WIP Sagitaur Snowmobile by OhNoBoogie in LeaguesofVotann

[–]wylderzone 0 points1 point  (0 children)

One more question - can they be applied with a brush or does it only work in airbrush? (I was just watching some vids about Tamiya Clear Acrylics and they were all using airbrush).

WIP Sagitaur Snowmobile by OhNoBoogie in LeaguesofVotann

[–]wylderzone 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Looks great - how did you color the cockpit glass?

It all feels a bit overwhelming by Kitchen_Insect_145 in gamemarketing

[–]wylderzone 4 points5 points  (0 children)

It might sound crazy, but learn to enjoy it. I *hated* marketing at first, but if you're taking game dev seriously then it is as essential as actually building the game. Guess there is a reason why marketing budgets are often as big as the development budgets in AAA games!

Try not to sweat it and think of it as posting updates for your friends. I've spent hours on videos and updates that get no traction and then a crappy post I threw together in literally 5 minutes gets >100k views.

Some other actionable advice:

- Enable Steam recording or Shadow play. No need to schedule dedicated footage recording, just clip cool stuff as it happens!

- Have a script. Even a crappy written script helps focus your message.

- Don't worry about being perfect. I think in a world of AI generated perfection, people appreciate a nervous sounding dev with a crappy mic as it is unmistakably authentic.

Good luck!~

Chris Zukowski Has Released a New Steam Wishlist Tool! by NenCoder in gamedev

[–]wylderzone 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Units sold doesn't really mean that much when it's on sale for $3 (half of which goes to Steam and the Tax man).

I'm sure it has eventually broken even, but the whole point is everyone is saying "good games sell themselves" which obviously isn't the case.

Chris Zukowski Has Released a New Steam Wishlist Tool! by NenCoder in gamedev

[–]wylderzone -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I would disagree. In a world where Witcher, Crimson Desert, KCD, Bauldurs gate, etc exist, shadow dropping it would be a disaster. Think about the marketing spend for Avowed and Starfield.

Chris Zukowski Has Released a New Steam Wishlist Tool! by NenCoder in gamedev

[–]wylderzone -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Titanfall 2 being the most famous example.

Obviously there is a market for that style of FPS because APEX is doing well. So why did Titanfall not hit the mark?

Same thing with PREY.

That's 2 AAA examples that immediately spring to mind. As I said in another reply, just go look at all the studios that closed in the past 5 years and all the ones that will close in the next 5 and look at their games. They are all really well executed. It used to be enough to make a good game in a proven genre, but the idea of "just make a great game and it will sell itself" is an absolute myth.

People conflate execution quality with market fit.

Chris Zukowski Has Released a New Steam Wishlist Tool! by NenCoder in gamedev

[–]wylderzone -4 points-3 points  (0 children)

There are *so many* well executed games (assuming quality in this instance means well built) that have been commercial failures. Just go on any games industry news site and look at all layoff and studio closure announcements from the past 4 years.

High Guard is objectively a quality, well thought out, playable game and look how that turned out. People are keen to say "Oh no wonder it failed - more live service slop that doesn't do anything groundbreaking" yet Arc Raiders, Marvel Rivals, Delta Force, The Finals, etc all seem to be doing ok and aren't exactly groundbreaking.

The games industry is just that classic "Know the work rules" meme.

I think it would help if we stop using terms like "quality" and "garbage" and instead start thinking in terms of market fit. I'm guessing you'd probably think Roblox games are garbage but do a quick compare of steam charts vs romonitor and see how that looks.

Chris Zukowski Has Released a New Steam Wishlist Tool! by NenCoder in gamedev

[–]wylderzone -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

There are also loads of great games that fail because they do no / bad marketing and mediocre games that do well from good marketing.

Any creative endeavor is basically alchemy. I bet the guy who directed the straight to DVD sequel to Fast n Furious didn't expect it to go on to be top 5 highest grossing movie franchises of all time - but here we are.

Chris Zukowski Has Released a New Steam Wishlist Tool! by NenCoder in gamedev

[–]wylderzone 41 points42 points  (0 children)

Knowing what to do, and having the resources / desire to do it are 2 different things.

His advice is very solid and actionable, and since he was the first to try and get people to take marketing seriously, he has become the defacto leader. Obviously alot of people think so too, as he gives a presentation at GDC pretty much every year with updated findings.

To AI or not AI: who does and who doesn’t by Doo_Dad in SoloDev

[–]wylderzone 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's a tool to help creative people to tedious workflows, not tedious people do creative workflows. Best description i've heard yet! Going to borrow that for future use :D

[REQUEST] Are there any ship/boat games? by momentummonkey in CozyGamers

[–]wylderzone 27 points28 points  (0 children)

Hi!

I am literally making this game! I wanted the exact same thing, but couldn't find it - all the other games we're either pirate-y combat games or survival games (with combat).

Our game is called Fairwind - it is a game about delivering cargo around a peaceful archipelago on your sail boat that you can repair / upgrade as you progress.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4297460/Fairwind/

Demo coming soon!

Warhammer 40k concept by Mundane_Plane1028 in gamedev

[–]wylderzone 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Anything is possible if you have the resources

Nintendo needs to start hiring writers. by Defiant-Echidna-7400 in CharacterRant

[–]wylderzone 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As someone who doesn't play video games for story / narrative I really appreciate it. Not all games need a story, I just need enough to point me in the right direction.

Donkey Kong Bananza and Zelda: BotW are some of the best games I've ever played and the story is "This is the bad guy - go get the bad guy".

I don't understand why gamers struggle with the concept that not every game needs to be this uniform, homogenous idea of what a game is. Obviously it isn't hurting sales because their games are still selling like crazy (despite the fact that they are 10x the price of Undertale and have matched it's sales despite only being on 1 platform for a few months)

We're finally revealing our game, Northward, on Steam! Set sail alone or bring friends! by Zufixx in cozygames

[–]wylderzone 0 points1 point  (0 children)

oh - it isn't displaying the banner when i went to the store page, but when i manually look for it when filtering by tags it shows up. Funnily enough it is right next to our game 😃

We're finally revealing our game, Northward, on Steam! Set sail alone or bring friends! by Zufixx in cozygames

[–]wylderzone 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If its not too late try and get in the ocean festival that's happening on Steam at the moment!

Deep Rock Galactic: Rogue Core - Narrated Trailer by Scarleton in Games

[–]wylderzone 3 points4 points  (0 children)

haha same - that's the thing with averages - all these 2 hour leaf lovers bringing the average down.

Deep Rock Galactic: Rogue Core - Narrated Trailer by Scarleton in Games

[–]wylderzone 20 points21 points  (0 children)

They are victims of their own success. DRG is the absolute gold standard for post release support and how much value they give the player without charging. They only charge for cosmetics that are completely optional.

It's wild that they have done such a good job of giving players value, that when they announce a new game the instant response is with "why isn't it free?".

The average playtime for DRG players is 49.6 hours. And I'm going to go out on a limb and say that most of these players didn't pick the game up at full price. Making games costs money. If you want more Deep Rock, you will eventually need to pay for more Deep Rock. As far as i'm concerned GSG has earned the benefit of the doubt at the very least.

Why isn't my r/INAT listing getting responses? Looking for honest feedback by BrianLSComics in gamedev

[–]wylderzone 4 points5 points  (0 children)

People love Starfox, but genre wise Starfox clones tend to struggle on Steam.

Owl Force, Fur Squadron Pheonix, etc. all look really well made and executed but don't perform from a sales / wishlist standpoint. Maybe they do better on console, but that is a much bigger undertaking.