We’ve been playing video games for a long time here at HexaNeph Games. It’s not an overstatement to say that games had a significant impact on our childhood and helped shape who we are. It’s no surprise then, that over time, we grew to become fans of specific companies that consistently made top quality games we loved. We’re still fans of many of these companies to this day, but it’s also a bit sad to admit that some of these studios no longer get us excited at every game announcement. We’ve changed as gamers as we’ve gotten older, but honestly, the bigger issue is that these companies changed as they grew bigger and more successful. By itself, growing isn’t a bad thing. What it has meant for many companies, however, is that they shifted their focus away from making outstanding games, and towards making their company as profitable as possible. This means they take less risks, target the biggest audiences they can, and squeeze the maximum amount of profit out of all their games. The result is games we no longer love.
Target Our Audience
When you’re a big company with shareholders, its understandable that you would want to target the biggest audience you can. Fortunately, that leaves a lot of room for us small indie companies to fill the gaps! Our goal is to deliver the kinds of games and stories that bigger companies are too afraid to make. We’re not going to be designing our games to satisfy the gaming majority or follow the established pattern. Instead, we’ll be focusing on making the kinds of games we love and want to play. We’ll tell the stories and create the characters that speak to us and players like us. By keeping our focus on the things we know well and are passionate about, we’ll make better quality games that you are more likely to fall in love with. We would rather make a game that 100,000 people absolutely love than a game that 1,000,000 people think is fun enough, but mostly forgettable.
Deliver Quality Products
Every company needs to make money to survive. People understand this and have no problem paying for a product they feel is worth the money. Video game companies existed for a long time using the model of selling games as individual and complete products. Unfortunately for us gamers, they discovered it was possible to make even more money a different way. It is common to see many triple AAA games these days not only have an upfront price but also include game passes and micro transactions. The free to play model has shown you can hook players in and persuade them to continue spending money on your game for years. At HexaNeph Games, we much prefer the original business model of treating games like a single product you sell. You pay for a complete and quality product up front, and then don’t think about money again after that. You simply get to immerse yourself in the game and enjoy the experience. The great news is that this is a proven and successful business model even in today’s market. Ultimately, we’re not trying to get rich. All we want is to earn enough income to continue following our passion and making amazing games.