Neptune
Member
I want to help our community - It has given a lot to me, and I'd like to give back.
Everything from here begins with IMO and from my experience. If you are NOT planning or currently making a game with intentions to sell it and have as many people play as possible, then this is not for you.
Main bads:
- 8000+ games released on Steam 2019 (20 a day)
- "Indie" isn't cool anymore
- More and more people flood gamedev social media
- Publishers are picky
- Yoyo games likely wont publish our games
- Indie devs are many times solo, and dont wear many hats
- Most of us probably have little to no marketing experience
- Small budget
- Not full time
- Genres are bloated
- Steam algorithms are against low-player count per time
Nearly every day on Twitter I see "spent X years making this, it's on Steam now!" as a FIRST post... Or coming from a 27 Follower old necro account. And then there and crickets and the game fails, and it's a sad story.
Skipping all the obvious reasons this happens, I'd like to present some things that I've learned that can be done BEFORE... ideally long before we release our games to give us our best chances.
Overcome the bads:
- Get familiar with making GIFs / MP4 https://licecap.en.softonic.com/
- Make twitter, imgur, reddit and share news and cool stuff about your project regularly.
- Encourage wishlists on Steam.
- Make a Discord for your game that fans can join.
- Make a demo (this is time sensitive, if you're very early on a demo can be good, but a late in development demo is likely going to harm sales)
- Sometimes making a big game is better than a niche tiny game... Players love content, and it gives you a lot more time to raise awareness.
- Early Access can be a great way to build a community and raise awareness before final release.
- Adding controller support and professional language localizations
- When you have enough exciting content to make a trailer - launch a Kickstarter (even if funding isnt a major issue), a successful Kickstarter can be huge for awareness and says to Publishers "People will pay money for my shizz."
- Publisher is a deal breaker, unless your game on it's own takes social media by storm and dwarfs its genre rivals, then this is of utmost importance.
Working with a publisher is great for learning about marketing (why when and how to do things such as Early Access, free weekends, demo release, advertising, extra funding). And they have a much better chance to contact big influencers (streamers / youtubers) and arrange for your game to be played, or your demo entered in competitions... etc. They will also get your game on other store fronts (my game is on 4 stores), though the reality is, Steam is the most important.
Publishers take a, sometimes large, cut of sales, but do you want to sell 10 copies and get 60% or 10,000 and get 30%? They have invaluable connections.
Finding good publishers (they do exist):
- Check how long in business
- Talk to other games they're publishing
- Ask for an advance on royalties (will they take a financial stake in your game?)
- Do they appear at conventions?
- If the publisher is one person, thats a BIG red flag (should be an established company / team)
- If the publisher is taking IP or controlling development - red flag
- Ask about future merchandise & external development costs (will they pitch in for a dope soundtrack or fancy sprite extras?)
- Ask for a detailed list of what a relationship with them entails (they should provide this straight from the beginning)
- A developer / publisher relationship should be a win - win for both sides. They make money, by making you money and getting your game in the spotlight.
- Know the difference
If this sounds like your publisher: "we'll boost your social media presence or increase sales and engagement with a very customized strategy based on our in-depth research about your company and target audience"
They are a scam and will steal your money and product
Misc about Steam:
- Steam will devour 30% of your sales revenue AFTER taxes
- Steam has two critical points of advertising where your store presence is "boosted" the optional Early Access and Final Release (for no namers like us, skipping Early Access cuts our visibility in half)
- You can enable 3 other minor "boosts" if Steam is not doing a major sale (in which case you can run your own little mini sale with boosted presence)
Hope this helps someone... Share some tips of your own?
Everything from here begins with IMO and from my experience. If you are NOT planning or currently making a game with intentions to sell it and have as many people play as possible, then this is not for you.
Main bads:
- 8000+ games released on Steam 2019 (20 a day)
- "Indie" isn't cool anymore
- More and more people flood gamedev social media
- Publishers are picky
- Yoyo games likely wont publish our games
- Indie devs are many times solo, and dont wear many hats
- Most of us probably have little to no marketing experience
- Small budget
- Not full time
- Genres are bloated
- Steam algorithms are against low-player count per time
Nearly every day on Twitter I see "spent X years making this, it's on Steam now!" as a FIRST post... Or coming from a 27 Follower old necro account. And then there and crickets and the game fails, and it's a sad story.
Skipping all the obvious reasons this happens, I'd like to present some things that I've learned that can be done BEFORE... ideally long before we release our games to give us our best chances.
Overcome the bads:
- Get familiar with making GIFs / MP4 https://licecap.en.softonic.com/
- Make twitter, imgur, reddit and share news and cool stuff about your project regularly.
- Encourage wishlists on Steam.
- Make a Discord for your game that fans can join.
- Make a demo (this is time sensitive, if you're very early on a demo can be good, but a late in development demo is likely going to harm sales)
- Sometimes making a big game is better than a niche tiny game... Players love content, and it gives you a lot more time to raise awareness.
- Early Access can be a great way to build a community and raise awareness before final release.
- Adding controller support and professional language localizations
- When you have enough exciting content to make a trailer - launch a Kickstarter (even if funding isnt a major issue), a successful Kickstarter can be huge for awareness and says to Publishers "People will pay money for my shizz."
- Publisher is a deal breaker, unless your game on it's own takes social media by storm and dwarfs its genre rivals, then this is of utmost importance.
Working with a publisher is great for learning about marketing (why when and how to do things such as Early Access, free weekends, demo release, advertising, extra funding). And they have a much better chance to contact big influencers (streamers / youtubers) and arrange for your game to be played, or your demo entered in competitions... etc. They will also get your game on other store fronts (my game is on 4 stores), though the reality is, Steam is the most important.
Publishers take a, sometimes large, cut of sales, but do you want to sell 10 copies and get 60% or 10,000 and get 30%? They have invaluable connections.
Finding good publishers (they do exist):
- Check how long in business
- Talk to other games they're publishing
- Ask for an advance on royalties (will they take a financial stake in your game?)
- Do they appear at conventions?
- If the publisher is one person, thats a BIG red flag (should be an established company / team)
- If the publisher is taking IP or controlling development - red flag
- Ask about future merchandise & external development costs (will they pitch in for a dope soundtrack or fancy sprite extras?)
- Ask for a detailed list of what a relationship with them entails (they should provide this straight from the beginning)
- A developer / publisher relationship should be a win - win for both sides. They make money, by making you money and getting your game in the spotlight.
- Know the difference
If this sounds like your publisher: "we'll boost your social media presence or increase sales and engagement with a very customized strategy based on our in-depth research about your company and target audience"
They are a scam and will steal your money and product
Misc about Steam:
- Steam will devour 30% of your sales revenue AFTER taxes
- Steam has two critical points of advertising where your store presence is "boosted" the optional Early Access and Final Release (for no namers like us, skipping Early Access cuts our visibility in half)
- You can enable 3 other minor "boosts" if Steam is not doing a major sale (in which case you can run your own little mini sale with boosted presence)
Hope this helps someone... Share some tips of your own?
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