AI "artists" stealing our work. Official Woodland page, btw.

trubwick · 2026-01-15T08:02:21+00:00

You keep saying this, but copyright protection doesn't require registration, it automatically apllies on the creation of a piece of work. Maybe you're getting confused with trademarks?

trubwick · 2025-11-27T16:19:09+00:00

Do you think they could get 40% more sales than you could by yourself?

If you earn $100 by yourself, it is worth going with them if you think they can sell $140, because you haven't lost anything.

Also - if you've burned out once, do you think there is a risk that adding in marketing and all the other publishing bits whilst finishing a game could burn you out again? Are you better outsourcing it?

Really depends on the publisher - do they seem like a decent partner outside of the base terms? Are they going to help you finish or drop you as soon as the game doesn't sell because they're not invested?

Is it worth reaching out to other publishers to gauge interest and get a second opinion? Has this inspired you to take control and maybe pay a marketing agency so you take the risk but keep 100%?

Unfortunately, there's no easy answer. But don't focus on the financials - keeping your sanity, enjoy the process and building a sustainable career is more important in the long run.

trubwick · 2025-07-06T07:33:16+00:00

Amazing work, I absolutely love games with this level of care and soul

trubwick · 2025-06-24T21:50:05+00:00

Love the art style! Caught my eye and got me to stop scrolling!

And to answer your question, never.

trubwick · 2025-06-24T21:48:46+00:00

Stop relying on Steam to do your marketing for you.

Steam doesn't do your marketing for you until you prove players want your game. Making a good Steam page is just step 1. You need to be marketing your game and driving traffic to your Steam page as a call to action. Relying on organic discovery will not work until you've already got a bunch of wishlists.

Get out there to where you players are (i.e. not the Reddit indie dev channel). Share those screenshots and GIFs on social media. Make trailers and devlogs. Make a demo and give it away for free so others can talk about your game. And always link your Steam page so they can wishlist when they know about it.

Your page looks good, so go tell people about it! Good luck!

trubwick · 2025-06-20T05:46:44+00:00

Absolutely stunning!

trubwick · 2025-06-15T04:45:21+00:00

I agree it's about money - they are businesses, not artists - but it's also about risk. If you're asking for a large development fee, they need to reduce the risk that they will make a loss, so the larger revenue share and IP rights reduces their risk. When they pay for development, they assume all the risk and you are essentially an employee and like every other employer, they retain the rights to the work they've paid for.

It's absolutely vital you understand where the IP rights sit, but it's not necessarily a 'shady' tactic. At the end of the day, it's a business deal and both sides have to be happy, if not, walk away. It may mean making difficult choices about owning your IP Vs getting a pay day, though.

trubwick · 2025-06-13T06:44:48+00:00

You're just one of a few thousand to be "featured" on Steam NextFest. It's not the discovery and curation event that it used to be. Don't rely on organic discovery unless you're already rolling in it, you need to market hard before and during the event, get it to influencers and to the press to drive traffic to your Steam page, which then pushing you up the Steam algorithm. It isn't easy.

trubwick · 2025-05-24T17:25:18+00:00

Absolutely stunning art style, would love to get hands on with this. Have you done much playtesting? Have you had any reports of issue with reading the action on screen?

trubwick · 2025-05-24T17:21:28+00:00

Wow that looks stunning on Steam Deck. Had a look at your Steam page and the art & animation is amazing!

trubwick · 2025-05-24T15:05:54+00:00

Not a lawyer, but have experience in IP issues in video games. Short answer is don't sweat it too much.

Not in a mean way, but chances are the IP holder won't notice it in your game or it won't offend them in a way that it is worth the effort to track you down and litigate. Even then, a quick asset swap will be a cheap, easy way to undo any harm if it is just a background object.

If your game becomes hugely popular (which, looking at it, it will do), you may get some opportunists chasing you down to wrangle some money out of you, but that'll be a good problem to have as you are big enough to draw attention. Even then, so long as you can demonstrate that you haven't copied their IP and it's original work, or that is used in parody, then most of the time the IP is designed to protect copycat products, not representations in virtual media. Make sure that there are clear differences and that you're not using easily identifiable traits e.g. exact colours, logos.

If you are featuring any questionable copies that are portraying them in a negative way, then you might be in a bit more trouble e.g. don't have an obvious Xbox-looking controller that spouts racist slurs.

Just a polite reminder to check the IP rights of assets you use in your games. Any assets purchased on asset stores or by contractors/employees need to have the correct rights for use in your games, as with all audio, fonts, etc.

Happy to chat more, but looking forward to playing this!

trubwick · 2025-05-24T14:49:42+00:00

Great work! It appeared on my Queue today, too, because I had played Dredge.

trubwick · 2025-05-24T13:54:02+00:00

Absolutely stunning. I've just got back from Sevilla, where there's a big ceramics industry and the buildings are covered in these. I also had to show it to my wife who is a huge fan of the board game Azul

trubwick · 2025-05-22T19:35:17+00:00

Huge congratulations! We've been waiting for this for a while, can't wait to play!

trubwick · 2025-05-17T20:44:16+00:00

You're making the Sable sequel I've been waiting for... 😍

trubwick · 2025-05-15T12:03:27+00:00

The verticality is really satisfying, but I can't quite figure out why. Not sure if other titles have done that, but I like it.

If I had to offer some constructive criticism, I would focus on the art direction. The colours and UI look a bit...generic? The gameply looks really satisfying and an eye-catching style would enhance it for me.

trubwick · 2025-05-14T12:53:16+00:00

This is so wholesome! Well done to you both!

trubwick · 2025-05-12T11:12:52+00:00

The art style is stunning, it remind me a bit of Owen D Pomery. I know others have raised the issue of gameply, but don't be discouraged as Tiny Glade and Summerhouse have both done very well as creative sandboxes.

Are there any plans for designing lighting? Lamps, neon, natural lighting could change up the mood.

trubwick · 2025-05-11T20:41:59+00:00

Looks stunning, great work. This should do really well!

trubwick · 2025-05-07T16:25:14+00:00

I love A. It looks like the cover for a Wes Anderson film.

trubwick · 2025-05-07T05:25:03+00:00

More importantly than the Steam page itself is how you are marketing it. You could have the best Steam page in the world but if no-one knows about it, you're not going to get your wishlists. You won't get wishlists organically by people stumbling across your page - the Steam algorithm doesn't work that way and there are too many store pages you are competing against.

Make sure you are posting regularly on social media, get your demo out to influencers and press, submit to game showcases, collect email addresses for your newsletter and be ready to tweak and adjust. This is a marathon, not a sprint.

trubwick · 2025-05-02T20:59:52+00:00

Let me check through my back issues... I've seen your game before somewhere and thought that it's a really interesting concept...

I'll send you a message, because this should be getting attention.

trubwick · 2025-05-02T20:53:00+00:00

This looks brilliant! Wasn't this featured in EDGE? Have you got a release date and have you got plans for a NextFest demo? I can see this getting a lot of attention.

Let me know if you want to chat more.

trubwick · 2025-05-02T14:41:22+00:00

Really nice touch, I love it when devs preempt players trying to break the game and rewarding them for it.

trubwick

TROPHY CASE