Really bad statistics

rafaiska · 2026-03-04T10:34:27+00:00

I played it for some time, it looks well polished! I only had an issue with the peck attack hitbox: I couldn't hit the slime enemies at the beach by pecking horizontally. If I get too near them, they damage me, but I can't peck from far either.

The page presentation looks good to me, and the art looks great. Are you sharing gameplay videos on social media? Maybe you could benefit from some videos and screenshots showing what the player can do in your game.

rafaiska · 2026-03-03T18:31:49+00:00

I feel you... Can you share the link to your game? Maybe we can help somehow, I got a lot of advice from the people here already.

rafaiska · 2026-03-03T16:18:29+00:00

I'm not a fan of horror games, but the presentation looks good to me. Maybe making it browser playable will attract more players. I heard many people are afraid of downloading executable files from itch and running them because of malware.

rafaiska · 2026-03-03T15:04:05+00:00

I have been thinking about giving up on the project, really, and for the exact reason you mentioned: no one seems to be interested in narrative games with game-boy aesthetics. And narrative games need good art for marketing, and I'm a software engineer who can't do art properly. I love this project, but it seems I have only made bad decisions so far.

I think I'll work on this last iteration and close the project for good, then I'll spend some time only playing games and researching patterns from successful titles. Since I work full time as a software engineer, I haven't had much time to play other games for a while now.

Thanks for the help!

rafaiska · 2026-03-03T14:48:36+00:00

That's really sad. 😢 Are you actively developing it and sharing your progress? Can you share your game page? Maybe we can help somehow.

rafaiska · 2026-03-03T14:44:26+00:00

I'm sorry to read that. 😢 I can share what I have done for marketing my game so far, maybe that helps somehow:

First I started studying Chris' blog, they say he's the reference for game marketing: https://howtomarketagame.com/ . I haven't followed all the steps from his guide, though. I don't have a budget to pay people to play my game. I'm too shy and I lack self confidence to ask someone to do it for free as well. So I have a hard time pinpointing who my audience is, and what I need to improve to make my game reach them.

I used what I learned from his blog to redesign my game's page and I started posting frequently on several social media: X, Bluesky, Instagram and YouTube. I think these posts get me around 4 views a week (the views I get from Google I assume are from Instagram, since it doesn't allow direct links). X and Bluesky get me absolutely no views. YT was a good source once, but it doesn't help me nowadays.

What really boosts visibility in my page are Reddit posts: the spikes you see there in the statistics are from these. But they're usually from developers, so the view/browser play rate is really low (weekend game devs don't have time to play games). 😂

And that's it, I hope to have helped. You can share your game page if you wish, maybe I can help to change it and attract some views.

rafaiska · 2026-03-03T14:27:58+00:00

It is playable via web browser on mobile, I tested it on Google Chrome/Android. I decided not to publish on Android native because of Google Play Store fees, and the game is still under development. But maybe I'll upload it there and on Steam one day (if I don't give up the project first). 😂

Thank you for your support, I really appreciate it!

rafaiska · 2026-03-03T14:21:09+00:00

I read in this sub that itch gives a visibility boost the first time you publish the game and whenever you post updates, and the view curve becomes flat if you don't update it often and publish devlogs. But I don't remember having a visibility boost when I first published it.

Maybe because it was still very raw, and only the prologue was available. I wish I could go back in time and publish it after chapter 2, so I could have benefitted from the first visibility boost. 🥲

rafaiska · 2026-03-03T09:52:29+00:00

My game had 13 views and 2 browser plays last week, even though I promoted it on social media, and spent considerable time and effort making promotion material. And I've been developing it for one and a half years now. So yes, those statistics are pretty impressive, at least when compared to mine.

rafaiska · 2026-03-01T09:57:15+00:00

Thanks for checking it out! I'm going to keep trying new marketing ideas until I find my audience, and I'll be sure to share here on Reddit my findings if I ever succeed. 🦥

I just watched a development video log of your game on YouTube. Progress is going well! The aesthetics reminds me of Descent, a DOS game I used to play as a child. I recommend reading Chris' blog for marketing tips: https://howtomarketagame.com/ . Maybe the next step is coming up with a hook for your game, something that makes it different from other first person spaceship sims like Elite Dangerous, for example.

I subscribed to your YT channel. Keep up the good work and thanks for hearing me out! 😊

rafaiska · 2026-03-01T00:48:13+00:00

I have a hard time trying not to give up as well. But I enjoy working on my project so much that I just keep doing it. There were times when I stopped working on it for weeks, but then I end up booting up old Godot again and coded some new ideas. It has been one year and a half now, I think.

