Infernitz

SUPER excited to share that StarDrift Delivery is out now on Steam!!! It is a fast-paced arcade roguelite inspired by Crazy Taxi, and my first solo indie game. Check it out! #indiegame #indiedev #gamedev

My indie game didn't get much traction so... I decided to work on a major update based on feedback. Probably smarter to just do marketing or move on but I felt like I had to make it better :)

Making games is all fun and stuff until.. Marketing.

@Toadzillart Thanks, means a lot! But aren't festivals primarily for unreleased games?

@infernitz Don't give up! Wishlist takes times to build but its by wave. You have a great polished game, don't sleep on festivals. Good luck!

I've struggled to find my game's audience maybe because it's experimental, not a genre that's "hot" on Steam. Should indie devs think more about the genre perhaps?

@0xVe1L Hearing that means a lot, thank you so much! :) I'm definitely happy with the result since I tried to do my best but yes - feedback would still be super helpful if it's things I can improve at this point

I just took a look, your game looks really really great. AndI love the concept, rogulelite+ crazy taxi is brilliant. That was one of my favorite games growing up. It genuinely looks like you did so much right but just struggled to capture your audience. I wouldnt give up on it, i think you have something worth fighting for. It also looks like a really good candidate for a mobile release, your UI and gameplay looks like its really well suited to mobile. And I think people are starved for quality experiences on mobile and would definitely pay for a full experience rather than having to switch it to an In-App Purchases/Ads model. I understand totally what thats like being at the end of the project and feeling like you dont have any more juice in the tank to try and keep fighting to market it, but this just doesnt look like it needs a whole lot to be a success. I’ll grab a copy and give it a try and see if theres any detailed feedback I can provide. But from first glance it looks really polished and higher quality than most people who talk about being indie devs. I would be so proud to have published something like that, and i’m sure you learned a ton along the way.

@ExplodinBeef Added it now ^

@ExplodinBeef Thanks! There is a demo actually, just didn't add the big green button for it

@0xVe1L Thanks, that gives me a lot to reconsider and think about actually I think a mistake I also made was having low pre-release wishlists because I just wanted to get this over with, don't know if it could've turned out differently Will keep these points in mind for game 2 for sure

I think about this a lot but its really nuanced. You could be making a game in a groundbreaking, trendsetting genre that is the first of its kind - but your players don't even know that it's their cup of tea yet. One of the most crucial aspects of this you can pull a page out of early advertising agencies (Mad Men era) - they operated with the belief that their customers were out there, they just didn't know they needed their products yet. That was their trick - it wasn't about finding the customers who already wanted those products. It was about converting people INTO customers. I'm not saying to be dishonest or try to pull a fast one in order to get people to buy something they don't want. But video games are entertainment and discretionary spending to begin with! What we're selling isn't a necessity or commodity anyhow. There are tons of people out there who WANT to spend money on video games. There are plenty of GOOD games that are WELL MADE but still aren't commercial successes, or that don't live up to their potential. That's not indication that its a bad game, a lot of the time its just mismanaged marketing campaigns, bad pre-launch marketing and wishlisting, not reaching out to streamers and content creators, there's a myriad of things. I get it - I absolutely HATE marketing. I'm an engineer and artist first and foremost. I derive my pleasure from creating - pulling things out of the void and making them a reality. That's fun to me. Marketing, emails, annoying people, making videos and all that extra bullshit feels like WORK and I hate it. But you can have a 10/10 idea and execution that completely fails if no one ever knows it exists. Steam discovery is great, but it only works as hard as you work it. I'm trying to find that balance for myself as well; as indie devs we already have limited time between making assets, programing, building systems and internal tooling, playtesting, QA... theres a million and a half things I'd rather be doing that I'm REALLY good at. But marketing is something I really have to dig down deep and force myself to do. I think its different for every type of game and every individual project, it depends so much on how you want to market yourself, your brand, your game, who you think it aligns with. Is it 70/30, 50/50... no one can tell you the exact formula. But some things I do know for a fact are universally important: 1) finding people who like similar titles and marketing to them. Maybe take two games that your genres are mixing and mashing and market the hell out of those communities. Discords, reddits, game jams, youtubers, streamers. Go crazy. Email people. Beg. you never know, think about it like gold mining, you could hit that one pocket of 3-4 users that butterfly effect into a bigger (but still small) community, and it bubbles out from there organically. you gather a tiny bit of motion and the algorithms pick you up and off you go. 2) pre-release - wishlists on steam are SUPER crucial for indie devs. honestly planning to have my store page ready like a year in advance for my game 3) user content. People LOVE to see behind the curtain. I've seen like 10 or 20 wildly successfuly game launches now that started as dev logs where the developer showcased pre-alpha footage of their game and showed people the whole build process as they cooked. Bootstrapping off of the indie dev community by finding people who want to watch game dev related content is honestly a hack 4) friends and family - honestly just getting a small handful of reviews can be the difference between your page looking like a ghost town and having just enough life to make it so that people don't completely ignore you. its never good having really limited activity. So fake some organic activity in the beginning, to drive some real growth 5) dont take what users you DO have for granted. I'd much rather have 1-2 negative reviews that I was able to react to and respond to saying "thanks for the useful feedback, i fixed this in version 0.4" than 3 positive reviews that garnered ZERO further interaction. DONT miss out on opportunities to show people youre an active and dedicated dev who really cares. Dont get butthurt from failures, ALWAYS turn them into positives if you can.

