Ultimate Indie Gamedev Genre Tierlist

survival games don't have to be sandbox, like stacklands and don't starve

Where’s the fighting genre? Beat em ups? Fight games! What about mystery or suspense games? Scare games? Pet games?

If I have learned anything from this video, it's that the genre question is entirely irrelevant unless it's online multiplayer.

AFK/semi-afk games are also really easy to make, and can be really addictive if done right.

Fighting games: exist.

In my opinion:

Shooters - B/F
Sandbox Survival - B/F
Platformer - S/F
Top-down Strategy - E/F
Sim games - B/F
Puzzle - A/F
RPG - E/F
MOBA - E/F
Rythmn - B/F
Racing - C/F
MetroidVania - A/F

What about point & click, like Grim Fandango or Monkey island? Or Day of the tentacle - it has only a few locations. And the puzzles aren’t logical at all (some are).

Arcade-like games such as bullet hell are very easy to make as a new dev

Seems like the pitfall in every genre is how many items or elements you have to make and fine tune. Resource management and survival games has tons of items (trees, planks, crafting, inventory, etc.). Racing game has tons of cars with unique feel. Platformer has unique enemies and you need to define the game mechanics (attacks, jumps, special moves, etc.) Seems like each genre has its own set of items you have to make.

To this, I would add bullet heaven style games. They are increasingly popular and easy to make.

Nice video! I've been wanting to make an online TCG with a friend, and I'd be interested to know how hard that would be :p

Great video! Question: Where would you put fighting games on this tier list? More specifically 2D(Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Guilty Gear) vs. 3D fighting games (Tekken, Soul Calibur, Virtua Fighter).

i"m very tilted !!

Platformer is S-tier? Thanks for sabotaging competitors, guys

I wanna make like a ps1 ps2 style Horror survival exploration game but in a dark fantasy medievalesque theme with semirealistic not too low not too high poly count . I think I can do it in UE but i need to finish building my PC lol

I'm making a top-down strategy myself, think a mix of Civilization and Stellaris in a fantasy setting. The most difficult thing so far is the AI, mostly because I lack experience, but also because it requires you to have most features pretty much already done, and that's only the beginning.

I think it's too late to back down. I'm making a top down strategy as my first game :(

yakuza ( rhytm +rpg )

For rhythm games, can't you just get royalty-free music?
Most of Beat Sabre has a similar feel.

What about horror??????

Horror?

I like the concept of this video but the analysis is pretty shallow. Abstract discussion from a user's experience. Not much discussion about technical implementation.

Bro really said you've probably never heard about minecraft 😂

visual novel: no need for programming knowledge as engines available for it. S tier for writers. point and click adventure: S tier for artist. walking simulator: S tier for architect.

I think you forgot Mascot Horror Games, surprisingly easy to make and mass-produce, and is basically a cheat-code for an instant micro-popularity

>rpg
>genshin impact

To be honest I couldn't get far in the video as soon as you mention FPS being too difficult to indie develop because they are generally too realistic or require a uniqie play mechanic I was out. I thought this video was going to talk about how hard it is or isn't to make an indie game via a specific genre but clearly you are talking about making a game to sell millions and seperate oneself from the rest. Dudes. ANY FUCKING GENRE IS EQUALLY EASY/HARD FOR AN INDIE DEVELOPER TO MAKE IF YOU ARE JUST SIMPLY TRYING TO MAKE THE FUCKING GAME. You guys are on one for real.

Edit: I guess my main point and frustration is it seems like you guys think you are some sort of position to influence new programmers into some sort of weird fucking way of thinking about what kind of game they want to make. This just sounds fundamentally retarded to me. I really was epxecting you guys to talk about what makes certain genres difficult to program. But you guys are talking about what genres are difficult to become rich millionaires in. SMH.

You should have two tier lists on this, one based on gameplay design and success rate(how desired that genre is for an indie) vs the technical difficulty of actually getting it done. Plus getting MetroidVania there is a bit of a cheat, since it's basically Platformer + RPG lite.

