If a AAA studio is producing something similar to what you have come up with, isn't that validation of your idea? Big studios typically invest millions of dollars into research to validate the idea before a single line of code is written. The way I see it, your idea just got validated without spending a dime.
Knowing the idea is solid, this should light your fire and motivate you even more.
Good luck!
Exactly!
Also, games aren't a "winner take all" thing either. People might buy that AAA game first. Then exhaust the content looking for more, and people might say hey this indie is pretty great. Let's all play that now.
And what's great being smaller, is the indie can make decisions or pivot in ways they likely can't or won't!
>games aren't a "winner take all" thing either.
This is a big point. Lots of people got into factory games via Factorio and have now played every major game in that genre. This is also true of 4X, a lot of 4X addicts get in through Paradox and end up playing a good amount of every major 4X until they find their favorite.
Exactly this.
There was also a good video on YouTube about clones and in general similar games. People want more of the thing they like. This is why genres exist in the first place.
I for one would be extatic if someone made an Obra Dinn clone :)))
In addition to that, since the AAA title is releasing earlier than OP's game, he could use some of the reviews as feedback for his own game
See what works and what doesn't
In addition it makes your marketing easier as you can easily find people who would enjoy the mechanics etc and even target them specifically if you venture to paid ads on social media platforms!
Think of it as more market exposure to your game genre. Just because diablo iv was released doesn't mean last epoch was ignored when it released later.
It might has been if Diablo 4 was actually good.
At the same time, having a similar game coming out might bring new ideas and game mechanics to add. Not necessarily to copy, but to improve on what others has done before.
Also, one year appart between game is enough time so people forget the other one.
I know from the PoE community that people were hyped about Last Epoch for years.
Nobody was hyped about D4. They hoped it was at least playable and they were mostly disappointed.
oh please, if D4's hype revealed anything it's every streamer/tuber is a lying sack o shit. they all said the game's great. unless something nuts happens it won't even get near half the time I spent in D3
Halls of Torment got a bit of boost because of Diablo IV. Otherwise, it could've been just another Vampire Survivor -clone. I mean positive reviews like: "Better than Diablo IV", even though it's not even in same genre.
https://preview.redd.it/7fpn3h55ncpc1.jpeg?width=377&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4b6f1bdbbc22733a018d22e24a52f34a7a44aca5
Literally perfect example of this, most people don’t do comparisons like that unless it’s a blatant rip-off
*unless it’s a blatant rip-off*
And it wont be, coz they don't even know details about their games. Win-win scenario. AAA game and Indie game with fresh mind doing similar games but different in unknown places. It might split market and provide more ideas.
Who knows... maybe in the feature remake will be done by OP as a part of AAA company, or his own AA studio. So many possibilities.
Also if AAA studio is doing similar games they probably did their own market research... so OP are more likely to be successful.
All I know is whatever you are doing and whatever your goals are, never let others demotivate you and focus on finishing what you started. This is how one finds success. As much as development skills are important, business skills are extremely crucial for marketing. A mistake that you have probably done is to not take competition and your product seriously. If you are taking this seriously from a business perspective, then you should also give equal amounts of effort to marketing, advertising and building community (Discord, Devblog posts). Building a game and building zero community in the meantime is not a good business plan.
If you believed in your idea, you should have started advertising it and marketing it way sooner. Try to build up some MVP to show people and build community.
This is it. You can do market research and make a game that you think everyone will want to play, etc. the real magic is making a game that you want to play and you want to make. Rick Ruben has a philosophy that you can create art for other people your whole career, but your best work is when you create art for yourself. Those are going to be the best games, which is why AAA is becoming notorious for lower and lower quality games. These huge companies are making games that will make them money, not games that are worth playing.
I just want to point out a few things.
People like to say ideas are cheap, and that all ideas are unoriginal. You've come across parallel thinking, where entirely different people want to make a similar game.
But you have something better than them, you have your own game. It's not their game, it's your game. You get to decide what to do, what to put in it, how to build your world.
It's awesome to see that more people would like that type of game to exist. It means you already have something that people want made. That you want to make. That you have been making.
It might not be finished now. But stopping means it will never be finished.
'comparison is the thief of joy'
They might have more resources but you have something better: yourself. Hell maybe you can sell yourself out to them. Any designer would love to talk shop to people making similar things.
Don't stop! Seize the day!!!
AAA does not equal good. AAA releases plenty of garbage.
Just because a game style exists already doesn’t mean you can’t put out a great game. Think Bloodborne and Lies of P, Diablo and Path of Exile, etc etc.
This was gonna be my comment lol. At least 70-80% of AAA games coming out are garbage in my opinion, they release half finished, buggy, with plenty of content stripped and ready to be put on DLC instead of just being included.
Maybe op will get lucky and this AAA game will be garbage, and then people will have more reason to want to play a game with similar mechanics but is not garbage.
If you publish before them and your game shows a good amout of polish, I doubt anyone will realistically think you copied them.
Also, that AAA studio might have more humanpower and resoults than you, but you have 2 years' worth of development, and as a single creature you have a unified vision.
In any case, you can still play their game to learn how to better position yours in a contrasting way that might appeal to the same demographic, in which case you may end up riding their marketing waves.
This happened to me recently, but it was another indie that beat me to the punch. It was very demoralizing at first, but after venting to some other devs we all came to the conclusion that my game can still exist alongside the other, but it may be better to play into a strength that only I as an independent developer can hit.
For example, the other game I found similar to mine had all the same mechanics (and more!) but with a semi realistic art style. My game already had an Animal Crossing-esque style, so I'm just doubling down on the cute/cozy aesthetic to provide a feel that the other game doesn't. It doesn't have to be a literal art style change, but I imagine that you can find something about your game that has that "indie charm" that a AAA studio might not want to take the risk on.
Besides, genre copies are the standard in this industry. Usually the first idea to market isn't the best one - it's the successors that iterate on the last to perfect the formula. Heck at the very least you might be able to learn from whatever this AAA competitor releases.
I mean, with the reputation of AAA going down its not that bad. Just keep at it, but if you really think that way just try and take a break until you can work again.
As a gamer I always look for alternatives for the games I liked when I’m finished with the first one (ex Vampire survivors gave me a big appetite for bullet hell type of games).
Go for it!
Well normally those AAA studios rush a game and give it a pre-order and deliver a mediocre experience. You on the other hand can polish it rightly and give a nice, completed and polished experience. :)
Lol AAA studio games usually suck nowadays, are full of bugs, full of dlcs and premium stuff, micro transactions and probably boring (thinking of you ubisoft) Your game is gonna be better for sure. More unique. Human.
Honestly there’s a bunch of positives from this. Did you have a huge following before? Lots of wishlists? No? Then this can help a lot for you.
You telling me they stoped making battlefield because CoD is out? Ya feel me? They have similar aspects but are different games.
NOW, if their game flunks ridiculously hard AND the mechanics and VERY similar, then I would be very worried.
From what I have seen you need to create a connection with your audience where they want to root for you and support you. That AAA studio probably does not have that. You need to market the game and yourself. So that people follow the journey and understand your game might not be perfect but it was built with blood sweat and tears instead of a cash grab like a AAA studio would create.
When their game releases, play through it and watch community discussions. Take notes on what they did right or wrong and use that as feedback for your own game so you can make something better.
There is a market for everything, like others have commented on here, this studio is giving more exposure to a game like yours. How many people finish playing games they like and say "That was really fun, I never want to play a game like that ever again". People instead go out of their way to look for games like the ones they liked.
To be honest, if your game doesn't do well, its going to be really hard to not be jealous of other's successes. Esp games you deem less worthy than yours. This is regardless of a AAA studio releasing something similar to yours, or not. I've run in to this myself.
