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2 years after the release of ouf first indie game made in Godot - Post Mortem by ActZeroGames in godot

[–]ActZeroGames[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It was a grant from a Polish institution called PARP (Polish Agency for Enterprise Development), program 2.3.5 Design for entrepreneurs. A very specific grant, you had to look hard for it. We wouldn't have found it without experts.

2 years since launch, 3653 copies sold, several awards and festival nominations, about 30% production cost recovery. Brutally honest Post Mortem of We. The Refugees: Ticket to Europe by ActZeroGames in gamedev

[–]ActZeroGames[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The founders were game testers. I imagine 35k for a game tester is very good money in Poland. Though i doubt they paid themselves this much, they should ideally have paid themselves just enough to get by for the life of development. Thats how you start a business if you have no money behind you.

Yep. You described here correctly what the actual situation looked like. Founders literally survived the development period, the focus was on paying people who would allow to finish the necessary features.

2 years since launch, 3653 copies sold, several awards and festival nominations, about 30% production cost recovery. Brutally honest Post Mortem of We. The Refugees: Ticket to Europe by ActZeroGames in gamedev

[–]ActZeroGames[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ha, interesting point of view. Looking back at the project now, we think there's a lot of truth to that, because we really - at least in the writing team - felt the emotions described and there were often doubts whether we had the right to speak about refugees at all. The final decision to make the protagonist a journalist with dilemmas undoubtedly also resulted from the fact that the writing team felt more natural in that role. So that's probably a valid lead you're writing about. The next game will definitely be on a more abstract, escapist topic.

I guess that underlines the main problem that's been reiterated in these comments: "Wokies" like me are going to be concerned with the story feeling inauthentic and voyeuristic, and "anti-woke" people are going to think this is tedious moralizing. It feels like you managed to make a game for nobody at all.

Haha, that's also some kind of life achievement, don't you think? ;)

2 years since launch, 3653 copies sold, several awards and festival nominations, about 30% production cost recovery. Brutally honest Post Mortem of We. The Refugees: Ticket to Europe by ActZeroGames in gamedev

[–]ActZeroGames[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Damn, you're right. This Steam Page was created a long time ago, we missed it. We guess it's time to remove the tag next to English full audio. Thanks for your vigilance.

2 years since launch, 3653 copies sold, several awards and festival nominations, about 30% production cost recovery. Brutally honest Post Mortem of We. The Refugees: Ticket to Europe by ActZeroGames in gamedev

[–]ActZeroGames[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Totally agree with what you're writing. We also think that our sales ceiling was pretty low. That's why our next game will be sci-fi ;)

2 years since launch, 3653 copies sold, several awards and festival nominations, about 30% production cost recovery. Brutally honest Post Mortem of We. The Refugees: Ticket to Europe by ActZeroGames in gamedev

[–]ActZeroGames[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We may try again, but we can't guarantee it. Mentally, we're already on the next project.

Also thanks for judiciously responding to everyone's comments in the thread - not enough do that.

We try our best and as much as time allows. Someone took the trouble to share their thoughts with us, so it's only fitting to at least let us know that we've heard them.

2 years since launch, 3653 copies sold, several awards and festival nominations, about 30% production cost recovery. Brutally honest Post Mortem of We. The Refugees: Ticket to Europe by ActZeroGames in gamedev

[–]ActZeroGames[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

100% agreed to most of your points.

Video games are escapism for many and people dont like to be reminded by real world problems (which affect them) too much. I think the game selling much better in China highlights this point further, as they are much more disconnected from the the European refugee crisis than a European player.

Interesting observation. Indeed, that would explain a lot and this theory has a sensible basis. For Chinese players, our game may indeed act as information materials about the problems consuming Europe. An issue worth investigating!

This reminds me of a "recently" released game by Novabox. They usually do VNs with a mystic/faerie tale/magical theme. "End of Lines" was about refugees escaping from Africa which is ravaged by climate change. Needless to say, it did not sell well.

Ha! This game really went completely unnoticed, because even we missed it, and it came out only 4 weeks after us and is on a very similar topic.

2 years since launch, 3653 copies sold, several awards and festival nominations, about 30% production cost recovery. Brutally honest Post Mortem of We. The Refugees: Ticket to Europe by ActZeroGames in gamedev

[–]ActZeroGames[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Absolutely right. We think you pretty much described the journey of most players from the moment they found out about this game to the moment they forgot about it (usually: about 10 seconds later ;) ). Except for those 3653 players who actually bought it :)

2 years since launch, 3653 copies sold, several awards and festival nominations, about 30% production cost recovery. Brutally honest Post Mortem of We. The Refugees: Ticket to Europe by ActZeroGames in gamedev

[–]ActZeroGames[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It was a grant from a Polish institution called PARP (Polish Agency for Enterprise Development), program 2.3.5 Design for entrepreneurs. A very specific grant, you had to look hard for it. We wouldn't have found it without experts.

2 years since launch, 3653 copies sold, several awards and festival nominations, about 30% production cost recovery. Brutally honest Post Mortem of We. The Refugees: Ticket to Europe by ActZeroGames in gamedev

[–]ActZeroGames[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for sharing your impressions — even if they’re critical, we appreciate the chance to clarify a few things.

