I have Gris, but I am slowly getting through other games first. However, your post pushed the game higher on the list.
Games that don't use dialog tend to be more philosophical and have much more room for interpretation and questions of the events that go on in the game.
The show don't tell approach does have a strong pull in a narative sense of storytelling. Although not absolutley nessesary for a sucessful game. The Five Nights at Freddie's games come to mind since the series and a ton of fan games start out with someone giving directions on how to play the game.
1
Tobias 1104~4Y
"FNaF" is so odd to me because I can't understand how it became so popular... It looks so horrendously off-putting to me, but maybe that's because I'm not interested in horror or creepy things. So weird seeing sexualised fan art of it though... DeviantArt seems to be full of it!
I've never played it, shockingly, but if it begins with explicit instructions, and looks like it does, but still became so appealing, then it just makes the determining factors of indie game success even more baffling... I wonder what the story was behind it, and why it ever stood out while other weird games didn't. Did the developer have social connections?
0
purplerabbits146~4Y
To me I think that Fnaf was a hit because it created a new way for people to get scared. You are trapped and you can't leave so you know you are going to be jumpscared if you fail, which therefore leads to that anticipation that makes the use of a jump scare terrifyingly effective.
Another reason for the success of Fnaf comes from the Youtube side of things. I think that The Let's Players are a huge for it's success because many people are too scared to play it so they watch youtubers play it for them. But they spend money on other ways aside from game sales, (just me speculating I have no idea how Scott Cawthorn makes money)
Third reason would probably be the hidden lore. There is a lot of stuff that you would miss from one play through. And well if you look at the Game Theory youtube channel, they have over 20 videos trying to piece together ther lore of Fnaf. With so much to piece together, a community formed together to work out what the clues mean. Which leads back to Youtube, so many channels have popped up just to break down and put together their own version of the lore of Fnaf.
Fouthly, Scott's way of interating with his audience is quite engaging. He trolls people, engages with the youtubers that play his games, and has a sense of humor to his games.
Fifth, Scott has a crazy work ethic. He puts out games relatively quickly and often well ahead of schedule. At least until Fnaf World, Scott pushed ahead the game so fast that he felt like it was an incomplete game. He ended up refunding all sales and made it free as an apology. After that, he never pushed out games ahead of schedule. Another crazy feat he did was creating an entire game just for a charity live stream for the Youtube channel Game Theory to stream. It was not a planned game, just one that was brought up to Scott when GameTheory brought up plans for a huge charity live stream. Scott created the game and told them that in the game there is $500000 (I think off the top of my head). They need to collect as much of the gems and coins as possible, because for the total amount they collect Scott will donate that much to the charity. In the end, it didnt matter that they didn't get the full amount on stream, they did get pretty close though with about $480000,) because Scott donated the full amount anyways.
Speakjng of the horrible and creepy, I see it through the eyes of a graphic designer, you create things to fill a need. And well, horrible and off putting does fufil the needs of a horror game.
Funny enough, Scott's earlier works were often criticized for being too creepy and off putting with the character models that often hit by the uncanny valley. For those games, they were intended to be Christian and family friendly, but the off putting aesthetic did not help incur successful games. So, the needs of those games did not get fulfilled by the designs of those models.
1
Tobias 1104~4Y
That's certainly interesting to read... His life and career have certainly gone very differently to my own! I just looked him up, and he's got a net worth of $60 million?? That's absurd... A moon to shoot for, for sure. I suppose that explains how he could casually give away half a million. He's also 48 years old? That's certainly interesting. Wikipedia lists a whole bunch of games he's made, starting around 2002, so he must have been 30 then? Surprising. I was imagining him as some 20-something!
It does reinforce how important community involvement is though, either in the form of making something people want to talk about, and make or watch videos about, or as direct interaction with communities, which it sounds like he does. I'd need to overcome a whole lot of issues before I could get to that point myself, but maybe it's a goal to aim for.
