Is your game unique? :(

Community Community & Industry Discussion
1

Ever since my dad found out I am developing a game of my own, he started take interest in it and asking me stuff.

Although he didn’t play video game, he has a strong business background, and always update his knowledge on

the latest technical stuff like VR, AI deep learning, cloud service,…etc, so every question he asked, I always

took it seriously and consider it as a form of criteria to assess the likelihood of success of my game.

One of these questions he kept asking me multiple times and I find it very hard to answer is this one:

Is your game unique?

What I am currently developing, is a shooter / puzzle game with fixed camera and controls…overall very similar to

the early resident evil series. I started this project with a simple mindset of “creating a game I like to play”,

the issue of whether this game is “unique” never once occurred in my mind until he asked me.

Sometimes I replied with answers like:

“I didn’t consider it unique, but it has a classic gameplay style (which I like) combine with modern graphics.”

or

“I’m not sure if it is unique, but I plan to implement some interesting puzzles…”

or simply…and honestly

“I didn’t think it’s unique, I just make a game I like to play.”

After hearing my reply, apparently not satisfied with it, he will then ask me:

“If that is the case, how do you differentiate your game from other (indie) games?”

“How can you make your game stand out in the crowd?”

and then, at that point, I just can’t give him a straight answer.

Of course I can argue my game has a different story, different theme, different puzzle then the other games,

but “different” is far from “unique”, it’s hard to convince somebody my game is special without showing them

a gameplay feature that just make whoever plays it go like “WHOA! THAT IS AWSOME!”.

Currently, I am aiming for the first prototype of my game, I already made a basic UI, combat, inventory system,

I still got dialogue, level transition, save system to work on, my estimation is, by the end of this year, if

everything goes well, I should have a playable demo to show to people. And after my first prototype, I plan to add

more content to my game, fixing bugs, improve existing features, but not adding new feature to my game. If I

plan to add new things or make a drastic change with my developing schedule, now is probably the best time to do

it.

What is your perspective on this matter? How do you define uniqueness in terms of gameplay? Do you think a good story,

interesting dialogue suffice to make a game unique? Is making a game with another game in mind not a good idea to

start off with?

Please share your insights on this matter. Thank you.

2

Clearly your dad is not familiar with a simple fact that EVERYTHING has been done before)
It’s mostly about in which portions you mix your inspirations and of course how well can you execute your vision in terms of quality.
You can have the most unique game in the world, but no one will care for it, so I’d say don’t worry about it too much.
The best way to stand out of the crowd is to show some serious dedication and put a lot more effort into your project than anyone else.

3

Unique means unique selling proposition (USP). As a developer, you should ask: why people are buying my games (and not the others)? There are millions of games app, and why your games? Perhaps the wikipedia explains much better: Unique selling proposition - Wikipedia

In essence, it doesn’t necessarily mean your games has to betruly unique - just have the understanding on how different your games need to be to the audience (and applying it to the design) is already good.

4

As Mark said, there’s nothing new under the sun. Almost everything is a derivative of something in some form or another. If you started this project with the goal of making something you yourself would want to play, then you shouldn’t change that.

5

i do not even have enough motivation to make things that have been done before.
i think that creating a game, and creating “your” game is a totally different story.
if i do not take a lot of pride in the project, i won’t even start.

definetly not.

6

I’m kind of ask myself that question. I kind of feel guilty that I don’t have any really strong answer to give but I’m also not sure if that is really that important.

I’ve kind of decided not really to focus on developing any new game mechanics because they seems change quite slowly and when something new comes in, and it works, everyone starts using it. For example wall jumping. So in reality you might get 5 minutes of uniqueness to try to capitalise on it.

I’m not an artist, well at least in any way that I could compete. However, art is one aspect that really attracted me to developing my own game.

Have a look at “Xsolla Capital” promotional video. It kind of gives some strength. It points out that game development is a growing market. An there are many dying ones.

I really think developing for VR/AR is where it is at for indie developers as existing incumbents really don’t have that much of an advantage. So it should be easier to compete.

I also thing everyone should expect that a lot of time will be “wasted” in developing stuff that will be discarded, going down rabbit holes, hitting road blocks and spending days sorting out bugs. Sure edit that part of the story when you do a press release and substitute it with a story about being inspired by a pair of lamas you met hiking through Tibet.

7

A game doesn’t need to be unique. The vast majority are iterative, based on the design of games before it. A game does need to be unique enough at first glance to stand from the crown and be interesting, but that’s more of a marketing and art issue, than a game design problem.

8

Hi Syed,

After reading your post and check up the Wikipedia link you provided, I think I might’ve taken the word “uniqueness” too literarily.

As you said, He could probably mean Unique Selling Proposition, instead of unique in such a way that “nobody ever has done it before”.

