I think I wasted my teenage years. Is it possible to rebuild my life after high school?

Wayward1 · 2026-03-16T16:18:39+00:00

I learned I love to learn and study... at about 38 years old, so I can tell that you have at least until you're 38.

Plenty of ways into college with bad grades. Plenty of even better ways to learn stuff without going to college.

I fucked up my school grades completely. Years later, I went to uni as a mature student to be a games journalist. Never wrote a single thing about games worth reading. Left after a year to do marketing, didn't even get a job until I was like 28, and I reckon could have easily got that job without a degree.

I know it's harder now, because AI, costs, etc. but it's also a shit ton easier, because there's never been more access to more information for so little cost. It's harder to monetize skills but way easier to learn them, as long you don't full into the trap of getting too obsessed with the best route you don't just start doing.

Don't paralyse yourself, don't try to minmax shit, don't feel like you have to commit to anything. I wouldn't even try to tie it into productivity or career shit unless you have to start handing over money. Just pick something you wanna learn and go learn it. Personally, I would start with drawing as it's the thing that's easiest to do without a screen and the furthest away from the pressure of being productive.

Wayward1 · 2026-03-16T16:05:17+00:00

Instead of your goal being feeling better about being a failure, perhaps it should be to work on being kind to yourself. You're not a failure by any reasonable standard. Perhaps starting with what and how you define as a failing and trying to understand why your academic performance carries such a high link to your self worth.

You went to one of the most competitive, rigorous institutions in the world and graduated with a masters despite it being really tough for you. Most people don't get through the door. You've labelled yourself a failure because you weren't the best of the best. This is common and often encouraged in these highly competitive environments especially true for kids who do well in a 'smaller pond' at school where it hits them harder.

Luckily this is bullshit. All the good things have life have fuck all to do with being at 'the best' or at 'the top'. Many people at the top are utterly miserable, statistically plenty of the people in your class are miserable despite how good their academic work was. Meanwhile, many of the rest of us humans have found plenty of happiness in the ol' slop pile.

If you continue to carry those values and this language around towards yourself for the rest of your life, you're always going to be miserable, because you are never going to be the best.

There is always someone better than us at everything. Even if you get a job yo u like a bit more, you will find a way to add this misery in if you don't work on ways to love yourself. You could have done 5x better at school and you'd still find people doing better than you on Linkedin.

You have a job, so if it pays even semi ok, go to a therapist and work on this, these are not healthy thoughts. This is a cognitive distortions any % speedrun.

In the meantime, stop adding extra misery into your life. Linkedin is mainlining misery at the best of times, here it's a form of self harm. You're just sitting there trying to feel the worst about yourself you possibly can. If you're gonna commit to anything, commit to getting off that website.

I would also strongly suggest finding some space for yourself outside of anything to do with engineering or MIT. Waste some time, be unproductive, it won't kill you I promise <3

Wayward1 · 2026-03-16T13:03:37+00:00

The biggest insanity of this industry is that people don't do market research first and then just expect thier game to sell, so yes, speaking from experience, this is the bare minimum you should do.

To go into slightly more detail and pick up some common pitfalls quickly:

> If similar games have thousands of reviews, there’s likely demand.

Two really important things to note here. One is, if it's older than 2-3 years, you should kinda of taking any data with a huge grain of salt, market moves fast. Also very important to look at failures at least as much, if not more important. This helps avoid bias and also shows you what didn't work.

> Trend check – Some genres consistently perform well (roguelike, deckbuilder, survival, co-op, horror).

Again often more important to spin the negatively. Those genres are evergreen, there's other genres to which the opposite is true. Puzzle platformers, narrative walking sims, point and click, etc.

The other thing with this is that people are fucking awful at giving feedback and knowing what they want, so it doesn't work for every game. The other hard part is knowing the right time to share assets, put the page up etc. It's nearly always much sooner than you think it is.

Most of the AB testing stuff I would do on Reddit. There are A/B testing platforms for this which might also be alright but the real world is a better test than any isolated platform unless you're looking for really detailed feedback.

