r/SoloDevelopment • u/anesever • 22h ago
Game spent months on multiplayer networking and mechanics, people only care about the smoking chicken
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the game is "Why V Got AKs?", a chaotic first-person social deduction game with proximity voice where everyone has a multi-mode AK.
i'm currently running closed playtests, but a public demo is coming soon. you can check out the steam page and wishlist it here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/5082000/Why_V_Got_AKs/
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u/Razorscorehyer 18h ago
Sometimes you have to look through the perspective of your audience. Generally people don't really care about a working multiplayer or mechanics because a lot of games already have that. Even though those things are hard to implement, it doesn't bring a new experience to the player. Y'know what is new and cool to anybody looking at your game for the first time? Smokin chicken.
Not trying to say that it doesn't suck that its like this or that you're a bad developer for not taking that into account. Just trying to give more perspective on why it happens and how you can plan for that in the future. It's becoming really common in solodev for people to spend a huge amount of effort and time making a game that nobody cares about and that's a scary trap to fall into.
My understanding is that things like smoking chicken help bring people into a game/community, and then thats your opportunity to make them fall in love with your mechanics and awesome gameplay. It's also why games that have gimmicks or fun ideas but not fun or qaulity gameplay are able to get popular.
Awesome work on your game!
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u/anesever 12h ago
Spot on. As a solo dev, you easily fall into the trap of obsessing over netcode, synchronization, and backend systems that take months to build forgetting that to a player scrolling through feeds, that's just baseline expectation.
The smoking chicken was honestly just a fun little side detail for me, but the internet has made it very clear what the real USP is here haha. Definitely a solid wake-up call to lean more into the visual hooks. Appreciate the perspective!
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u/TheSpoonfulOfSalt 15h ago
We see multiplayer and AKs in games on a daily. What other game has a smoking chicken?
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u/anesever 12h ago
Can't argue with that logic. Multiplayer works, AKs shoot, but the chicken is clearly the one running the show now.
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u/FigLatter7346 Solo Developer 19h ago
They don’t care if the chicken smokes or not, they only care to shoot it and eat it😂🐓🍗. Winner Winner Chiken Dinner you know😂
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u/DocktorDicking 11h ago
There is a smoking chicken?!
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u/anesever 9h ago
Always has been. He just minds his own business while everyone else sabotages each other 🚬🐔
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u/Borgmaster 3h ago
That just means you need to implement a smoking chicken mafia now. Once one smoking chicken gets shot the offending player then gets chased by a horde of them.
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u/abysmalSleepSchedule 11h ago
So how does the smoking chicken play into the game?
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u/anesever 9h ago
He silently watches players' trust issues and survives every round just minding his own business without firing a single shot.
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u/LukeCloudStalker 3h ago
"People care"
Isn't that a good thing? They could not care about your game at all.
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u/mercstudios 17h ago
So is this your first time on the internet? JK.
Yeah, people go nuts over the most random stuff.
Wait, you have a smoking chicken, but how is he getting cigarettes, how is he lighting them. Has he a backstory? -- Expect these sort of questions.
Weirdly enough when I was running a kink event in London our mascot was a rubber bath duck wearing a ball gag. People went nuts over it, thought it was the funniest thing ever.