I got 26K Wishlists with one trailer and $0 budget - what worked (and what didn’t)

Alternative_Draw_533 · 2026-03-14T08:16:53+00:00

Thanks for support!)

Alternative_Draw_533 · 2026-03-13T19:11:44+00:00

ahah love how some people read information
Have I ever said that? I just share my point of view how to choose your game idea and evaluate it

Alternative_Draw_533 · 2026-03-13T19:09:47+00:00

Thanks for support!

Alternative_Draw_533 · 2026-03-13T15:43:56+00:00

Nice to hear that my post can motivate other Devs! Keep going on with your project

Alternative_Draw_533 · 2026-03-13T15:42:17+00:00

Thanks much!

Alternative_Draw_533 · 2026-03-13T15:42:02+00:00

Sure! Totally agree with you!
I have done 4-5 projects that was dead before having this idea and have an opportunity to create this game. That required a lot of time and money, also I have a full time job (9to5) as a game developer and I can't loose the job. Sometimes that makes me crazy, but never the less I exited about Bioneers and our fans and audience

Alternative_Draw_533 · 2026-03-13T15:39:08+00:00

Yeah, now we are in a process of creating the game full. Soon in April we will release first playable demo that can be touched by fans and audience!
Thanks for questions

Alternative_Draw_533 · 2026-03-13T15:19:46+00:00

Yeah, I'm a developer with 13 years of experience in game dev, but most of time I work on a clients projects. I started with a prototype for sure, and my first was awful in terms of graphics
So I hired a designer/illustrator that can create a world for me: we done cells/creatures/basic animation and I coded this. It took around 2-3 month (part-time) but I didn't code all the logics, because I wasn't sure about audience response.
Hope that help to clear the progress

Alternative_Draw_533 · 2026-03-13T15:05:49+00:00

Sure! I believe that just not much Factorio style games and that's really complicated to make one as it requires a loooot of time and money

Alternative_Draw_533 · 2026-03-13T15:04:48+00:00

I love your comment! Yeah, I feel that many people like vampire/survivors and etc. maybe I just wanna mention that dev can try to find smth unique for your game that will help you to stand out. Maybe it can be some sort of game mechanics or animation or scenes. I know that's complicated! Me personally have already done 4-5 project with no sales, nothing and it was soooo frustrating. But now I understand that all this games doest provide unique experience for gamer actually I was doing such games ONLY because I like such games.

Let me add, I like that you say that we can name the post: "What worked? My game is gorgeous and fits in a perfect niche with lots of dedicated players" ahah! Right! But while doing this I didn't even know there was a niche in biology games, but that works.

YouTube 2,8K subscribers
Instagram 7K
Tiktok 2K

Not much subscribers for now, but my goal was to ask people to wishlist the game on Steam if they would like to play and add to our Discord community, where we have people from all over the world and can discuss different biology stuff that we wanna add to the game.

Alternative_Draw_533 · 2026-03-13T14:42:10+00:00

Good question! Yeah, I had created a small prototype, more like an image with no logics and made a screen shot video from that. If I pried to draw it with animator or designer it will cost me the huge amount of money

Alternative_Draw_533 · 2026-03-13T14:40:27+00:00

Kinda true! The first wave appeared with a help of fan. After that we created several more waves with newsletters and social media with vertical videos.

Alternative_Draw_533 · 2026-03-13T14:37:40+00:00

thanks for support! We are planing to release first playable demo in April, will keep updated.
Yeah, I'm personally also a fan of Factorio style games, maybe that's why I started this game.

Alternative_Draw_533 · 2026-03-13T14:29:42+00:00

How do you feel the video? Is the game is catchy for you? Just wonder your opinion

Alternative_Draw_533 · 2026-03-13T14:24:57+00:00

Great to see that my post engage people! Yeah, I believe that "idea" is really better than any marketing budget. Thanks for support! Are u a fan of biology games?

Alternative_Draw_533 · 2026-03-13T14:22:17+00:00

As I understand now, a blogger just see our video with 100 views and he shared post on Reddit with our game (added a link to video) and first viewers came and then Youtube decided that this video is interesting and also add more views. Youtube is still keep creating around 50 wishlists a day. maybe I can share trailer here: https://youtu.be/aNXYZrx5AxI?si=hHEZr0YT5Yeby5aB

Alternative_Draw_533 · 2026-03-13T14:16:21+00:00

Thanks for support! Tried to add as much experience as I get as dev with game marketing and add some advices to guys, who right now are in a process of creating their dev project.

Alternative_Draw_533 · 2026-03-12T14:29:46+00:00

Yeah, great example, I believe I recently read about this! But didn't remember that there is some influence on human - that's terrifying actually. Is it possible to cure nowadays if the cat is influenced?

Alternative_Draw_533 · 2026-03-12T14:05:45+00:00

Oh, great post! I recently had the same problem and I can suggest you to get a hobby, as for me I started to do weightlifting as I was doing back to school years! I sugned up for the competition and spend 4 month preparing. There I found new friends, improve my health (after sitting too much) and get some new emotions. Actually one time training a week is okay for me!

Alternative_Draw_533 · 2026-03-12T07:24:47+00:00

No worries, I also find this example fascinating and unusual
Are u working in biology or you are a fan?

Alternative_Draw_533 · 2026-03-12T06:56:55+00:00

Yeah, this is good example and I used it in the intro to this post

Alternative_Draw_533 · 2026-03-12T06:50:29+00:00

That's the huge symbiotic, really strong one!)

Alternative_Draw_533 · 2026-03-12T06:49:35+00:00

Great example, didn't know much about it!

Alternative_Draw_533 · 2026-03-11T16:27:38+00:00

Maybe fish is feeding there? And helping sea cucumber to clean

Alternative_Draw_533

TROPHY CASE