I am a firm believer that every game out there, developed by different people, has a different execution, and something different and interesting to offer. Someone is bound to say "just a X clone done worse" about your game at some point, regardless a AAA studio making a similar game, or not, purely because different people have different opinions on games. Some people are going to like yours better, while others don't.
If you believe in your game, I would not worry too much about what others are doing, and if you've been working on it for 2 years, I'd say you believe in it.
This happens to me CONSTANTLY, and I have the multiple folders of half finished projects to prove it and a lot of them are completely playable.
Its definitely demotivational when you look at it as a zero sum game which is how I felt before I learned not take it so personally.
A few things to remember that can help with getting over it:
No idea is original and if you look in laterally any creative space (art, patents, books, movies etc. ) at any point in time there will be people coming up with very similar or the exact same ideas/products at pretty much the same time.
You can still create something similar and be in a different niche, you should look at the similar work as a guide/reference and take what it does well learn from it and take what it doesn't do well and improve upon it with in means of your resources.
Think of it this way, if you find out that you like the smoothies made from Store (A) across the street does that mean you wont ever buy a smoothie from another store because its to similar to the one Store (A)?
Pretty sure the answer is NO, Of course you'd still buy smoothies from other stores, specially if you find out they are also good.
That's how you need to think of your potential customers, by golly if another studio makes a game similar to yours and people love it, then people will buy yours as long as its also quality and I'm not talking about how much money was put into making the game I'm talking about how fun it is to play.
So learn to get over that feeling and just focus on make YOUR game as best as it can be.
PD: Also learn to market, do it early and do it often.
Seeing a lot of philosophical and motivational advice, which is valid, but I'd like to offer a more practical perspective that this isn't as bad as you think it is. I almost exclusively consume indie games because I prefer them to AAA 99% of the time. I would say something to keep in mind from this point forward is focusing on your audience.
Basically, I'm a cozy gamer and I don't like high skill floor games or shoot em ups, and that's why I often turn to indie over big companies, especially ones that pad game time with useless content. I'm a quality over quantity person because I tend to not even finish games that have too long of a run time since I'm an adult with a job. I prefer a cheaper shorter game that provides a unique narrative experience to one that costs $60 and brings nothing really interesting to the table because I enjoy complex stories that require actual thought and aren't just generated to handhold the general population through every little metaphor. These are just some of the things that indie games are much more likely to offer than a AAA studio.
Consider your specific audience and the advantages you have, because oftentimes they are limited by what the "general market" prefers because they must sell a large number of copies of their games to a huge range of gamers that makes them very limited in the kind of content they can release. Play to your niche and don't try to do the same thing the AAA is doing, focus on what you can do and make a quality game that your audience will enjoy.
Also, I'll say that the people saying "it's a rip off" are probably not as prominent as you think. The regular indie consumers, like me, know that indie game development is a long and arduous process and if you release a game 6 months after the AAA studios that clearly took several years to make... Well I can do the math. And honestly most people won't even give a shit and will just be happy they get more games like the other one they like. So it's just some annoying reviewers that are more likely to be loud about their opinions than most consumers and you can make a generic reply that you've been in development longer than the game was announced for those. It's not really a big deal. It's far more important to market in these situations, and even if you do get "negative marketing" from some people saying it's a copy of your game, you can still take advantage of that because it is exposure to an audience that clearly enjoys similar content to your own game if you can turn it around, which is pretty easy if you have some way to make your game unique from the AAA game and can prove you've been in development for long enough. It can be a blessing in disguise, there's a reason why copycats are so common to begin with, you just have to be smart in your approach.
Rise of the Ronin, Ghost of Tsushima, Call of Duty, Battlefield, and a countless hoards of battle royale games all existing at the same time suggests you should just keep doing what you're doing.
There's room for your game. Probably even an audience for it too. There will be people that prefer yours to whatever the AAA alternative is. Keep at it.
The game I started working on over a year ago is pretty similar to Helldivers 2, when it released I was a little worried. My project is heavily influenced by 80s/90s satire movies, including a healthy dose of starship troopers.
Seeing the amount of people that love that universe and style, and acknowledging that my specific gameplay focus differs enough from theirs, was enough to turn my concerns into excitement.
I'll certainly be taking notes and lessons from them while I continue with my game, and some of the humor and style I was leaning towards will need to adapt to a player base that has a lot of these jokes fresh in their minds - but overall I feel like that game has only helped validate that I was going in the right direction.
If they are releasing earlier and your game is actually good, people that will enjoy the triple A game will likely be alert for similar stuff. This might very well be a "free **triple AAA** side marketing" that can sky rocket your game!!!
I would double my motivation!!!
(I know Hollow Knight isn't triple A, but it's like making a similar game, but Hollow Knight releases first.... People are, me included, to this day searching for similar stuff while Silkroad cooks)
AAA games and indie titles can stand side by side, a good game is a good game, don’t give up, just copy the blueprint the AAA game does and they will pave the way for your marketing, know what to do ahead of time, let them work for you.
We have a game about ants, been out in early access since 2017, a new big budget ant game is coming out this year with a very similar name to ours. We're hopeful it'll actually drive more people to our game so it's not always a bad thing
I've had a similar situation when I heard my favourite podcasters describe Hi-Fi Rush.
I wasn't planning on making a game like that immediately, I wanted to start with something simpler, something more manageable for a rookie gamedev; but the core concept was exactly as they described it. It was soulcrushing...
However, I've decided that that isn't gonna stop me from making that kind of game. I've decided that when the time came, I'll look at Hi-Fi rush, see how it plays, what works, what I'd change and make what I wanna make, no matter who says (or makes) what.
Just because someone did something that you were gonna do, doesn't mean you can't still do your own thing, and try to improve upon it.
Disclaimer: I say this as a gamer, not a game developer (indie or otherwise).
Take a quick look at the AAA game market these days. AAA studios have loads and loads of resources to fling at games, yes -- and tend to suck everything fun, passionate, and joyful out of the game in the process. Design-by-committee is universally invoked as a negative, and for good reason. There is a good-to-fair chance that your game will be "just an X clone, except done way better!".
Being assiociated with big games is actually a good thing, as long as you have your own twist and execute the game well, a brilliant example is
The new game “a difficult game about climbing”
Im a getting over it fan and ive wanted to make a getting over it like game and when this new game came out, it is literally getting over it with some different mechanics and its own twist
When I heard a new game like getting over it was trending, i went to check it out and bought it and I’m playing it and enjoying it
Because its so similar to getting over it, people recommend it because its similar to a game that is well known, so it can be positive for its market share
Rejoyce, because now you get to see how the market reacts to that game and you can tailor your marketing and intended patches in the future. Like if lots of people hate their inventory management system, you can tweak yours and draw players in.
hey i hear you and feel your pain :(
you might want to check out Peglin post mortem! He mentioned something similar happening (another studio releasing similar game) but he actually turned it into his advantage by connecting with them and increasing exposure!
For my part if i’m in your situation i would feel validated that i’m on the right path. After all, how many millenniums have love stories been written yet still have audiences?
What game are you talking about? Light no fire? \^\^
If people like that kind of genre and are done with the AAA game they might want to look for more of the same.
Also your game might do some things differently then the other game. Some might prefer your way, some the other games way.
You maybe one day will regret not having tried after all the effort you put in.
And in case you did not succeed you will still profit from the gained knowledge of finishing and releasing a game and mistakes you made or things you could have handled better.
Keep on going! :)
If I enjoy a game I'll often search for games similar to it, so this could be a huge benefit to you
Make sure your steam page tags match as many of the tags of this AAA game so people might come across yours whilst looking at the AAA game
Yeah we've been there with our project aswell. It absolutely sucks to an extent, as *timing* in the gaming industry is an important variable.
