Solo Queue

There's certainly plenty of tat out there (oftentimes with genuine care behind it, but also often just cash-grabbing). But there are also quite a few cheap, fun games on Steam - many of which can be a quick palette-cleanser between bigger titles. There are even a few cheap games which might eat up dozens of hours of someone's time and become one of their favourite titles of the year.

It can't be understated how nice it is to see bots in a multiplayer focused game.
If someone's checking out your game in 10 years time, at least give them bots to play with.

This is both an interesting and yet depressing look at the Steam market place. Still those tap games though

YES, I just started playing Tap Titans 2 a couple weeks ago!

@alexandrite: Viper is one of the few heroes that has no hats at all. He did get an updated base-model in the last big patch though.

Bummer, yeah...valuable service, yes.

Why?

Yeah this is what I have always thought when I see MP only indie games. I mean you might make super hit but most of the games probably die pretty soon. Then even when someone buys your game later on. They are going to just refund it after they don't find games.

@jeff@unastrike Would it be possible to get one of those show note boxes that gives the names of the games played in the video?

I think it would be a shame for developers if a good game with a single player element didn't get traction because the online community wasn't impressed (whether in early access or not).

I'd have to say the negativity for Hive Jump seemed a little harsh. That's the perfect example of ADDING something to your game and getting docked in reviews for it. Seems a perfectly capable single player game and as a bonus you can invite your friends to join.

This feature is like some post modernistic art piece

Fam: do we Need to worry about Jeff's tapping addiction?

Definitely a neat idea. I like that you did one of these. I don't think you need to do more. But it's cool that you did one of these.

volume WAY too low on this.

... This is art.

Also, some people have old computers that would probably catch on fire if you tried running Tales of Berseria or Witcher 3 on them. Heck, my computer's so out-of-date the DOOM demo just straight up won't run on my graphics card. The nice thing about cheap $5 Indie games is their system requirements are (usually) very low.

Love this concept and would like more.

No offence but I hope this is a one-off thing.

Seems kind of shitty to shit all over games from people who made one, that at least works, in the Rachel Maddow tone and voice. I think this ain't the thing Jeff. Negativity for the sake of it is a bummer.

You must be a very brave person to release a multiplayer only game in the current market.

IT'S RAINING MINES HALLELUJAH

I gotta say for how generic hitbox looks, the sound for hit feedback is oddly satisfying?

This is really, really shitty. All facets of it.

How do people determine pricing for some of these games. I meen, I understand developing game sis hard work, and you gotta pay those bills, and eat. But I guess, hitbox for example, i dont think that game is worth 20$, or is it all opinionated? Like to me its worth maybe 5$ but to someone else its worth 20$?

I don't see how this is shitting on these games. When supply vastly outweighs demand, well, what do you expect? This video highlights the problems of these types of games. It's a sad reality.

@soullos: Yeah, I agree completely. The opposite response is kind of confusing considering Jeff said multiple times both why he was doing this and that he was not trashing the games for it. I guess others could read it differently, but Jeff didn't seem to be taking any joy out of not finding games.

My layman's advice for releasing a competitive multiplayer PC game as a commercial product: don't.

First, spend a bunch of your off-time making your multiplayer idea into a free mod. If it catches on and proves itself mechanically and keeps a community for at least a couple years, consider making a follow up that is actually a commercial product, and somewhere in that process quit your day job and make this game (and possibly future projects) your day job. When your sequel comes out and costs money, you're more likely to get coverage because someone will at least have heard second-hand of its cult popularity as a mod, and your commercial release will at least have something of a consistent playerbase at launch, even if they'll just complain that they hate all the changes.

Also, if you release the mod and then people play it and nobody likes it, at least that means you didn't get to the step where you quit your day job, so just keep doing whatever that is.

Obvious exception to this course of action: if your game is some wild ass shit no one has seen before that is immediately cool and weird like Nidhogg, just release it right away for like $10 or something.

Im not sure this idea's got a future in its current form.

This is probably art.

@jeff You should look into getting Hori's Ore Commander. It's a peripheral that vibrates your finger so you can shoot even faster than the master! Not only would you be able to tap faster in mobile games than ever before, you'd also not be straining your wrist while playing.

It does seem pretty insane to make an online only multiplayer indie game for Steam these days. The risk is just so damn high, which this video highlights really well.

God, that one character from Battle Crew should get the GOTY award for worst new character. GIRL POWER!

Yolo, losers.

Love this

Christ, the Steam store page for HitBox quotes a Reddit post as one of its two reviews.

@volt: @soullos: i know it wasn't his intent and he clearly said so, but at the same time the premise puts these games in a negative spotlight and doesn't have anything encouraging to offer. granted something as rote as Hitbox probably doesn't deserve it, but some of the other stuff seemed neat at least conceptually. guess you could cry collusion all you want, but isn't part of a reviewer's job to help bring attention to the cool gems the reviewer finds and (yes, subjectively) likes? i do see him making this as maybe more of a warning to developers considering this route, though maybe it was more just him analyzing a sort of absurd thing that is an unfortunate byproduct of the situation. that sounds a bit more jeff-like; finding humor and interest in the situation without necessarily calling out others.

i think @bisonhero gave a good summation/suggestion to those considering the retail multiplayer gamr route. you need to find a way to generate interest first, and/or "luck" onto something cool and unique enough to get that interest. it's rough as fuck, i'm sure, and 90% of the time you aren't fortunate enough to get a rocket league (though i'm sure its devs worked their asses off to get where they are).

Silly Jeff, everyone knows people on Steam only play DOTA

The volume was extremely low on this video, you can even hear mic hissing when you turn it up.

Imo make this a live stream and just play older, AAA games that many people would have already.

Interesting idea, but I have to agree that once was probably enough for a video like this.

It would make for a different feature, but I think it would be interesting for Jeff or someone to take another look at some of the multiplayer games in, say, the top 200 or 300 Steam games based on current active player count.

Like, no need to play CS:GO or anything, but I think there are some slightly more obscure games that have remained in the top 200 active players that have consistently supported the game and maintained a player base, and it would be interesting to take another look and see how far those games have come.

Looking at recent multiplayer games that had absolutely no buzz and immediately died, is A) kinda sad and depressing, and B) kinda shooting fish in a barrel, even if Jeff is trying to show off the mechanics and potential the game has.

Loved the idea and video, Jeff. Would absolutely watch more!

Think of this as Jar Time without a Jar.

Oh, Hive Jump. I saw that at PAX South this year. I didn't play it, though. It only stuck out in my mind because the booth indicated the game would come to, wait for it, Wii U.

Hitbox didn't seem to be poorly made or anything. I feel bad for the developers to a certain extent. But why on earth would you release multiplayer only games without proper market research or anything?

I made many FPS games like hitbox back in 2005 as a kid... it just looks like an engine that someone made a plain map for lol.

This video has a hidden purpose as well. It could shine a light on some of these games and MAYBE increase the player base over time.

Some types of games just have cold, hard realities in terms of what it takes for them to be successful. When you think about the kind of player base a multiplayer shooter has to have in order for players to find matches easily and readily, the odds of a small indie dev with little to no marketing budget getting the kind of numbers they would need just seems hopeless. Sure, you might get lucky, but more likely your game will end up tossed onto the mountainous heap of other indie multiplayer shooters with no community.