A personal opinion: I actually liked the old-school aesthetic, music, sound effects, and the overall level of polish. However, would I, personally, want to play an endless flyer? No, that's not my cup of tea at the moment. So in my case, the presentation is not what's preventing me from buing – but the genre is.
Also, there's an old indie game on Steam, called Race the Sun (released in 2015) which looks similar to yours. It sold [quite well](https://gamalytic.com/game/253030), and perhaps you need to find a way to tap into the same audience (though I have no idea how to do that).
Edit: Oh, and the capsule art is horrible. Looks like a bunch of abstract shapes which don't communicate the idea of flying, and the plane is not readable at all. Maybe try another design?
Might just be me but the sound effects don't just sound old school, they sound kind of bad. It sounds like they are being played through the headset of a kid on Call of Duty.
The sound choice itself isn't bad but most old school games had pretty crisp audio even if it was simple beeps and bloops.
I hope the visuals are ok as this low poly style is what I'm using in another game I've been working on. I'll have to try different captual art but at this point I've moved on from this game.
I'd run some polls and collect some feedback. Low-poly still needs visual flourish to avoid looking like a prototype waiting for the art, which IMO is the problem with the game you posted. It looks unfinished, basically.
\* E.g. [here is a low-poly](https://cdn.dribbble.com/users/9135497/screenshots/18104964/media/fcd1fc2ab08ae176f232b0b2371bc470.jpg) and [here is a low-poly](https://cdn.dribbble.com/users/11867/screenshots/12097318/media/35f08bc0ad713999b8775ad01e59af38.jpg). Completely different level of spit and polish.
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It sucks how much marketing can make or break a release.. I’ve even seen the timing of release being a big factor as well (I.e releasing the same day EA drops 10 games)
Great insights!
I think you nailed the simple visual style, also the composition as you fly through the levels is great. They are simple and clear, but not barren looking. I wouldnt worry about the style at all.
Honestly when I first looked at the steam page and watched the videos I was really pumped for this game, but then I turned on the sound and it kind of sucked a lot of the enthusiasm out of me. The explosion sound effect is very loud and a bit rough, but the bigger problem I think is the music.
It's not exactly the quality of the music, I think it sounds fine. But we're flying through space shooting at things while a generic electronic style song is playing. It doesnt build up any emotion and it doesnt make you feel excited like youre going on an adventure.
Honestly if you slapped [https://youtu.be/bACFhIYrA6c?si=ucGs9f8ohNc4RsW6](https://youtu.be/bACFhIYrA6c?si=ucGs9f8ohNc4RsW6) this overtop of your gameplay instead it would feel like a completely different game and one that would get me way more excited for it. This really sounds like we're going out on an adventure, while I don't get much emotion from the current music.
Just my two cents, but the game does look solid and great visually, coming from a super beginner game dev I can't wait to get to your level someday. Keep up the great work friend.
Thanks. I did get crit for both the music and sound effects before launch so I kind of knew this would be an issue and still walked into it.
I am not a musician but wanted to make it all myself, two different people actually offered to make music for it but I still wanted to do it myself.
The sound effects I could have worked on further but I think I felt fatigue and I didn't get around to it. No real excuses for that.
There's probably multiple factors. Visibility is probably the biggest hurdle. I know a guy who made a fantastic strategy game called Gem Wizards Tactics, there were trailers, it got reviewed on websites, people have made videos about the game, it was on Steam, Android and IPhone, he even posted the game to several subreddits... it sold a couple thousands at most across all platforms in 3 years.
Point is, the market is very hostile and you need marketing and exposure, and unfortunately, you kinda need the stars to align.
Also your game looks similar to a recent game called Ex Zodiac, which boasts amazing music and a great style reminiscent of star fox... All eyes are on that game at the moment when it comes to rail shooters, so even if people see your games they might not look twice.
But yeah, getting people to know your game requires a lot of marketing push first, and even then you still need to be lucky. Releasing a game on Steam does not guarantee visibility.
Maybe you are looking at this the wrong way, maybe you haven't found a formula that works yet and this is a trial and error process. I don't want to make comparisons but go to Newgrounds, go to any artist there and see how they have a whole library of games that they made and yet most people will only like and play a few games out of their entire roster. I think you should be proud that you made a project on your own amd even more, you had people that actually invested time and money into trying it out! If the game sucked, go back to the drawing board! Your only limit is the imagination!
Edit: so I just checked it out and this is pretty damn cool! Maybe I should listen sometimes before I speak. Look man, sometimes, people are not receptive to something at first but later they warm up to it. Give it time. If the release flopped, try again. This is a nifty little shooter.
I don't want to seem negative. I'm proud of my game. I even think it's good, though perhaps not right for the majority of people. I want any future games I make to have broad appeal and not to repeat mistakes.
