Hi there!
Lately I’ve been thinking about releasing my game(which was planned like half year ago). After seeing how Steam is flooded with bad games, I don’t want to add mine there, partly because it is not the most proffesional game ever made, and partly because it would probably get lost in the sea of poop anyway.
Now I thought about Itch.io which I used for my LD entry, and it looks like a very nice platform, but one thing crossed my mind, who would even want to buy my game in the first place?
I don’t mean it is bad, average player should get at least five hours of fun out of it and sandbox lovers could easily play for dozens more. The problem is, there are so many good free games, and also so many paid ones, which can for couple more bucks deliver AA+ experience.
I myself bought some cheap small games, but only in Humble bundles. Then of course there is Terraria, which i bought for around a dollar and played at least for hundred hours. So I am asking, why do YOU buy small cheap indie games? Is it for the self contained fun, that the game starts and ends and you can move on? Or do you just get bored with big games quickly and want to enjoy more diverse experiences?
I usually buy games that catch my eye, small or not. Results vary.
Negative expereinces: Starbound, Punch Club, Star Forge: Alpha
Mixed Experiences: Planet Explorers.
Positive Experiences: Axiom Verge, Valhalla (Va-11 Hall A).
Terraria is not exactly a small game, by the way. Valhall took 9 hours so far (and I haven’t finished it yet), Axiom Verge took ten.
Also, unless your game is absolutely horrible, I think that you should try to release it. I mean steam lets real abominations through their greenlight, and you can’t possibly make something worse.
I’m actually averse to AAA titles now. Probably having a mac mini has influenced this decision, haha but wow, when you find a little gem of an indie game like, Fran Bow or Limbo, those AAA games soon get tiresome.
For me, it’s all about novelty, a great concept, execution and narrative.
Attached is my steam game library (I only played Assassin’s creed on my windoze machine for a handful of minutes LOL )
You are probably right. I’ve hit a wall and the least I can do is to drop that 100$ on steam and put it up on other marketplaces too. I have no reputation to lose anyway. Thanks for the gentle push.
I have the unfortunate personality of wanting a world I can always return to, which means bigass multiplayer sandbox games, but the technology isn’t there yet to deliver what I imagine. I mean I love good stories, but I always get the feeling that it will be over soon and I’ll have to go find something new to do. However, when judging some LD games, visual and text novels were the best ones by a massive margin.
Well…I actually like my game a lot and enjoy playing it, but it’s just not what I’ve wanted it to be, too big scope. After a year I’ve had enough of this project, and i tried to make it as complete as possible. Added so much content, but I won’t get satisfied. The best thing of course would be to work on it for a few years, polish it up and have one of the best games made, but it just isn’t happening. I’m finishing high school this year and I want to learn many things about development, and this game allows only creating more content, balancing and polish. I learned what I could and now i want to make myself a library of code to put into future games. I’m just burned out of constantly sitting in school and then spending all free time on this one game.
However, even if it is not very polished and not what I’ve dreamed of, it is still not bad. And if some people can enjoy it and even give me some pocket money for it, why not try? The problem with Steam is just that hundred bucks is kind of high for student living on 25c energy drinks, and now that I’ve seen how many games got on Steam lately, I don’t believe my game will stand out from the thousands of other games enough to even pay for the investment. But in the end, I must try just for my own peace of mind.
It’s not like I’m just here to get as much money as I can, but I’ve put so much time and effort into it that I’d like some reward even if it isn’t the best game in the world.
If your game won’t get attention on steam, it won’t get attention anywhere else. The other markets have dramatically smaller customer bases, a lower quality bar then steam, and less advertising from the platform holder.
There are legitimate reasons to avoid Steam. Steam doesn’t accept some types of games, extreme violence is okay, but extreme romance isn’t. Go figure.
But if your game will qualify for steam, there is no reason to avoid it.
The fee is irrelavant. If you can make games you can put yourself out there as a freelancer and make the entry fee pretty quickly.
Not really, I was busy doing LD and now I will probably try polishing it a little. There is just something missing, some energy that I need to add for it to feel good.
But you know what? I need feedback anyway and progress isn’t coming anytime soon. I don’t know whether this build even works right, but I will just upload it and anybody can try it.
Controls are WSAD+Alphanumeric1-9 and mouse, shift to run, E to use fireplace, X to open inventory, tab to switch between building and spells, to equip spell or block mouse over it in the inventory and push number where you want it.
You have to keep yourself fed by hunting deer or farming carrots, then you can go defeat stronger monsters, craft weapons, armor and spells and repeat. There are two bosses but I think I haven’t set up spawn for one of them yet.
Now that I think about it hella more needs to be done, I’m actually a bit ashamed. Anyway, here is a link, let’s say alpha version is free.
I would try it there seem to be alot of people who like the more retro looking games and your graphic style seems very clean and tbh quite interesting cause it’s different from what I have seen so far. You might end up getting yourself a little fanbase over it I think.
Are you ready to expand it, if there would be bigger interest in it than you expect? And for how much do you want to sell it? (although if it’s getting greenlit steam will contact you about pricing anyway)
Just imagine people only buy games when at that moment the game seems pretty much the best thing in the world to spend their money on (or fill the void in their life). I sometimes feel like I wanna play something, but I’m bored of everything I own at the time. That’s when there’s a chance I’ll buy a non-sale indie game when it’s really innovative and appealing, like this one: http://store.steampowered.com/app/416680/ (made in Unity btw).
I don’t really buy the “visibility is an issue on steam” argument, because I really feel like their suggestion algorithms are on point with telling me about the things I might care about. Do you know how often I thought “this game looks exactly like my cup of tea, If only I had known it came out two years ago”? Never. It just doesn’t happen. The other day I saw a new game on steam and thought “This actually looks kind of interesting, I’ll put it on the wishlist. I wonder when this came out, I never heard of this one before… oh… it released today”. It was a tiny low budget indie game with zero reviews, and yet I’ve seen it without going out of my way to manually dig through all the new releases. Steam is great at making suggestions!
there seem to be alot of people who like the more retro looking games and your graphic style seems very clean and tbh quite interesting cause it’s different from what I have seen so far. You might end up getting yourself a little fanbase over it I think.