Early game player retention

Let's face it, the game is practically dead. Half my friends barely play it and the max I've seen at a time is 6 players. (In referring to AUS).
I accept that this is still early days for the game, but it will never pick up if something isn't done about it.

There are two ways this could be fixed, involvement more of the community and of the devs.

Community involvement: Some day a week set as "Tuesday Night Trench Run", where players battle out against each other for a place on a leaderboard. If no players are available, the player could go up against bots, (with the highest possible hacks on).

More leaderboards and competitions (link in with the above idea).

Quests or daily challenges, could help keep player retention.

Play with the dev day, where players can meet, greet, grab a drink and chat with the devs. This could allow more communication with the devs and normal steam players without the use of a 3rd party program. Older players or more prominent could also come in and socialise and welcome new players.

Let's face it, something has to be done, and we, the community, should do it!

Discuss!

 

I like the idea of a mini tourney, would be cool if we could have the brackets displayed on the billboard and they could update after each match but that's more of a mod suggestion.

 

a lot depends on MM and the THD team too. MM doesn't know how to even use forums i think and isn't very good at advertising. i just hope that if some popular youtuber makes a video about trechn run MM will not say that "he played like an idiot"
the only time i've talked to MM was in trench run on free weekend iirc. i'm not sure if it was even MM playing his own account, though...

 

It is more the developers' issue with retention. I understand the whole "if we give 50% sale we lose a ton of money" but if you dont do something to actually get steam players to buy it then your game will be as dead as it was before the actual release. Even the people who bought it on the small sale wont really help the playerbase because they would either refund it once they found out the game didnt have an active playerbase or just stop trying to find an online game with real people. The last 7-8 times ive tried to play(including 5 minutes ago) there were zero players online(the specific last time i tried to join us and it said there wasnt a server in that region). Threads like this only really work if there is a community to turn to who have fond memories of the game and i either bought it too late to have those moments or they just havent happened yet.

 

Guys I feel this might be a 2D game example worth talking about:

Shell Shock Live
(I am not advertising the game, I am using it as an example for a point I'm making)

This game in my opinion is pretty average.

BUT THEY GET LOADS OF PEOPLE ONLINE!

HOW?

Look at what they have done to promote the game - All fricking sorts, they seem to be geniuses at it. The game inself is kind of lame and boring but you go online and it is jam packed full of players, way more than kag currently has.

They way they have done the graphics. The introduction cinematic. The shop they have. The stats they give after a game. The Leveling component. SO MANY SLICK FEATURES.

About KAG (amazing game)
I think KAG is one of the best online competitive 2D games ever made. The KAG devs must be brilliant people! But I believe KAG could go huge.

I know shell shock live is a very different style of game. But when I go online in that game I am SHOCKED (shell shocked maybe lol) as to how many people are actually playing it, considering it really isnt anything special. I think the guys behind this game have shown a streak of excellence when it comes to polishing the game up for users.

About Trenchrun (haven't really played yet)
Same deal right? I'm sure this game is brilliant, but I believe that you can even make average 2D games get great numbers if the advertising and all the fine trimmings and functionality is done right.

By the way I want to stress I am not saying THD games are average, I am actually saying they are great. Imagine what could be achieved if a lame artillery game like Shell Shock Live has become popoular.

THE QUESTION IS:

WHY NOT KAG/TRENCHRUN

 

Still remember the unlockable thread that everyone was spamming for and begging for. TBH i would love bronze, silver, and golden weapons that are just aesthetics. Based off of kills ofc.

 

This is all good stuff geti, thanks man

I'm so pleased you liked my comment earlier. I'm not sure I know what things to add to make KAG/trenchrun more popular. But something tells me they really could be

These games are clever, highly skill-based. Just over two years ago when I first started playing KAG I wanted to throw my laptop out the window for about a week cos of extreme anger over dying all the time. But I stuck at it and now I'm pretty good and I play the game probably over 10 hours a week! Best game investment I've ever bought, even more than Diablo 2 12 years ago

 

Different skins for weapon projectiles for each class maybe?
Variable grenade/rocket/mine sprites and explosion animations (gas blast, balloon bomb, confetti, fireworks, TNT, propane tanks) come to mind.
Variable movement/crouching/idle frames/animations (skipping/hopping, moonwalking, handstand, meditation).
Adding a bit of more goofyness might go a long way.


