[POLL] DOES RPG MAKER NET HAVE LOW ENGAGEMENT RATE?

Poll

Does RPG Maker net have a lower than average engagement rate for the submissions? - Results

Yes
13
52%
No
12
48%

Posts

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Look, I'm not trying to start any troubles but the fact is, the very same game I've submitted to numerous places with exact same content and descriptions and screenshots has not had a single comment, review or anything in two years of it being here whereareas in every other place it has gotten more engagement. As a developer, it honestly makes me question if it's worth it to keep posting updates and blogs when no one seems to care.

I'm curious if anyone else have had such a lukewarm experience or if I have just been super unlucky.
unity
You're magical to me.
12540
I've had the exact opposite experience. While I get very little in the ways of comments or downloads on Game Jolt, Itch.io, or the official RPG Maker forums, I get a lot of them here.
author=unity
I've had the exact opposite experience. While I get very little in the ways of comments or downloads on Game Jolt, Itch.io, or the official RPG Maker forums, I get a lot of them here.

I'm glad for you but what's wrong with my game then? It's been literal two years and not a single comment on anything or a review.


I hate to sound like an ungrateful dick when using free service but I worked on the game for over three years and sometimes skipped meals just to afford to pay the artists and it crushes my heart to see all that work completely ignored.
unity
You're magical to me.
12540
I've seen your game around before, and the art style is very cute, but I haven't given it a play myself. I'll give it a shot! :D Can't promise a review or anything, as I'm super busy these days, but I can at least give you my comments ^_^

If reviews are specifically what you're after, you can request them in this topic.
author=unity
I've seen your game around before, and the art style is very cute, but I haven't given it a play myself. I'll give it a shot! :D Can't promise a review or anything, as I'm super busy these days, but I can at least give you my comments ^_^

If reviews are specifically what you're after, you can request them in this topic.


Thanks that means a lot to me, I also posted to the review topic.
unity
You're magical to me.
12540
Oh, I think I see the problem. Most users on this site are used to being able to play games for free, or at least play a demo for free. I went to give your game a shot and saw that I needed to buy the full game for $3.99.

That's a very reasonable price, certainly, but I've never played any examples of your work and while the art is very pretty, I have no idea if the gameplay's going to feel like a professional level. You have several reviews praising the game, but you also have some negative ones that claim that the game is only 2 hours long and the RPG mechanics may be a bit flawed. Thus, as a customer, purchasing this game from a developer I don't know feels like a slight risk even at the low price point.

I can easily gauge how much fun I'm going to have with most developers' games on this site. I can play a game from them for free and tell pretty quickly if its worth my time. I cannot do that for you without payment, and its the only game in your profile. Your game is already short, so it may not be feasible to release a free demo, but in the future, that would probably do you a lot of good.

I stick to my word, so I'll give your game a shot. But normally this would be something I'd more likely pass on. The last RPG Maker developer I bought from was Neok, but he has a long history of excellent games that you can play for free on this site, so I knew I was getting quality and had no qualms paying for his product.
halibabica
RMN's Official Reviewmonger
16873
*takes a look*

Well, the game itself looks good, but the style of the graphics seems a bit generic. The character portraits are nice; I can tell that's what you were paying an artist for, but the style of the rest is pretty comparable to standard RM fare, which doesn't fly as well on a site so used to it. The game also costs money as opposed to being free, so that likely hurts your chances as well.

It also bears a mention that this site is very developer-oriented. Most people here have their own games and it's like a community of everyone pushing their content forward without ever looking at each other's. I mean, we do have players, but they aren't the majority.

So far as I can tell, it seems your game doesn't stand out enough to justify its price. Doesn't mean it's bad or anything, but on a site with almost 10,000 games, most of which are free...you can see why it'd fall by the wayside.
Generally, most people around here don't really like "commercial" games. Some even look down on people who dare to ask for money for their "cheap" RPG Maker game. So yeah, I do think for commercial games RMN is probably the worst choice, particularly for final product feedback.

What RMN is still good at, even for commercial products, is getting feedback on game design ideas, though. But you don't ask those questions in your blog, but rather ask them on the Game Design subforum if you want feedback (the active game design discussions here are the main reason I even frequent this place, I only ever check out actual games if they make it to the featured games list).

The blog entries here are more for people who are already interested in a game and want to follow its development (which usually doesn't happen if the game is commercial). There aren't so many people that actively go through all new blog entries and check if they can give any feedback on them.
author=unity
You have several reviews praising the game, but you also have some negative ones that claim that the game is only 2 hours long and the RPG mechanics may be a bit flawed. Thus, as a customer, purchasing this game from a developer I don't know feels like a slight risk even at the low price point.

It's longer than 2 hours, most of those review are really outdated and full of misinformation to be honest.

I don't have a demo for the game nor will I ever make one. Extra Credits makes a great point about this in their video.


My game's not super long because it has no grinding that would add padding to the game. It's solid gameplay from start to finish.

author=halibabica
So far as I can tell, it seems your game doesn't stand out enough to justify its price. Doesn't mean it's bad or anything, but on a site with almost 10,000 games, most of which are free...you can see why it'd fall by the wayside.

