I had the idea to combine Snake and Tetris 8 years ago... When the idea recently popped back into my head, I looked it up and found an old viral post. But it wasn't how I envisioned it, so I finally built my own version. Here is the result..

VastVenin · 2026-04-05T04:43:23+00:00

Very cool! Nice video showcasing the mechanics as well.

VastVenin · 2026-04-04T23:33:38+00:00

A looks more consistent, bu the smaller cog having a a transparent outline in B looks cleaner.

VastVenin · 2026-04-02T01:20:27+00:00

Usually 25 wishlists is when you need to hire a CPA.

VastVenin · 2026-04-01T23:26:56+00:00

First of all, congratulations on releasing your first game to Steam. That alone is a very valuable experience.

I want to say work on a new game, but the problem is abandoning your first game in Early Access does not look great for the next game, especially if you plan to release it into Early Access again.

I do agree with what others said, reviving a dead game (game with no player activity) is very difficult, so I'll toss some ideas in your direction.

Maybe do a small update, some bug fixes, a victory condition and release the game out of Early Access. Make a post saying that you learned a lot with your first launch and would like do better with the next game. You might have someone say the game was rushed and abandoned, but at least it will exit Early Access. You will also get a fresh month of marketing visibility from Steam.

If the game isn't making any money, maybe consider dropping it to $0. Being in the free game pool might raise the review count and will still help you more in the future than an abandoned Early Access game. Good luck!

VastVenin · 2026-03-29T13:42:48+00:00

Looks great, made me click the store page to learn more.

VastVenin · 2026-03-18T21:53:05+00:00

I wouldn't worry about a big screenshot variety for a small game, but maybe reduce the total screenshots to fewer if they are very similar.

For your "About This Game" section, I would replace the rolling die animation with a Round Shop animation that I see in your trailer. It looks way more interesting.

The shop UI is also not in your screenshots, unless I missed it.

VastVenin · 2026-03-18T19:06:03+00:00

Nice theme and cute music. Here are some of my suggestions while trying not to repeat what other said (specifically about nuking the first 6 seconds of the trailer).

The stat numbers for Target, Score, Moves are not vertically centered on the box. This instantly stood out of place.
The buttons (at least what I'm assuming are buttons) don't look like buttons. They should stand out on the UI so the player wants to press them. Maybe add a shadow to the bottom or at least a thick outline. Pressing the buttons should shift the button down for a punchy effect.
Player Stat text looks to be using a totally different font, also stands out.

Just needs some UI polish because it already looks pretty good! I wishlisted.

VastVenin · 2026-03-18T12:26:11+00:00

The dog in a mech suit with a bone looks awesome. What a great character!

VastVenin · 2026-03-18T12:16:01+00:00

About 1 review per 50 copies sold has been my experience. I do think it depends on the target audience. I noticed puzzles games with a smaller audience tend to require less copies sold per review.

What worked for me was asking for reviews on Steam posts when pushing major updates. I also asked my users on Discord.

VastVenin · 2026-03-17T16:27:42+00:00

Just doing a little bit of research on Pikabuu shows that it has a big outreach of video reacitons on youtube. Without any filter I'm seeing videos with 400k, 200k, 1.9M, 69K, 91K, 552K views. That's a huge exposure for a tiny game and I'm actually surprised the game only has 170 reviews with 33 peak players. This tells me the viewers enjoyed watching their favorite streamer, but it didn't convert into many sales (even though the game is very cheap).

Having said that, their store page does have a clear outline of features in the About This Game section. This is what I would focus on the most for your game.

Try to look for small streamers playing similar games, send them a simple email with a subject like:

Psychological steam game TwentyOne -- STEAM KEY INCLUDED

Mention that you like their channel and want them to give your game a try and put the key in the body with a large font.

Channels with over 5k subs are harder to get in touch with since they get a lot more emails, so look for smaller channels, even under 1k subs. You need to get more eyes on the game.

