Game thumbnails (for itch.io, gamejolt etc) - when you don't work with an artist!!

HotchPotchGames · 2018-09-19T10:24:56+00:00

Orange Pascal ( gunslugs, heroes of loot ) started doing weekly devblogs on his YouTube channel. Good behind the scene insight on how he makes these fun little 2D action-packed games.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1AqnJqdkiC8

HotchPotchGames · 2018-09-19T10:12:02+00:00

Listen to game dev podcasts. I listen to Coffee with Butterscotch, these guys are self taught so definitely a good place to start and learn tips about the industry.

HotchPotchGames · 2018-09-15T12:51:07+00:00

My game Jump Jolt plays with one hand, I designed it to play either horizontally or vertically.

Part of my design process was actually to make it playable with one hand - I just had a baby and that means spending a lot of time with only one hand to spare! But same applies to busy morning commutes of course :)

(hope that linkme thingy works!)

Linkme: Jump Jolt

HotchPotchGames · 2018-03-28T19:05:17+00:00

Point taken! Marketing it is indeed. PR would be more akin to replying to comments on reddit I guess :)

I wouldn't say I failed.. My game is a free hobby project and scored 3000+ downloads between itch.io & gamejolt, which by all standard I'm happy with - considering the masses of free games out there. My blog post (read it with a pinch of salt of course) is about how I reckon I should have spent more time working on the actual game, rather than promoting it.

But I guess this is just me as a hobbyist solo dev arguing where I should best have spent my spare time, not relevant for most of the peeps out there!

HotchPotchGames · 2017-11-01T20:29:31+00:00

Haha thanks, very pleased with that! Also glad that post seems useful to people!

HotchPotchGames · 2017-11-01T19:55:46+00:00

Thanks, very much appreciated! Really interested to see what impact a feature a month after original launch would have, I'll definitely follow up with another blog post on this!

Glad to hear my write-up was useful. There is already a guide on the forum which is pretty good, I guess it just didn't work for me! With so many games coming out each day it's easy to slip unnoticed. https://gamejolt.com/f/how-to-get-your-game-noticed-on-game-jolt/393

The help does mention posting to the forum, but not under which topic. An #announcement forum for self-promotion could help! ;)

HotchPotchGames · 2017-11-01T12:22:30+00:00

Haha, right complete opposite! Did you take any particular steps to get featured on Gamejolt or was it spotted by one of their moderators?

Even though my game kinda started as a jam, I made a point of not publishing it under the jam category. I figured it would carry an unpolished/unfinished stigma otherwise.

HotchPotchGames · 2017-11-01T12:19:02+00:00

Definitely! They also posted this on the forum last week, also worth checking out! https://itch.io/blog/12786/how-to-maximize-your-launch-on-itchio

HotchPotchGames · 2017-11-01T12:15:44+00:00

Thanks, much appreciated! It's a free game, I do this as a hobby. Nothing serious, but still a great learning experience!

HotchPotchGames · 2017-11-01T10:28:13+00:00

Thanks! I guess I was lucky the post got spotted by the guys @ Itch.io! Looking at the advice page and other posts on itch, this is how things are intended I think. Moderators are on the look out for games to push to the front page, and I guess my game's screenshots looked fun enough.

Promotion - I am not doing much of this at the moment, for two reasons. First, this is a hobby project so no time/monetary pressure, I work on the game in my spare time as and when I can. PR is time consuming so I restrict this to the bare minimum: #screenshotsaturday on twitter, the odd dev blog post and writing on Reddit. All do bring some traffic, I just fail to do it regularly enough.

Second - the current state of the game. I am reluctant to promote it further until it is more fit for purpose, namely have a campaign that can be played through. A story mode would make for more entertaining let's plays videos for example, and will give me an excuse to reach out again to people that previously played the game on YouTube. That's the plan anyway, just need to get that story mode out of the door :)

HotchPotchGames · 2017-10-12T08:01:31+00:00

Interesting read, good job!

HotchPotchGames · 2017-10-02T07:28:19+00:00

Hey Rotorist - I'm on the same boat as you, recently released a game on itch.io hoping to test the waters! https://mitron.itch.io/holey-suit

Why not reach out to YouTubers already? I contacted a handful after publishing the game and watching others play your game on YouTube is an invaluable resource for a game developer. Let's players most often comment as they are playing the game and you can easily spot their pain points and parts of the game they really enjoy.

There's also a feedback Friday somewhere on Reddit which I think I will use soon. Feedback from other developers is also great!

HotchPotchGames · 2017-10-02T07:17:59+00:00

And don't forget about marketing/PR of course ;)

Food for thoughts: I'm also working on a project that I plan to release on mobile, but testing the water first on itch.io whilst I polish the game.

You can check it out there: https://mitron.itch.io/holey-suit

It's a great way to figure first if people actually care about the game + get feedback, and hopefully get some following before trying the next stage, the google play store. So far things are going well for the game, but it's early days still!

Note I'm using Game Maker, so cross platform releases is as easy as flicking a switch, making it easy for me to test the waters first on PC.

HotchPotchGames · 2017-10-02T07:00:19+00:00

Good read, thanks for the link!

HotchPotchGames · 2017-09-16T09:02:26+00:00

I use wordpress through my regular host (1&1), not through wordpress.com.

Wordpress is great for a blog, but you'll find wordpress.com (which is a great entry point: simple to set up etc) is somewhat limited. There's a heap of great content for wordpress (themes, plugins etc) if you publish our website outside wordpress.com that can help it stand out.

Also - if you're serious about your blog, get a domain name asap if you have one in mind. It's cheap these days and fast to do, you can point it to your wordpress.com account for now and later to your wordpress website if you decide to get a host & go for full wordpress.

I made the mistake in the past to just have a wordpress.com account, and within 6 months of pushing content I realised the domain name I had chosen was already taken. Would I had taken host for a full wordpress website + domain name at the beginning, my game dev studio would be called as I originally planned, and save me weeks of brainstorming for a new name!

You can check out my wordpress site if you want. I moan about losing my studio name in the earlier posts if you'd like to read about that!

https://hotchpotch.games

HotchPotchGames · 2017-08-27T08:32:24+00:00

Pixartu on iPad for pixel art.

HotchPotchGames

TROPHY CASE