There are many things to consider before not only making a game but releasing it. One of the biggest things to consider is, “Do we have the ability to stand out from the crowd?” while also asking, “Are there other titles out that might conflict with ours or make it seem ‘lesser’ than the others?” These might seem like odd questions at first, but if you don’t have a game that stands out, why would anyone try it? Just as important, if numerous games in a single genre come out at a single point in time, as Nightingale tried to do with two rivals, it can lead to problems.
Enter Arryn Flynn, the man behind Nightingale, who found himself in a bit of a problem when his game was released initially. It had two rivals that it was going up against for attention, and while, as he noted to GamesRadar+, things started out fine, it didn’t stay that way:
“I think we did get a ‘rising tide lifts all boats’, and I think we did get additional visibility because of that. If I could go back in time and deliver this [updated] version of Nightingale back in February, I would.”
He faced many challenge in those early months, but he also found that games like Palworld, Enshrouded, V Rising, and more helped influence how he could make his own title better:
“It was really the structure that stood out as something they offered that we were not offering. Players told us that they want to be creative and wanted to explore the limits of the building system, but those limits were too small, too narrow.”
To that end, just six months after the game’s initial launch, there’s a massive update coming that will be focused on players to hopefully build things back up to where he wants them to be. Whether it works or not remains to be seen, but the effort being put in to try and change things for the better is not just commendable, it’s noteworthy.
There are many titles that attempt to use things like “Early Access” to gauge how well a title is doing and then work up from there. The now legendary Baldur’s Gate 3 did that for years to ensure success, and it worked. Other titles made similar bids and had similar success. Plus, learning from other games that have big player bases can work if things are handled properly; we wish Arryn Flynn the best of luck in his quest.
