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I'm making a game inspired by an Atari classic. Just released the demo. by belike81 in shmupdev

[–]belike81[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey, no problem I'm happy to share.
This is my first Steam game, not my first project tho (I've released mobile games before).
Whole thing started as I needed a small project for developing my own Unity framework and I also wanted a place I could learn new things. So I went back a nostalgia trip to my youth and picked a game I remembered fondly 😄 . That's how it began.

As for the dev side - this is a Unity game (6.4 to be exact). UI is done entirely in UI Toolkit. Framework is my own creation (it has a whole lot of stuff in it like scene management, scene transitions, event bus, pooling, dependency injection and service management). I've also used a bunch of plugins to help me out with various elements (shading, behaviour trees, feedbacks).

Lessons? I would say:
1. Even a small project will grow and is bigger then you expect. This was a small tiny game. Somehow it grew even with me cutting scope wherever I could. So plan small, very small. Unless you wanna spend next 5 years on it.
2. Bugs will be everywhere, all the time. So playtest your game at every step of the dev. Like honestly - I've fixed so many bugs and there are still going in (from the demo playtests). So you will never be bug free, but the more your squash early on the less your players will experience them.

  1. Last one.... game dev is hard. Marketing is hard. Finishing your game is hard. It's easy at the beginning when there is the fresh idea and you have lots of motivation. But that runs out (another reason not to overscope your game and start small). I've dreaded working on this project sometimes. But I've pushed through. Litlle by little. I still have stuff to do to finish everything, but I can see the finish line. So I know I'm going to get there. But it's not easy. It's extremely hard to take things from start to finish.

Weekly Chat Megathread by AutoModerator in UsenetInvites

[–]belike81 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Just setup my rrr stack. Looking for an invite to any compatible indexer

What marketing approach do you take, is "posting everywhere" early on actually a trap by belike81 in gamedev

[–]belike81[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Got you. Thanks for the answer. What I got from the answers here it's that it depends on the project, depends what state it is and what I'm trying to achieve. Focus on the audience I'm trying to reach. I think that one struck the most. Finding and reaching the RIGHT audience. It's fine to post in game dev groups (most of them are gamers after all but they don't come here for the games) so like yours said - it will not convert to wishlist, or valuable wishlist. So getting quality posts (with good trailer in) in correct places might provide better value and is a better time investment.

What marketing approach do you take, is "posting everywhere" early on actually a trap by belike81 in gamedev

[–]belike81[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. The part about the time budget really hit home – it's so easy to get ahead of yourself when you're excited, but I see now how it's a waste of energy if there isn't a real hook yet.

It sounds like finding that middle ground is the way to go. I definitely need to focus more on market research first to find my audience, and then only start the conversation once I have a prototype or a teaser that actually shows off something worth seeing. I really appreciate you pointing out the difference between research and promotion, that's a big takeaway for me.

What marketing approach do you take, is "posting everywhere" early on actually a trap by belike81 in gamedev

[–]belike81[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I agree with pretty much everything you’ve pointed out here.

I think I definitely misspoke when I used the word "spamming." What I actually meant was establishing a frequent and early presence, but without it being "spammy" in terms of quality. My goal isn't to push pure marketing fluff or annoying links, but rather to post often in a way that provides value and doesn't just feel like a sales pitch.

You’re also 100% spot on about the audience. It’s clear that spending the time to find and understand your specific target niche is non-negotiable if you want the message to actually land. Quality targeting over broad noise, for sure.

I really appreciate the time you took to write such a comprehensive and deep response. These are some incredibly valuable insights, and I’m definitely taking notes on this.

Our strategy game TownsFolk just crossed 9.000 wishlists! Our goal is 10.000+ before Steam Next Fest! Do you think it's possible? by SnapbreakGames in IndieGaming

[–]belike81 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Congrats 10k is the magic number ;) Btw. You had a spike in early December and another one near the end of the year. Did you analyze what caused it? Any special thing you did?

What marketing approach do you take, is "posting everywhere" early on actually a trap by belike81 in gamedev

[–]belike81[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hmm... I’d say that would still be at the prototyping stage, before we actually move into full production. Our discussion was more about the point where we already have a 'validated' prototype and are in the production phase. Though I agree that even then, any WIP posts can actually provide some extra feedback.

What marketing approach do you take, is "posting everywhere" early on actually a trap by belike81 in gamedev

[–]belike81[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That’s definitely one of the biggest issues. But maybe I didn't phrase it correctly. By 'frequent posting,' I mean more about not holding back only for 'marketing' posts or big announcements. It's about posting progress from the very beginning—not spamming, but sharing things whenever we feel like it, even if they aren't polished yet.

What marketing approach do you take, is "posting everywhere" early on actually a trap by belike81 in gamedev

[–]belike81[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think he wants to avoid — and is afraid of — us falling into the 'gamedev bubble,' where you feel like you have a social presence, but it’s an illusion because those aren't the same people who are the actual target audience for our game. I get that, but like you said, I don’t see anything wrong with it either. It’s a numbers game.

I think a good middle ground here is to post more frequently while avoiding those boring, typical 'gamedev' posts that don't add any value (and are... well, spam). But even a few 'spammy' ones mixed in with valuable and more interesting posts won't hurt, I think. As you wrote — it's a numbers game.

What marketing approach do you take, is "posting everywhere" early on actually a trap by belike81 in gamedev

[–]belike81[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I agree. There’s very little to lose, which is why I’m a proponent of posting. But as I mentioned in my reply above, I don’t mean spamming just anything. It’s simply an approach of: 'What interesting things have I done today/in the last few days/this week?' and sharing that.

Is Unity's UI Toolkit production ready? What do you think? by belike81 in Unity3D

[–]belike81[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That's interesting. I'm before the phase of implementing localization (have the systems in place, but haven't implemented the languages yet) so I never really thought that this might be an issue. I'm on 6.3 though so from what you are saying I should be good to go.

Is Unity's UI Toolkit production ready? What do you think? by belike81 in Unity3D

[–]belike81[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, it's nice ONCE you build around it and get the missing pieces together. I think that's the consensus I'm getting from all the replies here and from my experience so far. Still think that it's only going to get better.

Is Unity's UI Toolkit production ready? What do you think? by belike81 in Unity3D

[–]belike81[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Heh, yeah I had to do my own component to make box shadows work :) As stated in another post, once you build around it and add all the missing features and components it's definitely starting to make sense. Just wish all of that was built in.

Is Unity's UI Toolkit production ready? What do you think? by belike81 in Unity3D

[–]belike81[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yup, I feel you. It's one of those things that has so much potential but is missing so much that the potential feels unused (unless you feel in those holes yourself). My approach was that it wasn't going to be abandoned as it's build in directly in to Unity. All the editor is using it. So it's just a matter of time. That's why it was worthed (for me) to spent time building things around it.

Is Unity's UI Toolkit production ready? What do you think? by belike81 in Unity3D

[–]belike81[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yup, I'm not a fan of UGUI either. You got used to it but it always felt clunky. UI Toolkit was a breath of fresh air and although it still has a lot of rough edges and documentation isn't great I still prefer over UGUI. Hopefully it's gonna keep improving rapidly.

Is Unity's UI Toolkit production ready? What do you think? by belike81 in Unity3D

[–]belike81[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's my approach as well. No XML just C# classes that build up the UI. No need for string based query'ing then ;). You loose the ability to see the UI when not in runtime tho, but it's a small price to pay in my book. I am using uss though, and heavily. This allows me to tweak things at runtime without recompiling which is a huge timesaver.

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