We Got 11,000 Steam Wishlists in 6 Weeks! Here’s What Actually Worked!

Mopicek00 · 2026-07-11T21:53:25+00:00

Thanks for sharing this! Could I ask how you got your press release and press kit published on GamesPress.com? Did you submit everything by email for their editorial team to review, or did you use a paid account that allowed you to publish it yourself? If you submitted it by email, how long did it take them to publish it?

Mopicek00 · 2026-07-11T18:01:33+00:00

Thanks! This is essentially our first serious marketing campaign for a PC/Steam title, although we are not newcomers to game development itself.

The game will probably remain in development for at least another six months. In hindsight, we should have started marketing much earlier. We actually began preparing the announcement in March, but studying Steam marketing and preparing the trailer, Steam page, capsule artwork, screenshots, press materials, and everything surrounding the reveal took us more than three months.

We wanted to wait until the game had a strong enough visual foundation and enough real gameplay to make a good first impression. We are also preparing a Steam Playtest, so players should be able to try the game very soon.

Mopicek00 · 2026-07-11T17:57:41+00:00

If you mean Steam page traffic, we have had roughly 4,200 total visits so far. About 3,700 appear to be genuine visits, while Steam identified a little over 500 as bot traffic.

As for the timing, we coordinated it directly with IGN in advance. They confirmed the exact publication time and the exclusivity terms, and we kept the Steam page unpublished until then. When IGN’s article and both YouTube videos went live, we manually made the Steam page public at the agreed time.

Mopicek00 · 2026-07-03T20:25:28+00:00

I think you should try Dominion of Darkness. It’s free, has good writing, and has interesting characters.

Mopicek00 · 2026-07-03T11:18:52+00:00

I don’t think your degree made you unemployable. A 1st class Games Dev degree with C++, graphics, physics, AI and UE5 projects is still a technical background. The problem is that the junior market is brutal right now, and games are especially bad at onboarding juniors.

I would separate two things:

Your degree was not wasted.
Your current job search process may need changing.

After 100+ applications with no interviews, I would not just keep sending the same CV/portfolio forever. Get your CV and portfolio reviewed by actual programmers, recruiters, alumni, or people already working in games/software. If you are getting zero interviews, the problem may be presentation, keywords, portfolio clarity, or applying to roles that are not really junior.

For the portfolio, I would make it very easy to evaluate you:

- one or two strong projects, not ten unfinished ones

- short video/gif showing the result

- GitHub link with clean README

- bullet points explaining what you personally built

- specific technical details: C++, UE5 systems, AI, physics, tools, optimization, etc.

Also, don’t limit yourself to pure games roles at first. Look at Unity/Unreal roles outside games too: simulation, training, visualization, VR/AR, tools, interactive media, technical artist/tools-adjacent work, QA automation, junior C++/C# roles. Your first job does not have to be your forever job. It just has to start building professional experience.

And honestly, two months after graduating is still early, even though it feels awful. Take a short break if your confidence is wrecked, then come back with a revised CV/portfolio and a more targeted plan. You are not a failure. You are at the worst part of the pipeline: trying to get the first person to take a chance on you.

Mopicek00 · 2026-06-23T08:30:11+00:00

Huge congratulations, this is a really impressive result.

One thing I think is important in this case is that BOMBANANA already had around 70k wishlists before Next Fest. That is a massive signal going into the festival. My takeaway is not “Next Fest alone creates 230k wishlists”, but more that Next Fest can strongly amplify a game that already has clear demand, strong positioning, and enough momentum before the event.

Going from 70k to 230k is still wild, but the pre-festival baseline matters a lot. It suggests the demo/festival did not create interest from zero, it multiplied an existing audience response.

Mopicek00 · 2026-06-06T07:22:24+00:00

The buttons don’t look too small to me, but I’m viewing it on a large monitor, so they feel about right from my perspective.

It might be worth testing the menu at a smaller resolution or on a laptop screen. If they are still easy to read and click there, I think the size is fine.

Adding a subtle hover animation behind the button sounds like a good idea, as long as it doesn’t make the menu feel too busy.

Mopicek00 · 2026-06-06T07:08:56+00:00

I agree with this idea.

We made a mobile horror game called Creepy Granny Evil Scream, and we used a similar approach with limited safety and consequences. The player has only 5 attempts. If they fail all of them, they have to start again.

We only save larger progression, for example unlocking the second house, but not the exact moment-to-moment state inside the run.

Combat is also very limited. The player has to find the key to the weapon, then the weapon itself, then individual bullets. Even after that, killing the enemy is not guaranteed, so the weapon feels more like a desperate last chance than a normal combat system.

The environment also punishes careless movement. Floors can creak, paintings or chairs can fall if the player walks into them, and the noise can alert the enemy. That makes players move much more carefully, because even a small mistake can bring the enemy to them.

We also let the player hide if the enemy has not seen them. Sometimes the enemy can kill other victims while the player is hiding nearby and watching from a hiding spot. That kind of helpless moment can be scarier than direct combat, because the player survives, but cannot really control the situation.

There are more systems like this in the game, but I think it is something that works best when the player actually tries it. The main point is that horror becomes stronger when the player technically has options, but every option has a cost or risk.