But it took me over three years of work and it has professional quality artists who did the sprites and the character arts and animated monsters. Even their mouths are lip synched and they blink. The ammount of work and money I put into this is huge.


This is an award winning videogame that is considered by many to be one of the best RPG makers ever made which I worked on for 3+ years fulltime that I'm selling for price less than bag of coffee. :(

author=RyaReisender
Generally, most people around here don't really like "commercial" games. Some even look down on people who dare to ask for money for their "cheap" RPG Maker game. So yeah, I do think for commercial games RMN is probably the worst choice, particularly for final product feedback.

This game has high production values for RPG Maker game. It's not cheap RPG Maker game.

halibabica
RMN's Official Reviewmonger
16873
I just finished reading your game page and looking over the images. While it may be an award winning game, you really haven't presented it all that well.

Even just looking down the game page itself, there's a link to one of the images that's already pictured, and the next one down has .jpg at the end of the character's name. Your description of the game tries to hype up its qualities, but it all sounds really generic. These are the kind of claims you can find on any RPG Maker game; there's no proof of actual quality, even if it's true.

Outdated reviews can also be a hindrance, just as Unity pointed out. The full game isn't two hours, but an old review says it is? There's no estimate of game time on the page itself, so why should anyone believe otherwise?

I'm not trying to bust your chops here. I'm sure you do have a quality game, but the way you're showing it is just falling flat, and the price tag is probably turning people away because there isn't enough of a hook. A demo or test video could do wonders, but other aspects of your presentation need help as well.
author=Tuomo_L
But it took me over three years of work and it has professional quality artists who did the sprites and the character arts and animated monsters. Even their mouths are lip synched and they blink. The ammount of work and money I put into this is huge.

This is an award winning videogame that is considered by many to be one of the best RPG makers ever made which I worked on for 3+ years fulltime that I'm selling for price less than bag of coffee. :(

Ultimately, it's all about marketing and branding. You may have the best game in the world, but if your game is not marketed enough or poorly marketed and has poor branding, nobody will know about your game.

And marketing is easier said than done. You'll have to work effortlessly to constantly promote your game in order to reach out to everyone.

To add on, I've checked your social media presence, and I think you still have a lot of work to do.

EDIT: I've also just checked your game on Steam (http://store.steampowered.com/app/423740/), and apparently, the reviews are mixed. Not good. No offence, but people are bound to judge by first impressions. And only 8 reviews since 2015? Not good either.

I'm not trying to pinpoint faults here, but when your game only has 8 reviews since 2015 and you call it an award-winning game, you know something doesn't add up here.

And okay, first place for a contest called Quest for Fun, but tell me: just how recognized is this Quest for Fun contest? From the way I see it, I doubt it's highly recognized.
SunflowerGames
The most beautiful user on RMN!
13323

I submitted games to Game Jolt, but hardly get anything near the response I get from RMN.

Commercial games don't stand a chance on this website usually.
I think RMN has some engagement "problems". It leans a bit more on the community side of things meaning that people active and prominent within the community are more likely to get "engagement". Seldom is there so called random engagement where someone just stumbles upon a game page and... engages. And any people who would just do the random thing, looking at gamepages usually move on since there's always the ceiling of paying money for things. Especially here where people are pretty used to everything being free.
author=halibabica
I just finished reading your game page and looking over the images. While it may be an award winning game, you really haven't presented it all that well.

Even just looking down the game page itself, there's a link to one of the images that's already pictured, and the next one down has .jpg at the end of the character's name. Your description of the game tries to hype up its qualities, but it all sounds really generic. These are the kind of claims you can find on any RPG Maker game; there's no proof of actual quality, even if it's true.

Outdated reviews can also be a hindrance, just as Unity pointed out. The full game isn't two hours, but an old review says it is? There's no estimate of game time on the page itself, so why should anyone believe otherwise?

I'm not trying to bust your chops here. I'm sure you do have a quality game, but the way you're showing it is just falling flat, and the price tag is probably turning people away because there isn't enough of a hook. A demo or test video could do wonders, but other aspects of your presentation need help as well.

Then try the game out yourself! I'm sure if you would give it a chance you'd like it or at least see all the work and love put into it.

I am never ever doing a demo. Refer to the Demo Daze video I posted.


I did get a lot more engagement from RPG Maker Web and other places even though they have mostly developers too. This is the only place that has felt... distant, for the lack of better term.

author=eplipswich
author=Tuomo_L
But it took me over three years of work and it has professional quality artists who did the sprites and the character arts and animated monsters. Even their mouths are lip synched and they blink. The ammount of work and money I put into this is huge.

This is an award winning videogame that is considered by many to be one of the best RPG makers ever made which I worked on for 3+ years fulltime that I'm selling for price less than bag of coffee. :(
Ultimately, it's all about marketing and branding. You may have the best game in the world, but if your game is not marketed enough or poorly marketed and has poor branding, nobody will know about your game.

And marketing is easier said than done. You'll have to work effortlessly to constantly promote your game in order to reach out to everyone.