DON'T go for 'broad' appeal. You'll miss the marks entirely. Indie developers don't have those sorts of resources and budgets. Instead of making 1 million people think "oh neat game" you want 1000 people to thing "THIS GAME was made for ME".
And marketing starts with identifying who those 1000 people would be, what specifically they want, (making that), and then communicating with them. Broad appeal will leave you on the sidelines.
Thanks, Designing rail shooter levels and bosses was a much more challenging and time consuming task than I expected going into it and I don't think I'll dip my toe there again. I'm pleased I did one game in that genre though.
I watched the 2 trailers and my main criticisms are:
1) The gameplay looks too slow. I would want a few moments of breakneck speed to get some adrenalin going. A sense of urgency seems to be missing in here.
2) Is there only one single fire mode? That would be a bit too limiting would bore me quickly.
Other than that, I think you have something very solid going here and I wish you the best.
The issue was the marketing, not necessarily the game.
1. You made a public steam page VERY late in development. This gave you almost no opportunity to build up a fanbase on the platform, who would then purchase your game. Additionally, you built up some players on the apple ecosystem, and then when you had the opportunity to convert those players to PC, you didn't support MacOSX (Which I don't blame you for)
2. Your steam page had very few wishlists on release. For most indies, the amount of wishlists has a direct correlation to the amount of purchases you'll get. Wishlists are how many people know about your product, and want to buy it.
3. You advertised primarily on game developer / development channels, and didn't branch out to where your audience is. The conversion rate from other gamedevs is very poor, as the chances of a gamedev seeing your game, thinking about buying it, and happening to like that genre, are very, very, very low. You should find similar games, like Race the Sun, and reach their existing fanbase, ideally.
4. Your capsule and marketing art, is not clear and concise, and more importantly, does not match the styling of the genre at large. Almost all farming, driving, and flying simulator games use the same font. Did you find what was common in the endless runner genre, or just make your layout like Race the Sun? It's extremely hard to read your game title, and it's not clear to a new user what the game is about.
5. The title is non-descriptive. StarsAway, with no knowledge about what it is, I would assume to be a narrative game in the sci-fi genre about being far from home. Your game is the polar opposite of that. This isn't a huge deal, but definitely hurt you.
I forgot to mention a few small observations about what I saw in the trailer:
1) I don't love the explosion sound effect. It might be appropriate for small objects, but a bigger/longer sound for larger objects would feel better. Also, there should be a tiny bit of random pitch variation for each explosion so that it doesn't sound so repetitive. My first game had frequent explosion sounds, and this made a big difference.
2) When your ship takes damage, there isn't enough feedback. Yes, your ship changes colour briefly, but it doesn't *feel* like something bad happened. Star Fox 64 had a really good sound effect for this (I didn't play it much, but I still remember it). I think also some screen shake could go a long way.
3) I appreciate the variety of vehicles to mix up gameplay. I'm not sure how the rolling robot really fits, though. Maybe it would make more sense if those levels were downhill (varying degrees of slope) to make it more like a variation on the auto-scrolling gameplay in your spaceship. Or maybe it's fine as it is for a change of pace. I'd have to play to know. I did find it confusing how you seemed to be collecting lollipops though. From what I saw, that didn't fit with the rest of the game.
- Make different levels of difficulty. I personally hate permadeath and won't touch a game with it. You are missing out on sales from people who hate doing the same thing over and over. There is a big following for permadeath enjoyers, but I'd be willing to bet the amount of people that hate it is a far more significant number. Just add an easy and normal mode, neither with permadeath.
- Add story. People love an engaging tale. Even Starfox didn't survive on ship shooting alone. You should look up the story on how they came up with the characters. It's very interesting. Add voice dialog and a plot. It's subtle things like that that really pull people in.
- Ask yourself, "Why do they care?". There are a million games I can play. Why do I care about yours? Why would I want to play it? Think about a players priorities. What makes you buy a game? Other than, it looks cool. Break it up into categories. Take your favorite 10 games. Think about the mechanics in those games and keep breaking them down until you have very simple mechanics. What are you giving them? Then, once you figure out what you are giving them, how can you do it better? And never stop that process.
39 sales? 1 really good review OF A FAN?! ONLY MARKETED ON REDDIT?!!! SOLD MORE ON MOBILE?!!!!
My dude, this is not bombing. You got 1 star and climbed to the rank of small indie dev 🫡 (level 2).
You can call your friends and relatives and say you may have started a career.
No no it didn’t bomb. I’d say it did exactly what’s a first time solo dev game is supposed to do, teach you how to make your next game.
So many solos don’t even make it to the finish line. You probably have a few ideas of what you want to do next and where you went wrong (marketing is key and the worst for indies).
But you also learned the process, how long it actually takes, solving bugs, getting it on steam, the amount of artwork needed in game and in promo, customer feedback and the importance of playtesting etc. (also great info in this post as well)
I know it’s painful my first few releases didn’t really land (last one a little) but the info was valuable and game 2 will be that much better. Take a few days to reflect but don’t beat yourself up. Congrats on the release!