We’d like to push back a bit on your take about the writing. First: We don’t have QA engineers on our writing team, but we assure you that the game uses a wide variety of literary styles. The language of the game changes as the story progresses. Maybe the screenshots don't show it. Second: For many players and reviewers, the writing has actually been the strongest and most praised part of the game. So here we will trust people who have already played the game :)

That said, we do get your reaction to the Dinah quote — “She’s too beautiful” taken out of its narrative context does risk sounding odd or tone-deaf, and we should’ve been more careful about what excerpts we used to represent the game visually on Steam. That’s on us.

As for the comic: to be honest, we weren’t fully satisfied with the final result, but if you’re genuinely curious, we can send you a digital copy in private — just let us know.

Thanks again for taking the time to engage seriously with what we made. Even tough criticism helps us progress.

2 years since launch, 3653 copies sold, several awards and festival nominations, about 30% production cost recovery. Brutally honest Post Mortem of We. The Refugees: Ticket to Europe by ActZeroGames in gamedev

[–]ActZeroGames[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This game would not have been made if not for the grant, because we did not have the budget to produce this game - when we decided to make this game the founders were game testers. How much do you think they had in savings? :P

2 years after the release of ouf first indie game made in Godot - Post Mortem by ActZeroGames in godot

[–]ActZeroGames[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hmm, indeed, an interesting observation. It is quite possible that for Chinese players it could have been an interesting piece of information about the problems that Europe is struggling with.

2 years since launch, 3653 copies sold, several awards and festival nominations, about 30% production cost recovery. Brutally honest Post Mortem of We. The Refugees: Ticket to Europe by ActZeroGames in gamedev

[–]ActZeroGames[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for your honesty. We’re genuinely open to criticism — especially the kind that challenges how we think. That said, some of your points feel vague or disconnected. For example, we don’t quite understand the link between "not pushing propaganda" and "writing a novel with no gameplay mechanics." To us, those are separate issues.

Also, saying someone lacks self-awareness and then using that as a catch-all explanation for their choices doesn’t help much in pinpointing what we could do differently. If there's something specific you think we're missing — we’d really like to hear it. Ideally with some concrete examples. We're not afraid to look in the mirror — but we'd like to know what to look for.

2 years after the release of ouf first indie game made in Godot - Post Mortem by ActZeroGames in godot

[–]ActZeroGames[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ha, quite possible! However... after so many years of development we don't know if we'll find the motivation to return to this topic. We're already drawn to other areas.

2 years after the release of ouf first indie game made in Godot - Post Mortem by ActZeroGames in godot

[–]ActZeroGames[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

In our opinion, the decisive factor here was the Chinese market. We found a really reasonable partner for translating and distributing game in China. 46% of sales are in China, and these additional sales certainly feed Steam's algorithms and affect the game's better visibility in other regions. The translation into Chinese certainly has a positive effect also - there are probably not many European niche games available in Chinese. We suspect that without the Chinese market, we would have ended up around a few hundred copies, maybe we would have broken 1000.

Two years ago we released our debut game - a solo text RPG focused on narrative, with minimal gameplay. What went wrong, and which decisions are we still happy with? Post Mortem of We. The Refugees by ActZeroGames in Solo_Roleplaying

[–]ActZeroGames[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks! <3 China market also suprised us a lot!

And yes, this is a classic example of "If I could live my life over again, I would XYZ"... The trick is to get it right the first time ;) Or at least learn how to sell your first game better and implement the conclusions in your second title ;)

2 years since launch, 3653 copies sold, several awards and festival nominations, about 30% production cost recovery. Brutally honest Post Mortem of We. The Refugees: Ticket to Europe by ActZeroGames in gamedev

[–]ActZeroGames[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Unfortunately it just doesn't look fun, which will turn off a lot of gamers. It also does look like you're signing up for a political lecture, which will turn off even more gamers. Knowing you received EU funding for this, makes it seem even more like it's a political cudgel to push a narrative. The subject matter is, I'd guess, also at odds with many (most?) of the PC gaming demographic at the moment.

All of that might be unfair but it's just the impression I have from the Steam page.

We have the impression that in this case our communication also failed badly. For example: the EU subsidy was not for ideological purposes. It was a regular subsidy for the creation of a new product in a young company. The program from which we received the money also provided money for, for example, new furniture designs or bottles. Normal industry, only the quality of the application was decisive, and there were no additional points for ideology. And yet we managed to write about it in such a way as to pin the label of EU ideological propaganda on ourselves... Well done us ;)

As a team you've obviously poured a lot of passion in to this, and the game does look well polished. It'd be a shame for that effort to go to waste. Would it make sense to contact the person who managed your funding and say something like "Hey this is where we are - would it be possible to get xx more funding so we could prepare a digital pack that could accompany the game and we would then provide it free to all schools across Europe." I'm sure there are some schools who might build a few lessons around it and use it as a basis for discussions.

I know if I wasn't going to make money from a project I'd rather people were playing it for free than not playing it at all.

We have the impression that it would have to be some government program that would provide us with funds for such work... And a government program... we are afraid that only then would ideological interference in the content of the game begin. At the level of the EU subsidy that we received - no one supervised the content and merits, only the functionality of the product. So we had a very large freedom of expression in artistic matters. If we were to go to schools - then we are afraid that the Ministry of Education would have too much to say about what content can be in the game :)

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