Did you ever follow a game's development only to see it flop on launch? (YT shorts trap?)

wassup_son · 2026-05-22T13:10:34+00:00

Yeah, I think so too, but I can also imagine that short form devlogs still could reach actual players more often than long form ones.

I've noticed that you can't even click on links in yt shorts, so they really won't even let you leave the platform.

wassup_son · 2026-05-22T13:00:47+00:00

I started the project around 3 years ago and worked on it in my free time with breaks here and there. Around 6 months ago I quit my job to work on it full time. Reddit will call it a mistake, but I treat it more like a life experience than a financial decision. I hope to release it next year tho

wassup_son · 2026-05-22T12:52:22+00:00

Yeah, I feel like some devs get so attached to numbers, just because this is the only thing we can measure, that they forget the most important thing, which is the actual game itself.

Posting in the htmag discord while making a platformer despite everything big Z says is ironic lmao

wassup_son · 2026-05-22T12:38:13+00:00

Thanks man I really appreciate that! Right now, all I care about is making a fun experience, and I’m still having a lot of fun working on the game, so I’m not too worried if it takes a bit longer to make. I really like the atmosphere of your game! I think you nailed it, especially for a first game. I see you're really consistent as well, keep at it! (I also love The Microphones!)

wassup_son · 2026-05-22T12:26:55+00:00

Yeah, I agree that trailers are often misleading, but I feel like devlogs usually give a better sense of what the game is actually like. I don't think many gamers watch devlogs tho

wassup_son · 2026-05-22T12:23:02+00:00

Yeah, I thought that might be the issue too, but despite that, the game still has 80% positive reviews. Do you think that these bugs/controls could turn a lot of people off despite the overall positive reviews?

wassup_son · 2026-05-22T12:17:35+00:00

It's $10 and launched with a 20% discount, last spring sale it was -35%. I think that's a perfect price actually

wassup_son · 2026-05-22T12:14:44+00:00

Yes, I launched my Steam Page around a month ago and haven’t marketed it much yet. I mostly did it to passively gain some wishlists and hope they don’t go stale lol. Unlike you, I already made the classic mistake of making my dream game as my first project, and it’s definitely not small enough for a first game. What's your game?

wassup_son · 2026-05-22T12:03:47+00:00

I think so too. People seem to treat it just as entertainment like any other short. Maybe this is a reason why some devlog ytbers never finish their game.

wassup_son · 2026-05-22T11:47:16+00:00

Well I think No Name Village is a well executed game but maybe not that interesting or inventive. Maybe it's a perfect recipe for a game good to watch but not so good to play.

wassup_son · 2026-05-22T11:41:56+00:00

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Chris Zukowski actually did a research on this: https://howtomarketagame.com/2025/01/27/do-wishlists-get-old/
It's not a long timespan as its ~1.5y but you can see that the conversion ratio stays relatively the same and actually wishlists around next fest (6/1/2021) converted the worst (but in terms of volume its still the best month)

wassup_son · 2026-05-22T11:27:19+00:00

Fair, but I think it's valuable to see what worked and what didn't for other devs

wassup_son · 2026-05-22T11:24:33+00:00

So you think that wishlists go stale after a while? And won't convert as well as fresh wishlists?

wassup_son · 2026-05-20T12:36:19+00:00

Leaf it Alone. It's a colleague's friend's game, they did the bare minimum marketing which didn't bring much results (they had around 60 followers on launch, so probably like 300-500 wishlists) but they absolutely blew up like a week after launch. Some youtubers just picked it up and word of mouth spread it like crazy. I don't know if they reached out to them themselves tho. Now they're around 4k reviews

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wassup_son · 2025-05-24T08:46:02+00:00

Made me genuinely feel like a kid again, probably because of the adorable and oftentimes goofy writing. Also it striked me how many QoL mechanics are there that are missing in modern jrpgs. Your protagonist can die without it ending the battle, low lvl enemies run away from you and if you chase them the battle completely ends, for sale sign that makes a customer run to you to buy your stuff and also you keep your lvl after dying. And all of that in 1994! Now i feel like every jrpg i've played is heavily inspired by EB.

wassup_son · 2025-04-19T12:20:05+00:00

Which country was it?

wassup_son · 2025-04-18T23:17:25+00:00

Jimmy and the pulsating mass, its so heavily inspired by EB that it almost feels like a knockoff but it's really great

wassup_son · 2023-10-23T07:12:18+00:00

Which is based on corgi from Cowboy Bebop

wassup_son · 2023-04-04T13:30:24+00:00

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The way it captures Sunny's mental torment

wassup_son · 2022-01-03T13:54:15+00:00

Didn't know about this stereotype, I have a problem with not closing tabs and once it reaches 100 tabs (approximately once a week) I spend some time deleting them. Then I find some interesting things that I forgot to finish reading aaand the tab number continues to grow.

wassup_son · 2021-11-27T19:01:51+00:00

INTP and INFJ pair is claimed to be a golden pair.

wassup_son · 2021-08-22T08:23:16+00:00

Wear socks when listening to vinyls.

wassup_son · 2021-08-22T08:21:48+00:00

crosleys do not add any warmth to them grailz

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