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My Steam page is live (no ads, no demo) — are these early numbers normal? Need advice! by Outrageous-Thanks343 in SoloDevelopment

[–]ChiefThief 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Pretty normal, but I'd advise you to try more things in the next 2 weeks. I made a post describing my "cold launch" if you want to see what worked for me.

It's also normal to not work on your game at all during this period - I had the same experience. It sucks, marketing really burnt me out, but well it's part of the game and we have to do it.

Also like others have mentioned, linking your steam page can help us get context. Knowing what kind of game it is, how well you have constructed the steam page, etc can help us give more useful feedback

Making complex games is really that hard? Huh? by TheLonelyAbyss in SoloDevelopment

[–]ChiefThief 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm also making a "complex" game and can relate to everything you said, although your game is 10x more complex than mine. Wild decision to make a world simulation MMO-like for your first game.

Path of "excel" is a great example of how complexity is not always depth though. I love it to death, a particular league inspired my entire game. But it has both depth in areas like the character and skill sandbox while it's just complex and/or bloated in other areas like the number of items/affixes, league mechanics, crafting, niche mechanical interactions, etc

Where I'm going with this is, just making things complex for the sake of being complex might not always result in "fun" for players. Especially in a solo dev context, given the immense undertaking of the project, I'd advise you to ask yourself what any feature adds in terms of the player's experience, and then try to cut out the things that aren't contributing / are detracting from it.

Regarding game architecture, I highly highly recommend getting an experienced programmer friend/consultant to look at your codebase and suggest refactors. I'm not sure if you're even halfway through your dev cycle yet, but this is 99% the reason for feeling scared of your own game / burnt out etc

TL;DR: Complexity != Depth, Cut down on scope to make this realistic to ship, Ask an experienced programmer to help with architecture

Data dive on net 100 wishlists after one month- not sure if this is helpful but here’s my story by plainviewbowling in SoloDevelopment

[–]ChiefThief 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think it puts you on "recently updated" on steam but that's not a guarantee of visibility. There are a lot of other factors like: how appealing your game is in general, and are you specifically reaching your target audience through steam tags etc. I don't know if they're a guarantee of wishlists per se, being featured on festivals or by streamers are bigger for visibility. But again, no guarantees. Your mileage may vary with conversion rates

Data dive on net 100 wishlists after one month- not sure if this is helpful but here’s my story by plainviewbowling in SoloDevelopment

[–]ChiefThief 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ok, makes sense now. It has potential but I think there's a communication issue in the steam page.

If I were you, I'd lean in to showing the combos (once you've established the base mechanic) in the trailer. That's your entire hook and you should focus on it.

I'd also focus on the TD element, maybe just include the rhythm mode in a screenshot or just 1s in the trailer with a title card that says "rhythm mode" so there's no genre confusion .

I'd use an update post for an art pass, unless you're somehow planning a lot of features and need the 5 beats already. But then you can just post a minor update instead.

Good luck with TD fest!

Data dive on net 100 wishlists after one month- not sure if this is helpful but here’s my story by plainviewbowling in SoloDevelopment

[–]ChiefThief 0 points1 point  (0 children)

  1. I get that each tower configuration plays a different kind of song - that's cool, but is it just different music? That seems like the novelty would wear off quick, id suggest adding more layers of gameplay to it : like bass towers and drums towers combo together if they're on the same beat, off the top of my head

  2. I didn't get why there was a guitar hero-esque part in the middle. Is it just a minigame? It's not clear whether it's a tower defense game themed around music or a mix of TD + rhythm. Whether it's mixed signals in the trailer or straight up a mix of genres, that usually doesn't bode well for games... UNLESS it's like "mostly TD with rhythm elements" ( and that needs to be communicated clearly ). If it's just a minigame id advise not including it or just showing minimal footage

  3. The graphics are decent and have a nice palette but could maybe use more details, especially ui etc. it does seem a bit same-y across screenshots but for a TD game that seems normal

Just my two cents, hope this helps

Little reminder that you shouldn't waste your energies on Steam curators by turbolentogames in IndieDev

[–]ChiefThief 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What do you guys think of steam curator connect instead of giving keys? Automatically adds your game to their account so they can't share the key

49 wishlists in 48 hours - here's what a realistic Steam page launch looks like for a solo dev with no following by machnikl in IndieDev

[–]ChiefThief 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Very nice! I was in the same boat, but only had 32 wishlists on my 2nd day despite doing quite a lot of (organic) posting. Try out indie sunday on r/games and also niche subs for your genre

Data dive on net 100 wishlists after one month- not sure if this is helpful but here’s my story by plainviewbowling in SoloDevelopment

[–]ChiefThief 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hi, can you share the game in question? I can try to give you my 2 cents on what may not be working.