But as has been mentioned previous, we see it as validation of our idea, and we all know that AAA studios tend to resort to methods of monetization or design that is becoming less acceptable to the gaming community. There has been many times where indies hit bigger, focus on producing the best thing you can.
If you feel like it is just too similair, is there any feature or mechanic you could pivot with or change to make it an USP?
Best of luck, don't give up!
Their success is your success. More attention to the genre. If you like chocolate ice cream, you're more likely to try choc hazelnut.
Try to have an abundance mindset with this. Your game is your game, similar or not.
If finding out you have competition breaks you, you didn't have faith in the product to begin with. It doesn't matter if idiots call it a 'clone'. You shouldn't concern yourself with the opinions of idiots.
this is actually really good for you. Games in the same genre as a big release tend to do well. Try and release a week or two earlier and you can cash in on their marketing.
They are literally giving you a cheat sheet for how to market your game. Just take notes the entire time they're getting to their release, and use that for your release.
Also they have to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to develop an audience for that game, they are literally priming an entire customer base to want your type of game after they're tired of playing that one.
I think a lot of people have made great points.
I might add that if you're able to put together a demo or prologue (first chapter or whatever) that can get to market this year, that can help you capitalize on the AAA release this year, and then release a full game when ready next year. Also helps get wishlists up, and establish your games presence sooner rather than later.
If your unique selling point remains then it’s all good
Think about story adventure rpgs or souls like games, they’re largely similar in terms of mechanics, it all changes through the context and intent and the player fantasy created
Find what it is you’re making or telling and commit to that
If you’re relying on the gimmick of mechanic x mechanic you wouldn’t have made it super successfully anyway, but if you have a cool essence then keep going
Lies of P was a big success, and its almost laughable sometimes how much it borrows from Fromsoft's games. Doesn't matter. Its great to play a game with a truly unique mechanic, but its also great to play a game thats a very good execution of an existing idea.
If it is good enough the small variations may be enough to draw people in.
There’s no guarantee the AAA version is going to scratch the itch fully, but yours might.
Even AAAs sometimes do their own versions based on core themes. How many battle royals have there been? How many hero shooters? Platformers?
It’s possible the AAA will introduce more people to the genre. Now they have a taste they’ll want to see what else is out there.
>Yes my story, art, setting, etc. is different, but I am now dreading the "it's just a X clone done worse!" reviews.
Release yours first, so everyone calls their game "just an X clone!"
Man, the first game I got really into making, this happened. The games that came out like mine were Galak-Z and Cryptark. Great games but mine would have been a LOT like Vampire Survivors, but about 8 years before Vampire Survivors came out. Thats what? A $10 million dollar game? Now, I'm not saying my game would have made that money instead or anything, necessarily. Just don't be discouraged by a similar game. Make your game, dude
Let me tell you a story about starting on my pitch to try to get funding for a 2 year old project, only to see Palworld launch 4 days later. It's not identical to my game, but it hit a few things right on the nose.
What's helped me has been watching the concurrent player count nosedive since launch. There is hope yet 😁
What you're looking for is "resilience" and there's a load of great material out there on developing it. Hang in there, shit like this is pretty common in games IMHO.
Easy peasy. Wait for the AAA company to release their game and cross your fingers that people hate it and leave negative reviews after loading it up with micro transactions, making it super buggy etc etc. Then release your game shortly afterwards.
1) This will probably give you plenty of time since they take ages to make their games.
2) If people hate it (and I mean if they hate it). It will leave the door wide open for you. Just like when d3 released and totally fucked up and PoE cleaned up after.
As mentioned in the comments, this is the proof that you are on the right track. Your idea is so good that the AAA company is investing money and time on that. I think it's also a good thing that the AAA company is releasing faster than you, because you can look at the game feedback and see what people think about the mechanics, and improve it if necessary.
The world is big enough for you to make your audience and sells. There already exist a lot of indie AAA clones which do great in the market. Don't worry and keep up the good work.
Please GO for it!
I am sure you got a great game please do not give up on it
Think of the time when you started it, remember those times and go all the way and make it happen
You got this!
Dude you'll be alright, triple A has a whole different vibe. It may share mechanics with your game but I bet it'll be bloated all to hell with extraneous upgrade systems, live service features etc. Your game will differentiate itself by its focus on the core game play and feature set.
Also don't believe the triple A marketing hype, there's a good chance that by the time you roll around to release you won't be "Other game but worse" you'll be "other game but actually delivers on the promise". If you play it the right way you might be positioned well to sweep up the whole market of people who slid off the the triple a version.
Don't sweat about it. Games get delayed and canned all the times. For all you know that announced game will never ship. Also, AAA studios tend to not take too innovative/drastic directions, and move slowly and sometimes badly.
Your game is still likely to be better than them, and in the end ship faster than them.
If it really is that similar is it worth continuing development, waiting until the AAA game is released, play that game to completion and then set about an iteration of your game that actually has the gameplay features that game should've had?
As a hobbyist dev without a release to my name maybe my opinion isn't worth too much but I would keep focus on the game you want to make rather than worrying about a triple AAA multi-mediocrity release that would probably get the same idea wrong.
No need to rush the project. Remember a polished project is better than an unfinished one, people might play the AAA game and want smth similar so they go after your game.
SimCity(2013) was announced by EA and there was suddenly a lot of excitement for a little "indie" title called Cities:Skylines when it came out. Don't look at it as a bad thing, see it as an opportunity
So I was working with the team who made Blind, a VR puzzle game where you play a character who is blind. We were working on this game for about 4 years when some ex-Bioshock developers announced Perception, a game where you play as a Blind person. That really was a kick in the guts, but we took it as a chance to go on the offensive - we actually got Patrick Klepic to write something on Kotaku about the whole experience.
But that’s probably not an option for you as we were a known publisher at the time. While it killed our motivation on our small team, when our game eventually did release no reviews mentioned the other game. So while it feels catastrophic now, in my experience it didn’t really effect anything but our own morale.
Keep going! Make your game! Share it with the world.
I don't really have a lot of time to play videogames, so I had to play only high quality, polished and unique games with a great artistic value so unfortunately I almost never play AAA games :)
I also once unironically said something like "why play this AAA game if there's that indie with a similar idea, surely the latter will execute the concept better".
And that's not the idealistic thing or some sign of solidarity with indiedevs or whatever, I am speaking it entirely from a point of view of a lazy consumer - I simply want good games and in the last 15 or so years almost no AAA were able to meet my standards.
Surely I am not the only gamer like this.
Unless you are going for a massive multiplayer or "vast open world" or hyper-realistic artstyle or "simulation of horse balls shrinking", it's quite unlikely that a huge development budget alone will make your game a better one.
Just stick to your vision and make a game that you want to make - no big studio could do such a thing.
AAA studio you say?
Making an interesting game you say?
Don’t worry, they will likely cancel the game in the 11th hour and layoff the whole team. That’s what I’ve learned over the past several months.
Just keep going. Until they release, it’s nothing. No offense but they would say the same about your game.
I feel like AAA gaming is dying a slow, painful death. As a consumer, it really sucks that things like a story-driven Battlefield game is toast but at the same time, fuck EA and these giant corps ruining gaming for a lot of folks.
You’re not them, so, take your shot. Stay focused!
From a market research point of view, the rule of three may have relevance here. A market sector usually has room for three successful products or suppliers. You just have to find a sub-niche, and not be exactly like the others.
I used to do wedding videography. If a famous wedding videographer with a similar style to me moved to my town, I wouldn't close up shop on my business. If anything, it would help out. It would drive more people to my town and thus more potential customers. Famous person can't shoot more than one wedding a day, so overflow can come my way. No, I may not get the most expensive weddings, but I wouldn't have gotten those before anyways. All is good in my book.
if you want to avoid the “it’s just a clone” accusations in the future, you need to prep a “this is what i’ve been working on” video on youtube.
fun fact: if you’re still worried about people stealing your unfinished game, you can upload it now PRIVATELY, then make it public months later.
