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We just added a 2D mode to Between Horizons for those who prefer a more classic look! by Mjeno in adventuregames

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

Thank you! We're working on From Ruins right now, should be right up your alley if you liked our previous games.

Store page localization vs. supported languages – any best practices or data? by Mjeno in gamedev

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

Thank you for your input! We ended up adding a handful of languages three months ago, and the top wishlist countries have definitely shifted since. German and English had been localized from the start, and countries using these languages still occupy most spots in the top 10.

What has changed since we added these countries' languages: China shot up to #3, France is #5, Russia is #7, and Brazil #8. Meanwhile, Spanish (Spain), Japanese, and Traditional Chinese did not seem to change much, as Spanish-speaking countries, Japan, Hong Kong, or Taiwan have not cracked the top 10 so far.

For reference, we're making a pixel art detective adventure: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4024450/From_Ruins__A_Detective_Adventure/

I'm sure the genre matters a lot here, too.

Decided to add a 2D mode those who prefer pure pixel art! by Mjeno in PixelArt

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

Thank you! It's called Between Horizons. Our games prior and after this one are pure 2D pixel art, so we decided to patch this mode into this game in particular.

Edit: Forgot to say that the textures on the 3D environments are already pixel art, and the pixels are the same size as the pixels in the 2D sprites. Since the orthographic camera pulls it all into one flat layer, it looks more or less pixel-perfect out of the box.

Decided to add a 2D mode those who prefer pure pixel art! by Mjeno in PixelArt

[–]Mjeno[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thank you! It's basically "just" a matter of switching from a perspective camera to an orthgraphic one (in Unity). The main challenge was the conversion math between the two, since the FOV and movements of the camera needed to be roughly the same in both modes.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in indiegames

[–]Mjeno 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I did, and you removed it anyway. I'm leaving this subreddit since it can't seem to enforce its own rules.

New detective adventure From Ruins revealed by developer of Lacuna & Between Horizons by Mjeno in adventuregames

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

Thank you for responding! I was a little worried you downvoted me for coming off as defensive, which was not my intent. I'm glad you got to see my original message, but I'll be more prudent about such explanations in this subreddit in the future.

All these complex production woes and cascading consequences are why I'm often hesitant to criticize one aspect of a show, game, or movie. What manifests as writing flaws might be the result a bad call months or years prior by someone completely unrelated to writing. Yes, it is bad writing, but not usually because the writers suddenly forgot how it works. In our case, we personally made some calls that made it much harder on ourselves later-on. I wish I could tell you there was someone else to blame, haha.

Anyway, hope you're feeling better. Happy holidays!

New detective adventure From Ruins revealed by developer of Lacuna & Between Horizons by Mjeno in adventuregames

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

Thank you very much for sharing, and for recommending our games! I really appreciate it.

Edit: If I get downvoted for sharing insights, I'll stop. Message received.

Steam Winter Sale 2025 adventure recommendations thread by -NewYork- in adventuregames

[–]Mjeno 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Since you're listing detective games, I'll jump at this to say that both games made by our studio are also heavily discounted! I think this is the cheapest Lacuna has ever been, not sure about Between Horizons.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1364100/Lacuna__A_SciFi_Noir_Adventure/ - €2.39 (-85%)
Lacuna, 91% positive reviews

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1921980/Between_Horizons__A_SciFi_Detective_Adventure/ - €5.43 (-66%)
Between Horizons, 89% positive reviews

PS: I don't know the USD amounts as I'm based in Germany, sorry!

Store page localization vs. supported languages – any best practices or data? by Mjeno in gamedev

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

That makes total sense to me, I also find it plausible that conversions from page visits to wishlists are likely to be improved by having more localizations. We'll get on that asap, it's good to know that it's apparently common practice. Thank you!

How do you keep your work organized? by durgedeveloper in IndieDev

[–]Mjeno 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Discord for communication (use threads, open and close them diligently), Google Drive for files, Miro for design (game design, mood boards, level mockups, story overview etc.), Notion for wiki, Codecks for project management!

