Team17: "Indies need to demonstrate they understand what players are looking for"

gamesindustry.biz:

At Devcom yesterday, Team17 head of game scouting Jasper Barnes talked about how indie publishers decide on which games to invest in, and how understanding what players want out of a game can aid developers in making their title stand out.

For Barnes, the most important factor in considering a game is whether players are going to care enough about the game to play it.

"I think that is something that people often over complicate. It really should be as simple as leaning on an emotion, a previous title that you're excited about, or other cultural phenomena – it doesn't have to be a single thing."

Barnes used a personal wish of a game he'd like to see as an example.

"I've been telling people for years that I want someone to make a proper old school survival horror similar to the scene in Jurassic Park where the kids are in the kitchen trying to escape the dinosaur. Tell me you're making that, and I will try and throw all the money I can at you."

Essentially, the core concept of a game doesn't have to be a set gaming trope or genre.

"It could just be: Here's the moment, here's the nostalgia, here's the reference, here's the reason people are going to get excited about this game."

A solid, original concept can lead into replayability – which is a factor Barnes was especially passionate about.

"Competition is rife at the moment, and capturing the attention of players for a long period of time is harder than ever," he explained. "A big mistake that we see in pitching is people telling us why when a player understands the full context of a 20-hour narrative and they see all the nuances and relationships between the characters, they're going to love this game – that doesn't matter if they're bored after seven minutes, they're never going to get there.

"You need to demonstrate that you understand what players are looking for and what they enjoy, because that's what they're going to stick with in the early game loop."

Barnes acknowledged that while replayability isn't the easiest thing