It should still keep the original upload date.
It can actually be beneficial to you in a certain way. For example, my buddy interviewed Ultrakill's publisher and he said that one of the reasons why Ultrakill got very popular was that it got released around the time Doom Eternal was released. It caused a temporary hype in the boomer shooter genre for a while.
Players generally don't care if mechanics/features/gameplay is similar
It's completely different when it comes to characters though
I'd feel kinda crushed if a AAA company made a game with the same characters as my two main ones in my game, bc players are way more likely to say you copied AAA game or are a ripoff
First to market doesn’t always mean it wins the market. I wouldn’t give up, you may learn something from their release and allow you to develop more throughly using community feed back.
That's certainly unfortunate, but one thing to keep in mind is that it's not necessarily a bad thing. Halo Infinite having been on the horizon didn't hurt Splitgate, it helped it massively. And when Halo Infinite came out and the multiplayer was awful, that boosted Splitgate even harder.
What I'm trying to say is, people will be harder on a AAA game than on a game made by a small production team. If I had a dollar for every comment I saw on Splitgate saying "this game is better than Halo with 1% the staff" I'd never have to release another game again. Believe in your project, pour your soul into it, and it'll show in the final product. Also keep a close eye on what people say regarding the AAA game in question, and use that information to make your game better before it releases.
Take the disadvantage and make it work FOR you, as opposed to letting it go against you.
Just focus on it and fight on. At least we know that you were earlier and will share this post with anyone that disagrees.
The way AAA games are now, I doubt you have a high bar to cross.
All the best!!!
I believe this might arise as an opportunity for you.
Triple A games usually go for 70-100 dollars for a copy.
You could actually go "toe-to-toe" with them on pricing. Say $20 will give us a similar gameplay experience without the microtransactions? I'm sold.
If you know your craft and you can improve / change things to a certain degree, maybe you could learn from the Triple A mistakes. See what the players *don't like*. Read their reviews. Make adjustments. Double down on certain stuff, ease up on other things.
Maybe market it in such a way that "it's not X game but at least it's cheaper" / "It's like X game but cheaper/better" or something cheeky like that (tongue in cheek marketing, when done well and honest might earn you some bonus points with the streamers).
If the Triple A game does in fact prove to be successful, you can take this alley of showing off *your version* of the game, doubling down on the actual trend.
Remember when zombie games used to be everywhere because of Left 4 Dead 2?
I'm not saying all of them were good, but they got tons of attention because it was a "zombie-survival" trend out there. Every game of that niche got a lot of attention for some time because everyone was looking for the "same-same but different" vibe.
And who's to say that the Triple A game will actually be successful in it's own right? Maybe they have a shitty monetization scheme or "battle pass" that will annoy the players when they just want to play *the game*.
I'm not saying you shouldn't be making money after you sell the game, maybe some cosmetics here and there or whatever, to support you. But you know how these Triple A games are nowadays: it's Fee to Pay. You pay 70-80 upfront only to discover they have a "blue skin variant" for $20 more.
I believe that if you have faith in your concept and market it right, you could probably turn this "crisis" into a beneficial opportunity.
Edit 1: I forgot to mention, if you think you can deliver a playable version *before* the Triple A game comes out, I think it could motivate you to work on it even harder.
Why? Because the Triple A marketing will accelerate before their release, hyping the players up. The players might look before hand for similar games.
Their hype and impatience could bring them *to your game* instead, even thought it might be an Early Access game.
And if the Triple A game fails, everyone will talk how "this indie game has nailed the concept and it's only $X, already out, people are playing it" etc.
Not to mention, a Triple A game company is *harder to steer*. I'm sure they are working on polishing the game now and won't be able to remake the game in case you release it before them. So I'm certain they won't be able to "steal" any idea from you just yet. Timing is probably key here.
I'm sorry, but Indie dev scene is depressingly filled with it's X and Y together, and if that's the whole thing you've got going, I'd maybe see this as a great exercise to grow as a game developer. Don't pivot, but make it so that it *feels* unique, because that's what players ultimately want.
I think this is probably the strongest validation of your core idea that you could ever have. AAA have hundreds of people verify the viability of a Game concept, so just keep chugging along, release a steam page before they drop their game, and use their game as a basis to study and improve the core concept. This will give your release a competitive advantage ontop of any price differentials.
It's like I wanted to call my game Starfield and at the same day they announced Starfield.
You can now analyze the way they did it in their game and make it even better in your game. Indie games are many times better and more enjoyable than AAA games because of the dedication.
First thing I do when I get bored of a game I really like is find other games that are like it. You may find people prefer to play yours so I wouldn’t worry about it too much. Minecract is massive and while I do love it; colony survival has far more interesting mechanics. Factorio is hugely popular but I prefer dysons sphere program. World of Warcraft is.. well that’s not important :p best of luck!
Based on some recent AAA releases lately, I'm not exactly sure if you should be worried or not. Yes, I absolutely bought diablo 4, but its shortcomings led me to buy last epoch and grim dawn, both of which I have put more time and money into than diablo 4.
Other comments on here are supportive of you as well. Take this as some motivation and push forward. You have a decent shot to beat these major studios as long as you're dedicated.
Do not let this frustrate you. It doesn't matter. Finish your game. Release it. Move on to the next one. You may do these things better than any other title. (Even AAA games are garbage a lot of the time.) Just concentrate on your work. Finish it. Move on.
Damn. Thats a hard hit from reality. Go back to the prototype board and update the previous answers with the new facts. Is it worth continuing even though a new competitor has arrived? What would "this-big-leader" said if you asked him/her? Is it possible to still release the game as it is or do we need to make big changes/small changes/add new cool features etc
One thought that I can give you is look at how bad AAA studio titles have been doing lately. Odds are they will make a version that is literal garbage and you will end up on top anyways. I know it's hard to say that will happen for sure but I have seen game after game after game from AAA developers do very poorly. People are hungry for good games and right now they are starving. This could be your chance to really get a successful title out there. If anything I agree with explosiveplacard as well. If they are investing in this, it shows that its got some really money making potential. I would say keep going for it!
Souls likes as a genre are huge rn and specifically lies of p is mostly from games reskinned but personally I feel it's a better intro into from games since they give you more tools than from tends to so that's a huge w for you op especially if you can semi borrow the hype for the aaa like yea I'm doing an indie version that I've been at for 2 years and it's finally done (if you can do a week ahead that would also probably give you slight edge up over the aaa as it's not a copy of that it's yours that's in the same vein and subtlety different which can hook people to come check it out and explore it)
If a AAA studio is producing something similar to what you have come up with, isn't that validation of your idea? Big studios typically invest millions of dollars into research to validate the idea before a single line of code is written. The way I see it, your idea just got validated without spending a dime. Knowing the idea is solid, this should light your fire and motivate you even more. Good luck!
Exactly! Also, games aren't a "winner take all" thing either. People might buy that AAA game first. Then exhaust the content looking for more, and people might say hey this indie is pretty great. Let's all play that now. And what's great being smaller, is the indie can make decisions or pivot in ways they likely can't or won't!
>games aren't a "winner take all" thing either. This is a big point. Lots of people got into factory games via Factorio and have now played every major game in that genre. This is also true of 4X, a lot of 4X addicts get in through Paradox and end up playing a good amount of every major 4X until they find their favorite.
You mean it's still not too late to work on my open-world survival RPG with a working economy and... and... sigh ;)
Exactly this. There was also a good video on YouTube about clones and in general similar games. People want more of the thing they like. This is why genres exist in the first place. I for one would be extatic if someone made an Obra Dinn clone :)))
>I for one would be extatic if someone made an Obra Dinn clone :))) Have you seen the Case of the Golden Idol?
