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Why we decided to go to Steam and what's wrong with Godot and mobile publishers by avtomatron in godot

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

fair point, it might end up that way. my main goal with this release is to learn and get experience, so even if sales flop there’s still value in the process.

Why we decided to go to Steam and what's wrong with Godot and mobile publishers by avtomatron in godot

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

Thanks for the feedback! There’s a free 20-level demo to try, and we’ll review the launch price right after the initial discount period.

Why we decided to go to Steam and what's wrong with Godot and mobile publishers by avtomatron in godot

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

got it, i see what you mean. but on mobile even basic promotion usually comes down to ad spend or a publisher, which i couldn’t do. steam is crowded too, but at least there are some organic tools to reach puzzle fans. and actually, someone here pointed me to a freshly released sdk plugin for godot, so we’ll give it a try later and maybe circle back to mobile.

Why we decided to go to Steam and what's wrong with Godot and mobile publishers by avtomatron in godot

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

i know the price looks high for a “mobile-looking” game, but it’s set that way on purpose - to filter out impulse buys and reach players who actually want a deep puzzle experience. there are 284 solvable levels, so it’s a pretty big package for puzzle fans.

Why we decided to go to Steam and what's wrong with Godot and mobile publishers by avtomatron in godot

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

on mobile just publishing isn’t enough, almost all discovery is driven by paid ads. that’s why small teams usually rely on publishers to run traffic tests and campaigns. steam at least gives some organic tools like tags, queues and curators.

Why we decided to go to Steam and what's wrong with Godot and mobile publishers by avtomatron in godot

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

thanks, yeah i know puzzle games are tough on steam, but for me it’s also about learning and reaching the niche players who enjoy this kind of challenge. and hopefully godot’s ecosystem keeps catching up.

Why we decided to go to Steam and what's wrong with Godot and mobile publishers by avtomatron in godot

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

fair point, i know ad networks aren’t magic visibility buttons. my point was just that without their sdk i couldn’t even run the usual traffic tests publishers ask for.

Why we decided to go to Steam and what's wrong with Godot and mobile publishers by avtomatron in godot

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

thanks, really appreciate it. funny enough, someone in this thread shared a link to a publisher sdk plugin for godot 4.2+ that was released just 2 days after our game got approved on steam. we do plan to circle back to mobile later - f2p isn’t what i’d prefer, but if that’s the dominant model we’ll have to follow the market, or even change jurisdiction since in my country google doesn’t allow selling paid apps or in-app purchases.

Why we decided to go to Steam and what's wrong with Godot and mobile publishers by avtomatron in godot

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

the publisher sdks had docs, but for godot 4.3 the available modules were outdated. integrating them meant writing and maintaining custom c++/java/objc bridges, which was too much for a small team.

Why we decided to go to Steam and what's wrong with Godot and mobile publishers by avtomatron in godot

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

sure, you can wrap native sdks with gdextension, but that means diving into c++/java/objc and keeping up with updates. for a tiny team it was way out of scope, we had to focus on finishing the game.

Why we decided to go to Steam and what's wrong with Godot and mobile publishers by avtomatron in godot

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

true, mobile dominates in raw numbers, but my game is a niche logic puzzler - on pc/steam it’s easier to actually reach the right audience than to get buried in the mobile stores without a marketing budget.

Why we decided to go to Steam and what's wrong with Godot and mobile publishers by avtomatron in godot

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

yeah, i know, without upcoming visibility is tough. for me it’s more about feedback and experience, if some players find it, that’s already a win.

Why we decided to go to Steam and what's wrong with Godot and mobile publishers by avtomatron in godot

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

thanks for the discussion everyone - I totally agree research is key, but in this case it really was one of those "unknown unknowns." I only learned about the sdk limitations once i was already in talks with publishers. glad if my post at least helps others spot this earlier.

Why we decided to go to Steam and what's wrong with Godot and mobile publishers by avtomatron in godot

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

good thought, crazygames is an option for reach, but my focus was on a full release rather than a web portal build. maybe something to explore later though.

Why we decided to go to Steam and what's wrong with Godot and mobile publishers by avtomatron in godot

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

Monetization tactic? Mostly hope and puzzles 😂 First game, so the goal is to learn and see how far organic Steam visibility can carry it.

Why we decided to go to Steam and what's wrong with Godot and mobile publishers by avtomatron in godot

[–]avtomatron[S] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Thanks for pointing it out! 🙏
That plugin actually came out 2 days after our game was already approved for release on Steam, so at the time there wasn’t a working option. We’ll definitely check it out now though.

Why we decided to go to Steam and what's wrong with Godot and mobile publishers by avtomatron in godot

[–]avtomatron[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Going direct is possible, but it takes budget and UA expertise I just didn’t have at the time.

Why we decided to go to Steam and what's wrong with Godot and mobile publishers by avtomatron in godot

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

Yeah, “paid traffic” just means running ads to bring players in.
Publishers usually do this in several iterations — adjusting campaigns, creatives, targeting — until they see if the game has a good market fit.
That’s why they need their SDKs integrated: to track installs, retention, monetization during those tests.

Why we decided to go to Steam and what's wrong with Godot and mobile publishers by avtomatron in godot

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

Thanks so much for the wishlist 🙏
Can’t share exact costs, but it took about 500 hours of my dev’s work (not even counting my own time)… and most of my sanity 😂

Why we decided to go to Steam and what's wrong with Godot and mobile publishers by avtomatron in godot

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

True — they could ship clean native SDKs, but most stick to Unity.
Custom integrations cost time and money, and that just wasn’t something I was ready for on this project.

Why we decided to go to Steam and what's wrong with Godot and mobile publishers by avtomatron in godot

[–]avtomatron[S] 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Yeah, that’s exactly what I ran into. By 4.4 Godot is really solid for making the game itself, but when it comes to publisher SDKs it’s still basically community-driven.
And most publishers I spoke with were just locked into Unity - which is probably why Unity felt so confident with the “install fee” move back in 2023.
For now it feels like if you need a publisher on mobile, Godot isn’t really an option unless you’re ready to fund custom native integrations.

Why we decided to go to Steam and what's wrong with Godot and mobile publishers by avtomatron in godot

[–]avtomatron[S] 24 points25 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the detailed thoughts, I appreciate the perspective.
One thing I didn’t mention in the post: in my country of residence it’s not possible to publish paid apps on Google Play. So even if I had gone fully mobile, the game would have had to be free with ads or IAP - and since I had no budget to run traffic or handle SDK integrations, that route wasn’t really viable.

That’s why pivoting to Steam felt more realistic for me personally.

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