Every game that follows the "class-based combat formula with only skill dividing players" has had a lot of options for making your character have different looks/weapons/animations (Team Fortress 2, Overwatch, Battlefield Heroes, Loadout)

 

I'm gonna suggest some ideas for this for the first time:

This is for KAG (please don't move or delete from here)

Just some general ideas

• Customisable heads - like in terraria, but it doesnt need to be as diverse as that. Just more than it is now maybe.
• Cool KAG intro graphics.
• Maybe more soundtracks?
• A big change and expansion of levels on the Challenge server. I noticed people really like this stuff when I hosted my custom one - it brought in many customers.
• 10 times more offcial CTF and TDM maps. I think Geti and MM want to keep this small and concise, but imo people want more maps to play with.
• After a match - briefly show stats like: Serial Killer of the match (most kills), "living" legend (best kill to death ratio), Best Mason (person who placed the most blocks), Blood Thirsty One (person will best kill streak in match), Eagle of the match (person with most stomping kills)
• When you win a match in official servers you get a game-coin. Game coins can purchase more content in the game shop. Like a slightly different looking sword when you're knight.
• Another official competetive game-mode - One that is very easy to access because it starts in less than 30 seconds (people gravitate towards that more).

I'm sure all these ideas have been suggested before. And also I'm sure that the developing team for KAG has better things to do than to add lots of extra content. But in my dreams this game gets deeper content and goes up in popularity!

I love this game.

(other ideas)

• Ability to add a "friend" and find the game he is in easily.
• More animals. Maybe a dangerous octopus
• Another tileset

Yeh I think in my view the game could go up another gear with basically just a whopping load of content. Price the game 50% higher afterwards and see the money roll in, lol.

I think though that it's maybe about just what THD want to do with their time. I think Geti you like to invent new cool games and not go over old material - which is a pretty decent sensibility in fairness to THD. I'm not a mind-reader though lol.

 

You realise this is for player retention for TR, but I guess it could be used in KAG too.

 

Yes I appologise I was talking about KAG.

I really screwed this up, I forgot this thread was about TR.

Argh.

 

The game doesn't retain players because it's not that complex mechanically, and there's no market interest. Sad to say but you can find a similar experience on Miniclip for free. People also see the art style and are likely put off by it because it's not really distinctive enough, just the #999 pixel platformer in their minds. The devs did know this early on, and why they continued is likely because it was a fun project to work on, not because they wanted success.

 

This video may be applicable
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rl6d1BW8_RI&index=12&list=WL

Reasons why many multiplayer-only games fail:
1.) Pay walls which restrict the size of the playerbase, thus reducing incentive for others to buy the game
2.) Gameplay not unique

Reasons why many multiplayer-only games stay successful:
1.) Free/very cheap
2.) Good replayability (modded game servers or sandboxy gameplay)

Blizzard might be breaking even thanks to the company reputation and hype surrounding the game, but I really do think Overwatch on PC will be dead within a month post-launch

I think the only option you have (IF you want to revive TR at all) is some kind of F2P model, giving those who already bought the game freemium benefits of some kind

 

To be honest, I'm not very surprised Trench Run has failed thus far. I'm not exactly sure what the big issues are, but I think some relevant things have already been pointed out here. Personally, I didn't like it so much because of the following reasons (that I can think of now):

• The game is too casual. Matches are incredibly short and there's little depth.
• No building or other creative aspects.
• The game is hard. I never managed to earn a single coin (I think).
• The control scheme is awkward, unlike what was done with KAG.
• The graphic style is just weird and the visual elements of the game hard to interpret. Too noisy.
• Not very memorable. No special gimmicks. (If you added the crazy screaming from Butcher for example, maybe it would've been funny enough)