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Jools Watsham: Chicken Wiggle in 22 days sold half of what Xeodrifter did in 1 Day

cw_sasuke

If all DLC came tied to $13 figurines, I'd consider all DLC to be free
PUBG is a multiplayer shooter on Steam costing half as much as Destiny, CoD, Battlefront and Co.

Chicken Wiggle is priced at the higher tier for what you could charge on 3DS for this type of game.....while PUBG is priced reasonably for the market it targets. Also no one really spells out PUBG anyways since its already established - the name doesnt matter after the audience already accepted the product.
 

TheMoon

Member
The most popular game at the moment is called PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, which is just about the worst name for anything ever

It's not that simple

PUBG as a game transcended conventional wisdom by having viral magic built into it. This game is what it is because of Twitch. PUBG could've been called Chicken Wiggle and it would've been the same thing it is today.

Nobody says the name is the only problem, but it is the first thing you see. And it's immediately off-putting. If you didn't know this was Jools' game, and had followed it enough to know it was good, you'd just never give it another glance. And nobody else would tell you to do that either.
 
He's not asking anyone here for advice (nor in the blog post!), nor am I going to pretend everyone in this thread is all about giving constructive feedback

I mean, I'm sure he's going to be thrilled with 100 people ITT saying 'lol your game name sucks'

Clearly, I misjudged something. Perhaps the game is not appealing to the 3DS eShop audience? Perhaps it is overpriced? Perhaps the 3DS eShop audience has moved onto the Switch? Maybe it is one of these things. Maybe it is all of these things. Maybe it is something else that I am unaware of. It is shocking, to say the least. Trying to find answers, I am torn between trying to find someone else to blame and asking myself what mistakes did I make? It's not a fun place to be, but it is important that I try to find answers and learn from it so I can try to avoid it happening again.

Sure sounds to me like someone questioning and trying to understand why their game sold poorly. And the response is unanimous, the name is immediately offputting.
 
The most popular game at the moment is called PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, which is just about the worst name for anything ever

It's not that simple

Treasurenauts is a fantastic name though, I'll give you that
PlayerUnknown is well known. Battleground transports what kind of a game it is. Chicken Wiggle is/does neither.
 

ReBirFh

Member
I've seen the art for chicken wiggle before and liked the idea because it reminded me of Banjo Kazooie but totally forgot about it and yeah...chicken wiggle isn't a good name at all.

Hahah, not often do you see such unanimity on GAF.

By the way, this is probably as good a place to ask as anywhere else. I'm making a game that's a bit like Rampage (destroy buildings / tanks / planes) where the players control mecha that transform into mythological creatures . The tentative title is Mechanical Legend, but I'm not a native English speaker and some friends of mine who are have told me it soulds pretty generic / forgettable. Thoughts? Alternative ideas for the title?

Mechatastrophe!
 
D

Deleted member 231381

Unconfirmed Member
Hahah, not often do you see such unanimity on GAF.

By the way, this is probably as good a place to ask as anywhere else. I'm making a game that's a bit like Rampage (destroy buildings / tanks / planes) where the players control mecha that transform into mythological creatures . The tentative title is Mechanical Legend, but I'm not a native English speaker and some friends of mine who are have told me it soulds pretty generic / forgettable. Thoughts? Alternative ideas for the title?

It is a bit... forgettable, yeah. It's too much of a description of what the game is, it'd be like calling Super Mario Bros. 'Jumping on Turtles'.

My advice would be to leave the naming decision until the game is more or less complete, rather than having it from the start.
 

CTLance

Member
Hum.

I do feel for the guy. That blog post communicates well just how gutted he must be feeling. Ouch.

...I did not know that Mutant Mudds had a sequel(?). His naming sense needs some orbital ion cannon sized readjustments. Yikes. Yiiiiikes. Better quadruplecheck any future game names. And that's coming from someone who appreciated the pun in the game this thread is about. What can I say, I'm easily amused.

Releasing a 15€ game while everyone is reeling after hunting for ages for a 300€ console with terrible availability, ridiculously pricey accessories and mostly full priced games is a bad idea. That's way too close to the lower boundary of switch indie releases as well. To top it off, the eshop presentation did the game no favours. I think he underestimated just how little time the average Joe spends on a game in the eshop. Especially as an indie dev, all he can hope for is a casual glance at the icon while it scrolls by on the way to the major releases. So yeah, his eshop-fu is weak.

In general, even as an European that actually opened the eshop page of his game during my weekly MyNintendo points fuelled visit I completely dismissed his game and did not even notice that it was from the xeodrifter/Mudds dev.
I'd suggest focusing a bit on his brand - easily distinguishable visual tics, shared colour pallettes, adding themed bonus levels of the next game to the last update of an existing game, that kind of thing. That way, he can drag his earlier customers along. Tricky business that can easily backfire, but hey, he's the indie dev, that kinda shit comes with the territory.

