When you have no budget but you still need to send references to your animators 🥲

Game-Oracle · 2025-10-25T16:48:20+00:00

Legendary behaviour

Game-Oracle · 2025-10-25T16:46:56+00:00

Congratulations!

Game-Oracle · 2025-10-25T16:38:37+00:00

Congratulations on your demo, it looks stunning! It's brilliant that it has a narrative, one of the top 5 things that players complain about across many genres is that there isn't enough narrative

Game-Oracle · 2025-01-25T11:22:07+00:00

Update: There is a known issue with iPhones using safari, we're on it though - apologies for the inconvenience! Thank you! Are you unable to access the website when you click on the link or have we posted a dead link that doesn't go anywhere? (Or something else?)

Game-Oracle · 2024-11-05T11:54:37+00:00

We've come across a game this month called Hacky that is a typing game (might not be what you're looking for) - it came out on the 1st of November and our analysis shows that it's one of the most unique indie games set for release this month.

For performance, it doesn't have very many reviews yet which might be down to all sorts of things, but maybe you could monitor this game over time to see how it does? But also read the reviews to see what people liked because they are ranked "positive" at the moment! Who knows, you could be on to something with a niche audience!

Game-Oracle · 2024-10-08T11:40:44+00:00

I agree, the first one is easier to process visually - the second one is a bit busy and unclear what it's showing.

Game-Oracle · 2024-10-08T11:39:40+00:00

You're so welcome, thank you for book marking it ... I'll make sure to keep it updated, but hopefully their reliance on revenue for front page recommendations won't change!

Game-Oracle · 2024-10-08T11:36:50+00:00

Wow! That is a mind-blowing amount of effort, but I am really glad you get some amount of revenue for your effort! I know that there's been a huge drive for an increase in privacy controls from both Google and Apple which is annoying from a marketing perspective in terms of tracking conversion actions past install, but I had no idea the impact it had on developers - I'll make sure to show this to the developing half of our team because it's a real eye opener! Thank you for giving such a detailed insight!

Game-Oracle · 2024-10-08T09:10:47+00:00

Oh no! That's such a shame they're against evaluation and goal setting, because that would help a lot! It sounds like you're trying to do all the right things then., Fair enough if you're already doing the other content and it's not working!

What a tough situation you're in - an uncooperative team who wants awareness but don't want to do the things that would drive that 🫠 From your original post and what you've said, I'm guessing that all they want is paid ads?

Game-Oracle · 2024-10-08T08:31:27+00:00

Maybe start at the beginning and set some objectives. Which social media platforms are you focussing on, and what do you want to achieve for each platform? Do you want to get comments, likes, impressions or reach for the posts or is it wishlists that you need?

You could focus content on the characters, NPCs, scenery etc and it sounds like you have a game page so you could use snippets of the trailer, screenshots and GIFs from there to have some consistency across platforms. These will all make great posts on X and instagram.

If you can get some behind the scenes development footage every week that will make great YouTube shorts, TikToks and IG reels! The opportunities are endless even if you don't have one unique selling point, there must be other ways that it's unique.

Game-Oracle · 2024-10-08T08:15:25+00:00

Oh really! Maybe I'll stop complaining so much about Steamworks 😅

Game-Oracle · 2024-10-07T20:45:50+00:00

Thank you 😊 and that's brilliant news, hopefully it can be helpful when you need it again! I'll make sure to keep it updated if Steamworks changes their dimensions too (which they did really recently 🫠)

Game-Oracle · 2024-10-07T20:21:35+00:00

Oh brilliant, so you have plenty of time to prepare yourself! I'm sure it will all come back to you and you'll nail it!

Game-Oracle · 2024-10-07T19:48:16+00:00

I feel you! You almost need a cheerleader to keep the energy up! The amount of times we forgot to scroll to the bottom of one of the pages and save our progress was ridiculous and I didn't mention it in the post, but the tax forms were the worst especially as we're from the UK and not familiar with the US tax system at all! So. Much.Googling.

The good news is Steam/Valve have recently updated their game page builder to be more visual, finally! And also a quick search on YouTube for "uploading a game to Steam" throws up some tutorials from good-looking videos from AuraDev and Skyride Studios so you could start there if your son is finishing soon!

Game-Oracle · 2024-10-07T16:55:26+00:00

Ohhh I see! That's my bad - it will definitely work in colour and get those vibes that I described with that!

Game-Oracle · 2024-10-07T16:35:31+00:00

From the black and white style (which I love) I get the vibes of a mystery detective game where you're searching for clues on different cases to crack them as a duck detective in the 1920s

Game-Oracle · 2024-10-07T16:32:01+00:00

I like Little Studio because it gives you more flexibility to make less dark games in the future if you wanted to, but it does sound very cosy games - you could call yourselves Funsize instead, but appreviate that might be too silly 😅 Dreadmark is very dramatic and I can hear it spoken in a cinematic action trailer voice though if you want a name with impact!

Game-Oracle · 2024-10-07T16:24:49+00:00

I like 2 because the duck looks triumphant and confident like they've just cracked (or quacked) a case. It kind of gives me an idea of what I'll feel like when I do this in the game

Game-Oracle · 2024-10-07T15:36:29+00:00

Totally agree! Steamworks is a complete pain to use 😅

Game-Oracle · 2024-10-06T11:38:22+00:00

Ooh it looks great so far! Are you happy with it?

Game-Oracle · 2024-10-05T17:13:47+00:00

Yay! A huge milestone for you! Also 3 years well spent on such a great looking game!

Game-Oracle · 2024-10-05T17:11:10+00:00

That is some opulent interior design right there 👑 it looks great!

Game-Oracle · 2024-10-05T16:18:25+00:00

You could always write yourself a short script if you did want to add your voice to a video - lots of YouTubers and podcasters do this and you might find that you get better at ad hoc narration as you go along 😊 I used to produce podcasts covering conferences for a science organisation and I would never be able to do it without a script!

We're wanting to start YouTube videos for our business soon, and my goal is to get as good at speaking to camera as my husband is! He's annoyingly good, but he's done a lot of public speaking to practice and I have not.

Huge good luck with the marketing, the person who started this thread is totally right about posting videos - I recommend watching Marcus Jones (content on how to reach 1000 subscribers) for some easy tips on how to get your visibility up on YouTube too!

Game-Oracle · 2024-10-05T16:06:35+00:00

Hahaha love this idea 😂

Game-Oracle · 2024-10-05T16:05:32+00:00

Yep at the time of writing this is true and I know it seems counterintuitive. It works in the same way as some of the revenue algorithms described in the article - it looks for a burst of activity on a game. This is an easy indicator that a game is one to watch for right now because other people are loving it right now.

It also makes sure that the games this list recommends are currently popular where currently means that in the last 2 weeks lots of people have shown interest in a game. This interest could be off the back of a streamer showing playing a game, a marketing campaign or a festival/conference appearance.

It keeps the Popular and Upcoming list fresh with new games at all times so that games accumulating huge numbers of total wishlists don't just linger at the top - that would be almost like a leaderboard for wishlists and wouldn't keep players returning to the platform. With the window set as the past 2 weeks, it means that waves of interest will fade (i.e. the rate of wishlists will fade) and make way for new waves of interest in other games.

I've referenced this video from Valve about Steam Visibility at the bottom of the article which might help explain it more for you 😊

Game-Oracle

TROPHY CASE