@BeanJuiceStudio Yeah, def a skill I need to work on 100% Haven't worked on content but didn't convert well in the Steam algorithm, so guess can't rely on it without external visibility first

@infernitz I wouldn't blame the genre. Many devs find success in genres that aren't popular! How many videos did you make? What makes it unique? Why would someone play it over another game? Knowing how to sell your game is just as much of a skill as making it! You got this bro🤝

StarDrift Delivery didn't perform well after all. Stings but can't deny I've learned a lot over the past 10+ months. Have already started working on game 2. No giving up as long as possible :)

@BeanJuiceStudio Thank you so much! I've been reaching out to content creators but most seem to expect a paid campaign apparently :/

@infernitz Don't give up on it yet! Try shifting your focus to marketing, reaching out to influencers, and making content for your game to promote it on social media. While you're doing that, start working on a new project. Your game looks awesome btw, you got this dude!

Been exactly a week since I launched StarDrift Delivery on steam and haven't even hit 10 reviews yet, not sure if I should just move on to the next game #indiegame #indiedev

@anime_aragon Thank you!!

@infernitz Congratulations!!!!! Keep going

Just hit 10 reviews on my game after a week! Not a great launch and don't know where this will go but still super happy to see it :) #indiegame #gamedev

@KKindiegame Thank you, hopefully I do get noticed!

@infernitz Well done, 10 means that you will start to get noticed, I find getting reviews really tough to be honest.

@lukewarmzen Thanks!

@infernitz Nice! Keep it up!

@Esty8nine Yeah definitely lots to learn though honestly I am still hopeful about it being picked up

@infernitz Yes but the important part is to learn! Not just about the launch but where your knowledge can be amplified, usually its not the SKILLS its having the knowledge to know what to do with them most games dont work 💜

A screenshot from my crazy taxi inspired space roguelite #screenshotsaturday #indiegame

Smuggle your way to freedom in this action roguelite where you’re deep in debt to the mob. Blast through asteroids for speed, weave through chaos, and deliver packages to survive. Don't let the debt consume you: store.steampowered.com/app/3970970/St…

運び屋アクションローグライク『星間爆走便：スペースドリフター』が本日（4/1）発売。邪魔な小惑星を破壊してスピードに変換しろ famitsu.com/article/202604… 莫大な借金を抱えた宇宙の運び屋となり、期限までに荷物を運んで借金返済を目指す。生き残る手段は危険を冒して手に入る報酬ボーナス。