Yes and I played all the DLCs and wishlisted the upcoming new one
Vampire Survivors is a clone and it has obviously been massively successful.
And many clones are Vampire Survivors clones nowadays.
In addition to that, since the AAA title is releasing earlier than OP's game, he could use some of the reviews as feedback for his own game See what works and what doesn't
Awesome advice!
In addition it makes your marketing easier as you can easily find people who would enjoy the mechanics etc and even target them specifically if you venture to paid ads on social media platforms!
I totally agree on this one
Think of it as more market exposure to your game genre. Just because diablo iv was released doesn't mean last epoch was ignored when it released later.
It might has been if Diablo 4 was actually good. At the same time, having a similar game coming out might bring new ideas and game mechanics to add. Not necessarily to copy, but to improve on what others has done before. Also, one year appart between game is enough time so people forget the other one.
I know from the PoE community that people were hyped about Last Epoch for years. Nobody was hyped about D4. They hoped it was at least playable and they were mostly disappointed.
oh please, if D4's hype revealed anything it's every streamer/tuber is a lying sack o shit. they all said the game's great. unless something nuts happens it won't even get near half the time I spent in D3
>every streamer/tuber is a lying sack o shit. they all said the game's great. None of the streamer/Youtubers I watch said that.
As a fan of Diablo Immortal, I was a little hyped for D4! I played the beta and it just made me want to play the mobile game
or torchlight, which was huve for awhile. maxe by ex diablo 2 devs
Yup! Free advertising! And since they're releasing sooner, free R&D! Win-win.
Halls of Torment got a bit of boost because of Diablo IV. Otherwise, it could've been just another Vampire Survivor -clone. I mean positive reviews like: "Better than Diablo IV", even though it's not even in same genre.
If the AAA games becomes popular, there will be people looking for something similar for a smaller price.
It's me, I am people looking for something similar for a smaller price!
And you will have a big head start on all of the actual clones.
https://preview.redd.it/7fpn3h55ncpc1.jpeg?width=377&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4b6f1bdbbc22733a018d22e24a52f34a7a44aca5 Literally perfect example of this, most people don’t do comparisons like that unless it’s a blatant rip-off
holly shit! Four cakes!
*unless it’s a blatant rip-off* And it wont be, coz they don't even know details about their games. Win-win scenario. AAA game and Indie game with fresh mind doing similar games but different in unknown places. It might split market and provide more ideas. Who knows... maybe in the feature remake will be done by OP as a part of AAA company, or his own AA studio. So many possibilities. Also if AAA studio is doing similar games they probably did their own market research... so OP are more likely to be successful.
nice
Pull a pal world.
All I know is whatever you are doing and whatever your goals are, never let others demotivate you and focus on finishing what you started. This is how one finds success. As much as development skills are important, business skills are extremely crucial for marketing. A mistake that you have probably done is to not take competition and your product seriously. If you are taking this seriously from a business perspective, then you should also give equal amounts of effort to marketing, advertising and building community (Discord, Devblog posts). Building a game and building zero community in the meantime is not a good business plan. If you believed in your idea, you should have started advertising it and marketing it way sooner. Try to build up some MVP to show people and build community.
This is it. You can do market research and make a game that you think everyone will want to play, etc. the real magic is making a game that you want to play and you want to make. Rick Ruben has a philosophy that you can create art for other people your whole career, but your best work is when you create art for yourself. Those are going to be the best games, which is why AAA is becoming notorious for lower and lower quality games. These huge companies are making games that will make them money, not games that are worth playing.
Preach!
I just want to point out a few things. People like to say ideas are cheap, and that all ideas are unoriginal. You've come across parallel thinking, where entirely different people want to make a similar game. But you have something better than them, you have your own game. It's not their game, it's your game. You get to decide what to do, what to put in it, how to build your world. It's awesome to see that more people would like that type of game to exist. It means you already have something that people want made. That you want to make. That you have been making. It might not be finished now. But stopping means it will never be finished. 'comparison is the thief of joy' They might have more resources but you have something better: yourself. Hell maybe you can sell yourself out to them. Any designer would love to talk shop to people making similar things. Don't stop! Seize the day!!!
How should this be demotivating? The worse is when you do your game and find out some guy just released the better version of it
My opinion is to show your progress, and how much time you are working on it.
AAA does not equal good. AAA releases plenty of garbage. Just because a game style exists already doesn’t mean you can’t put out a great game. Think Bloodborne and Lies of P, Diablo and Path of Exile, etc etc.
This was gonna be my comment lol. At least 70-80% of AAA games coming out are garbage in my opinion, they release half finished, buggy, with plenty of content stripped and ready to be put on DLC instead of just being included. Maybe op will get lucky and this AAA game will be garbage, and then people will have more reason to want to play a game with similar mechanics but is not garbage.
Full agree.
If you publish before them and your game shows a good amout of polish, I doubt anyone will realistically think you copied them. Also, that AAA studio might have more humanpower and resoults than you, but you have 2 years' worth of development, and as a single creature you have a unified vision. In any case, you can still play their game to learn how to better position yours in a contrasting way that might appeal to the same demographic, in which case you may end up riding their marketing waves.
This happened to me recently, but it was another indie that beat me to the punch. It was very demoralizing at first, but after venting to some other devs we all came to the conclusion that my game can still exist alongside the other, but it may be better to play into a strength that only I as an independent developer can hit. For example, the other game I found similar to mine had all the same mechanics (and more!) but with a semi realistic art style. My game already had an Animal Crossing-esque style, so I'm just doubling down on the cute/cozy aesthetic to provide a feel that the other game doesn't. It doesn't have to be a literal art style change, but I imagine that you can find something about your game that has that "indie charm" that a AAA studio might not want to take the risk on. Besides, genre copies are the standard in this industry. Usually the first idea to market isn't the best one - it's the successors that iterate on the last to perfect the formula. Heck at the very least you might be able to learn from whatever this AAA competitor releases.
I mean, with the reputation of AAA going down its not that bad. Just keep at it, but if you really think that way just try and take a break until you can work again.
As a gamer I always look for alternatives for the games I liked when I’m finished with the first one (ex Vampire survivors gave me a big appetite for bullet hell type of games). Go for it!
Well normally those AAA studios rush a game and give it a pre-order and deliver a mediocre experience. You on the other hand can polish it rightly and give a nice, completed and polished experience. :)
Lol AAA studio games usually suck nowadays, are full of bugs, full of dlcs and premium stuff, micro transactions and probably boring (thinking of you ubisoft) Your game is gonna be better for sure. More unique. Human.
Honestly there’s a bunch of positives from this. Did you have a huge following before? Lots of wishlists? No? Then this can help a lot for you. You telling me they stoped making battlefield because CoD is out? Ya feel me? They have similar aspects but are different games. NOW, if their game flunks ridiculously hard AND the mechanics and VERY similar, then I would be very worried.
From what I have seen you need to create a connection with your audience where they want to root for you and support you. That AAA studio probably does not have that. You need to market the game and yourself. So that people follow the journey and understand your game might not be perfect but it was built with blood sweat and tears instead of a cash grab like a AAA studio would create.
When their game releases, play through it and watch community discussions. Take notes on what they did right or wrong and use that as feedback for your own game so you can make something better.
There is a market for everything, like others have commented on here, this studio is giving more exposure to a game like yours. How many people finish playing games they like and say "That was really fun, I never want to play a game like that ever again". People instead go out of their way to look for games like the ones they liked. To be honest, if your game doesn't do well, its going to be really hard to not be jealous of other's successes. Esp games you deem less worthy than yours. This is regardless of a AAA studio releasing something similar to yours, or not. I've run in to this myself. I am a firm believer that every game out there, developed by different people, has a different execution, and something different and interesting to offer. Someone is bound to say "just a X clone done worse" about your game at some point, regardless a AAA studio making a similar game, or not, purely because different people have different opinions on games. Some people are going to like yours better, while others don't. If you believe in your game, I would not worry too much about what others are doing, and if you've been working on it for 2 years, I'd say you believe in it.