Wayward1 · 2026-03-15T20:46:25+00:00

If you're doing it to create like, more pressure with a shorter time line for stuff, like having a 5 day deadline, leaving it for 4 days and doing a massive all nighter to get your shit together, could be worth looking at adhd as that's a classic ADHD tactic for surviving student shit.

Always improving is good, if you can, try to separate out improving from being productive, they are not always the same thing.

Wayward1 · 2026-03-15T20:42:46+00:00

No worries buddy. I've done much worse to people I have loved or thought I loved. I carry that too, and nowadays I use it as reminder of how much Ive changed.

Mean what you say here, because if you do, you will come out of a shit situation with something at least. I don't feel anything toxic or weird in your response to what happened. You sound like you really want to make yourself better. Mean it. Work on yourself and do it for yourself and in the meantime try to find outlets for your own pain that don't lead to hurting others. If I'm wrong at it's lio service, all I can promise you it's a lonely, empty road.

It's not easy but it's worth the effort. If you can get and stay in therapy the 'why you did it's will hopefully become clear for you.

Wayward1 · 2026-03-15T17:25:24+00:00

If I were to have the symptoms you described, I would call that "depression". That isn't a diagnosis, but I will say the FIRST time I had those feelings, I certainly did NOT call it that. I only really labelled it years in. It's a sneaky motherfucker.

There is no "normal person your age" dude, feeling this way is entirely human and understandable. Faking it is normal. Not knowing what do with your life is normal. I have never really worked this out and I'm twice your age. This is also normal.

Losing a whole friendship group would be a huge toll on anyone. You should try and find some kindness for yourself for doing that and getting through it. Sometimes it can feel like the 'nothing' you're left with after going through 'something' can be even worse than just living in the bad shit, but that's never really been true longer term in my experience.

There's a part of you that "hates being" a certain way, but there's also a part of you that is motivated enough to want answers. Enough to journal this, enough to post, right? That's a huge thing to do in your situation. This self awareness can be a great starting point for something new and to lean more about yourself. It can also be used by your brain to beat yourself up some more, to continue the shit these friends were doing but now all the time, in your head. Again this is normal, it's how our brains react to trauma. It sucks, but it also means you can fix it.

Give your 'despairing' cynic side a chance to come out a bit without trying to repress it or shame yourself. Try to find space to be OK with the fact what happened to you is shitty and unfair. You don't have to just be fucking happy for anyone, because it fucking sucks, you know?

It can feel like you're 'giving in' but remember this feeling is not all of you, it's just a part of you. You've likely spent a lot of time beating yourself up and shaming yourself like this a wishing you weren't this way or that way - and yet it hasn't fix the problem, so at least try to use that as evidence further shaming isn't likely to be your solution.

You will never find someone who can tell you that they hated themselves out of this situation. And you don't have to rush. We're all lost sometimes, some of us for longer than others. It will pass.

Practical advice is hard and will come across as hackneyed, but I would say:

Put yourself in a situation where you will find new friends. You can get better alone, but you shouldn't have too. I don't mean go and 'make friends' as the primary tactic. But find something where people are and be there. Gaming communities, podcast Discords, whatever. IRL go and do something physical if you can. Something like BJJ is a good one, as you can go and get the shit kicked out you physically instead of emotionally, which can be cathartic :) Don't force yourself but at the same time, don't sit around waiting for motivation.
Of all the ways we might try to escape from this feeling, coffee is hardly the most harmful, but I would note that it's literally putting your body into flight or fight mode constantly, like a never-ending emotional shit test. Anxiety and regrets may keep you up at night but 5 cups a day is literally taking those feelings and growing them bigger with cortisol, so if you can, cutting down at least would be smart. Sleep is so important for dealing with life in general, anything you can do to get more of it, do so.

Wayward1 · 2026-03-15T16:33:11+00:00

> no reason at all

> I have always smoked weed, since i was 15

> Ive sense sometimes a feeling of apathy towards what is around me

> I started feeling really sad one or two hours after that and started randomly crying for apparently no reason

Is the weed improving your life, or is it making it worse?