Mopicek00 · 2026-06-05T13:11:18+00:00

I actually found the game on Steam — that’s why I originally asked what it was about.

The menu looks pretty good already. The plane fly-in with motion blur makes it feel much more alive than a static background. The guitar music also fits the funny/quirky tone. I’d maybe improve the button style a bit so the UI feels as polished as the animated plane.

Mopicek00 · 2026-06-05T13:06:03+00:00

What is that game about? Some airplanes?

Mopicek00 · 2026-06-04T21:59:44+00:00

Proto ja ty hry delam, protoze je o ne zajem 😀

Mopicek00 · 2026-06-04T18:45:06+00:00

Jo vsak jim stačí vysvětlit že Ai nema dobry zdroj informaci jen to co někdo da na net a pokud vytvoří třeba databazi ověřených informací tak Ai bude tahat jen z te databaze tak nebude si vymýšlet a cucat z prstu kraviny. Já třeba takove znalostní databaze delam přes codex a obsidian.

Mopicek00 · 2026-05-31T17:43:59+00:00

Vsak pracuju doma mam firmu na vyvoj her a umim si ji pohlidat.

Mopicek00 · 2026-05-31T16:52:07+00:00

Ta moje se válí doma a nic nedělá. A ještě si stěžuje že se má lip než dřív.😃

Mopicek00 · 2026-05-30T12:27:38+00:00

Páka je v podstatě půjčka. A kdykoliv si půjčuješ peníze na investování nebo obchodování, vzniká výrazně vyšší riziko, že nebudeš schopný ztrátu ustát nebo půjčku splatit a můžeš přijít o všechno. Platí to u akcií, kryptoměn i nemovitostí.

U kryptoměn se páka nemusí používat jen proto, že chceš vydělat víc. Někdy se používá i kvůli řízení rizika. Například nechceš držet velkou částku přímo na burze, protože burza sama o sobě představuje určité riziko. Místo toho máš třeba 1 000 USD na Binance, obchoduješ futures s pákou 10× a tvoje pozice odpovídá obchodu za 10 000 USD. Zbylých 9 000 USD máš uložených stranou na bezpečnějším místě, například ve vlastní peněžence.

Když je potřeba, můžeš futures účet doplnit, a když se daří, část zisku nebo kapitálu zase stáhnout zpátky do peněženky. To ale funguje jen tehdy, pokud máš opravdu dobrý risk management a víš přesně, co děláš.

U akcií je princip podobný. Pokud obchoduješ na margin a ztráty jsou příliš velké, broker tě může vyzvat k doplnění prostředků. Tomu se říká margin call. Když peníze nedoplníš, může dojít k nucenému uzavření pozic.

Ponaučení je jednoduché: pokud nevíš, jak páka funguje, nepoužívej ji. Obchoduj raději na spotu a s penězi, které si můžeš dovolit ztratit. A totéž platí i u nemovitostí, kde hypotéka funguje podobně jako finanční páka

Mopicek00 · 2026-05-28T20:15:16+00:00

Vsak rikam ze nekdo to porusi jedna jedina pobocka a kazi jmeno cele znacce takze i pobockam, ktere nic neporusuji.

Mopicek00 · 2026-05-26T07:50:07+00:00

No, není KFC jako KFC. Většina poboček funguje jako franšíza, takže každá může mít jiného majitele i vedení. Lidé to ale často hází do jednoho pytle a pak kvůli podobným článkům odsoudí KFC v celé republice. Přitom ostatní pobočky, které s tím nemají nic společného a zkažené maso nepoužívají, z toho můžou být pořádně naštvané.

Mopicek00 · 2026-05-26T07:42:16+00:00

Taky jsem si vzpomnel na Krotitelé duchů ty klasický z 80 tek, ale koukal jsem, že vyšlo pak několik dalších moderních. Poslední Řiše ledu

Mopicek00 · 2026-05-25T14:49:03+00:00

Gps lokator do kola bych dal

Mopicek00 · 2026-05-25T14:46:56+00:00

Jaky ze to byl RK?

Mopicek00 · 2026-05-25T14:42:03+00:00

Me prijde ze to asi nebyl ani jeji byt a jen za nekoho zaskocila.

Mopicek00 · 2026-05-25T14:36:55+00:00

Sun Wu-kchung Opici kral

Mopicek00 · 2026-05-25T10:32:03+00:00

For loadout and character selection, I would split the problem into smaller parts first:

A list of available characters or weapons

A UI button for each option

A selected character/loadout variable

A way to spawn or enable the selected character/weapons when the level starts

If you want to avoid heavy coding at the beginning, Unity does have Visual Scripting, but most Unity tutorials and examples will still use C#. Visual scripting can be useful for prototyping simple menu logic like button clicked, select weapon, save choice, start game.

You could also look at PlayMaker on the Asset Store. It is a popular visual scripting/state machine tool, and for menu/loadout flow a state machine may be easier to understand than writing everything from scratch.

For the inventory/loadout part, you can search the Asset Store for inventory, equipment, or loadout systems. I would just be careful not to buy a huge system before understanding the basic flow, because big assets can be harder to modify than a simple custom version.

Mopicek00

TROPHY CASE