Good games don’t sell anymore.During the 90’, video games were uncommon and expensive. Every new game was costing a lot of money, and many months of your pocket money if you were a teenager. So even if the game was not wonderful, you had to play it.I can remember how I was disappointed by Alfred Chicken on my Super Nintendo, but I completed it because I had no other game.Nowadays, many games are released daily, from free to play games, to AAA expensive games.Some of them are bad, most of them are good, but just a few of them are exceptional.

Why should people play your game with so many other titles available?With so much choice for the player, creating a good game is not enough anymore, you need to be an excellent game to stand out from the crowd.It’s why you need to improve your game from a good one to a great one.

How the game's rules changed since the 90.

The dangerously cool refund feature.

For many years, it has been possible to get a refund on Steam if the game was played for less than 2 hours.
A great feature for players, but less appreciated by studios and publishers.The refund idea always forces the provider to offer quality. It's also true in other industries or services, but I'll talk about it later.It's easy to see how this feature affects indie game makers. If the game doesn't show that he can be great in the First Player Experience, he will probably ask for a refund and buy another game.With that in mind, you understand why it can be more important to work hard on your onboarding process than to polish your true last boss.You can bet I'd ask for a refund to play another game if I would buy Alfred chicken today

Prices have fallen extremely down.

Most of the games were sold around the same price in the 90s. I had to pay 359 Francs (around €90 today with inflation) to buy Alfred Chicken.For the same amount, I could acquire the fantastic Ardy Lightfoot, the exceptional Cool Spot, or the charming Earthworm Jim (yes charming).Nowadays, people can buy amazing games for very little money, sometimes even for nothing. And I'm not talking about subscription systems like Game Pass, which give players many choices for a small amount of money.Why should anyone buy your good game, if he can get tons of others for cheaper? It's another reason why your game needs to be exceptional and not just good.I play many good games on my Game Pass, but I still buy a few others because they are better than the only good games I can get for almost free.Sometimes I buy games that are on Game Pass for my other device too. I may be an exception, but I have purchased Plants Vs Zombie on five different devices. It is also true for smaller productions, such as Steredenn, which is on my Xbox and twice on my Switch (digital and retail).And I highly recommend these games to everyone, which is not the case for the hundreds of good games I played.

The death of "only" good products.

How this good game was not successful.

Okami is one of the most famous games that was not commercially successful despite its quality.Some players will speak about the cool graphics that look like paintings from Japan. Other people will remember a fun story about a journey, and the lasts will talk about the music.

However, none of them will argue that the same year Epic Games launched Gears of War and its amazing graphic quality.I agree that it is not the same kind of game, not the same public, and even not the same console.But 2006 was also the year of Final Fantasy XII, Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII and Kingdom Hearts II on PlayStation 2.And the most important thing for players who loved action adventure games like Okami, 2006 was the year of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.Okami had good graphics, GoW had great.
Okami was a good PlayStation 2 game, FFXII was a great.
Okami was a good action adventure game, but The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess was a great one.You could argue that it just wasn't the right time, but the different remasters of the game (2008, 2012 & 2017) didn’t sell so good either.Different remastered, which were able to exist thanks to the publisher (Capcom). The studio itself (Clover studio) closed only a few months after the failure launch of Okami.

Many good games for a dead studio.

Telltale Games was a studio specializing in narrative games. Yes, it was. It’s now officially closed.Established in 2004, the studio has produced numerous narrative games based on renowned IPs such as The Walking Dead, Batman, Jurassic Park, and many others, until 2018.Most of their games were good. Only good, with a famous IP sometimes, but they were rarely great.

Meanwhile, fans of narrative games could enjoy the return of point-and-click games with Broken Age (2014)Others Indie game developers came up with inventive ways to tell a story, from minimalist games like LifeLine (2015) to massive productions like Firewatch (2016)Telltale Game had good point and click, Double Fine made a great (Broken Age).
Telltale Game had good narrative's mechanics, 3 minutes games had a greater one (Lifeline).
Telltale Game had good stories, Campo Santo wrote a great one (Firewatch).Many good games are less effective than only one excellent.

A great product on the bad market

I love the SEGA Dreamcast, it has several reasons for being a great console. With 4 controller ports, a modem, and many other technical details that make it cool. It also had a great catalog of games : Jet Set Radio, Ikaruga, Skies of Arcadia.However, the SEGA Dreamcast failed against the PlayStation 2.The Dreamcast was wonderful, but the PlayStation 2 could also play DVDs. The difference was significant for people who were looking for a multimedia device.You can also see that even today, our consoles (Xbox and PlayStation) are still multimedia devices.The PlayStation 2 had a cinch connection, which was easier to connect to a home cinema than the SCART connection on the Dreamcast (in Europe).The Playstation 2 black design was also easier to tune in an adult living room decoration than the white color of the Dreamcast.

The SEGA Dreamcast was a great console, but The PlayStation 2 was a great multimedia device.And as you probably know it, after this failure, SEGA left the video game console market.

The non-magical approach to improve your game from good to great

As I previously mentioned, it can be more important to work hard on your onboarding process than to polish your true last boss. But it's not always true.It would be easy to follow a checklist and figure out which point to focus on first.However, every indie game project is different and deserves a special analysis to get a specific answer.

There is no magic method, but there are other easy ways to obtain useful information about your game.When you work hard on your game, you might need someone else's opinion to give you a different perspective.With the right person and a simple way to collect their analysis, you could get a useful resource to know how to improve your game.This is how a well redacted PDF in your mailbox can help your game to evolve from a good to a great one.

The Indie Boost Document

You can get this PDF from me, it's called the Indie Boost Document.This structured feedback can help you improve your game in many ways.

A surprisingly simple process

After a brief contact to request a quote, if this one is suitable for you, you will only need to provide me with your build and return to your business.You can keep working on your game or go away for the weekend without worrying about it.The Indie Boost Document will come to you a few days later. The last thing you need to do is read it quietly and learn how to make your game better.You can read it as often as you want and share it with your team.

More money-back guarantee than Steam.

As I previously mentioned, the refund concept always forces the provider to offer quality. It's also true in other industries or services, so it's true for me as well.Steam allows customers to get a refund for a game they bought within 14 days and used less than 2 hours.
The Indie Boost Document has a 30-day money-back guarantee without any condition.You can request an Indie Boost Document, read it, share it with your team, and then claim for a refund because you don't like the color or the font.

After reading my document, you'll know how to improve your game from good to great.A few weeks after, you will surely have increased the strength of your game and destroyed the weaknesses of this one.

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Money-back guarantee

Why you shouldn’t take an Indie Boost Document

If you think your game is already great, then the Indie Boost Document is not for you.
To get the most out of it, you need to be willing to accept that it can still get better.You must also be prepared to make some tough adjustments to your game.
The document will give you feedback, but you will have to decide yourself if you want to remove or change part of the game.But if your goal is to make the best game, and you are willing to change things, the Indie Boost Document will be a great choice for you.If you're still unsure if it's for you, take a look at a few of my clients to check which one it worked best for. And I got much others but under NDA.

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Money-back guarantee

Of course, you are free to improve your game without an Indie Boost document.You can spend many hours focusing on the things you think are important.
You can also compare your game to the few competitors you are familiar with.But the more time you spend on making your game, the less time you have for playing other games.With an Indie Boost document, you receive feedback about what you should work on to achieve the best results. You also receive an outside analysis of your game from an experienced gamer who has played hundreds of games.And if you don't get enough value, you can still get a refund.