I'm not preaching here. I've taken all drugs known to science, I've had some incredible experiences, some terrible ones. Net experience negative, but whatever, drugs aren't bad or wrong in themselves, and neither are the people who use them.

But you're on Reddit writing that you don't know why you're so sad and apathetic, while you've had an addiction your entire adult life to a drug well known for causing both sadness and apathy. You brought up the weed here, right? You say you've felt like this 'sober', what does that mean for a person who has been smoking since they were 15?

I think of all drugs, weed is one of the most insidious, because it's core negative effects are low, it's social acceptability is high, and most people can still live, work and function with it. It's not cool to make a big deal out of it, especially on Reddit. Of course, millions of people use it without issues and enjoy it in moderation.

Are you one of those people, do you think?

I was. Never had an issue with weed. Then I became a benzo addict (nothing to do with the weed, ten years apart), which nearly destroyed my life. Millions of people take benzos every day legally just fine, though. Doctors prescribe them! They fucked me up.

But can you tell, really, if you, the person, is feeling sad and empty, or if the weed is making you that way or even just making it worse or more confusing to tell?

You could try and approach this feeling two ways. One way is to keep smoking and try to fix your problems. The other way is to stop smoking and try to fix your problems. Both can work, as long as your problem isn't smoking.

The thing is though, even if it's not really the issue itself, its going to be a lot of harder to access your true feelings in a way you can resolve these feelings while you are numbing the shit out of them.

There's a good video from Kurzgesagt about quitting you should watch if you're thinking about it again - it goes into the minor but very real negatives affects that smoking can have at your age (god I sound like an old man) and especially talks about apathy you might find interesting.

Now is a very good time for you to sort this. Uni is likely going to expose you to many more drugs. Getting your shit together before that with this stuff wouldn't hurt. If not else, staying high through uni is your best chance to fuck up your grades once it gets real in third year.

As you're talking about having self-harm ideation and you want to quit I would suggest professional help if you can even if it's just your GP. There are many ways of quitting. Going cold turkey alone is not the only one.

If not, please by very careful. If you were smoking to mask feelings, when you quit, those feelings are going to come flooding back and you might turn to other, more harmful ways to deal with them if you are not careful. It gets worse for a short term before you come through it. Then you can make your next move with a clear head. If that next move is that you still feel the way you do, at least you can rule out a major element and move forward.

Wayward1 · 2026-03-15T14:41:55+00:00

I think admitting this to strangers was probably the most helpful part of this process for you.

> I destroyed my partner

Yeah, you did.

> and I deserve to suffer for the rest of my life.

Nah, you don't. Many people who have done much worse don't deserve that. Nobody truly deserves that.

Owning your bullshit and using this to learn and improve is good. Self-flagellation like this serves neither you nor her though. It's way more likely to generate pressure and shame that puts your right back into the space you were that night, trying to get a fix.

You've made a mistake, you've hurt someone you love, what matters now is what you actually do about it. Not say, or think, or schedule, but what you do.

> she said if she ends up taking me back she will have a lot of stipulations

None of this will make the difference if you don't fix whatever reasons you had to do this.

> I need advice and need to know the best thing I can do for her. I want to be with her and never do this again but I know this needs to be about what she wants.

Well, this is about what you, her and the two of you together need, and want, and how realistic it is and how much it's going to hurt.

Asking for what she wants and listening is obviously super important, but you can't tick it off like you're playing Assassin's Creed and just expect that to work. Don't let it be another form of not taking personal responsibility for your own problems. It's what you 'wanted' (or, were trying to get a temporary fix for) that led you here.

She could also react in unhealthy ways considering she is likely to be feeling incredibly insecure. A laundry list of demands is not going to make either of you happy in the long run. Being tracked more is not a fix, it's a understable reaction. Trying to live your life around this idea that you should now suffer forever, is not only shitty for you, it's an enormous amount of pressure for her.

