Tips to owning a game

[a_bertrand]

Their toolbar is NOT a new feature. The whole stats are based on that. Check on other websites for more info if you want. BTW Crawling internet will never provide you with how many people visits a given website. At best it will tell which sites points to a given website but not much more ;)

[DigitalGerm]

A successful game never starts with

"jail, login, admin staff, security, etc."

A successful game start with the USER.

Finding the user needs and creating the CONTEXT of a web game based on the user needs.

The reason I would make a WEB game, is that it's independent of platform and cheap vs games ( native applications ) that are more time consuming and money .

A successful game starts when your asking the right questions,

and continuing with planning, the global population it's over 6 Billion peoples, meaning different cultures, different languages, different perspective.

Finding and targeting a large piece of pie from this billion will cost you a good plan.

Internet owns 7% of market. Meaning $70 billion per year. You might get 0.001% from it but if have A good marketing plan you might get 1% of this share.

Doing the same thing that others did you'll get the same result or less.

To me owning a game sounds strange. But I'm sure, definitely sure! That it starts with the user.

so

1. Marketing Research.

2. A little "neuro linguistic programing" documentation can help ( for developing a successful copyright )

3. Planning

4. Information Architecture ( sketch's, maps, wireframes, prototypes )

5. Developing, Adaption and Testing

6. Making money

7. Updating

Usability, Accessibility, Interactivity and user experience are the keys to owning!

frag frag away.

[dreaming]

I really agree with DigitalGerm, Users are the main source for games

[Haunted Dawg]

A successful game never starts with

"jail, login, admin staff, security, etc."

A successful game start with the USER.

And what keep's the USER entertained? The feature's the game contain's.

[DigitalGerm]

Therefor you have to start with the USER, you can't just guess what future's will entertain and capture THIS USER or THIS ONE.

If your referring to Users that play this particular CRIME STYLE GAME, witch basically there all the same with a different approach. Then you simple know that the user needs can be "to control, being a boss and attitude" most of inspiration comes from real life. Who doesn't want to be a gangster like "in the movies" driving fancy cars, babes and money. So the real need is "USER VALIDATION".

Based on this discovery you can build a successful game. Know what age and how the user interacts with your game are some principles to, I always ask my girlfriend to test my application and to give me feedback, then I discover how USER interacts with my app, if he likes navigating with the arrows or mouse, does he love drag and drop etc... "THE RIGHT QUESTIONS".

[Renkia]

Obviously every one has there own opinion about owning a game, but here mine.

1: An admin that is active & kind to his/her community.

2: Some features that haven't been seen before. I Don't like playing games with extacly the same features.

3: Looks. The community know that the owner/coder know what's he doing.

4: Not being greedy! Often these days owners tend to raise the DP'S to a massive amount of items witch is just greedy. :pinch:

5: PICK THE RIGHT STAFF! I Game I play, the admin has chosen 1 member off 200+. The 1 member is not liked because of his attitude, but the owner begs to differ. ¬_¬

[InternalExpertCoding]

Let me point out to all, There is a simplier and more effcient way to claim as a sucessful game.

Now, Let me say here, Kyle, Has done a great job explaining, And it should help somewhat.

But! I would like to add one thing that most game owner's don't really look at.

When you start a game, You begin putting pocket money into it.

Therefore, Before you really have a sucessful game, you will need to make at least 1/4 profits back in than what you are putting into the game.

For example, Hosting, Mods, Etc etc.

You will want to begin making at least 1/4 profits at the end of the week,month,year. Whichever way suits you better.

Its just like a business, Any business is not a sucessful business until they have made the profits and income to support the business without worrying.

 

I would also like to say about the Admin's playing the game.

In the foremost games that I have owned, I DO NOT let my admins play.

Why? Well it's simple.

If an admin is playing the game, Someone new comes up, or even someone who has been playing awhile and says: " Wow, That admin must be cheating, I cant catch him in stats or nothing". And then that drives away players.

I created a code long ago, Where if the chosen staff is hired, I add thier name to a list in the code, and boom!, They then cannot play, They may view everything as if they where playing, But as far as handling money etc etc, They cannot.

When I own a game, And People want to be staff, If I do hire them, I mark there name on the code, Therefore, They have no choice but to be a staff member.

[DreamCoder]

all these tips are usefull i will use this in my game thx guys!

[SundayForever]

Thanks you very much for the advice. I sometimes play games to free myself at my freely time. So what about you?

[The Bonded Game]

Personally I am of the opinion that the only "admin" are me (creator), my wife (owner), and my lead coder. Any one else is an assistant or something along those lines. Yes I may choose to play my game however it will be with an unknown account. he appearance of impropriety is enough to do that.

As for fliers in a local shop, that will not help much unless its a campus bookstore maybe. You must remember your trying to reach a global audience not the kid down the block.

[Choisir]

First, hello there o/ (First post)

I think a good game needs a nice planning first. Keep in mind that most of the mistakes are done even before writing one line of code. Have a bigger picture, minimize risk.

