How can you break the "Curse of the Multiplayer Indie Game"? This is the question that numerous studios with a focus on online multiplayer-only titles no doubt ask themselves, and the solution isn't exactly simple. Here's the Catch-22 problem in a nutshell: You need players to populate your game servers, but people will only buy and play your game if they see it has people playing in the first place, otherwise there's no point in them joining in. Thus, building up a community for your game from the get-go -- or even before the real launch -- is key to breaking the curse. If you can't sustain at least a core community of players, your game is dead before it even truly begins. DoubleDutch Games and Tinybuild Games, the pair of teams behind 2D platforming racing game Speedrunners, understand this all too well. Their game, essentially a 2D platforming take on the classic Micro Machines series, is online-multiplayer only, and relies heavily on having other people to race against. The developers are putting plenty of focus on making sure this curse doesn't fall upon them. They announced last week that the game will be free-to-play when it launches fully on Steam next year -- the local multiplayer options will be free to all, while the online multiplayer will be available through DLC/in-app purchase. The hope is that people will pick up the local version, play with friends, discover they enjoy it, and purchase the full package to take their exploits online, therefore boosting online player numbers. But it's not just the free-to-play route that the team is hoping will keep the curse at bay. Talking to Gamasutra, developer Casper van Est explained that taking the alpha-funding route is helping the game to build a community before it's released. "We're using this alpha build as a way of interacting with the community and seeing what kind of features they like, and how the game plays, and if there are things that need to be improved," he said. "It gives us a lot of ways to interact with people and get their opinions on the game, and make it better than before." This provides a safe environment for the team to fiddle around with weapons, level design and options, and even throw a few weird elements in here and there to see how the community reacts.

Themed Thursday

Of course, there are other studios already using alpha builds to gather a community together. But the Speedrunners team is trying out something a little bit different -- weekly themed gameplay elements. Each Thursday, the game is renamed for a day, and updated with some new weapon, or art style, or gameplay element. Speedhookers, for example, saw every item replaced with the grappling hook, while Speedrapture saw missiles constantly falling from the sky, forcing players to take undercover routes as much as possible. "Initially when we didn't have a lot of players, and it was difficult for players to find opponents," notes van Est. "It was the Curse of the Multiplayer Indie Game." "The Thursday events were designed for having the community congregate around a certain date," he continues. "They also allow us to experiment with different mechanics and ways of playing the game. For example, Speedhookers, where all the items were grappling hooks, gave players a lot of insight into great ways to use the grappling hook, and all the things you can do with it." These events allow the team to make the game feel just that little bit different, he adds, and from a design standpoint, it has turned out to be a hell of a lot of fun for the studio. But it's not as simple as it may sound, as the balance between community events and actually progressing with development of the game has been a sticking point. "I think we're still trying to find a balance with that," he admits. "In the beginning when the community was quite small, we could be involved in the community a lot, and it didn't take us all that much time." But as Tinybuild's Tom Brien notes, "It turned out that community stuff was taking up all of our time, so we couldn't catch up on introducing new levels. It's been hard trying to find a balance. We can do interesting stuff like this, but we're such a small team." Adds van Est, "I really enjoy being involved in the community, and the interaction with people. But at some point, it's taking up a lot of our time. So in the beginning I was very active, but that's cooling down a little bit now, and I'm trying to find a balance in having good interaction with people, but not so active that it takes up all my time." In general, though, the team very much believes that all of its interaction with the community, and creating special events for people to feel a part of, is a great way to break the Curse of the Multiplayer Indie Game. "I think being very involved in the community and running lots of interesting events, that can make people feel part of the game more, really helps," says van Est. Watch the full video interview on Gamasutra.