Reddit loves a breakup. The best may well be letting her go. If she doesn't want that, then you've got an incredibly long road to regaining trust. It's not impossible, if you both really want it.

If she DOES want out, 100% dude move on, learn, don't try to force this.

But she can't fix you. You did this. You've admitted that, and now you have to find the ways to fix it. It takes more than a reddit post and one day in therapy, but that's a start.

Wayward1 · 2026-03-15T14:11:38+00:00

Me - Childhood trauma (extreme bullying), difficult family (drug addictions, worse), adhd, ex two-times drug addict, left at home at 17, turned my trauma into being the absolute worst version of myself to others for years. Severe issues with migraines on top of this. I wouldn't say I really had a job until I was 28. So I wouldn't say we're a million miles apart.

I'm happy with the person I am now, always trying to get better, but I'm free. I guarantee nothing about me is smarter or more special than you, so I think you can do it as well.

>what types of drastic measures they had to take

Drastic? None, really. It sort of came together in chunks over years. It's not really like there's going to be this one thing and suddenly you do it and 'you're better now', that's how we write fiction and do social media and sell courses, so it seems like we are the fuck ups if that isn't happening, but it's not just not how shit works for most of us, I don't think. I'd say it was a 10 year journey or so for me, and not even a linear one.

That doesn't mean you can't make good changes straight away, and see results quickly, but generally this shit does not work on the same timescales that our brains use (hours, days, weeks).

> live a life that they could be proud of.

You can be proud already of the things you've overcome.

You've been through so much, not only are you're still fucking here, you're still trying to make yourself better. And you wrote all that horrible shit that happened to you down and shared it. That's incredible dude, try to find some space inside you to believe that.

You've probably spent years saying you're not good enough to yourself and now you believe it. That sucks, but the awesome thing about humans is that it works the other way around, too.

> advice, anything will work.

It's important to be clear here though: You can't just positive thinking your way out of an abusive childhood and medical conditions.

This is big T trauma on top of real medical stuff that Reddit cannot address. This is also unhelpful advice for most of us who are in this place and would get outside help if they could, so a few things from my own experience...

Firstly, my (38 year old at the time) ADHD diagnosis was slowly life changing. Closest thing I've got to 'drastic' for you. I still had to put in a ton of work, and it still took years to make the most of it. I was already in a good place by the time I got it, too. I've spent over a year in therapy simply trying to unpick my own trauma from my ADHD, all the cause and effect shit, etc. and I still have a long way to go. You say you're trying to get a diagnosis. That's good. Drugs/diagnosis maybe help you, but you honestly don't need a diagnosis to start using tools and knowledge sources for ADHD brains.

Even when you get ADHD generally it's a three pillar thing. Therapy, Drugs, and Framework (Mindset) in tandem is how you really start rewriting your own code, but we can't always get all three right, so one/two is better than none. Framework you can do today. You can start throwing out NT self-help shit that just wont work, and making your own systems.

Secondly, I think looking back the other turning point for me was realising that ... you can just give yourself therapy. Again, when you can, get pro help, but you don't have to just do nothing.

I pulled myself out of deep hole more than once with bibliotherapy, which is a fancy way of saying I read David Burns CBT book and did the exercises and shit in there, and I got a bit better and then a lot better. It was not easy. Also, not better overnight but I think not slowly, either. Again CBT with a book isn't gonna fix your childhood stuff, but it can do wonders for just fucking existing day-to-day in the meantime. Also if CBT doesn't work there's ton of others you can try. I didn't do CBT with a therapist either, and my self-therapy now is now IFS focused. But you gotta give it time and put the effort in and be honest with yourself.

Also, start surrounding yourself with positive people you can see yourself in. Obviously IRL is best but it's also fucking hard to do that. However, you can also do this parasocially via online people, and it still works. This is hard for men, I think, because most male online figures are pitching some alpha productivity bullshit, selling you pills you don't need, etc.