I was going to say I wonder how he keeps motivated, but I suppose enormous amounts of money, attention, and praise are big motivating factors for most people. I think I'd get more done with all those things!
Does he do all the work on his games alone? Do they even have music?
1
purplerabbits146~4Y
I am pretty sure that Scott has some help. Though, I am not sure in what capacity. I remember Game Theory putting out a video talking about copy right and used Scott as a theoretical example. In that instance, a fan creation of a character was so close to the original that it ended up showing up in promotional material because the person who worked on the promotional piece thought that Scott made that version of the character. So for sure, Scott does have help. The vr game was helped by a different game company along with the AR mobile game. (I can't remember if it was one, the other, or both, but one of the two did have a game company help him with it)
Scott may seem like someone with a younger heart, but he does have kids. I think I remember reading that Scott created his games so that his kids can watch their favorite youtubers play it.
Games that don't use dialog tend to be more philosophical and have much more room for interpretation and questions of the events that go on in the game.
The show don't tell approach does have a strong pull in a narative sense of storytelling. Although not absolutley nessesary for a sucessful game. The Five Nights at Freddie's games come to mind since the series and a ton of fan games start out with someone giving directions on how to play the game.
I've never played it, shockingly, but if it begins with explicit instructions, and looks like it does, but still became so appealing, then it just makes the determining factors of indie game success even more baffling... I wonder what the story was behind it, and why it ever stood out while other weird games didn't. Did the developer have social connections?
Another reason for the success of Fnaf comes from the Youtube side of things. I think that The Let's Players are a huge for it's success because many people are too scared to play it so they watch youtubers play it for them. But they spend money on other ways aside from game sales, (just me speculating I have no idea how Scott Cawthorn makes money)
Third reason would probably be the hidden lore. There is a lot of stuff that you would miss from one play through. And well if you look at the Game Theory youtube channel, they have over 20 videos trying to piece together ther lore of Fnaf. With so much to piece together, a community formed together to work out what the clues mean. Which leads back to Youtube, so many channels have popped up just to break down and put together their own version of the lore of Fnaf.
Fouthly, Scott's way of interating with his audience is quite engaging. He trolls people, engages with the youtubers that play his games, and has a sense of humor to his games.
Fifth, Scott has a crazy work ethic. He puts out games relatively quickly and often well ahead of schedule. At least until Fnaf World, Scott pushed ahead the game so fast that he felt like it was an incomplete game. He ended up refunding all sales and made it free as an apology. After that, he never pushed out games ahead of schedule. Another crazy feat he did was creating an entire game just for a charity live stream for the Youtube channel Game Theory to stream. It was not a planned game, just one that was brought up to Scott when GameTheory brought up plans for a huge charity live stream. Scott created the game and told them that in the game there is $500000 (I think off the top of my head). They need to collect as much of the gems and coins as possible, because for the total amount they collect Scott will donate that much to the charity. In the end, it didnt matter that they didn't get the full amount on stream, they did get pretty close though with about $480000,) because Scott donated the full amount anyways.
Speakjng of the horrible and creepy, I see it through the eyes of a graphic designer, you create things to fill a need. And well, horrible and off putting does fufil the needs of a horror game.
Funny enough, Scott's earlier works were often criticized for being too creepy and off putting with the character models that often hit by the uncanny valley. For those games, they were intended to be Christian and family friendly, but the off putting aesthetic did not help incur successful games. So, the needs of those games did not get fulfilled by the designs of those models.
It does reinforce how important community involvement is though, either in the form of making something people want to talk about, and make or watch videos about, or as direct interaction with communities, which it sounds like he does. I'd need to overcome a whole lot of issues before I could get to that point myself, but maybe it's a goal to aim for.
I was going to say I wonder how he keeps motivated, but I suppose enormous amounts of money, attention, and praise are big motivating factors for most people. I think I'd get more done with all those things!
Does he do all the work on his games alone? Do they even have music?
Scott may seem like someone with a younger heart, but he does have kids. I think I remember reading that Scott created his games so that his kids can watch their favorite youtubers play it.