I also question the wisdom of designing your game as more or less generic platformer on a system filled to the brim with such games (and spend major time on a level editor on a platform with a very recent Mario Maker port), but eh.
 

Zomba13

Member
Like others I think Chicken Wiggle might not be the best name, but I think the most important thing is I'd never heard of this game before. And I know about and love Xeodrifter and have heard a lot about Mutant Mudds. Like, I'm on GAF everyday basically and didn't see anything about it here.

Looking it up the game looks alright. Has a level creator and that is always a plus and it seems cool in general. That launch trailer VO though is just bad though.
 

fernoca

Member
Name aside, this thread was the first time I heard about this game. I have and love Mutant Nudds,Xeodrifter...yet knew nothing of this.
 

Nuts2U

Member
As someone who loooooves Mutant Mudds and the follow-up, knew about CW, and didn't care about the name, I still didn't buy it.

The gameplay just looks slow as hell, easy, and I'm not terribly interested in UGC. From everything I looked at, I just assumed it was a sort of "Baby's First Mutant Mudds" type of thing.

Granted, lots of good reviews, but even then I'm just not compelled to buy it.

The name IS awful though
 
Launching what looks like an average platformer, called Chicken Wiggle, at the awful 3DS eshop, at this point in time?

Can't say I'm surprised.
 
Mechatastrophe!

Hahah, that sounds good! May be a bit too light-hearted for the game; it's not exactly gritty, and it would be a great title if it was released as an 80's arcade (which is the style I'm going for), but nowadays pun-based, humorous or whimsical titles (like Chicken Wiggle) make people think of cheap or mobile games... :/

It is a bit... forgettable, yeah. It's too much of a description of what the game is, it'd be like calling Super Mario Bros. 'Jumping on Turtles'.

My advice would be to leave the naming decision until the game is more or less complete, rather than having it from the start.

I've been working on the game since January, it's not "complete" but it's been playable for months. I mean, at some point I have to design a title screen :D and also tell the world about the game, I've been putting off showing the game on the indie dev thread for too long...
 

Giga Man

Member
2be6ee1d7b2ea493b260864746ed4b33--mudd-the-mud.jpg

fred.png
 
The most popular game at the moment is called PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, which is just about the worst name for anything ever

It's not that simple

Treasurenauts is a fantastic name though, I'll give you that
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds follows a fairly old naming convention in the spirit of things like Sid Meier's Civilization.
Name of creator/important or well known person involved + word to describe game.

Apparently Chicken Wiggle is going for a Banjo Kazooie style name, but it just doesn't make the connection in peoples mind, since no one knows the characters
 

paulogy

Member
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds follows a fairly old naming convention in the spirit of things like Sid Meier's Civilization.
Name of creator/important or well known person involved + word to describe game.

Apparently Chicken Wiggle is going for a Banjo Kazooie style name, but it just doesn't make the connection in peoples mind, since no one knows the characters

Then the answer was there all along:

Jools Watsham's Chicken Wiggle
 
The game looks pretty good. Honestly bad name and no visibility seem to be the big reasons for lack of success. $15 is pretty steep too but the price can't stop you from buying something if you don't know it exists.
 

Gunstar Ikari

Unconfirmed Member
I mean, my 3DS is still seeing regular play (moreso than my Switch) and not even I check the eShop anymore. I'll probably take a look around when The Legend of Dark Witch 3 gets released, but not before and probably not after.

The crowd that cared about the 3DS eShop is more-or-less the same crowd that put down the system for good six months ago.

(Also, the name is terrible lol)
 
GameXplain put out a short preview play. It looks pretty good actually. The fact there is a level editor makes it much more appealing. When it goes on flash sale I'll dust off my 3DS and pick it up. Shame it didn't find an audience. On Switch I probably would have got it asap.
 
Hahah, not often do you see such unanimity on GAF.

By the way, this is probably as good a place to ask as anywhere else. I'm making a game that's a bit like Rampage (destroy buildings / tanks / planes) where the players control mecha that transform into mythological creatures . The tentative title is Mechanical Legend, but I'm not a native English speaker and some friends of mine who are have told me it soulds pretty generic / forgettable. Thoughts? Alternative ideas for the title?
City Stompers
Building Busters
Full Metal Mythology
 
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds follows a fairly old naming convention in the spirit of things like Sid Meier's Civilization.
Name of creator/important or well known person involved + word to describe game.

Except that's not the name.

The name of the game is:
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS

(Seriously, if they're going to use absurd casing for the game's name, they need to just take it)
 

Dot-N-Run

Member
I know of both Mutant Mudds and Xeodrifter, and try to keep up with 3ds games coming out. However, this thread was quite literally the first time I have ever heard of this game. There's no chance that I could just forget a name like Chicken Wiggle either. I mean the name doesn't really appeal to me, but at least it is memorable.
 
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