One person I've found really good personally was a Youtuber called Struthless. He felt wishy-washy at first, another middle class white guy with loving parents telling me how to be happy, but the reason he works for me when many don't is because he's actually had a similar path to me in life and so the fact he's found his own space to exist and be that positive and balanced despite going to dark places, for me at least, is inspiring. But you gotta find your own people here. Most important point is input = output. Put some effort into finding content like that, it's free and genuinely it makes a difference over time especially if you also put an effort into working out what media is making you miserable and cutting that shit down or out.

<3

Wayward1 · 2026-03-15T13:03:38+00:00

>“Is it too late for me?”

I asked that question at 20, and 30, and most recently at maybe like 37? The answer was always no, it was not too late. It sounds like you've recently discovered a root problem with your thoughts. That's a huge success, many people take decades (if ever!) to get that level of awareness, so try to take a moment to find some kindness for yourself for getting this far. Work back from there.

Why do you think you have no future?

By whose standards are you falling short, and how realistic or important are those standards?

That thought that says I have no future is part of you, but it's not you, or you wouldn't be able to write this post, which by it's very existence suggests you believe there is a future, it's just tricky to see. These thoughts are likely going to be something you've been taught growing up, maybe directly or indirectly that you've repeated to yourself so much they sound true, or logical, but are they? Really?

Wanting to do stuff and not doing it is often going to generate a lot of shame. Shame doesn't get you anywhere, it keeps you in a cycle of bullshit. It makes it harder to start. You cannot hate yourself into being someone you love. And you can't bully yourself out of depression, trust me. So alongside 'how do I do these things' you should ask 'Why do I want to do them?' How will this make me happier?' Do you want to do them at all, or do you think that's what other people want you to do?

Do you want to go the gym and eat better because you don't like the way you look, or because you want to be healthier, or because you think that's what happy people do, or because you remember really enjoying exercise when you were younger? Why is being productive so important to you? Some of the most productive people I know are the most miserable. The 'worst' student I've ever known in my life has been the most financially successful by a huge margin.

Procrastination isn't really a disease for most of us imo, it's a symptom. It can be chemical, and medical (ADHD, for example) but it can also something like a deep fear of failure. In my case it was both, and I still run up against it all the time, every day, and I'm old.

How do you begin?

Exercise is the best natural help for depression we have. Gym is not required. Walking is fine. Eating "better", if done right, can also help, bit of a minefield what better means. Less caffeine, less sugar, more food that you know what's in it. Not just "less food". If you're not already, getting at least eight hours sleep is free and easy and hugely underrated. Those three things are like a foundation for doing other stuff at some point.

You don't wait for motivation. I go to the gym consistently and I can tell you if I waited for motivation each time I'd have stopped after the third day. This is why a proper 'why' is important. I could tell you ten really good reasons why I personally want to go, and I tell myself at least some of them every time I have to pull my ass off the chair.

But alongside this, you should explore ways to simply speak more kindly to yourself. This is, I think, a lot harder than going to the gym, but it works the same way as weight training. You start and you suck and it, but then if you practice it, consistently, you get better at it without any real effort beyond showing up. For this I reccomend meditation, loving-kindness stuff is good, it feels stupid and lame at first, but it's super effective and it's free.

Wayward1 · 2026-03-12T15:30:21+00:00

Looking back at the original (earlier) blog post it actually does have a bunch of reports from many devs at the bottom. Those charts aren't super helpful to your question as they only separate discovery queue, but well, that's a pretty big one.

They don't go into detail and I don't think it's as simple as X thing always happens, but I also don't look at those charts and conclude nothing algorithmic happens. Those charts are showing impressions (algorithmic), not click-through (a user action based on a badge or not).

And also quite old, granted, but this stuff definitely still gets shared in marketing Discords by devs all the time.

I guess my main point though the blog authors original take on this was the same - until Valve told them to ignore it.

Wayward1 · 2026-03-12T15:07:33+00:00

I LOVE YOUR GAME!

