Make Games that Many People will LIKE OR that Few People will LOVE?
Video games have evolved from basic platformers about saving princesses from castles to epic storytelling media, simulators and generally just a whole new form of entertainment. With the ubiquity that video games have received, there has grown multiple genres of games, each with their own fan base. However, games do not only conform to one specific genre. You find that in the video game description, there will be multiple genres mentioned. For instance some would describe The Last of Us as a post-apocalyptic, third person stealth, zombie, cover shooter. This amalgamation of genres does not seem to mesh well, but the game was a masterpiece with powerful storytelling. The developers managed to find the right mix of genres that would appeal to their audiences. There is however a base genre from which a game is born. Last of Us is a zombie shooter, Call of Duty is a first person shooter, Grand Theft Auto is an action-adventure and Fortnite is an online battle royale.
Mark Brown is a video game journalist who analyses games on his YouTube channel, “The Game Makers Toolkit”. He did a three part series on Dead Space where he explains that dead space started out as a Survival Horror game. However, EA didn’t like the sales numbers so its sequel, Dead Space 2, was slightly more action oriented, with the jump scares and general horror atmosphere of the game toned down to more of a startle. The enemies were also slightly changed to be much faster and the combat more action oriented. This changed the pace of the game entirely and Mark Brown even stated that,
“…mostly, the sequel just goes for Gore and guts. Isaac’s death animations are ridiculously over the top…”
For the third installation in the series, the developers went all out transforming the game from its horror roots to a full blown action game. The reason for this is because they wanted the game to have mass appeal. To quote Ben Wanat, a Dead Space designer,
“It’s a hard thing to do, to make a horror game have mass appeal. They’re two diametrically opposed things”
This then begs the question. Should developers design for mass appeal? Many have tried. It is why there are so many Call of Duty clones out there. It is why companies like EA released Apex Legends to ride on the wave of battle royale games. Designing for mass appeal is good if you want to throw up sales numbers, but then what’s your game worth?
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is developed by From Software. They are known for their brutally hard games and they have stuck to this principle so when Sekiro was announced their fanbase knew what they were getting into. However, the game got a massive appeal because unlike other From Software games, this one looked particularly pleasing. So many players took to the stores and bought the game and were soon met with the brutal difficulty that is From Software’s brand. This sparked outrage, with multiple youtubers asking, “Should Sekiro have an Easy mode?”
This can in fact be read as “Should games stick to their roots, or appeal to a larger audience?” Evolution of any medium is inevitable. You can’t walk around with a telegraph saying its quality when the internet exists. But how that evolution takes place is the real issue. If the evolution of a game takes it away from its base genre, there is a high chance it might flop down the line. That is not a gamble game developers should make. Dead Space took the gamble and changed from a horror game to an action game, and arguably, the series didn’t grow as well. Giving Sekiro an easy mode would be about the same as making Fortnite an adventure RPG. It would stray from the original reason why it garnered its player base, and it may not be a feasible move for the game.
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