@fricodev Yeah, I totally get it and I think it's a great idea to make your first game something small but go through the entire production process, along with releasing it on Steam. There will be a lot of intimidating stuff but you learn so much.
I'm about to release my first Steam game. It looks messy and incomplete and I'm starting to think it will flop hard.
So far:
- I'm not sure how to tag the game
- I'm not sure how to make a good capsule
- I'm not sure how much charge for it
#gamedev#indiedev#steam
@FrajdaGames Wow! This is what I was looking for. I wouldn't say low effort but somehow it is. This game is just my debut as an indie dev. I'm not having big expectations on it. I think this game is cool and I love to play it. The few that tried it spent like 2-3 hours on it. That's cool.
hey, since you're making an incremental, here's some thoughts:
1) publish the game and let it just sit there for a while, you'll gain free wishlists (my game gained 300 wishlists in 6 months by just doing nothing)
2) release the demo on pages like itch or incrementaldb (after you have the Steam page, so that you can redirect your traffic there)
3) post about your game on the incremental_games subreddit
4) participate in the Steam Next Fest, next one is in October (it's one of the best and free marketing things you can do)
5) when it comes to tagging the game, just take a look at similar games to yours and just copy them
6) having a good Steam capsule artwork is very important, having an artist do it for you is a good idea, but if you don't want to invest into it just take a screenshot of your game, put a logo somewhere and that's it
7) when it comes to figuring out the price, the easiest way is to find games similar to yours when it comes to gameplay, quality, length and price it similarly. You can also just charge $1, $2 or $3 for it if it's a short "low effort" first game. Pricing it that way puts it into "impulse buy" category and you might find some success that way
8) try reaching out to some content creators like Idle Cub for example, even a few
good luck! :)
@BecomingCaptain I would like to focus on another game ASAP. This game is experimental. I made it just for the funzies. I wanted to fail quickly and learn about Steam.
@godemperorcamel If I can pay one month of rent I would gain enough time to release another small project. I'm not having big expectations on this game. Thanks for the advice, means a lot!
@fricodev Pay an artist for capsule art. I got mine for around $100.
For tags , make a spreadsheet and record the tags similar games used. Use the most common recurring tags. You can re-use the same process for pricing.
Set your own metrics for success. Don't worry about others.
@VetemorGames Promise I will get my steam page asap! The sole purpose of this game is to enter to the indie realm and people start noticing my work. But this is not my main project tho.
@fricodev U need to start a discord server yesterday to get people in to beta test bounce off of (without feedback ur fried)
And get that steam page up asap
@KingsCrownGames That's true but the purpose of this game wasn't to sell but get rid of my fear of failure. If this was my dream game then I would worry about wishlists. I just want to ship something, anything!
@KikeHellschyte Tener que pensar en marketing hace que hacer videojuegos deje de ser tan divertido. Ahora a raíz de este tweet me veo obligado a mostrar de QUÉ TRATA el juego.
@fricodev Eso está bien, lo dicho, si hubieses invertido un año coño, sería duro. Pero con un mes te sirve para aprender mucho sobre como subir los juegos a Steam y como hacerlos visibles.
Yo también estoy trabajando en un proyecto, uf pero ponerme a hacer videos al respecto es tan...
@RaphDuchaine I love BiteMeGames, I watched ALL their videos! Here you mean within this thread? I was planning to launch the Steam page by next week but now it feels more urgent!
@fricodev I recommend:
1. doing your steam page ASAP if your game is already nearly done
2. having a playtest build for people to try out
3. sharing the steam page link here since this post kinda blew up.
And watching some BiteMeGames on youtube: youtube.com/watch?v=qKiqbF…
Best of luck :D
@KikeHellschyte That's right. This project was meant to fail.
Maybe I'm not trying to make a game. Maybe I'm trying to survive making one.
Showing my work to the world feels like I'm showing myself.
I'm just using it to negotiate with my demons.
@fricodev Ahhh, I just saw the Game has less that 2 months of development. I mean, It still applies but at least here you can take the Risk. You didnt have anything 3 months ago.
Hope you get some attention for the game.
@loopigalle@tailgategame Maybe $2.99? The game is great trust me. I took the best of both worlds. You won't realize you are playing an incremental game. I'd have to deal with bad reviews from people expecting cheap dopamine bursts.
@m0std3af That's my problem. This was meant to be a secondary project while planning my main project and now It started to grow on me. And now I have an experimental project on my hands and I'm not sure what's the next step.
@nekkosys Destiny brought our paths together. Now our purpose is shared. Create games. Finish games. Ship games.
The goal is, and always will be, to ship games.
Good luck too!
@fricodev Don't have any advice unfortunately, you appeared on my feed and just wanted to say good luck! Hopefully I'll get to release something too eventually
@CallMeJokka Thx for the insight! My idea was to release a scapegoat game. It was meant to flop since the ideation. I created it to fail. No demo. No playtest. Nothing. The goal? Ship something. Anything. But now I started to care. And now I'm taking your advice.
@fricodev Tags should be applied the second you create your steam page
Your capsule is the single most valuable thing within steam
Please do not release yet.
Dont rush a demo either, push for public playtests —> then do a demo. Demo’s are so important now, do not underestimate them
@loopigalle@tailgategame I'm almost there (85% dev complete). Ofc there are things to polish. My problem is in how much charge for this game (incremental+idle+mystery+story driven) as I think its a weird combination of sub genres and a very niche game.
@fricodev@tailgategame Your game will certainly be worth playing, but I honestly wonder what the point is in releasing a game that you say is incomplete.
@samtechcoded I decided to make this game just to prove to myself that it's not the end of the world if the game flops. It's part of the journey. I think I have at least +10 complete prototypes buried in old repos. It's been 3 years since my last golden release but never on Steam.
Understand, I tend to jump around a lot as well...it was super satisfying to get something out when I did, even with flaws. It's almost as if you need someone else to be ruthless and say: "this is release day, cut what doesn't work right now on focus on what does" haha.
Even if it's not perfect and the release doesn't get all that much attention, it is all good learning, still...
I am still learning a lot and failing a lot at this stage
@Snakybastard At its core is an incremental game with some mystery elements. Most interactions are diegetic. You play while weird events start to happen around you. I know this genre is saturated and players look for dopamine bursts and don't care about the story. I think it's an experiment.
@samtechcoded Thanks I appreciate it. What happens when you complete that checklist and you jump to another, and another, and another? At this point I'm addicted to canceling games.
@fricodev It's scary and it's kind of hard to put yourself out there in the first place. What I do to make myself feel better is to make a list. Prioritise it, cut things that aren't SUPER important, then just focus on those things.
It gives you some certainty & less doubt.