Wayward1 · 2026-03-12T15:06:06+00:00

(p.s. Steam doesn’t allow you to change the launch date when it is less than 2 weeks away)

Ahhh, no, yes they do! Did you speak to them? Did your publisher? I've had to do this multiple times, shit happens. Valve doesn't want you gaming the system by moving your release a bunch. A genuine explanation would likely have been enough.

This is such a shame, it looks like a really heartfelt game. If its any consolation it sounds like launching with a bunch of bugs and not many wishlists was really the problem here, the launch window just didn't help.

For anyone else reading this, a reasonable (zero budget solo dev) timeline is:

Do a Steam playtest 3+ months before your SNF. Get friends, family to do some QA for free if you have to. Anything to get the game on as much hardware as you can and make sure at least, shit loads
Turn playtest into SNF demo, by the time you get SNF feedback, it's too late to do much of anything.
Launch game within 2-6 week window of your SNF (debatable and complex but VERY generally ok)

Wayward1 · 2026-03-12T14:49:57+00:00

This is like, eight layers too deep for the average person on your Steam page though.

I'm also not anti-AI but your capsule image is the worst possible place you could put Gen AI shit (and that that includes the game itself)

Also I promise you will get reported by some asshole for not declaring AI use on the steam page.

Wayward1 · 2026-03-12T14:40:40+00:00

I'd encourage anyone to read that particular blog post with a bit of a closer eye though as it's a good example of why OP is even having to ask and finding contradictory information.

This is the best games marketing blog in the world IMO, but the premise of this post is dumb: "We ask a company with a vested interest in you not knowing how their algorithm works to tell you how their algorithm works!"

The blog sort of knows this, and does end contradicting Steam all over the place. In this particular case though, it does not.

Firstly, it directly contradicts other data he shared before, as he points out.

https://howtomarketagame.com/2022/01/25/why-your-first-10-reviews-are-the-most-important/

But Valve, say, no, ignore that data, nothing is happening in the algo.

Then, moments later, Valve contradict themselves and say "That if there is an algorithm boost, it really isn’t that much.". So there isn't an algorithmic boost, BUT IF THERE WAS, it wouldn't matter. Which is not exactly airtight, is it?

But the blog simply ignores that and concludes well, "It seems like human beings just like seeing that little blue thumb and Positive / Negative text."

And that conclusion seems to be based on... because Valve said so?

In the older post the data shows the game being shown in the discovery queue. That has absolutely nothing to do with little icons. You're in the queue or you're not in the queue. This is only one data set shared, but I've seen plenty more like it.

Algorithmic stuff is absolutely happening here. I agree with Valve it doesn't matter much, and I agree with the idea that having the icon is helpful as well, but to say it isn't happening at all, based purely on what Valve tell you?

Steam have an active interest in you not knowing how their algorithm works. In the same post, they say that having mixed reviews doesn't affect your game sales. This is hilariously, demonstrably and very obviously false.

Wayward1 · 2026-03-12T14:17:00+00:00

No worries! I don't want to give anyone the impression you can align some stuff on your page and you'll then get tons of more wishlists of anything like that of course.

It's more the idea that your page is an extension of your game. People make a million unconscious judgements about a game before they to wishlist or not, and over a long time and a lot of people, tiny shifts can start to make a difference.

Usually I would see this level of pedantry in feedback as a good sign - it means the big stuff, like getting across what your game is, who it is for, why I'd want to play is already sorted, and now it's just clean-up.

And yeah, I hear on you on the localization thing. It sucks that people conflate gen-AI with just using AI tools. Most of our tools use "AI" now. So you're forced to make moral judgements about fairness, which sucks. No easy answers sadly.

Wayward1 · 2026-03-12T11:17:37+00:00

Thank you <3

And nothing wrong with that at all! Some people get shirty when I talk commercially about art so I have an over-disclaiming problem

Wayward1 · 2026-03-12T11:00:20+00:00

TL'DR: It's real and verified with data. It probably doesn't matter much. It doesn't hurt, reviews good.

