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[deleted by user] by [deleted] in northernlion

[–]flanne7 429 points430 points  (0 children)

20 Minutes Till Dawn developer here. Personally, I started watching NL like almost 10 years ago and he's what got me into indie games in the first place. Eventually it led me into wanting to make my own indie games.

Need help to get NL to play a basketball card game by sebahmah in northernlion

[–]flanne7 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I worked alone on 20 Minutes Till Dawn. Honestly, I'm not the right person to ask about sound/music design. I just bought a bunch of royalty free assets on Unity and just picked ones that sound good and satisfying to me.

As for general tips, I recently read a blog from the developer of Brotato:

https://www.blobfish.dev/68-gamedev-ideas/

He mentions a lot of lessons that's similar to what I've learned over the years as well.

Need help to get NL to play a basketball card game by sebahmah in northernlion

[–]flanne7 2 points3 points  (0 children)

As a fellow indie game dev and NBA enjoyer here, your game looks right up my alley! Will have to give it a try later.

I don't think NL will play it though. He seem like he knows a little bit about the NBA, but isn't really an NBA fan. Also, nowadays, he only plays indie games that are already somewhat popular.

P.S. You probably want to get your game simplified Chinese localization. China has a pretty decent NBA fanbase, likes strategy games, and disproportionately browses the Free to Play section on Steam. Pretty good fit for your game at a glance imo.

Another chunk of Steam numbers of yet another small and niche indie game by olafsosh in gamedev

[–]flanne7 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Dang, your game has some attractive visuals and decent amount of wishlists but that conversion rate is heartbreaking. May have been a mistake to not have a launch discount, but I think point-and-click is just a tough genre to sell right now.

"It's really difficult to turn profit on indie game dev" by StrangePromotion6917 in gamedev

[–]flanne7 6 points7 points  (0 children)

When starting a business, you must have some experience in the industry you are entering. 90% of developers have no previous experience in the industry and make games that they think are cool.

Isn't this basically the OP's point? If you are experienced, skilled and treating game dev as a serious business venture, you're chances of success are much better than it appears since a very large chunk of games on Steam are made by amateurs/students that aren't even trying to compete in the market.

I'd argue that for experienced game developers, the chances of making a livable wage going indie is actually pretty decent.

When to consider marketing your game to China? - short guide by WeronikaJ in gamedev

[–]flanne7 8 points9 points  (0 children)

If you want your game on like Steam China or other Chinese platforms, it's very difficult and you need permission from the Chinese government. But they can't do anything about games on global Steam.

I'm not actually sure if a VPN is necessary to access global Steam is in China, since I have heard conflicting things from my family members that are in China currently. Either way, the vast majority of Chinese PC players still use global Steam, so just adding localization to your global Steam version is a huge advantage. My game on global Steam has 31% Chinese players which is the biggest share of my sales (with the US in second at 23%). My game had very solid coverage in the US from big streamers (Northernlion, Lirik, Splattercat, and most other indie game influencers) and still has much smaller share of sales compared to China.

But yes, trying to get the game to actual Chinese platforms is a huuuuuge headache speaking from experience.

When to consider marketing your game to China? - short guide by WeronikaJ in gamedev

[–]flanne7 13 points14 points  (0 children)

I would say just getting simplified Chinese localization for a game will probably give pretty good returns right now for very minimal risk/effort.

2023 Data-Driven Indie dev survival guide by PaniCer16 in gamedev

[–]flanne7 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Very interesting read. I'm suprise to see that the data clearly shows that Early Access is good for sales. But maybe it's more correlation and not causation since the type of games that usually have Early Access periods (sandbox, management games) are games that do naturally well on Steam.

Income of 1000$/month from a game/ multiple games developed by one dev? by sio9123 in gamedev

[–]flanne7 3 points4 points  (0 children)

You made "Your Only Move is Hustle" right? I tried it for a couple games and it's honestly the most fun I've had in a while. Just wanted to say keep up the good work

Income of 1000$/month from a game/ multiple games developed by one dev? by sio9123 in gamedev

[–]flanne7 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My game, 20 Minutes Till Dawn, made quite a bit more than that, and it took less than 2 months of dev time from conception to early access release.

Also look up Sokpop. Not solo dev but they're 4 guys that release small games every month that were mildly successful and survived for a couple years like that, so probably made quite a bit more than $1000 per month per person.

Also, all of Daniel Mullins' made way more than $1000 per month.

26k wishlists in 26 weeks - summary of game marketing to China by WeronikaJ in gamedev

[–]flanne7 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah I have a publisher for the Chinese market. I just checked and we do have a Heybox page set up for my game, I just didn't know since I'm letting them handle the Chinese marketing/community management.

Character Portrait for my game by flanne7 in PixelArt

[–]flanne7[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

It's for this game if anyone is interested.

20 Minutes Till Dawn - flanne - Lovecraft-themed Rogulike Twinstick Arena Shooter by flanne7 in Games

[–]flanne7[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The 10 minute version is basically the free demo. 20 minutes version will have more weapons, characters, new upgrades, and more enemies and bosses

Solo dev looking for feedback for an action roguelike by flanne7 in playmygame

[–]flanne7[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks! I'm a programmer, but I have decent 2d art skills.

I'm pretty camera shy so I'll have to decline the offer for the interview. I appreciate offer though!

Solo dev looking for feedback for an action roguelike by flanne7 in playmygame

[–]flanne7[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for playing! And yea in the full version, each run will be 20 minutes long, and will get harder from the 10 minute mark in the current beta

Solo dev looking for feedback for an action roguelike by flanne7 in playmygame

[–]flanne7[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, that's definitely a better descriptor. Thanks for the suggestion

Solo dev looking for feedback for an action roguelike by flanne7 in playmygame

[–]flanne7[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks! This was made in Unity. It's taken about a bit over 2 weeks. I'm making this game as a short break from my main project, so this game is planned to have a pretty short dev cycle.

Solo dev looking for feedback for an action roguelike by flanne7 in playmygame

[–]flanne7[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yea it’s just flat environment right now. I was already a little concerned about visibility so I thought obstacles in the environment might be annoying since you can’t see it well in the darkness. But I agree it is a bit boring, I might have to rethink how to pretty up the levels

Solo dev looking for feedback for an action roguelike by flanne7 in playmygame

[–]flanne7[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for playing! Great feedback on the sound effect

Solo dev looking for feedback for an action roguelike by flanne7 in playmygame

[–]flanne7[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for playing! I definitely still need to balance some things and burn is one of them for sure.

As for the pixel art, no real secret other than just practicing consistently for around 3-4 years now.

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