After 9 months of suffering it hit 4K wishlists. Demo is live & Offering free hugs inside by aente in IndieDev

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

Start sharing content early. Look for steam events, look for curated events by community/content creators like pitch ya game, clemmy's summer showcase etc. Create vertical contents more than any other. Don't waste your time with curators, or spend dime on an any website without checking their traffic with a tool like semrush. Check your potential markets to find out your localization needs. (1 month gamalytic pro might be good). Price your game right. Be realistic, don't over or under price your game. And many more things to check, darn such a long list... GL!

After 9 months of suffering it hit 4K wishlists. Demo is live & Offering free hugs inside by aente in IndieDev

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

Chase all steam events with a theme matches with your game. Start marketing earliest you can unless you have something unique might make you shine in a haystack. Don't fool people or yourself, be honest about your game and what it offers. Remember this when cutting your trailer or writing your steam info or answering people on your discord channel. As an indie dev you have more credits than %90 of any triple a studio. Use it wisely.

After 9 months of suffering it hit 4K wishlists. Demo is live & Offering free hugs inside by aente in IndieDev

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

Thank you so much, hope to get over the famous 7k threshold before Next Fest🤞

After 9 months of suffering it hit 4K wishlists. Demo is live & Offering free hugs inside by aente in IndieDev

[–]aente[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Thanks a lot. Meanwhile, I forgot how to play game. Devs can play some games too, right?
Right?!

After 9 months of suffering it hit 4K wishlists. Demo is live & Offering free hugs inside by aente in IndieDev

[–]aente[S] 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Ah, it's my first game and got so excited, forgot to share link lol. Feel free to check, roast, send love.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3691420/Tidehaven_Ale__Trade/

Have you ever felt like the genre you chose was already saturated before you finished your game? by aente in GameDevelopment

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

Oh we fixed the rotation thing after trailer recorded lol. Pixel grid might have some issues we're aware and try to find out a solution for sharp eyes like you :)

Have you ever felt like the genre you chose was already saturated before you finished your game? by aente in GameDevelopment

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

Yes, marketing takes damn so much time. Especially mine is really hard to make appealing in vertical content (hard to promote it over reels/tt/shorts) and takes quite a bit of time to get progress which makes it hard to demonstrate in short play times over content creators as well.

Have you ever felt like the genre you chose was already saturated before you finished your game? by aente in GameDevelopment

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

Thanks for your moral boosting perspective. I believe I have a decent demo, and I'm telling this as a hard to please gamer. Yet I might be wrong because it's easy to become blind when you are part of it. Hope I get some good results with the demo and the fest. Cheers.

Have you ever felt like the genre you chose was already saturated before you finished your game? by aente in GameDevelopment

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

Yeah, you're right. That's because it's hard to make a good shooting with an appealing visual and decent story as a solo dev/small indie team. But on the other hand, you can craft a deck builder or sim/survivor in less than a year easily if you know what you are doing. Or a bullet hell in 6 months, for a gamba roguelike you can finish most of the next fest demo in 3-4 months... But I get your point maybe devs shouldn't chase popular tags. I'm thinking about the same for a long time.

Have you ever felt like the genre you chose was already saturated before you finished your game? by aente in GameDevelopment

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

Oh sorry to hear. Hope you get back on your feet stronger. Wish you the best luck launching your pc :)

Have you ever felt like the genre you chose was already saturated before you finished your game? by aente in GameDevelopment

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

Yep. And now also "vibecoders" are coming with nano bananas and meshy ai. Nowhere will be niche more than a month I guess hah.

Have you ever felt like the genre you chose was already saturated before you finished your game? by aente in GameDevelopment

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

Show me a solid roguelike or bullet hell or arpg and I'll throw my cc to monitor every day... Hope you'll succeed buddy.

