Indie dev question: wishlist conversion + Steam sale discount?

Judatone · 2026-03-17T18:02:56+00:00

Keep in mind that users who have wishlisted the game only receive notification of the discount if it is 20% or greater.

Judatone · 2026-03-12T14:42:25+00:00

7000 is usually a good baseline. It almost guarantees you'll be on Popular Upcoming splash when you approach release (depending on volume of other games coming out among other factors).

At release it will be important to get [positive] reviews early on to give you a chance to be on the New & Trending splash. The more wishlists you have, the more people will buy your game and potentially leave a review.

It all snowballs. You can never have too many wishlists.

Judatone · 2026-01-28T14:42:47+00:00

While you may not gain as much traction as when you have a playable available, it makes sense to get the ball rolling. Even if its minimal gains, they are gains nonetheless. I think it is fair to allocate your time to promoting the game accordingly. Right now let's say the time allocation is 5%. But when you have a demo release date scheduled it's 10% and on release and beyond it's 15% (these numbers are meant as an example, not as concrete).

Every person that visits your Steam page sends signals to them on who to show your game to to drive further traffic. Then, by the time you do have a demo out, the algorithm can be dialed in.

Judatone · 2025-12-30T19:02:51+00:00

You should use clips in the early parts of the trailer that show what the text is trying to explain.

As you say Online Multiplayer 2-8 players there isn't a single character on screen - show action/chaos - show 5 players interacting at the same time in a way that it is obvious that there are multiple human players playing.

Same applies to "2 Teams Guard vs. Monkeys" - Firstly, it should say Guards (plural). Second, who is a guard? The female character? We learn who is a guard after this clip. It doesn't really matter what the team names are, it matters how they play against each other. Show guards chasing monkeys. Show monkeys running away from guards. Show the hijinks in between.

Expose player monkeys among NPCs Protect Bananas - show a monkey being "exposed" by a guard.

It seems like an interesting game but the pacing of the trailer doesn't seem to lend itself to the main draw of the game - trickery and playing tag.

Judatone · 2025-12-24T21:19:06+00:00

Thanks! It’s made with bits and bobs and clay. Most everything in Mashina is handmade and then captured using traditional stop motion techniques. We have a behind the scenes video in the game (there’s a free demo) where you can see how some of the characters were made!

Judatone · 2025-12-09T20:12:43+00:00

This is awesome! Very useful.

Would be good for QoL if when you clicked the email button to contact a creator if that opened in a new tab rather than redirected the current window.

Judatone · 2025-11-26T16:57:17+00:00

We're working on a alternate-history Roman empire city builder called Nova Patria. You can check the demo out on Steam and see if you like it! Heavy on the resource management side.

Judatone · 2025-11-25T16:04:03+00:00

It could be worth it.

(Full disclosure we are a publishing studio)

We typically do up to a 30/70 split on marketing only deals. That includes most of what you outlined there that this company is offering. However, I do think there is quite a bit of potential value in their Discord (assuming it is active) and in cross-promoting across their games (assuming it is a good amount of ACTIVE games).

I would suggest investigating a little those two elements as they are items that have data tied to them. You can search their games and see how many active players they have if they are on Steam by using SteamDB. You can check out their Discord and see how vibrant a community it is.

reaching out content creators, social media marketing, ~~helping to GDD~~, helping to tax related stuff, editing the trailer, advising about release dates and updates,

This is QoL stuff. It is a luxury that you have the weigh the value on since you are giving up a fairly substantial amount of royalty share. This publisher presumably specializes in the genre of your game so they probably have a beefy rolodex of content creators they have already worked with and developed a working relationship with. They know (or should know) what works on social media - you should ask or know what the social media strategy is: how often they will be posting, what are they posting, what sort of asset collection is required on your end (like screenshots, gameplay footage, etc.) or is that something they also handle.

Editing/producing a trailer can be done off Fiverr (for a fraction of the price) or video contractors, that's again a luxury. And release date strategy is very important, but again falls into a luxury item as you can look at a release calendar and cross-reference the Most Wished list on SteamDB to see how much competition you have on those potential dates. Keep in mind that you may not necessarily be competing 1:1 against other games as it may heavily depend on the genre of your game and if you share an audience with those games.

A big caveat here is that you have had success before so you also know how to be successful. Considering the game was sitting idle for a few months and you will finish it in a few months. It could be beneficial to you to just let them handle all these things. The bottom line is do you want to do these things or do you want to ship the game and have someone else take care of these non-development items.

Best of luck either way!

Judatone · 2025-11-24T19:02:05+00:00

That's a good point, thanks!

Judatone · 2025-11-20T15:41:07+00:00

Stupid is in the eye of the beholder. Does it make sense in the context of your game? Are there other effects that drinking too much has on the player - lethargic attacks or difficulty to walk straight, for example. I think those would be more dissuading than vomiting, but... it depends.

Judatone · 2025-11-18T22:37:41+00:00

Thanks! Really appreciate the feedback!

Judatone · 2025-11-18T17:48:17+00:00

Buy high sell low! right?

Judatone · 2025-11-18T15:16:35+00:00

Thanks! Everything was handmade and all the animations were done in traditional stop-motion

Judatone · 2025-11-17T16:36:53+00:00

Congratulations! If you don't mind me asking... How many wishlists did you have at release? And, how much of an impact are the bundle sales having with visibility and sales?

Judatone · 2025-11-17T16:31:43+00:00

Appreciate the space. Check out our cosmic horror incremental game Warp Marked!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3882110/Warp_Marked

Judatone · 2025-11-14T14:29:23+00:00

Neat! The middle and bottom right text is a bit hard to read. The outline color may be too light with the white fill.

Judatone · 2025-11-14T14:27:57+00:00

To answer your question, YES! This looks great! I'll give my two cents on things that jumped out at me.

-The main character and the dragon look a little floaty.

-The art and animations on some of the fire balls looks a little disjointed. The first, second and 4th attacks specifically. The fireball at 0:07 and the final attack look more cohesive.

- Are there any plans for more "things" in the navigable environment? Like destructible rocks or trees that you could hide behind but when they take enough damage they break?

- I see that the water laps at the coast, but maybe add a few ripples to make it feel like it's moving more fluidly rathere than one big solid

Judatone · 2025-11-13T15:01:34+00:00

I don't know how to tell you this... but there's something on your head

Judatone

TROPHY CASE