Hi, I am an indie developer working on a little game. While browsing Dexterity''s web site I found this. "If your game is a direct clone of an older game with only minor differences, don''t bother to submit it. We''re looking for original titles, not knock-offs. If your game doesn''t offer anything new beyond what is already available on the web, it will be rejected. We''ve played hundreds and hundreds of indie games, so we have a very good sense of what''s already been done. If we wanted to release a bunch of clones, we''d simply make them ourselves." This scared me a lot because now I don''t know what to do. My game is basicly 3D Pong, so it is not a "direct clone", but it is still an arcade game. I know that you don''t like to evaluate game ideas, but can you please help me. I don''t know if I should continue to work on this game. Basiclly, this game is in Playable mode right now, it has 2 levels, and 2 gameplay features(AI vs.Human) and (Human vs.Human) The final product will feature at least 10 breath-taking sceneries with different skill levels. For the heaven level screen shots please go to: http://www.geocities.com/mman76dev/Screen.html?1023243184420 Thank you for your time. Best regards,

I''m sorry to say that we''d be almost certain to reject a 3D Pong game unless it was absolutely spectucular because this type of game has already been done. How would you make such a game stand out from the crowd? Why would people buy it instead of the competition? Also, the basic concept of 3D Pong sounds rather dull -- Pong itself isn''t a particularly exciting game today anymore, since its novelty has long since worn off. In fact, we''ve already rejected several 3D Pong clones this year because none of them offered enough gameplay value -- after 15 minutes you''re bored with them. Also your screen shot isn''t likely to make the game stand out enough.

My guess is that you''ve created a game without a market. I simply don''t think there is a large enough population of potential customers that would be eager to own such a game, especially since there are plenty of freeware Pong clones already available. I could be wrong of course, but I wouldn''t be inclined to take a gamble on such a game. Instead, I''d bet on something new and unique -- something that really stands out from the crowd.

Check this link on download.com. It''s a search on the word "pong," sorted by download count. The top games in this category do get a lot of downloads, which is a good sign, but there''s a lot of competition, including a freeware game called "3D Pong." Note that most of the leading games in that list are freeware. We''d need a game with the potential to hit the top 20 on this list, and it would have to be significantly better than the other Pong clones in order to convince people to pay for it (since there are already many freeware alternatives). If you can create something much better than the competition here, you''ve got a shot at some decent sales.

Hope this helps....

Steve Pavlina
Dexterity Software
www.dexterity.com

Yes, this helps a lot. Thank you for your reply. That''s all I wanted to know, now I can get started on a completly new and unique game rather then waste my time on pong. Thanks again!

Still finishing a Pong game is better than finishing no game. So I advise you to finish the Pong game. You could release it as freeware and use it to drive some traffic to your site. Or you could sell it to a shareware publisher for a few dollars so they can release it as freeware or bonus for their customers or whatever.

Take care,
Niels

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Niels Bauer Software Design
Creators of Smugglers 2, TV Manager and Coffee-break: Star Trader
Website: http://www.nbsd.de

[edited by - Jester101 on June 10, 2002 3:09:53 PM]

[edited by - Jester101 on June 11, 2002 2:16:05 AM]

Hmmm, generally I would say if you can do it much better than what has gone before then finish it !... if not, then move onto something else otherwise you would pretty much be wasting your time really if you want to get it published in some shape or form and make some money out of it.

My 2cents anyway.

Adrian Cummings (Proprietor)
Mutation Software
www.mutationsoftware.com
www.dweebs.info

I agree with Jester101. Finishing projects is more important to the beginning developer. Flitting from one incompleted project to another is a bad habit to get into.

DavidRM
Samu Games

Thanks for the advice, but the thing is that the Pong game can be pretty much considered finished because the "engine" is complete. The only thing about it that is not complete is more levels. So I would just be wasting my time making up tons of different levels for it.

In the long run, adding more levels to your pong game could help you out.

For example, my Halloween Game is nearing 140,000 downloads. The biggest reason is because I released it as freeware. I still get a large amount of visitors a day and it''s June!

I plan on releasing my next game (which I''ll be selling) in the next couple of weeks. With all the visitors for my Halloween Game I''ll have more chance of people seeing my product and buying it since they will see that it exists.

Finish your Pong. Get it on the big download sites such as CNet or GamesDomain. Get the traffic and you will have another method of promoting your next game.

borngamer