My name is Somi, and my second game called, “RETSNOM” is released on Steam.
It is an inventive pixel art puzzle platformer that allows players to break the map, by mirroring sections of the level, and rearranging it on the fly.
You have a daughter. She is unfortunately infected by a zombie virus. The only way to save your daughter is to visit the future laboratory to steal the medicine that is expected to be made by your colleagues. But the future research team is hiding in the maze using mirrors. They decorated the maze using different features of a mirror in each level.
Players should understand the way how mirrors flip the world to solve the stages. The ability to bend the world to player’s will is a very cool gameplay mechanic, that rewards experimentation as players make their way through this rather sinister world.
That’s pretty cool! You should do some marketing more marketing then, it would be a shame if you don’t have success! Maybe you can bring it to other platforms too? Do you plan to bring it to mobiles (tablets) too?
This looks incredible! I will probably find it on steam and get it later on today. You need to do some marketing, because this looks very well done. The graphics style, effects, and gameplay all look really good.
Thank you for the compliments. Nothings decided yet. I wonder if people would like my game or not when I bring it to mobiles. I’m a little bit frustrated.
I would also post it in Indie Games promotion groups on Facebook/Google and others. Making Blog posts during development and building a fanbase during development also helps to promote the game before it is finished!
I saw Retsnom appear on my Steam homepage earlier today (can’t remember if it was in the “recently updated” or “recommended for you”) so, having just come across this thread, I thought I’d leave you some honest feedback on my thought process…
I thought the marketing on Steam itself is good - nice icon, good description. “Inventive pixel art platformer” sounded like my sort of thing. It was good enough for me to click the link to go to the store page. This alone places you well ahead of many, many games on Steam.
£3.99 is a good price point. Still interested so far. I start to watch the gameplay video.
The cello solo, for me, didn’t work with the video. Is that the only sound in the game? The exertions of the character animation - jumping, climbing etc. - lose depth when not accompanied by some sound effects, at least.
The main character is nice and seems well animated but, beyond that, the graphics look a bit minimal and a little bit “mashed together”. The enormous green keys seem to jar with the rest of the style and colour scheme, for example.
But, here’s the real kicker - while the mechanic looks “clever”, and possibly well-executed, I wasn’t convinced that it would be “fun”. I like puzzle games, but this looked like it might frustrate. I scrolled down to the comments, and it seems that others before me have thought the same.
Your narrative sounded a bit weak and didn’t convince me to play the game for its story, but the audio/art wasn’t strong enough to play for its aesthetic qualities, and the mechanic wasn’t interesting or fun enough to play it as an experience. And, since I’ve never heard of you or the game before, I have no emotional attachment to it either. Everything was “ok”, but there’s an awful lot of ok games on Steam. And so I went back to the Steam homepage. Sale opportunity gone.
David is absolutely right (and, if you’ve been to any indie marketing track at almost any games conference in the last 3 years, they will all tell you the same) - you need to be engaging with your audience way before you release your game. Use twitch, reddit, blog updates, whatever social media you think is appropriate. Go to conferences, exhibit at expos, and talk about your game. Release betas - you’ll get valuable early testing feedback and also build reputation for your game. Making games has never been easier, but getting them discovered has arguably never been harder, and to be successful you need to learn that bit too.
I appreciate for your honest feedback. First of all, it was in the “recently updated”. I had to make my game to be on the front page and did use one of marketing opportunities.
Secondarily, I absolutely agree that I was naive about marketing thing. I have to learn how to do it way before the release. It’s very difficult for me to know because my english is poor and there’s few people who develop indie games in Korea. But I know, even in this situation, I have to learn and do it to be extra ordinary game.
And I will fix and fix my game to be better game that before. please keep an eye on the game. I will make it the first one you want to play.
Thank you for the answer. I’ll try again.
Try to limit your trailer to being a trailer than a tutorial. I get turned off from many games when they try to teach me the game. Show the game and its strengths without teaching everything there is. People will be more intrigued. The game when played should be the tutorial.
For all those who haven’t played it, it actually is very fun to play, and the mechanic is very well fleshed out. I played it with a controller over keyboard, that improved the feel of the game. You might even add somewhere in the description that you recommend playing it with a controller.
I’m not satisfied with the trailer. I think there’s lots of problems related to language difference. And the trailer thing is one of them, I guess. I want to express some thoughts around my game but meanings and what I want to tell people are not on the englesh sentence in the end. There’s only teaching and information not the atmosphere.
AND, to RedSuinit.
Thank you so much for the compliment. It’s very happy to hear that you like my game. If you experience World 3 and World 4, I bet, you will like my game more.
Game looks very cool. Creative! The music in the video was a major turn-off to me though. Throw in something along the lines of Disturbed or Ozzy and you’ll be golden.
yeh, its fun to play. I’m impressed that its made by just one person. There’s obviously a lot of work involved. I like the helpful hints that guide you, but without getting in the way. I have a game controller and it works well with the game. There is a lot of solo cello music but it adds to the sombre atmosphere. Its a dark, platform/strategy game where you can take your time to really think things through, as opposed to an action-packed platformer where its just about reflexes and timing. I saw some monsters and I wasn’t sure how to kill them, so I used the mirror to flip the blocks on them and crush them to death. Is that the right way?
You should do some marketing more marketing then, it would be a shame if you don’t have success! Maybe you can bring it to other platforms too? Do you plan to bring it to mobiles (tablets) too? 
And I promise I’ll check back in on your game in the future.