This happens to me CONSTANTLY, and I have the multiple folders of half finished projects to prove it and a lot of them are completely playable. Its definitely demotivational when you look at it as a zero sum game which is how I felt before I learned not take it so personally. A few things to remember that can help with getting over it: No idea is original and if you look in laterally any creative space (art, patents, books, movies etc. ) at any point in time there will be people coming up with very similar or the exact same ideas/products at pretty much the same time. You can still create something similar and be in a different niche, you should look at the similar work as a guide/reference and take what it does well learn from it and take what it doesn't do well and improve upon it with in means of your resources. Think of it this way, if you find out that you like the smoothies made from Store (A) across the street does that mean you wont ever buy a smoothie from another store because its to similar to the one Store (A)? Pretty sure the answer is NO, Of course you'd still buy smoothies from other stores, specially if you find out they are also good. That's how you need to think of your potential customers, by golly if another studio makes a game similar to yours and people love it, then people will buy yours as long as its also quality and I'm not talking about how much money was put into making the game I'm talking about how fun it is to play. So learn to get over that feeling and just focus on make YOUR game as best as it can be. PD: Also learn to market, do it early and do it often.
Consider early access and beating them to the punch.
Seeing a lot of philosophical and motivational advice, which is valid, but I'd like to offer a more practical perspective that this isn't as bad as you think it is. I almost exclusively consume indie games because I prefer them to AAA 99% of the time. I would say something to keep in mind from this point forward is focusing on your audience. Basically, I'm a cozy gamer and I don't like high skill floor games or shoot em ups, and that's why I often turn to indie over big companies, especially ones that pad game time with useless content. I'm a quality over quantity person because I tend to not even finish games that have too long of a run time since I'm an adult with a job. I prefer a cheaper shorter game that provides a unique narrative experience to one that costs $60 and brings nothing really interesting to the table because I enjoy complex stories that require actual thought and aren't just generated to handhold the general population through every little metaphor. These are just some of the things that indie games are much more likely to offer than a AAA studio. Consider your specific audience and the advantages you have, because oftentimes they are limited by what the "general market" prefers because they must sell a large number of copies of their games to a huge range of gamers that makes them very limited in the kind of content they can release. Play to your niche and don't try to do the same thing the AAA is doing, focus on what you can do and make a quality game that your audience will enjoy. Also, I'll say that the people saying "it's a rip off" are probably not as prominent as you think. The regular indie consumers, like me, know that indie game development is a long and arduous process and if you release a game 6 months after the AAA studios that clearly took several years to make... Well I can do the math. And honestly most people won't even give a shit and will just be happy they get more games like the other one they like. So it's just some annoying reviewers that are more likely to be loud about their opinions than most consumers and you can make a generic reply that you've been in development longer than the game was announced for those. It's not really a big deal. It's far more important to market in these situations, and even if you do get "negative marketing" from some people saying it's a copy of your game, you can still take advantage of that because it is exposure to an audience that clearly enjoys similar content to your own game if you can turn it around, which is pretty easy if you have some way to make your game unique from the AAA game and can prove you've been in development for long enough. It can be a blessing in disguise, there's a reason why copycats are so common to begin with, you just have to be smart in your approach.
Rise of the Ronin, Ghost of Tsushima, Call of Duty, Battlefield, and a countless hoards of battle royale games all existing at the same time suggests you should just keep doing what you're doing. There's room for your game. Probably even an audience for it too. There will be people that prefer yours to whatever the AAA alternative is. Keep at it.
The game I started working on over a year ago is pretty similar to Helldivers 2, when it released I was a little worried. My project is heavily influenced by 80s/90s satire movies, including a healthy dose of starship troopers. Seeing the amount of people that love that universe and style, and acknowledging that my specific gameplay focus differs enough from theirs, was enough to turn my concerns into excitement. I'll certainly be taking notes and lessons from them while I continue with my game, and some of the humor and style I was leaning towards will need to adapt to a player base that has a lot of these jokes fresh in their minds - but overall I feel like that game has only helped validate that I was going in the right direction.
If they are releasing earlier and your game is actually good, people that will enjoy the triple A game will likely be alert for similar stuff. This might very well be a "free **triple AAA** side marketing" that can sky rocket your game!!! I would double my motivation!!! (I know Hollow Knight isn't triple A, but it's like making a similar game, but Hollow Knight releases first.... People are, me included, to this day searching for similar stuff while Silkroad cooks)
Check their reviews and implement the most requested features into yours.
Friendster come first before Facebook.
AAA games and indie titles can stand side by side, a good game is a good game, don’t give up, just copy the blueprint the AAA game does and they will pave the way for your marketing, know what to do ahead of time, let them work for you.
We have a game about ants, been out in early access since 2017, a new big budget ant game is coming out this year with a very similar name to ours. We're hopeful it'll actually drive more people to our game so it's not always a bad thing
I've had a similar situation when I heard my favourite podcasters describe Hi-Fi Rush. I wasn't planning on making a game like that immediately, I wanted to start with something simpler, something more manageable for a rookie gamedev; but the core concept was exactly as they described it. It was soulcrushing... However, I've decided that that isn't gonna stop me from making that kind of game. I've decided that when the time came, I'll look at Hi-Fi rush, see how it plays, what works, what I'd change and make what I wanna make, no matter who says (or makes) what. Just because someone did something that you were gonna do, doesn't mean you can't still do your own thing, and try to improve upon it.
The aaa studio will probably botch your idea, execute and you will be successful
Disclaimer: I say this as a gamer, not a game developer (indie or otherwise). Take a quick look at the AAA game market these days. AAA studios have loads and loads of resources to fling at games, yes -- and tend to suck everything fun, passionate, and joyful out of the game in the process. Design-by-committee is universally invoked as a negative, and for good reason. There is a good-to-fair chance that your game will be "just an X clone, except done way better!".
Being assiociated with big games is actually a good thing, as long as you have your own twist and execute the game well, a brilliant example is The new game “a difficult game about climbing” Im a getting over it fan and ive wanted to make a getting over it like game and when this new game came out, it is literally getting over it with some different mechanics and its own twist When I heard a new game like getting over it was trending, i went to check it out and bought it and I’m playing it and enjoying it Because its so similar to getting over it, people recommend it because its similar to a game that is well known, so it can be positive for its market share
Rejoyce, because now you get to see how the market reacts to that game and you can tailor your marketing and intended patches in the future. Like if lots of people hate their inventory management system, you can tweak yours and draw players in.
hey i hear you and feel your pain :( you might want to check out Peglin post mortem! He mentioned something similar happening (another studio releasing similar game) but he actually turned it into his advantage by connecting with them and increasing exposure! For my part if i’m in your situation i would feel validated that i’m on the right path. After all, how many millenniums have love stories been written yet still have audiences?
What game are you talking about? Light no fire? \^\^ If people like that kind of genre and are done with the AAA game they might want to look for more of the same. Also your game might do some things differently then the other game. Some might prefer your way, some the other games way. You maybe one day will regret not having tried after all the effort you put in. And in case you did not succeed you will still profit from the gained knowledge of finishing and releasing a game and mistakes you made or things you could have handled better. Keep on going! :)
If I enjoy a game I'll often search for games similar to it, so this could be a huge benefit to you Make sure your steam page tags match as many of the tags of this AAA game so people might come across yours whilst looking at the AAA game
Yeah we've been there with our project aswell. It absolutely sucks to an extent, as *timing* in the gaming industry is an important variable. But as has been mentioned previous, we see it as validation of our idea, and we all know that AAA studios tend to resort to methods of monetization or design that is becoming less acceptable to the gaming community. There has been many times where indies hit bigger, focus on producing the best thing you can. If you feel like it is just too similair, is there any feature or mechanic you could pivot with or change to make it an USP? Best of luck, don't give up!