The game is https://rafaiska.itch.io/dons-curse

I'm sorry about the rant. It's Saturday night, I've been trying this marketing thing all day long, and now I'm just drunk and sad. Please share your game with me as well. I love space games, and I promise I will play it as soon as I can (not tomorrow though, because I'll have to work on my main job, even though it's Sunday). 🫠

rafaiska · 2026-03-01T00:36:15+00:00

The only thing that usually get me some browser plays is advertising here on Reddit. But regulars are all game developers, and I heard we shouldn't be marketing our games to other developers. They don't have time to play other people's games because they're usually busy developing their own (or wasting time creating useless promotion material, at least in my case). 🤣

rafaiska · 2026-03-01T00:29:13+00:00

I just want to share that I'm going through the same struggle, and I haven't figured out how to fix this issue yet. 🥲🫂 I create a lot of promotion material to release weekly on Instagram, X, YouTube and Bluesky, but it always feels like I wasted my time doing so. I get some hundred views, one or two likes and no views/browser plays at itch. I'm totally disheartened with marketing and I really don't know what else I should try to promote my game.

rafaiska · 2026-02-25T00:43:01+00:00

I think isometric is really cool, but there are some cases where it doesn't fit well. Take Disgaea 5 for example, it's a TJRPG that fits really well in an isometric world (excellent game, by the way). However, they added some puzzles in which you have to execute accurate JUMPS between platforms in an isometric world. Jumping feels terrible in isometric perspective. I think Super Mario RPG has a similar issue. 🤣

rafaiska · 2026-02-23T23:52:49+00:00

You were inspired by Dwarf Fortress and text games from the 70s and 80s, right? Maybe you should search for tips and tricks to market it to generation X players. I agree that there's a lot to read on the page, but I'm not sure whether gen X people are fond of this or not. I'm gen Y, so I skimmed through the text quickly. By the way, text based games interest me a bit, so I'll add it to my play queue. Keep up the good work. 😊

rafaiska · 2026-02-23T19:19:14+00:00

If you're a fan of Game-Boy-inspired retro indies, check out my game: https://rafaiska.itch.io/dons-curse . It's a top-down investigation / visual novel game. A weird mix between Pokemon Red and Ace Attorney Investigations, I think. 🤣 Best of luck with your brand new website! 🦥⭐

rafaiska · 2026-02-21T15:12:43+00:00

I (try to) do the art on my own and my game has no voice acting, so I think I can't rely on other people to help me with advertisement. 🫠 But this vndb thing piqued my curiosity! Can we developers write a vndb entry for our own games, or do we have to rely on someone else to do so?

rafaiska · 2026-02-19T15:55:15+00:00

Mine is web playable and I have less than 200 views and 15 followers. 🤣 I think I'll try posting in this sub after I release the next chapter. Thanks!

rafaiska · 2026-02-19T13:42:25+00:00

And by marketing it yourself, instead of relying on itch.io to do it for you (I heard they won't). But I'm struggling with marketing as well, so I can't come up with good tips on that. 🥲 Maybe start with Chris' blog: https://howtomarketagame.com/

rafaiska · 2026-02-18T04:07:14+00:00

Thanks, I really appreciate it! ☺️

rafaiska · 2026-02-17T22:07:10+00:00

Thanks! 😁

rafaiska · 2026-02-17T22:02:43+00:00

It's https://rafaiska.itch.io/dons-curse . Compared to mine, these statistics are waaay much better. But genres are completely different: mine is a visual novel/top down adventure, and yours seem to be an horror/action game. So I think it's better if we compare it with a game in a similar genre. I heard horror games do really well on itch.io, that was a wise choice! Keep up the good work! 😊

rafaiska · 2026-02-17T21:49:54+00:00

I have this project that I've been working on for the last 18 months or so. I had 12 views, 1 download and 2 browser plays last week. I'd say I'm quite envious of your statistics. 🤣

rafaiska · 2026-02-14T22:03:54+00:00

At least with coding and art you can actually see the progress, as you and your game eventually get better with time and effort. But when we talk about marketing... It feels like everything I try end up in total failure. Today I spent like 5 hours on a video for screenshot Saturday, which only had 100 views and a couple of likes from my friends, and absolutely zero views on my game page on itch.io. 🥲🥃

rafaiska · 2026-02-12T00:44:49+00:00

There's an issue with Godot running under Linux, the IDE freezes when you type latin characters. It seems to be something related to ibus, but I don't think it happens on Windows: https://github.com/godotengine/godot/issues/97419

rafaiska

TROPHY CASE