is “Multiplayer-Only” a Kiss of Death? (For Indie PC Games)

By: Jake Birkett

Jake Birkett — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 16:44:21 +0000

@Juuso: Yep, left 4 dead is on my list…

By: Doolwind

Doolwind — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 10:52:12 +0000

I think there are some pros and cons:

Pros:
1. Easier to cut down pirates
2. More viral (“come play x with me”)
3. Lower requirement on AI, story and possibly content

Cons:
1. Until critical mass is reached, no games will start
2. Some people just don’t enjoy multiplayer

Adding support for bot matches or having a game that only requires a small number of players (as close to 2 as possible) would reduce the issues.

Fallen Empire: Legions is a great example of a multiplayer only game that has done really well and I class as “Indie”.

By: Ilya

Ilya — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 10:43:40 +0000

Soldat 2D is quite popular indie multiplayer platformer. It can be played for free, the paid version mostly provides UI tweaking, mainly setting higher resolution. You can play alone with bots, but that’s hardly very entertaining.

Dominions III is a niche hardcore TBS. It can be played alone, but it’s clearly oriented towards multiplayer.

There were other multiplayer indie games, the most successful being Quake III, but they are too old to be relevant.

There is probably some number of multiplayer indie web games.

Until there are enough of other players, a multiplayer-only game is no fun. Mainstream multiplayer games are helped a lot by big marketing that allows to gather critical mass at launch.

Having at least somewhat fun single player mode helps to hook players so they want to gather for a multiplayer match and form an initial community.

By: Juuso

Juuso — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 04:54:28 +0000

Jake: you should try Left 4 Dead (online coop)… :) this makes you pretty much opposite to mine, after turning 20 (and continuing), I think I have bought zero single player games only games (and played only multiplayer modes of those). Well, GTA comes to close (although I liked to play the GTA multiplayer mode…).

Gaurav: good point on Runescape (and others). These are MMOs. What about other games… do you know any non-mmo, indie multiplayer only game?

By: Gaurav

Gaurav — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 23:19:01 +0000

Hey man, there’s a ton of these…Runescape makes $50m + a year. There’s also Puzzle Pirates ($230k / month), Habbo Hotel (albeit more social than a game).

I think Free to play but purchase perks MMO is the way of the future. The key is probably to keep overhead low (very few employees, work from home/cheap office). These games can earn you money but if big companies try it they tend to have too much overhead which results in a negative cash flow and no profit.

By: Jake Birkett

Jake Birkett — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 21:33:28 +0000

I’ve never bought a multi-player only game. The nearest I got was Quake3 and Unreal Tournament I guess. I love single player and especially coop gameplay.

By: TopMostDawggity

TopMostDawggity — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 20:50:08 +0000

Personally, I like a multi-player game only when it’s done right. Take all the big free ones; full of hackers and cheats. And they offer “buy this gun” and stuff. I don’t know anyone who actually spends money for them. On the other hand, I know a few guys who donate money to games which don’t give anything in return.
….Well, my mate today was happy to see his game profile background had a large $ symbol on it, and when he went in-game, he had a $ icon beside his name. Through him donating, I now know about this particular game and plan to play it with him, all thanks to such a stupid little reason. (Give the audience something that surprises them enough to tell others?)

Single player- Take a look at crimsonland (google it, it’s easy to find)- allowing players to play by themselves, but try and beat their buddies’ scores isn’t a bad idea.

Either way, you have to get your game out there. You could make some simple banners or icons for people to post on their myspace or such… Keep an eye on the number of hits on your sites; it’s a direct result to what you’re doing to make your game popular.

One example would be that I stumbled onto this page by signing up for a beta key for a game on some site, clicking a link to another game, then following a link to your game on their forum. Not easy to find, I might add. Though I have to say I wasn’t looking for it. Perhaps that’s the problem; make me want to find your game. Once again, get people talking about it. (I’m making this up as i go, I hope you can make more sense outta it than me, lol.)

Thanks for reading. I hope this helped you in some way. (It sure didn’t help my fatigued insomnia… Is 06:49 a tad late for bed time? :P)

By: Deceth

Deceth — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 14:46:55 +0000

I’m currently working on a free multiplayer-only game called Battle City (http://battlecity.looble.com). It’s open source, and I think that really helps with establishing a strong community.

In terms of revenue however, it’s currently near zero despite a fully-functional product. Still, there is potential, since the game is far from reaching critical mass. The server is often empty and I am breaking-even in terms of expenses. I imagine if it filled to capacity, I’d see a small, but, nice return on time-invested.

If not, it doesn’t matter to me. This is a fun hobby :)