This time Tsuneko will write about how he searches for games on itch every week!
Open the itch page → Free → last 7 days
and search for games.
The games are probably listed in order of popularity, so I read the thumbnails and descriptions of about 500~1000 games from there, and open the links of the ones I'm interested in.
(Come to think of it, I always thought I was looking at 100-200 games, but when I looked up how many I was looking at, I found I was looking at 1000 games at most, nyah!)
) At the top of the list are the horror films and the films that have been popular this week.
Because of the specifications of ITCH, the more comments a film gets, the higher it rises to the top, and since horror films are the genre that gets the most views from streamers, there are many people posting videos in the comments.
For non-horror works, those with elaborate thumbnails rise to the top of the list. For example, a part of the thumbnail moves when the mouse is moved over it, or the top of the screenshot is made into a Gif so that it is shown as a movie.
When we open the pages of authors who do this, we usually find that the game is well explained and we can feel the fun of the game before we play it.
However, for better or worse, they often end up being just as interesting as imagined.
Tsuneko believes this is a fatal problem with indie games.
Indie games are made to be played by a wider audience, so it is only natural that more effort is put into promotion.
In this case, the game's introduction page should include the first part of the game to encourage people to play it, but games with good "itch" promotion are often short (about 30 minutes) to make it easier to play.
In short, the information on the game introduction page is often all there is to the game.
Also, works by authors who are already well-known rise to the top of the list (I'll talk about this later, but it's quite important).
As the search continues, the number of well-promoted games is gradually decreasing.
However, there are still many works that have a good introduction page and are designed to be enjoyed by many people when they actually play them.
A work that many people can enjoy is one that has a solid introduction, a well-thought-out difficulty curve, and an easy-to-understand point of interest in the early stages to keep people interested.
However, there are also some unusual works that are different from such works.
These are works in which it is difficult to understand the game from the thumbnail images, there are no screenshots, or the explanation is only one word.
Some of these works are carefully designed and enjoyable for many people, but there are many that are not.
For example, the rules are unclear, making it difficult to understand the controls and objectives, the difficulty level is extremely difficult, or the artwork and sprites are unique.
There are also some that are not played for an hour or so, as is typical for itch, but are huge games that are played for several hours or more, but are never played by anyone.
As I mentioned in my previous article, I feel that these works are very much like free games.
And, there are also some amazing works that are unforeseen before you play them, and that will remain in your memory for a long time.
Of course, there are also great games with good promotion!
Here is my opinion on the difference between indie games and free games.
An indie game is a game that is not only fun to play, but also easy to promote and play.
Free games are those that have a unique and unusual atmosphere, perhaps because they don't know what good promotion and playability are, or perhaps because they don't dare to do so.
Of course, we know that generally speaking, indie games that can be played for free are called free games.
Also, there are many free games that have hidden interesting features that cannot be predicted before playing the game, like a black box.
However, as mentioned above, works that hide the interesting points of the game have the dilemma of not being played in the first place.
However, for authors who are well-known from the start, even if they submit a game with a one-line description, people will play it because they have a sense of trust in them as game creators in advance.
To give an example of this, my Tsuneko Adventure ~Prologue(https://tunegoro.itch.io/tsuneko-adventure-prologue) is a 10-minute game with a detailed description and screenshots, and is written in a way that aims for what Tsuneko calls "indie game-like" fun.
On the other hand, if the game is intended to be a free game, the only description would be "meow" and the screenshots would be of a blue cat.
Of course, I understand that only famous authors who have been making games for a long time and have a lot of fixed fans would be able to get people to play their games with that kind of style, so I didn't write only "meow" in the description!
I'd like to introduce some of my favorite free games.
First, Bobo The Cat
https://bobo-the-cat.itch.io/bobo-the-cat
This game is a metroidvania of a very large scale, which took me about 20 hours to complete.
The beginning of the game is a little slow and some people may drop out, but as you play the game, the fun of the game grows and you start to trust Bobo The Cat, and in the end, many people who have played the game have completed 100% of the game. I still remember the excitement of playing Bobo The Cat.
Second, Sylvie's work sylvie - itch.io
https://sylvie.itch.io/
As we all know, Sylvie has created many games, all of which are full of cuteness, difficulty, and surprises that you would not expect before playing them.
Clockwork Calamity in Mushroom World and Sylvie Lime in particular have so much passion for games that my article on "Indie Games and Free Games" seems to be a bit of a blur, so if you're interested in these two games, you should definitely play them. If you are interested in this article, please play these two games.
Third, Fairy Unsafe by Necrotoy (itch.io)
https://necrotoy.itch.io/fairy-unsafe
This is a fairy action game that Tsuneko played a few weeks ago.
Although it is only a demo version, it takes 2 hours to clear the game in normal mode, and another 2 hours in Panic Mode.
The fun of this game is quite similar to Bobo The Cat, and the more you play, the more you trust the game, and the more you play, the more fun it becomes.
I urge everyone to play it.
To sum up, Itch is filled with works that people of all stripes literally put their lives on the line to create every week, and Tsuneko is very happy to be able to see such works every week!