I think I could almost copy & paste one year old blog post I made about garry’s mod success (posted October 25, 2009).
I really recommend reading that, thinking a bit, and then coming back here to comment.
Makes you wonder, doesn’t it?
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About the author
I'm Juuso. I bake games. Indie style.
I started coding games when I was a small kid with access to Commodore 64.
I started this blog in the end of 2005, the same time when I started my own game dev studio (where I work part night time). Since launch, this blog has seen over one million visits from people all over the world. More about me can be found here
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Recent Comments
hermitC: "I’m happy that old gameplay styles prove their worth in modern times. With Grimrock Almost Human brought an awesome game to the market. Nevertheless..." 32 days 17 hours ago. 
Ashiq: "Very interesting. Thanks for sharing. I thought games like this went down since the early or mid 1990s." 32 days 20 hours ago. 
josh: "My favorite code advice is “if you need something >3 times, make it a function/object. Otherwise, re-code it inline.” Without this rule, I 1)..." 39 days 23 hours ago. 
Matt: "Hi Thomas, Nice points. I especially love the image of an army of Tamagotchi. I mean, running the supply chain for an army is really no different to Diner Dash..." 48 days 23 hours ago. 
Thomas Morgner: "The good part about games is, that they have a rather simple world. Drinks, for example, can all basically be the same thing. Add slight variations..." 49 days 13 hours ago. Matt: "Nice conversation :) about stuff I love talking about! Programming the base needs for every creation that has motivations is a lengthy task. Unless you provide..." 50 days 5 hours ago. 
Juuso: "Excellent points, that’s exactly how it needs to go. You can apply the same stuff to very many things, and there can be consequences too. Let’s say..." 50 days 5 hours ago. Thomas Morgner: "I don’t believe that you have to create a full scale AI to make a believable world. Its more about covering the basics, and working with the..." 52 days 21 hours ago.
These days the combination of creation + sharing seems to be the holy grail of game design. Understandable, it’s so different to the common “destroy everything” theme so many games provide.
It’s much the same way game production works. Maybe that’s the reason for spending all my time on game dev. It’s a game itself where you create something and share it with others. Well, sharing becomes selling. Hopefully :)
That’s the difference between the real world and the
internet. In the real world, kids sell lemonade for 10 cents, sells
a few drinks and take home very little money. In the internet. If a
kid were to sell virtual lemonade, and if it becomes popular, it’d
sell about a few million virtual drinks, and become a millionaire.
The key is make something that people want to buy for certain
price. If you can make something people would pay a few dollars
for, and people likes it enough to tell others about it, then
that’s it, you’re rich. That’s the power of the internet. And as
hermit says, what really catches people fancy, is things people can
share on one hand. And in the other hand is sense of progress.
Games that makes you feel like you are constantly
progressing.