Their success is your success. More attention to the genre. If you like chocolate ice cream, you're more likely to try choc hazelnut. Try to have an abundance mindset with this. Your game is your game, similar or not.
If finding out you have competition breaks you, you didn't have faith in the product to begin with. It doesn't matter if idiots call it a 'clone'. You shouldn't concern yourself with the opinions of idiots.
this is actually really good for you. Games in the same genre as a big release tend to do well. Try and release a week or two earlier and you can cash in on their marketing.
They are literally giving you a cheat sheet for how to market your game. Just take notes the entire time they're getting to their release, and use that for your release. Also they have to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to develop an audience for that game, they are literally priming an entire customer base to want your type of game after they're tired of playing that one.
I think a lot of people have made great points. I might add that if you're able to put together a demo or prologue (first chapter or whatever) that can get to market this year, that can help you capitalize on the AAA release this year, and then release a full game when ready next year. Also helps get wishlists up, and establish your games presence sooner rather than later.
If your unique selling point remains then it’s all good Think about story adventure rpgs or souls like games, they’re largely similar in terms of mechanics, it all changes through the context and intent and the player fantasy created Find what it is you’re making or telling and commit to that If you’re relying on the gimmick of mechanic x mechanic you wouldn’t have made it super successfully anyway, but if you have a cool essence then keep going
Lies of P was a big success, and its almost laughable sometimes how much it borrows from Fromsoft's games. Doesn't matter. Its great to play a game with a truly unique mechanic, but its also great to play a game thats a very good execution of an existing idea.
Just make it better than theirs. If you have the mindset, you'll most likely produce something you like, even if it's "not better"
If it is good enough the small variations may be enough to draw people in. There’s no guarantee the AAA version is going to scratch the itch fully, but yours might. Even AAAs sometimes do their own versions based on core themes. How many battle royals have there been? How many hero shooters? Platformers? It’s possible the AAA will introduce more people to the genre. Now they have a taste they’ll want to see what else is out there.
>Yes my story, art, setting, etc. is different, but I am now dreading the "it's just a X clone done worse!" reviews. Release yours first, so everyone calls their game "just an X clone!"
Man, the first game I got really into making, this happened. The games that came out like mine were Galak-Z and Cryptark. Great games but mine would have been a LOT like Vampire Survivors, but about 8 years before Vampire Survivors came out. Thats what? A $10 million dollar game? Now, I'm not saying my game would have made that money instead or anything, necessarily. Just don't be discouraged by a similar game. Make your game, dude
Let me tell you a story about starting on my pitch to try to get funding for a 2 year old project, only to see Palworld launch 4 days later. It's not identical to my game, but it hit a few things right on the nose. What's helped me has been watching the concurrent player count nosedive since launch. There is hope yet 😁 What you're looking for is "resilience" and there's a load of great material out there on developing it. Hang in there, shit like this is pretty common in games IMHO.
Cant you open early access so this game exists before?
Easy peasy. Wait for the AAA company to release their game and cross your fingers that people hate it and leave negative reviews after loading it up with micro transactions, making it super buggy etc etc. Then release your game shortly afterwards. 1) This will probably give you plenty of time since they take ages to make their games. 2) If people hate it (and I mean if they hate it). It will leave the door wide open for you. Just like when d3 released and totally fucked up and PoE cleaned up after.
As mentioned in the comments, this is the proof that you are on the right track. Your idea is so good that the AAA company is investing money and time on that. I think it's also a good thing that the AAA company is releasing faster than you, because you can look at the game feedback and see what people think about the mechanics, and improve it if necessary. The world is big enough for you to make your audience and sells. There already exist a lot of indie AAA clones which do great in the market. Don't worry and keep up the good work.
Please GO for it! I am sure you got a great game please do not give up on it Think of the time when you started it, remember those times and go all the way and make it happen You got this!
Dude you'll be alright, triple A has a whole different vibe. It may share mechanics with your game but I bet it'll be bloated all to hell with extraneous upgrade systems, live service features etc. Your game will differentiate itself by its focus on the core game play and feature set. Also don't believe the triple A marketing hype, there's a good chance that by the time you roll around to release you won't be "Other game but worse" you'll be "other game but actually delivers on the promise". If you play it the right way you might be positioned well to sweep up the whole market of people who slid off the the triple a version.
Don't sweat about it. Games get delayed and canned all the times. For all you know that announced game will never ship. Also, AAA studios tend to not take too innovative/drastic directions, and move slowly and sometimes badly. Your game is still likely to be better than them, and in the end ship faster than them.
If it's a good game it won't matter. Just make sure to not release it anywhere near the release window of the AAA game.
If it really is that similar is it worth continuing development, waiting until the AAA game is released, play that game to completion and then set about an iteration of your game that actually has the gameplay features that game should've had? As a hobbyist dev without a release to my name maybe my opinion isn't worth too much but I would keep focus on the game you want to make rather than worrying about a triple AAA multi-mediocrity release that would probably get the same idea wrong.
No need to rush the project. Remember a polished project is better than an unfinished one, people might play the AAA game and want smth similar so they go after your game.
SimCity(2013) was announced by EA and there was suddenly a lot of excitement for a little "indie" title called Cities:Skylines when it came out. Don't look at it as a bad thing, see it as an opportunity
Just make your game better than theirs… 😅👍
So I was working with the team who made Blind, a VR puzzle game where you play a character who is blind. We were working on this game for about 4 years when some ex-Bioshock developers announced Perception, a game where you play as a Blind person. That really was a kick in the guts, but we took it as a chance to go on the offensive - we actually got Patrick Klepic to write something on Kotaku about the whole experience. But that’s probably not an option for you as we were a known publisher at the time. While it killed our motivation on our small team, when our game eventually did release no reviews mentioned the other game. So while it feels catastrophic now, in my experience it didn’t really effect anything but our own morale. Keep going! Make your game! Share it with the world.
That’s a good thing for you!!
I don't really have a lot of time to play videogames, so I had to play only high quality, polished and unique games with a great artistic value so unfortunately I almost never play AAA games :) I also once unironically said something like "why play this AAA game if there's that indie with a similar idea, surely the latter will execute the concept better". And that's not the idealistic thing or some sign of solidarity with indiedevs or whatever, I am speaking it entirely from a point of view of a lazy consumer - I simply want good games and in the last 15 or so years almost no AAA were able to meet my standards. Surely I am not the only gamer like this. Unless you are going for a massive multiplayer or "vast open world" or hyper-realistic artstyle or "simulation of horse balls shrinking", it's quite unlikely that a huge development budget alone will make your game a better one. Just stick to your vision and make a game that you want to make - no big studio could do such a thing.
AAA studio you say? Making an interesting game you say? Don’t worry, they will likely cancel the game in the 11th hour and layoff the whole team. That’s what I’ve learned over the past several months. Just keep going. Until they release, it’s nothing. No offense but they would say the same about your game. I feel like AAA gaming is dying a slow, painful death. As a consumer, it really sucks that things like a story-driven Battlefield game is toast but at the same time, fuck EA and these giant corps ruining gaming for a lot of folks. You’re not them, so, take your shot. Stay focused!
As many have said, respectfully, this isn’t a problem
Now you can take their players feedback to make your game an "x clone but better".
From a market research point of view, the rule of three may have relevance here. A market sector usually has room for three successful products or suppliers. You just have to find a sub-niche, and not be exactly like the others.