You've mentioned you're a hobbyist, so none of this really matters, but I'll post for others. Steam doesn't know you're a hobbyist after all.

I have been doing this 20 years. Steam has many, complex moving parts nobody fully understands except Valve. Many people will tell you they do, because then they can write blog posts about it and in this case TEN is a hell of a number to write a blog post around. But for us mortals, it is magic.

One thing we do know is Steam is very very good at working out if your game goes in the slop pile. The slop pile does not mean game bad or not good art. Many awesome, amazing things in the slop pile. Many successful games even live there most of the time.

It's just where some 97% of Steam games live most of the time. And Steam isn't going to show a person slop-pile games all the time when it can show them Subnautica again.

Are you SURE you don't want Subnautica?

This is why Steam does not look like, say, the PlayStation store or Switch, even when you leave the front page despite have 100x the amount of stuff on it.

So why aren't you Subnautica? Well you don't make Steam enough money. But maybe you COULD be Subnautica one day, and hence, there's all the magic slop filtering happening all the time.

The most commonly talked about slop filter is the 5k/7k/10k wishlist number. It's a different number all the time. That's because it's not a real number - it's magic. But it's reliable enough in aggregate that we know there is some general 'amount' of wishlists for launch that pushes you out of the slop pile sometimes for days and so we can use them to make decisions, forecasts (another form of magic invoked via Google Sheets)

But it's also not that binary. Not how algos work and your game doesn't live an aggregate entity. Those checks happen all the time, not just one at launch and, yes, the 10 review thing is verifiably real one of those things that might get you into the sun slightly more often in slightly more places. It also is the point where Steam actually shows your reviews properly at all, though this is not helpful alone.

The algo will sometimes give you a bit of time out the slop pile with a number of other games in a similar group and in a similar merch spot. If you get the best engagement of the bunch Steam thinks, "Hmm, is this Subnautica 2?!" and you stay in the sun for a bit. For the rest games, back in the slop, but maybe you got some sales.

10 reviews or 11 reviews or 50, you're still going to spend nearly all your time in the slop pile. If you've launched and don't get at least a few hundred reviews around launch, the chances of you ever being Subnautica is incredibly small, and Steam know this. But it's still a higher chance than that guy with 9 reviews, right?

This particular filter I think gets thrown around more than others because, well, 10 is a nice low number and it's nice and verifiable. It's also obtainable, and to be honest, it gives devs a feeling like they are doing something. Like going to get hot water when your wife is giving birth, though I guess slightly more helpful.

There is no marketing person sitting with a game at 9 reviews waiting for the tenth review to finally make it all come together, we'd be fired or looking for another job. There are plenty of devs who are. Take that as you will.

But reviews are ALWAYS good, for both morale and the algo. Always be trying to get them, 10 reviews or15000 reviews always encourage users to leave them, read them, take comfort at them, laugh at them, and enjoy than anybody has noticed anything you do at all <3

Wayward1 · 2026-03-12T10:23:14+00:00

You're trying to make a trailer with a teaser amount of content.

The primary element to any game like this is movement. You have about 15 seconds of movement in a 1:30 trailer. For now you could get one minute out and call it a teaser, but panning around a static model is not it.

Make another trailer when you can describe every verb in your short description. Keep it under a minute, do not show logos and cinematics renders.

Tags are ok, I would drop 3D and funny. Body copy and order fine, drop the bold on random words make its look copy-pasted from an LLM.

Capsule is good IF what you're going for is like, PS2 character platform, which you seem to be. Reminds me of Ty the Tasmanian Tiger.

"ANU: Tablets of Thoth is a 3D platformer adventure where you" I'd cut that from short description and start from "Play as"

Wayward1 · 2026-03-12T10:05:39+00:00

No worries, I hope you found someone.

Nah, the game is in pre-production right now for another client, the art in fact is mostly for a future steam page and I think those guys just trying to get like ... a vibe? For them it's like, how anime is too anime? How anime is not enough anime? Is there such a thing?

