I find it hard to read your numbers, how I am reading this :
- 873 players played the Demo
- 266 of those also wishlisted
- 1807 total wishlist over the event
Am i reading this correctly? If yes, then wow gratz on those Wishlists !
Great job firstly!
Got about 130 wishlists from the whole thing, but more interesting to me has been that there seems to be a tailwind where I'm getting 1-3 now a day instead of the 0-1 beforehand. It's probably nothing to a lot of folks here but as a solo on their first project I'm super satisfied with how it went, especially as I retrospectively failed hard on the demo portion (I went for stability (oldest content) rather than a better slice of fun content). I'll have to replace the demo at launch but tons of lessons learned.
Also almost no outside promotion, as I've hard failed at figuring out how to get algorithms to show anything to anybody (like a post most places will get 7 impressions and I know 4 of them irl). Just focusing on the game itself til closer to launch.
All in all was worth, got some crucial feedback that was lacking, learned about the whole process, made learnable mistakes.
> Also almost no outside promotion, as I've hard failed at figuring out how to get algorithms to show anything to anybody (like a post most places will get 7 impressions and I know 4 of them irl). Just focusing on the game itself til closer to launch.
A lot of people may not agree with me, but here goes. If you get 130 wishlists from Steam Next Fest, there is no need to bother doing any promotion. Unless your game has some super special rare niche, investing into promotion is just gonna get you pretty much nothing.
Not all games benefit from promotion and it just becomes a black hole of time. You're better off launching the game and accepting it won't be a commercial success. Promotion isn't some magic spell that can fool people into buying something they don't want. You're better off making your next game better
Yep, this one is all learning the whole process. I think the next one I'm going to spend more time trying to sort of "public prototyping" to see what art or gameplay has any traction before going all in on a project. As an example, some fantasy art I've done on my days off has gone farther than my current projects spaceships theme, so I'll probably go fantasy next (I've always heard fantasy is more popular than sci Fi also). There's also the genre graph on how to market your game that shows management and 4x are both under served and better performing so I'll likely start there.
Sounds good
Make sure to take a look at the recent, poorly selling and the good selling games in whatever genre you choose to make, to see if you can meet the quality bar of the good selling stuff 🤔
I think you can (and should) try to promote your games. At least by contacting press and creators a few times and see if (or not) they pick up the game. Spending $ on promo is for pros or anyone with deep pockets, as it is a very risky endeavor. But mailing or tweeting about stuff is mostly “free” I would definitely do it.
I find it hard to read your numbers, how I am reading this : - 873 players played the Demo - 266 of those also wishlisted - 1807 total wishlist over the event Am i reading this correctly? If yes, then wow gratz on those Wishlists !
Yes that is correct! Thanks!
Great job firstly! Got about 130 wishlists from the whole thing, but more interesting to me has been that there seems to be a tailwind where I'm getting 1-3 now a day instead of the 0-1 beforehand. It's probably nothing to a lot of folks here but as a solo on their first project I'm super satisfied with how it went, especially as I retrospectively failed hard on the demo portion (I went for stability (oldest content) rather than a better slice of fun content). I'll have to replace the demo at launch but tons of lessons learned. Also almost no outside promotion, as I've hard failed at figuring out how to get algorithms to show anything to anybody (like a post most places will get 7 impressions and I know 4 of them irl). Just focusing on the game itself til closer to launch. All in all was worth, got some crucial feedback that was lacking, learned about the whole process, made learnable mistakes.
> Also almost no outside promotion, as I've hard failed at figuring out how to get algorithms to show anything to anybody (like a post most places will get 7 impressions and I know 4 of them irl). Just focusing on the game itself til closer to launch. A lot of people may not agree with me, but here goes. If you get 130 wishlists from Steam Next Fest, there is no need to bother doing any promotion. Unless your game has some super special rare niche, investing into promotion is just gonna get you pretty much nothing. Not all games benefit from promotion and it just becomes a black hole of time. You're better off launching the game and accepting it won't be a commercial success. Promotion isn't some magic spell that can fool people into buying something they don't want. You're better off making your next game better
Yep, this one is all learning the whole process. I think the next one I'm going to spend more time trying to sort of "public prototyping" to see what art or gameplay has any traction before going all in on a project. As an example, some fantasy art I've done on my days off has gone farther than my current projects spaceships theme, so I'll probably go fantasy next (I've always heard fantasy is more popular than sci Fi also). There's also the genre graph on how to market your game that shows management and 4x are both under served and better performing so I'll likely start there.
Sounds good Make sure to take a look at the recent, poorly selling and the good selling games in whatever genre you choose to make, to see if you can meet the quality bar of the good selling stuff 🤔
Yeah haha, that's why I got a few ideas tucked away for "This one needs more experience/a team".
Really good numbers, congrats! Especially 30% wish listed after playing your demo... very promising.
Thanks!
How much promoting did you do prior to next fest, and did you do anything to have those numbers be so high?
Yes, we were part of LAGSshowcase before the fest so I’m guessing that’s where most of the traffic came from
I think you can (and should) try to promote your games. At least by contacting press and creators a few times and see if (or not) they pick up the game. Spending $ on promo is for pros or anyone with deep pockets, as it is a very risky endeavor. But mailing or tweeting about stuff is mostly “free” I would definitely do it.
I’m considering doing the next fest in October but do they actually show indie games or is it just big publisher games being pushed?
They show everything. But i think this time it was like 1000+ games so you are pretty buried in there
Ah okay, I’ll check it out for my next game, my current one is releasing in August so it already passed
The conversion rate is really good, what was the median playtime on the demo?
I think around 26 minutes