Crispy™ One person crash grab

[Mastermind]

If you just wanted to make a fairly simple (IE: pixel graphics) game aimed specifically to just be a cash grab what would you make?

My current project is coming along nicely but it won't be finished until late next summer at the earliest (realistically it'll probably drag into 2022 since I have school full time). But I'd also like to make some money in the meantime. Any ideas (or at least examples of types of games that sell well but don't require a lot of effort)?

 

[Angelo85]

If you desire to stoop so low, you could do a spiritual successor to

A title like "showering with your mom/daughter/sister/furry friend" should do the trick.

 

[shihonage]

Create a really simple mechanic and then give it meaning. The meaning has to be either funny, controversial, or something deeply pretentious that makes you contemplate the nature of existence.

For example, the Earth has been destroyed by mutants and you're the only male left to repopulate it. Make a Pac-Man clone where you run away from Mutants and chase after Ladies. When you run into one, a short animation plays with you and her hugging and little hearts popping up above, then a little baby slithers out from under her and crawls into the score-keeping readout in the middle of the map.

Make X babies to finish the level.

 

[Agame]

furry friend

Literally anything involving the above and you will have a certain subset of degenerate 'humans' buying it.

 

[Glop_dweller]

 

[The Avatar]

Any RPG Maker game.

 

[Ysaye]

Hmmm...interesting question - assuming you are not making your own genre defining game and you have to copy an existing genre, trawling the lists of "popular indie" games in Steam and GOG to find popular types of games suggest to me:

(1) Visual Novel - obviously (whilst you will still need some still images to accompany) it is generally less graphics intensive to create and there are already good engines out there for implementation. You will need a good plot, but it seems these days what easily passes is take a famous philosophical problem and jam it into a pseudo-school/university setting with some reason for girls to get into their swimwear that can be shown on the thumbnail. Either that or take some famous story and put it into a different time period and/or culture (Eg. Antony and Cleopatra... in a Space Opera).
(2) Rhythm game - Whilst this needs to COLOURFUL it can probably also be fairly simple in terms of graphic productions, and again plenty of easy ways to implement and just ramp up the difficulty from level to level by ramping up the speed. Catchy music would probably be the biggest investment here.
(3) Simulation - This surprised me looking at the popular list, but there are a LOT of simulations of boring simple things that apparently do well; everything from Truck Driving, Building a house, Fishing, Looking after a hospital, managing a shopping centre, Farming, put on a Party, Funeral management.....some of these rely on realistic graphics (though many also just use cutesy sprites), but at least they are the same graphics for the whole game. Controls will be a key component here - you will need controls that are usable and complex enough, but also simple enough that simpletons can at least do some things initially.

 

[Lord of Riva]

Porn. just make some low effort flash-level puzzle, shmup, plattformer with sexual anime content and get the cash rolling, better yet, make it halfway decent and riddle it with micro transactions.

 

[:Flash:]

Election Fraud Simulator
A game modeled on the American election system, where you have to achieve the desired outcome without getting detected.

 

[JarlFrank]

Porn. just make some low effort flash-level puzzle, shmup, plattformer with sexual anime content and get the cash rolling, better yet, make it halfway decent and riddle it with micro transactions.

The amount of hentai puzzles infesting every genre on Steam (RPG, Strategy, Simulation, etc) is staggering.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Election Fraud Simulator
A game modeled on the American election system, where you have to achieve the desired outcome without getting detected.

The last part of this statement is no longer a necessary component of the real-life gameplay, though.

 

[Lord of Riva]

Porn. just make some low effort flash-level puzzle, shmup, plattformer with sexual anime content and get the cash rolling, better yet, make it halfway decent and riddle it with micro transactions.

The amount of hentai puzzles infesting every genre on Steam (RPG, Strategy, Simulation, etc) is staggering.

And they still sell well, there is a never ending need for this. Naturally if you make something that has *some* effort in it you roll in cash.

 

[Citizen]

I would be sure to use as many buzzwords that make demented boomers throw money at shitty indies

Spoiler

Turn-based, Fallout-inspired, Choices and consequences, cRPG

 

[Krice]

Roguelike simulator. You can choose the type of dungeons to generate and create the world of your dreams!

 

[laclongquan]

If you just wanted to make a fairly simple (IE: pixel graphics) game aimed specifically to just be a cash grab what would you make?

My current project is coming along nicely but it won't be finished until late next summer at the earliest (realistically it'll probably drag into 2022 since I have school full time). But I'd also like to make some money in the meantime. Any ideas (or at least examples of types of games that sell well but don't require a lot of effort)?

I doubt you can get a commercial idea out of here. We are all somewhat like flawed game and unsuccesfully commercial game.

Still, about that idea. You can crank up a mech-design game where you design mech and launch them at random generated enemies (from a pool of already designed enemies) Think of a combo between mech commander and SMAC's design studio

 

[JarlFrank]

Porn. just make some low effort flash-level puzzle, shmup, plattformer with sexual anime content and get the cash rolling, better yet, make it halfway decent and riddle it with micro transactions.

The amount of hentai puzzles infesting every genre on Steam (RPG, Strategy, Simulation, etc) is staggering.

And they still sell well, there is a never ending need for this. Naturally if you make something that has *some* effort in it you roll in cash.

Personally I really like those SHMUPs where you have to shoot off the clothes of girls

There need to be way more erotic games where your goal is to destroy the clothes of female characters. I'm surprised that isn't more popular. Those things always sell well, too, as far as I can see.

 

[Tyranicon]

I gotcha bros, I'll launch the cash grab that makes the codex proud.

 

[Norfleet]

Kickstarter Scam Simulator, a game about running a Kickstarter scam.

 

[Mastermind]

If you just wanted to make a fairly simple (IE: pixel graphics) game aimed specifically to just be a cash grab what would you make?

My current project is coming along nicely but it won't be finished until late next summer at the earliest (realistically it'll probably drag into 2022 since I have school full time). But I'd also like to make some money in the meantime. Any ideas (or at least examples of types of games that sell well but don't require a lot of effort)?

I doubt you can get a commercial idea out of here. We are all somewhat like flawed game and unsuccesfully commercial game.

Still, about that idea. You can crank up a mech-design game where you design mech and launch them at random generated enemies (from a pool of already designed enemies) Think of a combo between mech commander and SMAC's design studio

Well I don't doubt smutty games would work, but I don't really want to make one.

The election interference suggestion has potential and I wish I had made this thread before my vacation so I could work on one during the winter. As it stands I think the time for it has passed (certainly the time I'd need to make an actual game has passed).

 

[flabbyjack]

Mobile game, duh.

Vampire farming game. Where you farm vampires which you redeem for jewels. You then use the jewels to farm new vampires.

The trick is making the vampires grow on a cooldown, but you scan speed it up if you just buy some smiggle-berries from the pay-to-win store.

 

[J_C]

If you desire to stoop so low, you could do a spiritual successor to

A title like "showering with your mom/daughter/sister/furry friend" should do the trick.

How is this possible? I'm spending effort on my games, taking years to make them, and selling basically nothing, and there comes a game like this and sells for tens of thousansd of copies (looking at the 6000 reviews).
It's unfair!

 

[Tyranicon]

I'm spending effort on my games, taking years to make them

Hey, I found your mistake. No need to thank me.

 

[shihonage]

If you desire to stoop so low, you could do a spiritual successor to

A title like "showering with your mom/daughter/sister/furry friend" should do the trick.

How is this possible? I'm spending effort on my games, taking years to make them, and selling basically nothing, and there comes a game like this and sells for tens of thousansd of copies (looking at the 6000 reviews).
It's unfair!

I know the feeling.