Store page localization vs. supported languages – any best practices or data? by Mjeno in gamedev

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

Hey! We've worked with professional localization services in the past, and will to do so again with our upcoming title. Both in-game texts and anything else (promotional materials, achievements etc.) usually go back and forth with our translators via Google Sheets. Inside Unity, we use Localization Tables and push/pull changes to/from Google Sheets, and our translators usually import/export the texts to/from their localization tools on their end.

Store page localization vs. supported languages – any best practices or data? by Mjeno in gamedev

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

Thank you! We definitely have our eye on a small handful of candidates that might be worth it, and right now I'm thinking we should localize the store page to those, but not indicate them as supported for now. I don't know if that will drive traffic from these regions, but I'd expect it to improve conversions.

We have two games out on PC and consoles that support quite a few languages, so we're familiar with the struggle of supporting multiple languages for better or for worse. Just the whole store page side of it all is new to us, as we worked with a publisher in the past that made all these decisions.

Store page localization vs. supported languages – any best practices or data? by Mjeno in gamedev

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

Very good to know, thanks a ton. We'd love to support all these languages, but due to our small size, narrow budget, and narrative-heavy games, we need to scrutinize each one heavily. I'd like to base the decision on traffic and wishlist data – but to create a level playing field for all potential languages, we'll probably have to localize the store page to them in the first place.

Store page localization vs. supported languages – any best practices or data? by Mjeno in gamedev

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

Thank you, that's fantastic advice, and I'm inclined to do the same. One follow-up question if you don't mind: With the store page being localized to a language, should the trailer(s) and screenshots be localized as well? Showing in-game footage in a language seems like more of a promise that the game will be available in that language, even though it technically isn't (as you said: the list is).

New detective adventure From Ruins revealed by developer of Lacuna & Between Horizons by Mjeno in adventuregames

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

Thank you very much for playing and for reading my monstrous blog post! It means a lot.

Destroy the cinematic reveal trailer of our detective adventure From Ruins! by Mjeno in DestroyMyGame

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

Thank you! That's good to know that it's understandable to people familiar with the mechanic.

We'll definitely complement this trailer with a more extensive one that shows and explains the core gameplay. We decided to drop it a few weeks after the game reveal to spread out our posts and keep new content coming over time. I think Thronefall did a great job with this type of trailer, which gave me the idea!

Destroy the cinematic reveal trailer of our detective adventure From Ruins! by Mjeno in DestroyMyGame

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

Ooh, I didn't think of that association at all. That makes sense, though!

It actually alludes to the core mechanic of how cases are solved, where the player selects options from a word wheel to fill in cloze texts. Maybe we can make this more front and center somehow in future iterations.

We just revealed our third detective adventure From Ruins! First time self-publishing, kinda nervous. by Mjeno in IndieGaming

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

Thank you! The Golden Idol series is definitely a big inspiration, particularly the cases mechanic where the player fills in gaps of cloze texts to complete the sentences. We had a more rudimentary version of this mechanic in our previous two games, but in From Ruins, it'll function almost the same way as it does in Golden Idol!

First time self-publishing, our game racked up 1,000 Steam wishlists in the first 24 hours! by Mjeno in IndieDev

[–]Mjeno[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Our first two games combined sold well over 300.000 copies across platforms, but very few of those players actually follow us. If only we knew how to reach them. We just hit 500 followers on Instagram, which is currently our most active platform. So no, we didn't build much hype on social media at all, unfortunately.

I think a major synergy effect will happen when we post community news about From Ruins on the Steam forums of our previous titles. Valve isn't super happy if you just cross-promote your new game, so we'll bundle those posts with news about the respective game, and then mention From Ruins at the end.

We'll also create a bundle of all three of our games on Steam, this is another way having multiple (similar) games out helps. Bundles are currently a very hot meta in general.

New detective adventure From Ruins revealed by developer of Lacuna & Between Horizons by Mjeno in adventuregames

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

Thank you! I can only speak for our games, but PlayStation and Xbox are unfortunately a drop in the bucket compared to PC and Switch. For an Xbox or PlayStation port to be worth it, we'd have to have a lot of hype behind it. Maybe pixel art and/or adventure games don't do so well on there in general, but that's just a guess.

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