In addition to this, game should offer something new. It doesn't have to be breakthrough or pioneer but still who wants to play yet another X, Y, Z?

It is good to keep amateur soul, but still add some professionalism.

[runthis]

I am not sure how assigning admins works in mccodes, but when i assign an admin, that just means that they have more access to records. I do not create any sort of employee class that lets someone edit anything. If you want to truly make someone an admin, you are probably doing this because you are moving on to your next project, they just became your business partner, or you know them in real life.

You can let your admins/staff play all they want. It's a simple code if(!admin){ echo stats }. Your admins / staff could be the top players and the stats would never show. it is common practice to program that kind of thing. You could also program a way for staff to have 2 accounts that can easily be switched between in-game without having to hit the login screen or register (this is great for bug testing staff)

Edited June 1, 2012 by runthis

[RileyK]

thank you for all the tips, Haunted Dawg!

ashamed to admit, but i didn't know most of it. I am new to all of this, started playing it like a couple of months ago

[realmoflegends]

I am not sure how assigning admins works in mccodes, but when i assign an admin, that just means that they have more access to records. I do not create any sort of employee class that lets someone edit anything. If you want to truly make someone an admin, you are probably doing this because you are moving on to your next project, they just became your business partner, or you know them in real life.

You can let your admins/staff play all they want. It's a simple code if(!admin){ echo stats }. Your admins / staff could be the top players and the stats would never show.

Agreed, I never let anyone become admin that can edit everything besides myself...too many risks involved. I also agree with the admin stats never displaying in the Top Stats listed, I have it directly in the code to never display any admin or assistants stats on those sort of lists. Not fair otherwise.

Very good thread for new game owners, to be certain!

[KyleMassacre]

Hmmm. Login looks mighty familiar to me. It looks shockingly similar to mine. On a side note dont go advertising a game with my stolen template and an unregistered version of mc codes ;) so later ill try to start up a dmca atleast for my template. Cheers!

Edited October 24, 2012 by KyleMassacre

[Uridium]

The whole game looks familiar.. cant remember the guy who showed me the first version of this but he owned This Is London game,,,

[a_bertrand]

Removed posts of that guy... was way too much spam, so no need to comment it out more ;)

[chicka]

This is London Game was owned by a guy named Martin aka IceColdCola and its an exact replica of the game..

[dementor]

i personally think is key that you the owner player your own game, because there is many things within the game that you will have to fix by yourself as you are the only one who knows how you want your game to play.

I actually enjoy playing my game and I funny thing is im trying to be the best and I cant lol, but im just playing honestly I guess

[james067]

hey nice post..

[Dustin Rohel]

On 6/15/2009 at 12:09 PM, Haunted Dawg said:

1.- Owning a game:

It's not some get rich quick scheme that you can open a website and expect to come back 3 day's later to find $1,000's in your paypal account.

Owning a game take's alot of time, getting a successful game even more.

Before opening a game strategize and mark your point's. Marking your point's so in future you know where to advertise to hit potential & valueable members.

Strategize your business plan, where is your fundamental source coming from? Such thing's play a big role in real life & online business's.

2.- Frequent Updates:

Members (especially value member's) love game update's. No matter what, if it's a small to a big update, they will know you still care about the game, making you more money.

Bugs: Fix all bug's before releasing the game, as bug's push away member's.

3.- Marketing:

Target market point's, think outside the box on this one. As we all know, alot of game owner's have milked the online scene of gaming. So what, There is still more valuable member's out there.

These valuable member's are found all over. A person who has never played a rpg game will enjoy it way more than a frequent rpg game player, those people spread the word more!

Such point's are to go to a local shop and place ad's up, or even in the local newspaper.

4.- Site Ranking:

Now we got a non buggy game (p1), a frequently updated game (p2) & a marketing point (p3).

Now we want to get our ranking up in search engine's. Some of you think 'Woo i have alot of member's it will push it up.' NO!

Ranking in search engine's is mainly based on how many search's are made and if your game is indexed.

Getting your site indexed at alot of search engine's can gain you member's and sometime's alot of member's.

Getting your ranking up by doing such:

    # Post your link on a forum

    # Post your link on known websites

    # Search your own site in search engine's from time to time

What about alexa you ask?

We can't really force every member to download the alexa toolbar, many website's also think because they have member's, it will push it up. Again NO!

Alexa work's off their tool bar, if your player's have the tool bar your alexa goes up.

Having a good alexa is good at selling a game as it gives it a better exposure.

5.- Donations:

DO NOT FORCE MEMBERS TO DONATE!

Let your member's donate by themself's, don't force them to. And do not run a 2x1 every day or week, run it once every 3 month's or even once a year.

Telling a member to donate to get staff status it show's your greedy and needy.

6.- Listening to players:

Listening to player's is a strong point to keep your member's. Listening to them is a must.

Alot of valuable members give nice idea's, it's good to implement some from time to time.

PS: Do excuse my spelling, half a sleep :), more shall be added in near future.

Thanks for the tips, should have read this along time ago