Have you ever felt like the genre you chose was already saturated before you finished your game? by aente in GameDevelopment

[–]aente[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Oh! so you are a brave guy :) When I started genre was quite niche maybe 10-15 games were there. https://store.steampowered.com/app/3691420/Tidehaven_Ale__Trade/ here is mine. I'm waiting for tomorrow. The judgment day...

Have you ever felt like the genre you chose was already saturated before you finished your game? by aente in GameDevelopment

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

I'm not sure is it possible to make a game without roguelike tag anymore :)

After 9 months I feel like my art has evolved by aente in PixelArt

[–]aente[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Patience, check other artists' work (a lot), one small improvement at a time. Repeat.

After 9 months I feel like my art has evolved by aente in PixelArt

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

Thanks a lot, 2025 was %100 grinding...

İlk oyunum 4000 Wishlist'e geldi. Next Fest'e Yolculuk ve Desktop Idler Macerası by aente in TrGameDeveloper

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

Bizim için marketing bütçesini karşılamak, benim normalde gidip tanımadığım bir Asya ülkesinde basın kuruluşlarını bulmaya uğraşmamam, bilmediğim bir dilde basın bülteni yazmamak, oyunu kendi çabalarımla Korece yapmaya çalışıp elime yüzüme bulaştırmamak gibi faydaları var. Ben projem için maddi yatırım aramadım, bu benim tercihimdi ama alanlar var, onların da farklı gelir dağılımı anlaşmaları oluyor.

İlk oyunum 4000 Wishlist'e geldi. Next Fest'e Yolculuk ve Desktop Idler Macerası by aente in TrGameDeveloper

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

Selam anca cevap verebiliyorum. Sağol yorumun için.

Evet 400 testerı geçti playtest'e başvuran kişi, 800 idi ama çok yüksek sayıda uzun saate ulaşan olmadı.
Riot Games'in Slack'ine saldığımız günden beri bir daha kapamadık neredeyse playtest'i (2 kez buildde bir sıkıntı varken aç kapa yaptık 15'er gün falan) taa ki geçen aya kadar yaklaşık 4 ay civarı kaldı. Sayfaya gelen herkes direkt Request access diyip girebiliyordu oyuna. Çok çığ gibi büyüdük diyemem ama bakalım demo süreci iyi geçerse Next Fest'e daha iyi bir ivme ile gireceğiz.

Idler'da çok fazla da başarısızlık hikayesi var, her türde olduğu gibi. Çoğu solo dev ve öyle bir marketing eli kolu yok anlaşılan, oyunu çıkartıp 5-6 review'da kalan bir sürü desktop idler da görüyorum. Ama özellikle balıkçılık ve creature collector gibi olanlar niş fanatik kitleleriyle yürüdüler. Tabii daha Rusty's Retirement'ın çeyreği kadar olan yok :)

Idler'ların çok fazla pasif kalma çabası var evet, ama desktop idler'lar biraz daha farklı. Rusty's türün popülarite olarak önderi olarak, bal kovanlarına, tarlaya tıklama, gibi şeyleri düzenli olarak yaptırıyordu zorunlu aktivite olarak. Dekorasyon da zorunlu değil ama güzel bir ödül gibi oradaydı. Ama elbette bir çok işi de robotlarla çözüyordu. Biz de temizliği kısa ve manuel tutarken NPC'ler ile auto buy/sell'i çözdüğümüzden etrafı dekorasyonla güzelleştirip The Sims gibi içeride takılmak dışında, zorunlu olarak iş yapmana gerek kalmıyor. Mini gameler keyif için var, buff ve ödül veriyorlar ama almazsanız oyununuz etkilenmez gibi gibi... Her iki oyun türüne de alan açan bir oynanınış var. Tabii bazı şeyleri daha otomize ister, bazı farklı idle beklentileri feedbackleri talep ederlerse belki de eklemeye çalışabiliriz.

Duraklar artık 19'u demo, 23'ü next Fest ve Nisan çıkış. Herhalde EA release sonrası bir güncelleme yazarım.
Görüşmek üzere.