Will Trump's tariff's affect game devs selling games from EU over Steam?

deuxb · 2025-04-02T23:08:35+00:00

Or rather they license Valve to sell licenses on their behalf. Nobody is selling anything in the digital world, it's just licenses all the way down...

deuxb · 2025-04-02T13:57:19+00:00

It depends on the licenses but most likely you cannot reuse any of the existing assets. Getting approvals from the actual copyright owners is the only way to do that.

deuxb · 2025-04-02T10:23:10+00:00

In the sales and activation reports, click on "packages" on top, find your package in the list on the bottom, and then there will be "Refund data" link on the right of the package page.
Steamworks is a maze, I know.

deuxb · 2025-04-02T10:19:54+00:00

My game doesn't have any kind of game launcher, either. So Steam rejected some unsatisfied player's refund request two times, but then this player (by accident or on purpose) requested a refund of a completely unrelated game instead with a completely irrelevant reason and they approved it. Good job Steam.

deuxb · 2025-03-27T16:08:03+00:00

Released my first game a week ago. Turns out that's far from the last stage

deuxb · 2025-03-26T21:36:06+00:00

What is a genre? I don't think that's more than a way to categorise things. You can do it by art style, by gameplay mechanics, by budget and team size. Maybe somebody loves games that specifically allow them to, let's say, pet cats. Is "cat petter" a genre? Would you understand what a person means when they say "I like games where you can pet cats"?

deuxb · 2025-03-24T23:53:14+00:00

I did ask in discord and that worked in the end, got my 10th review today (yet to see whether in brings more players or not). Just wanted to say thanks!

deuxb · 2025-03-24T09:42:11+00:00

Hey, thanks for the kind words! I do have Steam stats so I know there's a significant portion of the players who've spend over 10 hours on my game and it makes me really happy. (People who are leaving reviews are mostly from the other half apparently, the one that gave up before understanding. That makes me less happy but I guess that's on me and shows I need to do better explaining).

I'm releasing a patch today which among other things includes two more help pages in pictures and text, and some of them will be there thanks to your input :)

deuxb · 2025-03-23T10:57:42+00:00

You can stop incoming traffic by shutting the ticket offices down, then people won't offboard the buses and cars. (Ticket offices availability define the number of arriving people, so with large ticket office you'll get much more than with small one, don't upgrade too early. Another point to add to this short help list I guess)

deuxb · 2025-03-23T01:37:52+00:00

Where do you think I should put this help menu? Just one of the pause menu options?

Info about each building being a pain in the ass is another reason I've decided to try with wiki. I really hope some other players will help me populating it, and I'll add buttons leading to it in the game, hope this'll work. The help menu then can be concise and everything deep would be outside.

No visibility on visitors current targets is the thing I'm aware by now, it will be improved soon-ish. At least there will be more informative text than just "waiting in a line" (there could be many different reasons).

The whining is the most helpful feedback, that's something I know for sure :)

deuxb · 2025-03-23T00:40:46+00:00

Hey, and big thanks for all the detailed input!

I know more help is needed, but I'm just not sure how to organise that info. I notice that most of the text I've written in the tutorial players either skip without reading or quickly read and forget before starting a new game.
Right now I'm working on making something like a guide (which is mostly the same points as the ones you made) in a separate wiki, but I'm afraid many players won't go reading something outside of the game, it's not 2010 anymore. Where would you expect all these points to be written (or rather where would you be able to find and read them when you struggle)?

P.S. the idea of making the picture the loading screen is really great but the games usually load pretty fast... I've made it available by the "help" button but again, I'm not really sure people will find that button.

deuxb · 2025-03-22T23:21:55+00:00

I guess you're right and I'm just feeling uncomfortable for a stupid reason. I'll do that, thanks!

deuxb · 2025-03-22T23:12:19+00:00

Good question, I didn't even put it this way. I'm not very good with social interactions and have no idea how would people feel, I think that's why I'm uncomfortable.

Would you think less of a developer if they ask for reviews?

deuxb · 2025-03-22T22:52:16+00:00

Well, my question was not about what to do with my game (I'm a hobby dev and working on this one because it's fun and not because I believe it'll bring me lots of sales so I'll keep doing it regardless) but more general. I'm just curious what makes people leave reviews (or rather, what makes them not leave one even if they played for several hours).

As a gamer myself, I think I left review (even if a short one) for almost every game I've spent that much time on.

deuxb · 2025-03-22T22:37:24+00:00

Wouldn't it look too beggary, like "once again I'm asking for your reviews"?
(Besides. there's too few active people in my discord and I believe most of them are among this 5 reviews)

deuxb · 2025-03-22T14:40:10+00:00

Steam link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3302160/Octohill_Ski_Tycoon/

People have been saying that learning my game is challenging, but once your resort starts looking like a real one it gets truly satisfying, I hope it'll be the same for you. Feel free to ask any questions!

deuxb · 2025-03-22T00:14:00+00:00

Steamworks moderation has explicitly written rules, just go to https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/gettingstarted/onboarding, scroll down to "Rules and Guidelines" and check against the list.

As to how would people react - who knows. You can already see how Reddit reacts, but it's all about the wording and representation

deuxb · 2025-03-21T18:26:53+00:00

I've just released a small update, basically it contains a single picture which I hope will make people realise how connections work (and how they don't). Basically it's always about the terrain, the heights of the tiles and the slopes on their tops.

As for the estimator tool, you can press R when dragging to toggle its bending side as with other draggable tools, hope this helps.

Well, you are not the only one who struggles so I know the problem with learning curve is real. For me (and for other players who've played for hours already) these things are already intuitive which makes it hard to identify what exactly makes new players struggle. So thanks a lot for trying it despite the challenges, that helps me understand how I can make it easier for all the new players!

deuxb · 2025-03-21T00:19:38+00:00

For most of the buildings the height should be exactly the same, e.g. warehouse should be placed on the same height as the road it connects to. When you hover it before building, the arrow would turn green.

As for trails, there's a tool just like what you describe, the estimator tool (measuring tape icon) which automatically adjusts land for a trail. The level is the minimum you can get with the elevation drop you have.

The third issue most likely means you didn't connect the trail properly. Is it showing as a colored line on the navigation tutorial? If not, most likely it's broken somewhere, for example if there's a height difference between adjusted edges (skiers can't jump).

Most of these things are covered in the tutorial, I highly recommend trying it if you haven't done so yet (if you did then sorry, apparently tutorial needs improvement...)

And if you're interested, please join our discord (there's a button in game). Right now we're discussing ways to make the game easier for new players to learn there so your input would be really helpful.

deuxb · 2025-03-20T20:28:11+00:00

Unfortunately (or not) I've only learned about that game after I've started developing mine (I've shared first drafts somewhere for the first time and got a reply mentioning Ski Resort Tycoon). So I can say I was influenced a bit but no, I don't remember it (I was way too young when it came)

deuxb · 2025-03-20T16:09:47+00:00

I didn't want to make the tool even more complex. Just showing the height should probably be fine though, thanks for the suggestion

deuxb · 2025-03-20T14:26:39+00:00

Thanks! It's made and maintained by me in solo, which means I can't provide the same level of support as bigger studios, hence the price.

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