HYPE

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author=narcodis
"Hype" is the buzz about a game that isn't released yet. It's more about pretty screens than it is about actual content in-game.

Building hype is another term for Advertising. Advertising is something you need to do if you want people to play your game.

Sad but true. I've never really advertised any of my games beyond posting them - I also avoid mentioning any of them by name in any post where I might reference I have MADE a game. (I admit it annoys me a bit when people do this: "In Blah I did it this way...")

Not advertising your project will leave you obscure, nearly regardless of the number of games and their content; however that can be subverted if your players hype your game because they enjoyed it.

I think everyone should put some effort into this, they put themselves at risk too however - the more you Advertise/Hype, the higher the expectations, and the more likely you are to attract more vocal or unforgiving critics!

(In an ideal world the players WOULD hype all the games they love, to get recognized for better or worse, make sure the ones that see your game are the more vocal community members wherever you're trying to advertise.)

Getting excited about video games is very cool for me. Don't people like getting excited? I like hype and clever marketing as long as the product delivers. If everyone's excited about something because it talks the talk, and it ends up walking the walk, what's the big deal? Besides, like narcodis said, advertising and marketing is important if you want people to play your game, even if that marketing isn't done by the creator at all (word of mouth/good reviews). It's a shame seeing something in the commercial world flop because nobody knew about it.

Hype is bad if you have nothing to show for it. Hype is good if you do. That's really all there is to it.

author=harmonic
Usually developers can get away with not delivering on hype.

I dunno. Everyone seems to call Peter Molyneux out all the time.

Hype is bad if you have nothing to show for it. Hype is good if you do. That's really all there is to it.

No, Feld, it isn't, and here's a bunch of other factors that model doesn't consider, besides the fact that from the developer's perspective, it's almost impossible for anyone to tell if their project delivers on its own hype.

Hyping is honestly just EXHAUSTING. The problem with not hyping a game before it is finished--which is otherwise a pretty damn good idea--is that it becomes that much harder to make your release anything but a stealth release if you actually DO finish your game.

But I mean, it's only arguable that true hype in this scene is even possible. If any community doesn't know you--i.e. I have no particular rep, good or bad, on say rmvx.org or whatever--there's not much you can do to get your game attention. If you try too hard, bad attention is almost guaranteed to follow. Plus, essentially cross-posting to multiple sites is exhausting. You shouldn't have to do it while you are working on your game because it will drain the energy from actual production, but then again after your game is done is a bad time to do it because if you have actually finished a game it's likely you're experiencing a lot of mental fatigue from that. I dunno. There are no easy answers here.

Basically, I hate everything about hype but hell, I hate everything about MAPPING. Both are necessary evils.

Also, there is absolutely no correlation between how hyped any game is and how good it is. Unless I've missed something, Darksteel (made by the above poster) is one of the least hyped games on this site, at least its hype missed me. But it is nonetheless a very worthy game.

"When more time is spent promoting a game than working on it, that is a surefire sign the project is dead in the water." ~ Max

No recollection of saying this, but it's nice to be quoted. This could be called the Rowen corollary.

Max I think you're overthinking it.