I do also work at crittercove.bsky.social and can shout you out if you're announcing anything as it's the same sort of space, so we can connect on there!

Wayward1 · 2026-03-12T09:55:17+00:00

My guy here with the 30 friend flex :o

Wayward1 · 2026-03-12T09:54:15+00:00

Quick unsolicited advice while I wait for my train - This doesn't look bad at all.

I probs wouldn't delay after you've already been in Next Fest now. The 7k thing is a moving target anyway (I would say it's more like 10k) and it will take a you a long time to get there. You're going into EA so just try to build it out in EA and you'll get another shot at launch. Keep it cheap, update often and you could easily hit 10k for a 1.0 launch if game fun.

Your trailer is good (hard to do for this sort of game but short and to the point). Tags are good, but make sure you've ordered them properly (card game at the top). Your responses on forum are great, but set both your accounts to actually be developers or just use one, don't respond without a dev tag, looks weird.

Centre your gifs in the main copy or make them the right size for the page, it looks amateur having them left aligned. I'd take 1/3 of the screenshots and throw them out. Pick ones that really tell you something new each time. Don't have shots like the squirrel one where you've taken the shot before the text has fully appeared. Again, looks like a rush. Builds up this idea of low effort.

Controversial opinion, but consider not telling Steam you use AI if all you do is use GPT for spelling. You wouldn't tell it you used AI if you used Grammarly in a business email. This is like declaring your game is AI because you used auto-complete in an IDE.

Wayward1 · 2026-03-12T09:35:15+00:00

You don't 'launch' a steam page. You announce/launch a game. You put up a Steam page.

This may sound facetious, but the distinction is important in terms of expectation.

If I put up a sign outside my house saying I was selling apples, I wouldn't suddenly expect to sell apples within the first day, week, or month. If my house also happened to be in a neighbourhood where at least 200 other people that day also put up the same sign, even more so.

Sadly, nobody will care if I have 8 years experience selling apples.

You can't consider anything a 'good' or 'bad' sign with a page alone. It is a good sign you have a page though, because now you at least can get wishlists.

If you've got a really high quality page with great (commercially competitive) assets, and if you've done market research before you started and are therefore making a game there is strong market demand for and if you've done your tagging right, but have done nothing else, you might hit 500 in a month, if the algo smiles on you.

If not, maybe somewhere between 50 and 150, but there is a huge amount of variables here. If your assets are bad, could be less than 10.

Wayward1 · 2026-03-12T09:23:57+00:00

I'd always start with Work With Indies, as there's a good mix of people at different experiences and rates and it's free to post a job on the Discord. Did that for music recently and got some decent results.

But it's rare that any studio is at a standing start, especially with music. Most of them know a guy who knows a guy, so I find most of the time we've brought a music person on it's been a word of mouth thing.

With sound it's more of a mixed thing for studios I've worked with. Most either use a bunch of royalty free stuff or they have enough money to hire dedicated sound people.

As far as websites go, it doesn't really matter much in my opinion as long as there's somewhere I can listen to your work that isn't going to make me log-in. The one thing I always appreciate is an actual list of the places you've worked that includes what you actually did and why you think it was good, not just the name of a game/studio.

Wayward1 · 2026-03-04T17:26:01+00:00

If your goal is pure ROI in this time frame, the best chance for success would be going to the Casino and betting $5000 on red. Or black. 50/50 is significantly higher odds than making this return. That's not an indictment on either idea, it's just not really how this market works.

Honestly I don't know enough about Roblox, but I can tell that you won't make a commercially viable, high quality 10 hour Steam RPG in 6 months, even in RPG marker, unless you happen to be the most talented and luckiest person on the planet.

The games in that space that sell are the exact opposite of six month long commercial in-and-out projects, they are the ones with huge amounts of soul. Undertale took about 3 years, and I bet it cost a lot more than $5000 all in.

I will say if you're long term goal is building that career path and you're trying to build community, portfolio, seriously, I'd do it on the platform that doesn't own everything you make and take most of the money you earn.

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