The concept is for a casual top-down shooter with a short but sweet single player campaign, but with the emphasis on the multiplayer aspect. The action is intended to be fast-paced and with plenty of depth, but very, very simple to get into. I am looking at a strong use of humour, puzzle/problem solving, and .. well the rest of it is really the 'secret sauce' that I think will make it all work.
With the multiplayer aspect I intend to offer an option between a) collaborative team-based ie: players facing a puzzle / level / AI opponent, and b) team vs team duel (ie: 1 team defending an objective, the other attempting to infiltrate / destroy etc).
My 'free preview' would offer a completely free short but sweet single player campaign (with tutorial), with access to the multiplayer option in a limited capacity (ie: a restricted number of player classses / types, and no stat save).
Unlocking the game by purchasing a login would offer extra classes for the multiplayer, saving of stats, ability to skin the player avatars, plus extra single player levels.
I have developed a prototype in C++/Win that I've distributed to a test group and some contacts, and feedback has been pretty awesome.
I'd like feedback on a few things here:
Free/paid content balance: How does my idea sound? Would a strong single player campaign that hooked you make you want to purchase more levels? If you enjoyed the multiplayer, would you pay for more involved multiplayer access (ie: playing as a different class, saving your stats, etc)?
Target audience:
Does this sound a good game idea for a casual gamer audience? Is there a market for casual multiplayer games?
Target platform :
I read everywhere that the download to disk market is not so strong any more, and I read elsewhere that this is not true. Opinions?
Would this work as a mobile game, or are mobile players not so interested in realtime multiplayer? I am also concerned about connection latency of the mobile signal, and control methods on mobile devices, does anyone have experience of how well these work?
I am thinking of aiming for a browser game (pop in the url, log in, play). This gives me the advantage of always offering the latest code (no version conflicts), with also the option of promoting any other titles I create in the future via, for example, a quick splash screen. Opinions?
Getting more specific, I am torn between unity (forces a user download, but faster dev time), and Java (installed most places, but lower level and possibly slower?).
Pricing structure : I'm thinking maybe only a couple of dollars/pounds to purchase a login for life that unlocks the features.
Feedback on any of this would be very helpful to an experienced coder but novice businessman!
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: Added tags to topic.