This made me think back what really drove me to start developing my game in the first place:

I am a gamer myself, not a hardcore gamer, but not too casual either. I like to play games, but most AAA games these days are either too

action oriented or too competitive (in other words, generate a lot of tension while playing it) which I find myself having a hard time keeping

up with the pacing of the game. On the other hand, casual games seem to aim their target on people who never play games and the mechanic

is therefore just too simple and easy for gamers like me.

These reasons drive me to create a game where I can casually play it, without getting too much stress and frustration but at the same time

not too simple and mindless.

There might be other gamers like me, who just wanted a game in the middle ground, serving their gaming desire but not too taxing on their

gaming skills.

Come to think of that, I probably should put my main effort on balancing the combat and puzzle system and storyline instead of creating

some features that are “very awsome”?

9

“Is your game unique?” is the wrong question, the right one is, “Is your game fun?”
That’s all that matters in video games and in general entertainment.
Everything has been done under the sun, but it doesn’t matter as long as you bring some uniqueness (yes), but a LOT of fun.
Sometimes, bringing your own ideas to the game can add a tad of uniqueness, while you mainly copy game mechanics.

10

Tell your dad you are not trying to market a new candy bar. Business skills /= development skills
Doesn’t have to be unique, it only needs to be done well, and, fun.
I have found that the gaming industry is way different then any other. We can not base our stuff off of “is it new? no, then nevermind”.
Let me ask you this: What is new and unique about the largest MMORPG at this time? World of Warcraft. Nothing. Actually, they “borrowed” nearly everything from titles that came out along the way. Dont believe me? Look at the guild/player achievements for Warhammer Online. Word for word copy/paste. It certainly doesnt stop there. This isnt a WOW bash either. Its a statement saying “we dont build new, we only build fun and engaging”. You should follow up your dads question with “can you name anything thats new and unique today?”. Hell, even cars are using all the old styles from the 70’s … lol

Is it fun? Yes? The heck with what anyone else says
Are you learning? Why question someone that wants to continue to learn?
Are you engaged (not like, to someone …) ? Yes? The F what anyone else says about it
Maybe instead of questioning your status, he should engage you on it and just say “im proud of what you have done, i dont think i could do something like that”

^sorry my parenting kicked in there …

11

Hey OP

Little late to the party, but I’ve been struggling with the same questions around uniqueness.
I have been wanting to make a Devil May Cry -esque spectacle fighter for years now. (It’s actually why I got into Unreal), but everytime I start thinking how do I make this Unique
I get so despondent I put the project on the back burner.

The better approach I think would be to keep on making the things that make you happy. If you aren’t sinking thousands of dollars into the project (which would be MILLIONS of Rand in sunny South Africa :smiley: ) I don’t think worrying about the USP should even be a factor.
If you are proud of it great! If someone wants to buy it, bonus!

Just go forth, make what you love, and make it well!

12

i dont think it really matters if its unique
if its enjoyable to play and hyped in the right places at the right time people will play it.

to me, all FPS games are direct copies of DOOM.
and, apart from the graphics, with no attempt to add anything new or special.
a lot of those games have made millions
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13

Hello to all

Very interesting topic because we are often tempted to create uniqueness. It is true, then when you find that many have already had your own idea, then you try to change it to make it different from others. It often happens and judgments are very discordant and subjective. You can advertise the game as unique for those who do not know more about the genre but it’s time to get to know each other and with time it will not become a classic but original nothing more. The patterns are saturated, the new becomes old after even a month of life and loses its uniqueness. Only the value of the product is done well and critically, scrupulously created to have the affection of most fans

Excuse me, use google translate, if I made mistakes, please correct me, thank you : o

15

Hi @rit. Its not a matter of being unique. It is a matter of being *uniquely *FUN. And this will be important to you, if you desire to build an audience for your game. You’re striving for Uniquely FUN to get players thinking and talking about your game. You want your game to stick in their minds and you want them to tell their friends. Word-of-mouth advertisement is the most effective. I’m the Official Idea Guy and if you need some unique ideas like these https://forums.unrealengine.com/images/icons/icon3.pnghttps://forums.unrealengine.com/images/icons/icon3.pnghttps://forums.unrealengine.com/images/icons/icon3.pnghttps://forums.unrealengine.com/images/icons/icon3.png Lets talk.

16

Hi guys!

Sorry for reviving an old thread.

I am the OP of this thread, just wanted to update on my current status of game development for those who are curious.

On March 2018 (approximately one and a half year after my post), I quit my job and became a full-time indie developer.

I scrape my old idea (third-person, fixed camera, puzzle-shooter) and start from scratch.

While searching for new ideas for my project. I came across this video:

GDC 2014 Practical Creativity

It’s a 2014 GDC talk about how to generate practical and creative game designs.

I follow most of the guidelines from the video and start prototyping my new game, and after a year, here is the result:

《Drifting》](《Drifting : Weight of Feathers》 Releasing Tomorrow (Dec. 15th, 2021 PST)! - Game Development - Epic Developer Community Forums)

Whether this game is unique, fun or not unique and not fun, I’ll leave it for you to judge :slight_smile: