Koji Igarashi (Castlevania) weighs in on the opportunities and challenges for singleplayer games

Nirolak · Sep 10, 2018

We tend to get a lot of these threads about devs commenting on singleplayer, so I figured people would this one.

GamesIndustry.biz said:
"I think things won't change, because there is a difference between people who play single-player games and people who play multiplayer games, as much as there are differences between people who are introverts and extroverts," he said. "There isn't anything we need to do [to ensure single-player games can sustain themselves]. There will always be people who enjoy playing single-player games more than multiplayer games."

"It's very difficult that multiplayer games are so profitable, but single-player games are where a lot of indie games come in. With single-player, you can create the game you want to create. We leave multiplayer games up to the larger publishers looking into the market, but it's very adventurous to create a single-player game with larger publishers. We started out as a Kickstarter project, and before we started the project, a lot of larger publishers said there wasn't much of a market for sidescroller games [like Bloodstained]. But we proved them wrong by having a successful campaign.

"With the rise of multiplayer games, I don't think single-player is in danger. A game doesn't have to be profitable, it just has to break even."

Source: https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2018-09-10-single-player-not-going-anywhere-igarashi

OmegaDL50 · Sep 10, 2018

But if you break even doesn't that mean you don't have an extra budget to work with for your next game. You simply just recoup the cost then doesn't that diminish the chance to be more ambitious. I suppose in the case for Bloodstained they didn't have this luxury because almost every publisher IGA asked for backing on his project had no faith in it.

I believe the stipulation was that IGA had to raise a minimum of 10% of the games budget which was 500,000 before a Publisher agreed to fund it. Considering the funding campaign managed to raise almost 10 times that amount should sent a message to the Publishers that said no one wants this sort of game that the reality is the opposite of their claims.

saenima · Sep 11, 2018

Thank Yggdrasil for single player.

potentialtodisplease · Sep 11, 2018

They are doing everything right with Bloodstained so far. People are always in the loop, they are taking more time to polish, and overall the product will be good if not great on release. Thank the lord.

Pog · Sep 11, 2018

Singleplayer games are doing fine when they aren't delayed a million times like Bloodstained.

VallenValiant · Sep 11, 2018

Pog said:
Singleplayer games are doing fine when they aren't delayed a million times like Bloodstained.

So you prefer games to be released on time with missing content and game breaking bugs? Because you should know that delays are better than the alternative.

OmegaDL50 · Sep 11, 2018

Pog said:
Singleplayer games are doing fine when they aren't delayed a million times like Bloodstained.

The game was only delayed once. I don't know where you got the idea it was delayed multiple times.

MarioW · Sep 11, 2018

"A game doesn't have to be profitable, it just has to break even."

That sounds like a terrible strategy for anything other than a hobbyist game developer.

VallenValiant · Sep 11, 2018

MarioW said:
That sounds like a terrible strategy for anything other than a hobbyist game developer.

It's working well so far for Amazon. It is amazing how well it works in business.

OmegaDL50 · Sep 11, 2018

For folks that use the original 2017 deadline to say it was delayed multiple times.

Keep in mind that Kickstarter has mandatory requirement for all projects to have an estimated delivery date. If developers weren't required to put a date down, they would probably leave it blank or put TBD if given the choice.

With most projects not even heavily into development or even pre-production when Developers are asking for pledge money, at that point they could not possibly predict every single particular element of this games development from artwork to level design to music and so forth.

I think it's fair that backers want a estimated time table of when they expect to receive the goods for backing the project. This is a reasonable expectation, but game development is anything but predictable.

In fact almost every single video game related Kickstarter never reaches it's targeted date because it's a unknown factor of what may or may not happen.

MarioW · Sep 11, 2018

VallenValiant said:
It's working well so far for Amazon. It is amazing how well it works in business.

It's a strategy that works until it doesn't work. As soon as the first game doesn't break even, then you are in trouble.

Dennis8K · Sep 11, 2018

The Witcher 3 is a single player game. As is Cyberpunk 2077. High budget single player games are possible if you respect the audience.

Zelas · Sep 11, 2018

Does he actually mean linear, story driven single player games?

Or does he not care to look at sales figures for western single player titles that try to embrace the open world trend?

Koji Igarashi (Castlevania) weighs in on the opportunities and challenges for singleplayer games

Nirolak

OmegaDL50

One Winged Slayer

saenima

potentialtodisplease

Pog

VallenValiant

OmegaDL50

One Winged Slayer

MarioW

PikPok

VallenValiant

OmegaDL50

One Winged Slayer

MarioW

PikPok

Dennis8K

Zelas