>I've been wondering for a while, how does one make a game that's Pewdepie/Tobuscus/Markiplier/Youtube e-cancer proof?
First: What does the Youtuber thrive on?
- Something to react to. Whether staged or genuine, the youtuber plays something to get the biggest reaction. Something scary, sudden tonal shifts, or something "awesome". Putting sex appeal alone doesn't do the job since they just joke about it.
- Something easy… or extremely "hard". Either the youtuber can complete it for a full "Let's Play", or something where he can constantly (feign) getting angry and losing. Not the game doesn't need to actually be challenging and hard, if a solution isn't obvious then they'll cry it's unfair ("I charged in blindly- how did I not see the enemy behind the door?!")
- Tween/Little Brother audience appeal. The audience of these youtubers are often made up of young boys and girls. The boys want 18+ tits and gore, but they'll settle for a guy acting like a "faggot" to amuse them. Tweens like what they are told- especially if it comes from an "attractive" male youtuber. Usually gravitate to the simpler graphic style of indie trash.
- Audience interaction. Rename a party of characters? They rename them after the people watching their show, or running gags. This isn't essential though.
- Money. If people aren't watching it- they'll stop. If a company is paying them on the sly to shill it, you'll see lots of videos about it and praise.
So, based on the above theory on what works for a youtuber- what will stop them?
- Little spectacle. Not everything needs to be like Platinum Games. A more quiet, slower, somber tone might make the game look "boring"- but those who crave the strategy or even a genuinely mature or serious story will stick with it. Guess what sort of people aren't in a youtuber's audience?
- High Spec. Sure these youtubers have great rigs (actually pre-built trash), but I'd bet they can't run capture software, recording software, and a Crysis high-end tier graphics. This is just IMO.
- Their audience can not complete the game. Do you think a tween could beat the original Mario Bros? Or a Persona game? Or that Red-something FPS where you can be killed by something you didn't even see? They might still buy the game, and watch the ending on youtube though. And then bitch it's "too hard" in the reviews and comments…
- Ignore and don't appeal in any way to that audience.
Lets say you're making an RPG. Bit tricky, often NEED to use debuffs and buffs to beat tougher enemies. And bosses aren't just a slug fest to see if you can out-heal him before he kills you- it's a puzzle that needs to be observed and worked out. Then the aesthetics is something like a seasonal-fan service anime. Tits abound. You've got a pretty good target audience in mind.
Target Audiences are your goal. Most AAA aim for "The bottom half". Casuals who buy whats popular, with lower skill than the top half. They don't care about age or gender (until they need to signal virtue) they want to deceive as many people thinking it's a game designed just for them- when really it's designed to be a bit of everything and appeal to everyone- right until they actually play it and realize it's trash.
AAA wants everyone to play. You don't. Niche means more in-depth feedback, a more connected target audience that will talk about your work ("Hey, someone finally made a new challenging RPG with waifus, check it out"), and less competition.