Do you, as people of the general public, and as a gamer, really care about “buzzword” design tropes for games? My point being when someone says “this game is a soulslike.” I don’t really like this one-note sorta offhand denotion of a game. Do you care if an up and coming game is a “Soulslike” or “DMC style” action game? Do those keywords in articles, and sometimes even steam pages themselves, entice you to play the game more?
I care, for the most part it’s like a game having a genre you’re just saying it’s similar to Game X. A game being a souls like is enough to get me not to play it lol. For others it’ll be the opposite.
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It’s descriptive, so definitely helpful. If your game is a Souls-like, I’m out though, but good luck for whatever it is and keep us updated!
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I do care but mostly because I’m interested in these types of games, soulslikes mostly, but at most they only get me to look up information on the game. Most of the time I find I’m not interested though.
Same.
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Make sure you are aware of what kind of expectations will be created whenever you try to describe your game with certain keywords or other games.
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I definitely care, as that kind of shorthand is very effective in telling me if it’s a game I’m likely to be interested in.
For example, if it’s described as “Souls-like” or “roguelike” I know I can safely ignore it, as those are types of games and game mechanics I have zero interest in. While if it’s described as a “Metroidvania” or “immsim” I know I should sit up and pay attention.
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I think the gameplay will stand on its own. I wouldn’t focus on trying to follow trends or try to get your game to be described a certain way. Create your vision, describe it the best you can which may include calling it a “Souls-like” if that was your intent, but just let the game speak for itself.
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