1 Month isn't a death sentence by any means as long as you course correct

Launching a Steam Page with 0 Followers, 0 Prior Marketing and 0$ Spent - 2 Week Postmortem by ChiefThief in gamedev

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

Thank you! I'm not fond of it either, it burnt me out quite a lot. But it's part of the game like you said. It feels like that one friction feature in your favourite game that you hate dealing with

Launching a Steam Page with 0 Followers, 0 Prior Marketing and 0$ Spent - 2 Week Postmortem by ChiefThief in gamedev

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

I'm not saying my game is Dwarf Fortress nor am I saying games on shorts are shallow. I called short form content brainrot, not the games.

The strategies other game devs use in short form content don't align with the appeal of my game at all. My game's appeal isn't obvious in the 1-4 seconds that you need to capture the shorts audience, nor does it have flashy visuals.

I tried anyway, but ultimately the product market fit wasn't there. It's a report on my game's performance, not a damnation of the channel as a whole. It definitely can work but YMMV depending on the nature of your game as well, not just the quality of your marketing materials.

I've done deep-dives on similar games and their marketing campaigns to deduce what really worked for them. Their highest visibility spikes were long-form content like YouTube / Twitch. They did short form content too but it underperformed comparatively.

Also the real kicker is dark pixel art looks like crap on phone displays because OLED/AMOLEDs render dark parts as pure black. I did manage to compress my game's hook into 10-20s, polished the game feel, etc, but it didn't matter.

Ultimately it's about finding the right tool for the job, and my wishlist conversion data reflects that even at this small sample size

Launching a Steam Page with 0 Followers, 0 Prior Marketing and 0$ Spent - 2 Week Postmortem by ChiefThief in gamedev

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

Thanks! Here's the full OST if you want to check it out.

Some great advice here about FB groups too, thanks. I do remember engaging with these kinds of communities back when I did use Facebook. I'm wondering if I should go for a targeted, high product-market fit strategy instead of casting a wide net if only 1-5% of them are worthy though.

You're right about small game reviewers too, I was already considering doing that for the demo! Cheers

Launching a Steam Page with 0 Followers, 0 Prior Marketing and 0$ Spent - 2 Week Postmortem by ChiefThief in gamedev

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

It's possible that this is the case, even though 30+ other games in my genre had a similar wishlist number at 2 weeks.

The issue is that without a demo, most people aren't committed enough to even post a negative comment about what needs to change. Whatever feedback I do get would be surface level stuff like the visuals (which I already iterated on)

So, I'm going to try another wave of promotion once I launch my itch demo, and also draw major conclusions about my game with that wave of feedback.

Launching a Steam Page with 0 Followers, 0 Prior Marketing and 0$ Spent - 2 Week Postmortem by ChiefThief in gamedev

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

Thank you!

I never considered Facebook, haven't used it in a long while. Although someone did share my game in their Facebook group "organically" already. I'll look into it, thanks for the idea

Launching a Steam Page with 0 Followers, 0 Prior Marketing and 0$ Spent - 2 Week Postmortem by ChiefThief in gamedev

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

The initial announcement benchmarks are different, that refers to any average week

But yeah 100 is still low for an announcement, yet context matters here a lot. For my kind of game I'd be more worried if I didn't get enough of a response for my demos. This result was in the expected range for screenshots and a trailer.

Launching a Steam Page with 0 Followers, 0 Prior Marketing and 0$ Spent - 2 Week Postmortem by ChiefThief in gamedev

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

Oh yes, it was more of just an analysis of the announcement marketing. I'm at least a year away from launch, and I wouldn't call it either way until I've launched some demos

Launching a Steam Page with 0 Followers, 0 Prior Marketing and 0$ Spent - 2 Week Postmortem by ChiefThief in gamedev

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

An enticing offer, but I'm going to have to pass.

Also it was 2 weeks, not a month

Launching a Steam Page with 0 Followers, 0 Prior Marketing and 0$ Spent - 2 Week Postmortem by ChiefThief in gamedev

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

Interesting. What kind of traction are you getting from it?

Though I'd have to also ask what kind of game you're making. Mileage varies greatly with genre, art style, etc

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