I’ve always been a fan of RTS games, and while their time is over, the genre still survives with a small and steady fanbase. After all, games like Age of Empires 2 and Starcraft 2 still regularly get thousands of players everyday! They’re by no means dead games!

Courtesy of SteamCharts

Yet, the recent popularity of Age of Mythology: Retold has me questioning the viability of such a product. Retold has definitely had a successful release. For being the remaster of an almost 22-year-old game, it’s still getting solid numbers.

Courtesy of SteamDB

But it does make me wonder if things could have been better if the Age of Mythology had been something else.

How Far Does Passion Go?

It’s a strange question to ask, but if you’re going into game development, it’s one you have to be on watch. Committing to a game is a risky endeavor. Financially, it’s expensive; in terms of time, it’s even worse. Once you start, you can’t stop.

But at the same time, it’s this same type of passion that tends to create the most memorable of games. Take talented game developer Josh Sawyer’s Pentiment, for example. Beneath its historical theming and murder mystery drama is genuine passion from the man himself. That interest is a large part of what kept him going.

Courtesy of Twitter

That’s not to say that he was immune to stress. His previous work, Pillars of Eternity, was rife with game development issues. Pillars of Eternity 2, in particular, suffered heavily from its Kickstarter nature and ran into issues with its ship combat. While the games sell well enough, Sawyer talked about their issues here and the lessons he learned from it.

Courtesy of YouTube

But it was his interest in them that kept their quality high. To Sawyer, they weren’t just products to push out but were games he genuinely wanted to see come to life. While in niche markets, the people who played them still loved them for what they were.

Money? Or Ideals?

And so it seems like it’s a question of interests and money. Do you dare release a game that only a few people will enjoy? Or do you just go the easy route and make a game that the public will like?

Heaven knows trend-chasing can make a TON of money. Fortnite alone made over $26 billion in profit! Why wouldn’t you want to go and chase an audience this big when a few lucky glances can potentially net you a huge profit?

Fortnite

Competition, for one. Players only have a limited amount of time to spend each day and only so much money to spend before they’re all out. Creating a game in an oversaturated genre meant to compete with the current titans of the industry will not bode well if you do it badly. 

Just look at Concord! While it did chase the trends of hero shooters like Overwatch, it’s a $100 million failure of spectacular proportions. It couldn’t hope to match up to its competitors and found little traction and even fewer fans.

Concord

Such is the way game development and gaming in general is developed. You can risk little and fail or risk big and fail. Issues are inevitable, but passion and some smart game design might just be enough to see you through.

Know Your Audience - Treat Them Right

Of course, that’s only really possible if you know your audience. Beyond passion, beyond marketing, and beyond your budget lies the need to understand the game you want to develop and the niche you occupy.

This is why games like Age of Empires 2 sell. While their fanbases may be small, they’ve cultivated a dedicated fanbase eager to buy new expansions and experience what new content they can put out. Sure, breakout successes do happen from time to time (Just look at Baldur’s Gate 3 and how a normally niche game in a niche genre found a way to sell millions), but oftentimes, they’re a gamble that relies too much on blind luck.

 Age of Empires 2

Instead of risking it for the biscuit, and going all-in, instead take a look at what you’re interested in, and identify if a potential audience exists. Quality comes from care, and passion will be an invaluable tool for getting you through the hardest stages of development - but this only matters if someone is willing to buy the games you make.

Identify your audience, and use their interest (and your own) as fuel to create your niche game. You might not be making millions - but you are doing something you love and making a name for yourself. And what greater joy is there for a developer than to create a game that people love and that you yourself love in return?

At Mega Cat Studios, we believe in supporting developers who are passionate about their craft. Games like  Tenebra and its sequel Tenebra 2 may not appeal to a mass audience, but they offer unique and engaging experiences for those who appreciate them.

Tenebra

If you want to try your hand at making your own games, be sure to drop by our LinkedIn, subscribe to our newsletter, and follow us on Twitter/X! We don’t just create games - we live and love them and want to share this same passion with everyone else!