[*] About Starter Kits

Hello everyone,

I'm planning to create some game starter kits, but preferably content that you all could love, a product that would satisfy your needs. So i'd like to ask some questions to make sure i'm following the right path;

1) Would you use a starter kit composed of scripts only?
(the bare bones that are the mere gameplay/business logic)
A kit composed of scripts-only could happen for just some cases, most shall come with all required assets to have at least an example scene)

2) What do you value the most in a starter kit?
(documentation / examples / ease of use / well documented code / scalability / obsessive look and feel of a well known game title / anything else ???)

3) How important is for you to get a mobile version?
(given that it's appropriate and that the kit does fit for a mobile version)

4) Are you interested in starter kits that do clone existing game titles?
(for example a "silent hill" starter kit, in the sense that it would allow you to build a new game with the same logic. A kit like this would be accompanied by an example demo that looks and feels like the game title it's based on)

5) What starter kit you must absolutely have?

Thanks!

 

It's nice that someone would take the time to pitch in with something like this.

A starter kit sounds like a good idea to pack most of the information you need to get started together in one place. Now it depends what you mean by starter kit. If it's for new Unity users, it's a good idea to have both ease of use and well documented code to ease the learning path. But if you mean starter kits for already experienced users, to save them the bother of creating the basics, then scalability sounds like a better idea, something basic they can use to build more complex features on, without having to go through the basics routine.

I'm biased towards PC so I can't really address the mobile issue objectively but I don't think cloning existing titles is such a good idea. It's a little too specific, maybe genre-based (shooters, rts, rpg, point-and-click) would be better.

 

Well you can look at the complete projects section and see what are the top paid and top grossing. So it would probably better off doing something like "Horror game starter kit" rather than a silent hill starter kit because then more people would be able to use it (rather than very niche which is only people wanting to make a silent hill game).

I think a clone of silent hill without any art assets would be useless.

 

The most valuable thing is support . If you refuse to support a customer he will do 2 things .

First , ask you or the asset store staff for a refund . If he can not obtain one, he will leave a review detailing how he was left high and dry by you .
For this reason i'd suggest against just offering a collection of scripts , for the love of god please at least half a demo scene set up so your customers can figure out how to use it .

Documentation is key as well, if you just think someone will want to read comments all day to figure out how your code works, your mistaken...

THIS IS FOR packages on which you charge money, if its free people are more willing to put time into learning it , even without documentation .

 

While I personally wouldn't buy a starter kit.. I'll give you my opinion on what I think would make a good starter kit

1) Would you use a starter kit composed of scripts only?
No, I would think most people using starter kits would want to see the scripts in action, a simple demo scene with each script showcasing what it can do and how it's setup in the editor.

2) What do you value the most in a starter kit?
Great documentation and very well commented code. And the most important is good support. You may want to setup a forum so people can search for previously answered questions on your starter kits, which saves you having to answer the same questions over.

3) How important is for you to get a mobile version?
If you're doing a starter kit, there's a very good chance that your customers target platform is mobile.
Add this as a selling point and you may have another customer.

4) Are you interested in starter kits that do clone existing game titles?
Definately.. many people out there want to clone their favourite games. In fact I believe one of the main reasons people get into game dev is they want to create a game like one of their favourites.

 

Perfect!

Not many did answer as I was expecting, but got some real interesting information from you!
This will get me started in the right direction, expect some stuff in the future.

thank you very much!