To add on, I've checked your social media presence, and I think you still have a lot of work to do.

EDIT: I've also just checked your game on Steam (http://store.steampowered.com/app/423740/), and apparently, the reviews are mixed. Not good. No offence, but people are bound to judge by first impressions. And only 8 reviews since 2015? Not good either.

I'm not trying to pinpoint faults here, but when your game only has 8 reviews since 2015 and you call it an award-winning game, you know something doesn't add up here.

But this is literally the only place where I have had 0 engagements from, Facebook, Twitter, etc. I get comments, likes, etc. but nothing from here.

I didn't have it for sale for well over a year. That's why there's so few reviews. http://steamcommunity.com/games/423740/announcements/detail/975396203466896150

Everything adds up, I'm not being secretive about anything.

Also most of those negative reviews are either outdated and one of them is from a guy who dislikes every single RPG Maker game if you check his reviews.


He even literally told me "Fuck RPG Maker community" in private message.
SunflowerGames
The most beautiful user on RMN!
13323

If you want someone on RMN, this website to review your game, you will likely need to give them a Steam CD key for your game.
unity
You're magical to me.
12540
Well, on the plus side, you've at least got some people willing to look at the game now ^_^ I'll give it a play tonight, most likely, and let you know my first impressions.

And yeah, there are going to be RPG Maker-haters. It sucks, but yeah ;_;
halibabica
RMN's Official Reviewmonger
16873
If you had a free demo, maybe I would! I'm at work and YouTube is blocked, so I can't check that video for your reasoning. My rationale is that I'm disinclined to pay money for something that I have no investment in. Rent's coming up, yo. It's $530, and that's very low for where I live!

I'm telling you, if you want this game to do well on a site like ours, you have to play the field. Your game description is lacking, your quality claims are generic, you have no videos to showcase the game on the page except its launch trailer, and your images show me nice custom artwork on top of the style of stuff I've seen in countless other RM games.

These are all things that can be improved. I know it's frustrating, but you have to show players why the game is worth their time and money.
Okay, fair enough. Thanks for the clarification.

If anything, I think rpgmaker.net's engagement is more selective than other sites, and there's also the fact that your game is commercial. rpgmaker.net is mostly catered to free games, so it's going to be more difficult to find engagement for a commercial game here (maybe unless you have a demo).
author=kory_toombs
If you want someone on RMN, this website to review your game, you will likely need to give them a Steam CD key for your game.

But the ones with CD keys don't have their reviews affect the score on Steam. Or do you mean exclusively for RPG Maker net alone?

Why can't you just buy it? It's not that expensive, it really isn't with all the work I've put into it. I put it on sale too every now and then, it was on sale on the anime weekend and was 2,99$.

author=unity
Well, on the plus side, you've at least got some people willing to look at the game now ^_^ I'll give it a play tonight, most likely, and let you know my first impressions.

And yeah, there are going to be RPG Maker-haters. It sucks, but yeah ;_;

There's also one review that I think is a troll or flat out malign that claims there's a game crashing bug that's not in the game, refused all my attempts at reaching out for him. I mean if he's not lying, he's not even accepting me trying to help him and get the potential issue fixed and literally just left negative review instead of reporting a bug and refuses any attempts at helping solve this or even find out what caused this bug if there was one. Just to be sure, I adjusted the boss after that with a very drastic change (removing a skill from boss!) but still haven't heard from them.


So that's why I've got mixed reviews on the Steam page, sadly. Outdated or just outright flat out wrong and misinformative.


I keep telling every single person "please leave a review!" but no one seems to be leaving reviews for it even when they have absolutely loved it which tanks the overall score a lot which still sits at 61% positive.

author=halibabica
If you had a free demo, maybe I would! I'm at work and YouTube is blocked, so I can't check that video for your reasoning.

Well basically demos take time and money and more often than not makes you lose players, not gain them. In the video in statistics they show that in 9 cases, 7 has you lose players and in only 2 you gain more players where the other one is nearly impossible to do. Seriously, how many times has a demo made you go "WHOA I want to buy this game" instead of "I don't want to buy this game"?

They're not worth the effort and there's a reason why most companies nowadays no longer do them. All the effort to make good demo can be used to work on the actual game or another project instead. It's also hard to find a good spot to splice into a demo, though maybe the lava stage would be better than the regular.

Besides, if you're curious there's already Let's plays of the game that show it better than a demo would anyway llike this one.

halibabica
RMN's Official Reviewmonger
16873
In just 9 cases? That's not statistically sound by any standard. I hope the video has more compelling evidence to back up those numbers.

Making a demo in an RM game shouldn't be that complicated, though. You make a copy of the game, pick a chunk of it that best showcases the gameplay, place the start position and set up the hero party about how they'd be at that point. Pick a spot where the demo ends, delete warps into and out of the chunk, and voila.

Even at that, there's no excuse not to have a video showcasing how the game plays. It's more important for commercial titles because it's like I've told you before: you have to SHOW the player why the game is worth their time and money. Emphasis on SHOW. Maybe you should link those Let's Plays on your game profile. We have a Media tab for this exact reason!
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