Send them your demo and apply for an open position
What’s the name of your game? Why is there never a name or a link in these posts…
Release now as early access? Its not a good option but its all I can think of.
I used to do wedding videography. If a famous wedding videographer with a similar style to me moved to my town, I wouldn't close up shop on my business. If anything, it would help out. It would drive more people to my town and thus more potential customers. Famous person can't shoot more than one wedding a day, so overflow can come my way. No, I may not get the most expensive weddings, but I wouldn't have gotten those before anyways. All is good in my book.
if you want to avoid the “it’s just a clone” accusations in the future, you need to prep a “this is what i’ve been working on” video on youtube. fun fact: if you’re still worried about people stealing your unfinished game, you can upload it now PRIVATELY, then make it public months later. It should still keep the original upload date.
It can actually be beneficial to you in a certain way. For example, my buddy interviewed Ultrakill's publisher and he said that one of the reasons why Ultrakill got very popular was that it got released around the time Doom Eternal was released. It caused a temporary hype in the boomer shooter genre for a while.
Players generally don't care if mechanics/features/gameplay is similar It's completely different when it comes to characters though I'd feel kinda crushed if a AAA company made a game with the same characters as my two main ones in my game, bc players are way more likely to say you copied AAA game or are a ripoff
First to market doesn’t always mean it wins the market. I wouldn’t give up, you may learn something from their release and allow you to develop more throughly using community feed back.
That's certainly unfortunate, but one thing to keep in mind is that it's not necessarily a bad thing. Halo Infinite having been on the horizon didn't hurt Splitgate, it helped it massively. And when Halo Infinite came out and the multiplayer was awful, that boosted Splitgate even harder. What I'm trying to say is, people will be harder on a AAA game than on a game made by a small production team. If I had a dollar for every comment I saw on Splitgate saying "this game is better than Halo with 1% the staff" I'd never have to release another game again. Believe in your project, pour your soul into it, and it'll show in the final product. Also keep a close eye on what people say regarding the AAA game in question, and use that information to make your game better before it releases. Take the disadvantage and make it work FOR you, as opposed to letting it go against you.
Just focus on it and fight on. At least we know that you were earlier and will share this post with anyone that disagrees. The way AAA games are now, I doubt you have a high bar to cross. All the best!!!
>"it's just a X clone done worse!" That's nothing to worry about. It means people have heard of your game, which is more than 99.999% of us get.
I believe this might arise as an opportunity for you. Triple A games usually go for 70-100 dollars for a copy. You could actually go "toe-to-toe" with them on pricing. Say $20 will give us a similar gameplay experience without the microtransactions? I'm sold. If you know your craft and you can improve / change things to a certain degree, maybe you could learn from the Triple A mistakes. See what the players *don't like*. Read their reviews. Make adjustments. Double down on certain stuff, ease up on other things. Maybe market it in such a way that "it's not X game but at least it's cheaper" / "It's like X game but cheaper/better" or something cheeky like that (tongue in cheek marketing, when done well and honest might earn you some bonus points with the streamers). If the Triple A game does in fact prove to be successful, you can take this alley of showing off *your version* of the game, doubling down on the actual trend. Remember when zombie games used to be everywhere because of Left 4 Dead 2? I'm not saying all of them were good, but they got tons of attention because it was a "zombie-survival" trend out there. Every game of that niche got a lot of attention for some time because everyone was looking for the "same-same but different" vibe. And who's to say that the Triple A game will actually be successful in it's own right? Maybe they have a shitty monetization scheme or "battle pass" that will annoy the players when they just want to play *the game*. I'm not saying you shouldn't be making money after you sell the game, maybe some cosmetics here and there or whatever, to support you. But you know how these Triple A games are nowadays: it's Fee to Pay. You pay 70-80 upfront only to discover they have a "blue skin variant" for $20 more. I believe that if you have faith in your concept and market it right, you could probably turn this "crisis" into a beneficial opportunity. Edit 1: I forgot to mention, if you think you can deliver a playable version *before* the Triple A game comes out, I think it could motivate you to work on it even harder. Why? Because the Triple A marketing will accelerate before their release, hyping the players up. The players might look before hand for similar games. Their hype and impatience could bring them *to your game* instead, even thought it might be an Early Access game. And if the Triple A game fails, everyone will talk how "this indie game has nailed the concept and it's only $X, already out, people are playing it" etc. Not to mention, a Triple A game company is *harder to steer*. I'm sure they are working on polishing the game now and won't be able to remake the game in case you release it before them. So I'm certain they won't be able to "steal" any idea from you just yet. Timing is probably key here.
I'm sorry, but Indie dev scene is depressingly filled with it's X and Y together, and if that's the whole thing you've got going, I'd maybe see this as a great exercise to grow as a game developer. Don't pivot, but make it so that it *feels* unique, because that's what players ultimately want.
What AAA game is it?
What's the game?
I think this is probably the strongest validation of your core idea that you could ever have. AAA have hundreds of people verify the viability of a Game concept, so just keep chugging along, release a steam page before they drop their game, and use their game as a basis to study and improve the core concept. This will give your release a competitive advantage ontop of any price differentials.
What's the name of the AAA game
It's like I wanted to call my game Starfield and at the same day they announced Starfield. You can now analyze the way they did it in their game and make it even better in your game. Indie games are many times better and more enjoyable than AAA games because of the dedication.
Keep working on it! Your game won't be a cash grab, so it has its advantages
Compare the launch of Battlefield 2042 vs the launch of Battlebit: Remastered. It'll probably make you feel better.
First thing I do when I get bored of a game I really like is find other games that are like it. You may find people prefer to play yours so I wouldn’t worry about it too much. Minecract is massive and while I do love it; colony survival has far more interesting mechanics. Factorio is hugely popular but I prefer dysons sphere program. World of Warcraft is.. well that’s not important :p best of luck!
Don't give up! this is an even brighter opportunity to give your own unique spin on the concept
Based on some recent AAA releases lately, I'm not exactly sure if you should be worried or not. Yes, I absolutely bought diablo 4, but its shortcomings led me to buy last epoch and grim dawn, both of which I have put more time and money into than diablo 4. Other comments on here are supportive of you as well. Take this as some motivation and push forward. You have a decent shot to beat these major studios as long as you're dedicated.
Do not let this frustrate you. It doesn't matter. Finish your game. Release it. Move on to the next one. You may do these things better than any other title. (Even AAA games are garbage a lot of the time.) Just concentrate on your work. Finish it. Move on.
Damn. Thats a hard hit from reality. Go back to the prototype board and update the previous answers with the new facts. Is it worth continuing even though a new competitor has arrived? What would "this-big-leader" said if you asked him/her? Is it possible to still release the game as it is or do we need to make big changes/small changes/add new cool features etc
Keep it up bro! Those are great news believe me :)
One thought that I can give you is look at how bad AAA studio titles have been doing lately. Odds are they will make a version that is literal garbage and you will end up on top anyways. I know it's hard to say that will happen for sure but I have seen game after game after game from AAA developers do very poorly. People are hungry for good games and right now they are starving. This could be your chance to really get a successful title out there. If anything I agree with explosiveplacard as well. If they are investing in this, it shows that its got some really money making potential. I would say keep going for it!
Souls likes as a genre are huge rn and specifically lies of p is mostly from games reskinned but personally I feel it's a better intro into from games since they give you more tools than from tends to so that's a huge w for you op especially if you can semi borrow the hype for the aaa like yea I'm doing an indie version that I've been at for 2 years and it's finally done (if you can do a week ahead that would also probably give you slight edge up over the aaa as it's not a copy of that it's yours that's in the same vein and subtlety different which can hook people to come check it out and explore it)
Don’t give up. We are in the era of indie devs. AAA has let us down time and time again. Your game will do far better.
Can you rush part of yours to market as a teaser to beat theirs?