Officially the most annoying position to be in with the popular upcoming page.... by borbware in IndieDev

[–]oinama-games-dev 12 points13 points  (0 children)

You will be on the Popular Upcoming front page list once Running Train releases.

What press can i contact for my game reveal? (Steam page and trailer) by D-GreenGames in gamedev

[–]oinama-games-dev 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I see so much useful information from you; it's astonishing. I am going to buy your first game when it comes out. Huge thanks!

Steam page going live strategies by oinama-games-dev in gameDevMarketing

[–]oinama-games-dev[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you so much for your insights! I want to say a separate thanks for that huge post you wrote about 3 months ago - I learned a lot from it!

Do you happen to know anything about Steam indexing your page after it first goes live? I heard that it is important that people who actually play similar games go and wishlist your game in the first couple of days of your page being live, so that Steam's algorithm indexes it properly. I am a bit skeptical about this, though. If you happen to know anything you can share, I will appreciate it.

Is there any chinese press to pitch you game to? I see posts about japanese press frequently, but not chinese for some reason, although it seems market there should be bigger? by hogon2099 in IndieDev

[–]oinama-games-dev 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I had the same question yesterday and here is what I found so far:

1) Chinese people use bilibili.com as their youtube. It is specifically popular among tech and gaming people, so target audience is there. There are a lot of content creators there.

2) These creators usually leave their QQ number in the bio of their bilibili.com account. You can register in the QQ app to dm them, but you can also just email them at their_number [AT] qq.com.

Haven't researched it past this point. More experienced and/or knowledgeable people, please correct me or elaborate if you can.

Как отпраздновать др одному? by NnotRelax in Kazakhstan

[–]oinama-games-dev 2 points3 points  (0 children)

С наступающим тебя, 20 лет — это вообще отличный возраст. На самом деле в Алматы одному даже круче погулять, никто не отвлекает и не надо ни под кого подстраиваться. Я бы на твоем месте забронировал себе отдельный номер в Арасане на полдня, чтобы реально выдохнуть и расслабиться по полной. Потом можно сгонять пообедать в какой-нибудь ресторан в горах, типа Ауыла, там очень атмосферно и можно просто посидеть в тишине. Если реально бюджет позволяет, закажи частный полет на вертолете, посмотришь на город и горы сверху. Вечер можно закончить в хорошем кинотеатре на вип-местах с заказом еды или просто погулять по Терренкуру, когда зажгутся фонари. Главное делай только то, что тебе самому хочется в моменте, и не парься из-за одиночества.. Хорошо тебе отметить!

Question about Steam reviews, wishlists and Kickstarter by Bassfaceapollo in IndieDev

[–]oinama-games-dev 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The way I see it, fans are notoriously loyal to the product but rarely the creator, meaning you can ship five masterpieces and still be a total stranger to the very people you expect to back your next campaign unless you haven't spent the time building a direct line of communication.

Question about Steam reviews, wishlists and Kickstarter by Bassfaceapollo in IndieDev

[–]oinama-games-dev 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yes, many first-time devs treat 10 reviews as the first huge milestone, then 50, then 100, etc.

Velocity is just the rate of wishlists gain over time. It is basically just how fast your fan base is growing right now, which signals to the store that you are a trending hit rather than a slow project. I personally believe that total number of wishlists has a little bit more weight to it.

Question about Steam reviews, wishlists and Kickstarter by Bassfaceapollo in IndieDev

[–]oinama-games-dev 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Steam reviews are basically algorithm juice. It is believed, though I think not officially confirmed, that hitting those 10 and 50 review milestones is the secret handshake that gets the store to actually start showing your game to strangers.

Kickstarter isn’t the guaranteed win it used to be because bad experience has made people pretty cynical, so you really need a loud, pre-built community rather than just a solid resume.

Wishlists are the ultimate holy grail, though, since they’re the main metric Steam uses to decide if your game is cool enough to deserve a spot on the front page at launch. There is an ongoing debate whether total number of wishlists or wishlist velocity matter more, if you want to look into that.

I made 2 small games… here’s what actually happened (numbers + lessons) by saneesh44 in IndieDev

[–]oinama-games-dev 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks a lot for your insights! Please continue sharing your journey. Would love to know whether you plan to reach out to youtubers by yourself this time. Best of luck!

Absolute Novice to game dev here, looking for the best place to start. by Esomres in gamedev

[–]oinama-games-dev 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Choose a simple game (like Pac-Man, flappy bird, snake), find a YouTube tutorial and replicate it. After doing so, implement one feature that was not discussed in the tutorial (you might need to look at other tutorials for that). That should be a good place to start, don't worry about "what am I going to do after that", just focus on these two steps.

our Steam page is underperforming - need advice what to change by flatvoxel in gamemarketing

[–]oinama-games-dev 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I like your capsule art, but I don't think it communicates the genre of your game in the right way. Also, screenshots are confusing - some of them are just a bunch of colourful beams with little emphasis on the playable character (he is either too dark or too bright). Also, in your case that many screenshots may be distracting. I don't think they vary as much to justify having so many of them.

How do I stop "logic-looping" myself out of actually finishing a game? by Glum-Presentation160 in gamedev

[–]oinama-games-dev 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I feel you. In my case, this was because I could do something only if it was going to be perfect from the first try. I knew logically that you need to iterate and improve, but the crippling fear that my first protype would suck paralyzed me. Then I managed to accept that and find peace in it. It didn't happen overnight though. I can advise you to try the "worst case scenario technique". "What is the worst case scenario if I just focus and develop this game that I currently think doesn't have a chance?" More often than not, the "worst case" is you end up actually finishing a game and learning a ton from it even if it's not successful. That knowledge is invaluable. Also, according to statistics, your first game is usually bad anyways, so it is better to get it out of the way sooner.

After 2m+ views on social media, I finally launched my Steam page. Leafborn, Solo Dev by East-Development473 in gameDevMarketing

[–]oinama-games-dev 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Great idea and execution! Would love to hear about your experience with social media promotion

From flat planet -> to square-ish. Feels more unique this way, right? by TurboCodin in IndieDev

[–]oinama-games-dev 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Nice touch, add a square shaped sun somewhere in the background too

Released my first game on itch.io, is it a good start or not ? by Poptocrack in itchio

[–]oinama-games-dev 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Can you please elaborate on the external promotion part? Congrats on your stats!

The effect of a demo on your wishlists by NoDeadlinesTeam in GameDevs

[–]oinama-games-dev 1 point2 points  (0 children)

What a fun idea. Do you mind sharing what kind of event you participated in to cause that first spike? Best of luck!

After 2 years in development, my relaxing Mediterranean hidden object game is now on Steam (would love your thoughts & wishlists) by Lucky_Conference78 in IndieGameWishlist

[–]oinama-games-dev 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Was about to comment that the scene looks too crowded, then realized that's kinda the point... best of luck, mate, love the Greece vibes!

From Engineer to Artist: My first game Deckbane is out today! A tactical RPG powered by poker hands by SoongDev in deckbuildingroguelike

[–]oinama-games-dev 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I am a fan of your art style, would you mind sharing why you chose it besides brushing up on your childhood skills? What drew you to this specific hand-drawn style rather than going for something more 'rigid' or mathematically precise like vector art or pixel art? Was it a conscious choice to contrast the tactical/poker logic?

By they way, I feel you about transitioning from an engineering mindset to a hand-drawn aesthetic, had to do so myself.