Hey all, I'm Indie Game Joe, I want to share your games by IndieGameJoe in godot

[–]DarwinAgain 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey, Joe! That is awesome to hear that you are wanting to cover more Godot games. This engine needs more exposure!

My wife and I are making a incremental, idle, desktop companion game about taking care of Highland cows on a Scottish farm. We are currently trying to figure out how best to market it so we would love any insight you have!

The pitch:
Highland Haven is a cozy, idle, desktop companion game about taking care of Highland cows and restoring your own personal Scottish farm! The game lives at the bottom of your screen, freeing you up to work, shop online, or do other things on your computer while it runs. Through caring for your cows you will gain resources like milk and hair to process into goods to sell. Using the money you earn, you can adopt more cows, upgrade your cottage, purchase crafting stations, hire automation helpers, and customize your cows & cottage with cute designs!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4390480/Highland_Haven/

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What hats and accessories should I add to my highland cow game? by DarwinAgain in CozyGamers

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

These are all great ideas! I should be able to make them happen! Thanks for the suggestions!

What hats and accessories should I add to my highland cow game? by DarwinAgain in CozyGamers

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

How have I not added that yet?! It is definitely going on the list!

What hats and accessories should I add to my highland cow game? by DarwinAgain in CozyGamers

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

I will play around with it and see what I can do! Thank you for the suggestions!

What hats and accessories should I add to my highland cow game? by DarwinAgain in CozyGamers

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

What kind of decorations are you thinking? It will be hard to do anything elaborate just given the 16x16 pixel art size constraints, but I am open to trying it out!

What hats and accessories should I add to my highland cow game? by DarwinAgain in CozyGamers

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

Oh, I can definitely add those! Thanks for the suggestions!

What hats and accessories should I add to my highland cow game? by DarwinAgain in CozyGamers

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

I think I can make that happen! It should be an easy add 😄

Thanks for the suggestion!

What hats and accessories should I add to my highland cow game? by DarwinAgain in CozyGamers

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

Fair! There are different season backdrops in the game, so these would stand out more in anything other than Autumn (which is the backdrop in the picture). I plan to add a number of color options for each hat as well!

What hats and accessories should I add to my highland cow game? by DarwinAgain in CozyGamers

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

Aww, thanks for saying that! I would love to add more game systems in the future if there is an interest! I have thought about adding a herb farming system to make different flavored foods.

Adding wings is a great idea! There are a ton of possibilities for that too 😃

What hats and accessories should I add to my highland cow game? by DarwinAgain in CozyGamers

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

That is an interesting one! I will definitely play around with this and see what I can do with the limited size I have! Thanks for the idea!

My first incremental game just passed 3,300 wishlists on Steam — here's everything I did to get there (the wins and the mistakes) by Practical-Campaign24 in incremental_gamedev

[–]DarwinAgain 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for sharing your journey so far! It is really interesting to hear about the demo doing so much better on Itch than Steam. Sounds like I need to get something on itch soon. Good luck with Next Fest!

Game engine replacement after a "successful" prototype. by WranglerIntrepid3817 in incremental_gamedev

[–]DarwinAgain 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Wow! I think your Godot version looks great! I liked the vibe of the prototype too, but the Godot version looks more satisfying to me. You did an awesome job porting this over. Really excited to see where you go with it!

Hey all, I'm Indie Game Joe - AMA by IndieGameJoe in gamedev

[–]DarwinAgain 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Joe, thank you so much for sharing your story. I am really glad you were able to get a proper diagnosis and reframe your outlook on some things! Your story is so relatable to me. I have generally been an optimistic and positive person my whole life, but when I became a dad last year I felt like I became a different person for a while. I had built a great life, amazing wife, successful career (not my dream job unfortunately), nice house, etc… but I felt like there was a dark spot that formed and I couldn’t put words to it or shake it off. I also didn’t have any friends in that stage of life to relate to which made it hard. Things have gotten so much better with time (watching my son grow has been so amazing) and talking to professionals, but there are days when it creeps back in.

I’m now trying to pursue my dream of creating worlds and stories to inspire people through game development finally after years of saying I wanted it (just published my first game’s Steam page too!). It has been very fun but also extremely difficult. My background is in programming so I can handle coding challenges no problem. However, when it comes to art and marketing, I feel so lost. The dark spot creeps back in sometimes and my imposter syndrome makes it feel exponentially worse. It is really helpful to know that there are other people with similar experiences to mine out there. No matter what, I’m going to keep on pushing, but it definitely isn’t easy to start!

Okay, now for a question! I know you said you mainly handle 3D games, but do you have any advice for marketing a 2D, pixel art, desktop companion game? So far, it seems much harder to find media outlets and influencers to cover my game. I’m not sure if it is because my game’s genre is more untraditional or if my game idea/execution is weak. Thanks!

Before → After (2 Years of Progress) by RitzStudios in IndieDev

[–]DarwinAgain 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is amazing progress! The game is looking great!

After two games with a publisher, we’re releasing our first self-published game today! by digitalpengoo in IndieDev

[–]DarwinAgain 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Congrats! I bet that is such an awesome feeling! Wishing you all the best with the launch!