Raising the Bar: Avoiding a Failed Sequel to Your Game

“You should definitely check out the first game.  But ignore all the ones after that.  They’re all crap.”

“I enjoyed the first movie, but by the time they got to the second and third film, it was just more of the same, and I had already seen the same.  Boring.”

“The first one had such soul, but the second was just an attempt at a cheap way to make more money.”

How often have you heard phrases like this?  Welcome to the hazardous world of sequels.

Super Mario Galaxy 2, the latest massive title in the world’s most successful video game franchise, is currently on track to match the seemingly impossibly-high quality bar set by its predecessor.  Reviewers are floored by the first ever 3D sequel to a Mario game on the same platform, calling it a “dazzling high water mark in Mario’s career”.

While making a game like Super Mario Galaxy is an incredible feat in itself, following a successful title up with a sequel or spin-off is often a far greater challenger for a game developer.  Sequels are seldom seen from members of the student or independent game development community for several reasons.  First and most distressing, many student game projects never get completed in the first place, much less built into a sequel or follow up title.  There is less of a profit incentive for young game developers to create a sequel; it’s seemingly much more interesting to come up with an entirely new idea.  Out with the old, in with the new.

Second, many independent developers have a bitter view of sequels.  While original new titles are often viewed as artistic visionary products, sequels can be seen as money-grubbing attempts for a corporate machine to pump more dollars out of what used to be a piece of art, turning it into a soulless hunk of code.  The marketplace is flooded with poorly executed sequels that not only fail to please their original fans, they tarnish the name of the original product that was once praised.

But creators of small but successful games would do well to consider creating a sequel.  Making a second title out of your game provides many new game development challenges that just never appear when making an entirely new title, questions needing answers that will round out and improve anyone’s game education.  Additionally, game development companies are built on the concept of successful games becoming franchises, taking the old and making it new again.  Learning the ins and outs of making a sequel is valuable experience.

However, if those arguments don’t persuade you to open your heart up to sequels, consider this: if a sequel is executed well enough, then fans will love it.  The reason that fans despise failed sequels so much is because they so desperately want a good sequel.  They want to feel that magic over again, to relive the experiences that they once had.  When their expectations aren’t met, they lash out.  But when they are met, as in the case of Super Mario Galaxy 2, it will be quite a while before they run out of things to praise.

Expectation Management

A successful sequel is difficult to do.  Very difficult. The first title, being as successful as it was, set the standards high. Conceived in a blue-sky environment, anything goes, any idea was valid, and the game could go anywhere.  Well, now it’s gone somewhere, and thankfully that was somewhere that players enjoyed.  But in a sequel, the chalk lines have been drawn on the ground.  There are boundaries, and if you decide to cross them, you had better have good reason.  This game that you are making is no longer owned solely by you, it is owned by the fans as well.  This can be a bit of an ego hit to developers who like to believe they aren’t influenced by the masses, but arguably, creating something that pleases both yourself and others is an even greater challenge and display of development skill.

Thus, making a good sequel is a task of expectation management.  Not only your own expectations, but now that the first game has been played, players have ideas of their own about what a sequel should be like.  And whether you like it or not, your game is going to be scored against those expectations.  Prepare for some high hurdles.

There are three conceptual hurdles to overcome when seeking to create a great sequel.  Acknowledging each and asking the right questions can help you create a sequel with a higher chance of being embraced by the fan based and strengthening your own “franchise”.

Bar One: The Previous Game

The first bar to get over is the one set by the previous game.  If your title was an action game where the hero could equip 15 weapons, then that is where the bar is set.  Releasing a sequel where the player can only use 8 weapons will not cut it without some major explaining.  Calling something a “sequel” brings up expectations of a similar amount of value or bang for the buck.  Anything less and it should be called an “expansion pack”, which is another good way to extend the life of a game.

Following in the footsteps of the first game should be the easiest hurdle.  Some content must be changed, new characters must be made, but the format is well defined and the gameplay/technical systems are in place.  Follow the path that you know works can get you started on the path to another hit.

Questions to ask yourself while confronting this first bar is:

• What are the most important components to keep from my first game?
• What are the things that set my first game apart?  What, if changed, would change what game it was?
• What are the things that were extraneous or not that important to the overall experience?  Do I want to keep those?

Bar Two: Fan Expectations

Many young creators get upset when they feel they have been taken hostage by their fans, feeling like they no longer have control over something they created.  More mature developers and artists at large recognize that their ideas are often bigger than themselves, and that their fans are passionately dedicated to the idea that their original game was pursuing.  As a result, fan expectations can be used as a good barometer to plot out the decisions for a sequel or expansion moving forward.

These are the parts of your sequel that have, in a way, been plotted out for you.  If everyone was expecting the sequel to let you actually ride Yoshi, then it had better be in there or at least the expectation should be dealt with, not ignored.  If not, you could miss points on something that seemed to be optional.

Questions to ask yourself while overcoming this second bar may be:

• Have I talked to fans and players of my first game?  Have I read online forums and gotten opinions?
• Do I know what the main criticisms of the first game were?  How will I respond to them?
• Do I know what people loved most about my first game?  How will I deal with that feedback?

Bar Three: The Visionary Path

“…a significant part of the experience is brand new” is what many people said about Super Mario Galaxy 2.  After clearing the first two bars of living up the original, tackling the expectations of the fans, the sequel can then continue to keep going further into new territory, gameplay and levels that the fans didn’t fully even imagine themselves.  This final bar is often the deciding factor between a sequel that is embraced or just accepted.  This is the developer’s chance to go beyond, far beyond, and wow players with what they didn’t know they so strongly wanted.

A well executed visionary game will provide experiences that go past first game into new territory that hadn’t been touched before.  Some of these choices may be controversial; fans may disagree with the direction that the game has taken, and it’s up to the developer to decide which rules to follow and which to break.  But a game that adds new components allows a developer a stable platform for the innovative choices that were available in the making of the first game.

Questions to ask yourself while tackling this final bar could be:

• What trends do I notice in the first game?  Where do those trends lead if they were to be continued?
• What experience did my first game really appeal to?  If I were to remake my first game with that experience in mind, would I do the same thing?
• What parts of my first game was hindering what I really wanted to do?  What players wanted to do?  How will I compensate if I remove those parts?

Give the People What They Want!

Players crave enjoyable game experiences.  If a game you’ve made, or even a small level that you’ve shown to just a few of your friends shows promise, then you are already half way there in giving them more of what they’ve already told you they wanted.  Fight good fight and extend your success; you may find that you greatest artistic achievement is in copying yourself.

Question for readers: What game sequels were you incredibly pleased with?  Which ones let you down?  Where did they go wrong or go right?  Leave comments below.

Photo: jeaninebesemer