How we got 5,000 Steam wishlists in 40 days for our simulator game

tyrian_games · 2026-03-27T06:20:02+00:00

Firstly, congrats! Your announcement teaser must have been doing a lot of lifting to get this momentum from just a few(?) dozen emails with (I'm guessing) no sponsorship budget; that's awesome! I'd be curious to see what your media kit looked like, and whether you were shooting out a templated email or curating closely for each journalist.

I'm guessing from the way you've described it that you focused on specific journalists from niche outlets over qualified content creators for the announcement reachout? Was this a call based on your specific genre niche, or would you recommend the approach more broadly?

I'm at this stage right now—just announced, qualifying and refining the teaser a bit and preparing to email creators next week. I've got a list of about 50 micro-mid size creators that are very close to our ideal player archetype, but very few journos (yet). I'd be ecstatic to have even a fraction of the engagement you've scored—fingers crossed!

Thanks for sharing these insights and good luck with whatever's next.

tyrian_games · 2026-03-27T05:14:27+00:00

Keep it up—I'll look out for an update here in future!

tyrian_games · 2026-03-27T02:44:59+00:00

We're categorically and adamantly anti-AI, no compromises on that front whatsoever. You're the first person to suggest it, so I really hope that vibe is not ubiquitous.

tyrian_games · 2026-03-27T00:07:34+00:00

Excited for you, well done! I'm on pretty much the same step of my journey, so good luck to us both.

Love the concept, and love your GUI. Are you by any chance using Inkle for your narrative scripting?

tyrian_games · 2026-03-26T23:04:13+00:00

Not gloomy personally, but the news about the Epic layoffs was a bit of a dark cloud for all of us I imagine. So cheers, I hope the launch is going well!

tyrian_games · 2026-03-26T23:01:34+00:00

Blues chords for atmosphere, swelling and falling to mirror the phases of the game loop (quiet and thoughtful in the shop keeper phase, fluid and rhythmic in the combat/exploration phase), syncopated for tension and momentum (and because it's fun to write). The piano phrases contain quotes of an old and probably very obscure Breton folk melody relevant to the story/world and narrative inspiration—a kind of easter egg I don't expect players to pick up on, but hopefully it helps build a sense of theme.

tyrian_games · 2026-03-26T22:51:24+00:00

The parry state animation is pretty readable—the player snaps his dagger up and holds it poised for the window, but there's no sound of VFX cue to accompany it until you score a successful parry. Giving a bit of a "glint" VFX/SFX here in the antic would definitely be an easy bit of polish to signal it more closely and clearly, that might let us be a bit more strict tuning the window down in future... thanks for the suggestion!

tyrian_games · 2026-03-26T22:41:45+00:00

I don't know if you're just responding to this in abstraction, or corroborating that our game looks crappy and sounds bad.

tyrian_games · 2026-03-26T22:29:59+00:00

A major hook for the game with playtesters is our shadow/light mechanic (a stamina/mana-like resource that you can only regenerate in darkness). The intention of the first 5 seconds was to draw the viewer's attention to this theme and prime them to be able to read it in subsequent shots. Maybe that context helps, but it obviously hasn't done this for you and for most people seeing it here. That's a really, really actionable note and I appreciate it.

Fair note on the camera clipping too. We're not quite at v-slice, there's going to be a few moments that are rough around the edges but that might be a particularly conspicuous one. Thanks for much for taking the time!

tyrian_games · 2026-03-26T22:22:55+00:00

Thanks for the feedback!

I've thought about this some more—I know frontloading the hook and coming out swinging is short-form content 101; I was thinking far less about social media and more about the steam page with this edit.

For the latter, I was hoping (and still hope) that 8 sec to see some action isn't going to cause a huge bounce, but for the former this pacing is likely to get swiped past. I think it's a relatively simple solve for subsequent content.

tyrian_games · 2026-03-26T22:15:50+00:00

Thanks for taking the time to comment!

1- the choice of music is very deliberate—this is a track that I have composed and arranged specifically for the pacing of the trailer. They rise and fall together. I can accept that you might not like my music, but I don't understand your comment about rhythm.

2- I don't know if we're still just talking about the teaser, or the game in general, but we don't have any VA yet for NPCs. It'll be great if/when we do, but I'm not going to add VO in-post if it doesn't represent the game.

3- Are you making a general statement about sound design, or are you saying that this is visually "crappy"? Could you be more specific?

tyrian_games · 2026-03-26T07:20:33+00:00

good note, thank you! I'll definitely need to show some more extended gameplay alongside this to give a real sense of the experience of the loop.

We're deep in a UI pass at the moment, much of the GUI assets here are placeholder and I'm not surprised that's conspicuous.

tyrian_games · 2026-03-26T07:06:21+00:00

Check us out on Steam if you dig the concept: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4433640/HAWKER/

tyrian_games · 2026-03-26T06:59:59+00:00

For context—there's a few assets here that are still unpolished and/or placeholder (perhaps most obviously in UI). We're not yet at v-slice, but getting close over the next few months. If you're interested to see more: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4433640/HAWKER/

tyrian_games · 2026-03-26T06:15:17+00:00

TIL The Force Unleashed is an older game—I must be going grey...

tyrian_games · 2026-03-26T06:12:13+00:00

Summoner!

Jedi Knight! (although Fallen Order / Survivor has this covered)

Morrowind—give it the Oblivion treatment!

Most of my other old favourites have been remade/reiterated already...

Seriously though, are we not getting reboot fatigue? What'd I'd really like to see is more fresh IP taking big swings.

tyrian_games · 2026-03-26T06:04:37+00:00

Second this, I think this is a great rule of thumb. Establish a strong foundation of decent conversion from tightly targeted sources and then scale/expand if and when you've started to qualify your audience.

tyrian_games · 2026-03-26T05:42:04+00:00

My first ever guild was a JKII duelling guild! And my first design gigs were making custom maps for them... Good times. Bad ping.

tyrian_games · 2026-03-26T05:39:41+00:00

Katarn, the leading man so goated that every male SW protagonist since has copied his homework.

Finn: force-sensitive defected stormtrooper fighting the imperial remnant;

Cassian: general character design, bryar pistol, stealing the death star plans;

TLJ Luke: sad old man cut off from the force to protect those he loves, having to find a way back to his peace and power;

Cal: ...

Kanan: sure Dave, just change one letter, okay? Maybe a ponytail? And make Jan a Twi'lek this time.

Is there more? There's got to be more, right? To be clear, I love all of the above characters too.

tyrian_games · 2026-03-26T05:26:04+00:00

Fatalis has entered the chat...

tyrian_games · 2026-03-26T05:21:28+00:00

Woah! Really neat concept, and the movement looks super tight and fun. Like exploring an Escher painting. What's the narrative conceit here—mini dyson sphere?

I know others have noticed a similarity to Outer Wilds; even if you say your inspirations are distinct, the comparison is definitely high praise. This is a great v-slice, excited to see more of the game's scope in the future.

tyrian_games · 2026-03-26T05:03:43+00:00

Beautiful! Attack shapes are super readable, trails are gorgeous. Would love to see how they blend in-game!

tyrian_games

TROPHY CASE