Is it worth syncing game state across devices for a small puzzle game?

duthomhas

I have been developing a small game that implements an unusual sudoku variant. Initially my own desire was to have a simple game that doesn’t care about the outside world and didn’t dial out for anything.

But everyone I talk to says “leaderboards”, so I’m looking at them... and along with it is the ability to save state in the cloud so that users can pick up any device, sign in, and play.

But... the game is so simple...

There is some power-up / achievement / level unlocking, but that really just comes from playing the game anyway. The worst that would happen is you delete the game from the device and download it again and have to play from the start to unlock levels and stuff again — which, given the relative simplicity of the game is probably not an issue?

Would it be a waste of my time to implement this feature now? Or should I have my beta testers tell me whether they ever find themselves wanting the feature?

(I’ve never published a game like this before...)

Megalomaniak

I don't think there is anything explicitly wrong with "dialing out" so long as it's clear to the end user when it happens and why it happens. I do agree however that it's probably worth implementing bare minimum necessary if anything at all though.

meggeki

Well, while I'd say it makes sense to implement some sort of save and transfer... it seems like you really aren't excited about this, in fact you seem to be quite against it.

Go with your priority here. If you want to prioritize the majority of the players, go with majority of the players. If you prioritize the feeling you have when enjoying your game, go with your personal feeling on this one.

"Rationality" really isn't needed here. Just as the previous comment says though, be clear about it if you are sharing the game.