How would you rate space games (AAA example: Elite Dangerous, No Man's Sky; Indie example: Between the Stars, SpaceBourne)?

What about Rouguelike games those are great

did u guys just skip the horror genre'

❤️

Mmorpg is the worse genre, without question. It's getting killed, lots of AAA studios with infinite money to compete with
Race to the bottom

I haven't even watched the video nor comment, but for some reason I believe you're gonna say rpg is probably at the bottom of the list, yet it's probably one of the most tempting for new devs haha.. What can you do.. That's why I'll never go back to the video game industry, I know my goals are mostly unreachable

If you want to know you're to make a first effective mmorpg ask me

In my opinion, the least successful indie games are "MMOs", open world RPGs and crafting/survival games. They all fall under the issue of having too much complexity for a new person/studio to make. The most successful indie games are passion projects, genre-defining or defying or simple titles that neatly fit into a relatively simple genre on paper without being too unique like FPS or platformers.

I want to know your opinions on some missing genre: Card game, board game, fighting game, sport game, etc.

Where is psychological horror 🤔

Platformers are easy to make but hard to sell. As there is a lot of competition. It really need to be unique to have any chance to sell. S tier in complexity and F for marketability So it should be C IMO. :)

how about rougelike/lite

For a 'first game' I would go for an Idle Cookie Clicker style game.

hey congrats on the launch

I gotta disagree that solo developers can't or shoudn't develop RPGs. I think people need to stop thinking in scopes of Skyrim or Stardew Valley in terms of what an RPG is, and expecting to make the next greatest hit of all time. Of course that could be said for any genre. You wouldn't and shouldn't go into a platformer with the expectation of creating Super Mario's newest rival on the market. You're not even gonna come close to that. Just aim to FINISH the game and complete the project.

So, in terms of an RPG; think of the first Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy. Use that as your scope and build from there. They are very simple, but they deliver a fun gaming experience and classic fantasy story-line. They allow the player to explore, talk to NPCs, discover hidden items and such, but it's all extremely simple in terms of scope and development. It wont be the greatest RPG, or the greatest game in general, but it can be A great game and RPG if you put the time and effort into it without breaking your scope with feature creep. Or worse, for RPGs anyway, content creep. If a developer is just starting out or they are a small team of 2-3 people, you shouldn't be aiming to make a smash hit anyway. Just build the best game you can and get it done!

Keep it simple! Keep it safe! Lol

shouldve divided the tier list into 2
one for "ease of creating" and another for "able to make it stand out"

Amazing Vid!

Hey, great vid.. Im programmer for about 10y of exp, but not in gaming and jist starting as a side project.. what I can say is if you want to start making game in the context of genre even easier than platformers are... tower defence game.. those are mostly super easy to do.
I also wont agree with fpses - those are kinda hard from the start: you have the challenge to make an multiplay game (and you already said its not that easy) and/or handle AI behaviour that is also triky and not that easy to make for someone that hasnt touch that topic already.

you are talking about indie game development but you present lots of A-tier big budget games like Skyrim and World of warcraft. Okay I get it that you like to compare to those but you could have found out more indie games as examples here

great video...
DO NOT TRY RPG!!!
DO NOT TRY RPG!!!
DO NOT TRY RPG!!!
but if you have tons of money to waste, try it.

fighting games, rogue likes?

Rpgs are just such an aweful choice (I think survival is too if I had to give my one criticism of the list). So much UI, so many connected systems. Its just an awful pick for a first game. Don't do it. Anyway, my 2D rpg is going to be in the upcoming Steam Nextfest and I have loved working on it thoroughly haha.

But seriously, if I had to start over, it probably wouldn't be my first pick. My rule of thumb is "try to pick genres that don't have a crazy amount of UI". It isn't necessarily hard, but it can be very tedious when you introduce a new gameplay element and then you also have to set up several different UIs before its actually usable in game. I have a small project I am working on now that may end up being something I release down the road and I would say that Tower Defense games are a pretty beginner friendly choice as well