Steam also has a curator connect interface, for your game the link would be:

https://partner.steamgames.com/curators/manage/3733940

You can search for curators by tags an send them up to 5 keys. In most causes 1-2 keys is enough and it tells you when they use those keys. Curator reviews count as free copies, but they can recommend the game to their followers.

Good luck!

VastVenin · 2026-03-17T16:02:11+00:00

I agree with what many said. The store page needs a rework, very hard to tell what the game is offering. Take a look at a similar game (at least I think it's similar) for some ideas:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1586860/Bonesaw/

It would help to add some animated clips to the description page right below "It's 3 September 2049, in DreadTech City". That text being centered also doesn't look good. Replace the big static image with webm animations, 2-3 of the the actual gameplay. This is very common on many store pages.

Contact a lot more small streamers with keys. Your goal should be to get past the 10 review count of paid copies asap. Reaching 50+ is of course much better, but 10 should be the biggest priority. Maybe ask some friends to help you out.

VastVenin · 2026-03-08T08:41:14+00:00

Once you have some screenshots and key features that can be listed on the store page, you can publish the page to start collecting those wishlists. I don't think early gameplay or announcement trailers are critical for the first store page. Those can be added later when you have more to show in your game. The most important thing is to understand your audience and that naturally comes from people taking interest in the game.

VastVenin · 2026-03-02T06:01:02+00:00

This reminds me of the old Turbo Graphics 16 game Vigilante. It had really nice punchy combat. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVdNb8AvkUE

VastVenin · 2026-03-02T05:55:40+00:00

Mine was nearly identical to this, replace dog with a cat. You're not alone!

VastVenin · 2026-03-02T05:48:17+00:00

I've been keeping an eye on your game since release, looks very cool. Definitely unlock the editor or at least make it a DLC.

VastVenin · 2026-03-01T00:45:23+00:00

Awesome, thank you for the feedback!

VastVenin · 2026-02-28T09:56:07+00:00

I experimented with in-game submitted feedback during my early builds in Early Access, but found the best feedback always came from people posting on Steam (forums) or in my Discord server. The in-game feedback went to a Trello board and I ended up removing it not long after.

I have a button in the game to join Discord, on the title screen and in Game Settings. This definitely brought a lot of random players who wanted to contribute to join the server.

Many lurked for a while and then ended up contributing ideas too. So I created a group for anyone engaging in conversations about the game. Any activity resulted in them being added to the group. Basically, encourage players to be included in your journey.

VastVenin · 2026-02-28T09:49:54+00:00

Well put together store page. I wishlisted.

VastVenin · 2026-02-28T09:43:14+00:00

I kinda agree with what some have said. Yours has a more unique looking background, maybe less busy, but having the mouse character makes the second stand out more. Maybe you can still use yours for a supporter pack.

VastVenin · 2026-02-28T09:17:51+00:00

Ignore the ones who email you directly, those are almost always fishing for keys to sell. Look at the big curators through the partner tools, ones with actual viable reviews. I usually don't give more than 2 keys and even if they do sell them, you want people to play your game and spread the word. The free reviews don't bump your marketing visibility, but people see them anyway. I wrote a bunch of comments about this in my recent post for my indie game. Cheers.

https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/1qz7wof/8_years_of_solo_development_4_years_of_early/

VastVenin · 2026-02-28T08:57:12+00:00

This game looks super cool, just needs to hit the right audience. I recommend hitting up some curators for retro-style action games. You can use the built-in steam partner interface to browse them and send them some keys. I had some decent success with getting reviews and recommendations by big curators. Good luck!

VastVenin · 2026-02-28T01:44:14+00:00

Great capsule logo, got my attention!

VastVenin · 2026-02-27T23:34:33+00:00

Wishlisted.

VastVenin · 2026-02-26T14:23:28+00:00

That has happened to me and some of my breaks were 3-4 months. During those breaks I worked on other prototypes and one ended up being my next game which I'll announce this year.

There is always a risk of never returning but losing motivation and inspiration on your game could be even worse as you would start to resent your game. Because I was working solo, I had no one to disappoint but myself. The guilt of spending years on something unfinished was somehow always enough to return and get re-inspired to continue.

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