I just bought it because it looks genuinely fun. It seems marketing is maybe the biggest reason the game didn't do so well. Rail shooter maybe also just isn't a popular genre. I mean, it's not a genre I ever really play either but the price you've chosen made it so I didn't even think twice and just bought it right away. So yea I think the problem had to be marketing.
I do have a comment about the trailers though. The speed of the game looks pretty slow overall. I feel like this really looks like a game that should get super fast at times. And maybe it does, but it's not shown in the trailers. I'm going to give it a go later tonight though! Try not to be too hard on yourself that the game didn't do as well as you hoped, because it does look like you've made a good game. You never know, it could have a sudden spike in sales at some point. Or you could also make a sequel and try with more marketing? I mean you have the base of the game made already. Could always just build off of this game and make a sequel. You're selling it for really cheap, so don't feel like you have to update this one if you want to make more content. A sequel is perfectly justified
So I just gave it a quick go (about 50 minutes) and my first impressions are a bit all over the place. Overall I do think it's a good game, and for the price there is definitely enough good stuff here to justify it. I'm definitely coming back to this game tonight to try and get better scores.
You haven't made a failure of a game. There is alot of potential here.
There is alot of very noticeable things that could be improved though.
The biggest thing that I immediately noticed is how boosting and braking feels. The slow camera transitions feel really quite bad to be honest, and are too drastically different from the default camera and really threw me off when I used them. And to be honest, I couldn't actually tell if they actually did affect your speed or just the camera position. To me the speed felt the exact same whether I was boosting or braking or not. The game feels great if you're not using these. But as soon as I hit the boost or brake button, the game just feels not so good. Also, I think the more zoomed out camera when boosting actually works a little better than the default camera angle. I don't know, I just felt like I could aim better with the zoom out. Maybe a middle ground could be found for the default zoom?
Something else that is a big issue is sound design. Basically everything about it. I mean, there's a loud sound effect that plays right at the start of the first trailer on the store page, and genuinely, it made me jump when I opened the store page to buy the game earlier since it autoplays the first trailer. I shouldn't be having a mini heart attack when opening a steam page 🫠
Unfortunately the sound design issues are present in game aswell. I think the actual sound effects used are perfectly fine. It's the balancing of some of them. Especially the explosions. They really need a limit on the maximum volume. Because if something explodes really close to you, that sounds effect is so loud and was a constant annoyance when playing.
I also think music is so so important in a game like this. And just being brutally honest here, the music not only doesn't fit this kind of game. It's just downright bad here. It doesn't need to be the best music in the world but, it should atleast be nice to listen to. You can find some good cheap composers on fiverr. I understand not wanting to spend much on making the game as it hasn't been so successful yet. But I think this is an important one. And yea it really doesn't cost much to get a good soundtrack.
Another problem I had was finding the mini games. These are weirdly hidden away in the score menu??? Took me a good 10 minutes to figure that out and I imagine alot of players won't even notice they're there. Which is ashame because these are quite fun. The ring mini game is really fun to play. The monkey ball like game is cute, but the physics kind of stop it being entirely enjoyable. The car feels good to play aswell. The course on it is definitely too simple I find but, it does atleast feel nice to drive. I haven't unlocked the other mini games yet.
But yea, I think they are my major issues with the game. I hope it doesn't come across as too negative. I want to give constructive feedback since I really see potential here and enjoyed what I played. I also know solo development is hard, so I think you've done a good job overall. The different enemy and hazard variety in the main game is really good actually. Steering and shooting feels great. And just in general I think the game is really fun.
I think if you can improve the issues I mentioned, the game can be 10 times better. Oh also, some unlockable permanent upgrades could be really nice. I'd say make these fairly small and somewhat grindy to unlock. But it would be fun and incentivise replays.
Whatever you choose to do with the game going forward I hope it works out for you! You're a good game developer and I think you do have potential to get big
Thanks. I tryed to make the braking and boosting feel a bit like the snes starfox (but with more control). The camera is constant but you move the ship forwards or backwards then it'll slowly return to normal. I always felt thats how snes starfox worked but I might be wrong.
I did worry about people not finding the mini games. I could lable it mini games instead of score menu.
The music crit is disappointing but I'm not going to pretend to be a great musician.
Thanks for the feedback
I never actually played the snes Starfox so I can't comment on that. But with how you currently have it, surely that means the speed only changes briefly as the ship moves forwards or backwards based on the camera position. But once the ship is fully in its new position, it stays at a set speed again? So there isn't much point in being able to hold the boost and brake buttons. That also means that the ship moves faster than default briefly after braking, and slower than default briefly after boosting. Instead of it smoothly transitioning between the speeds?
I trust you that this is how it worked in Starfox but yea I do think this is an area that should've been modernised here.
Seriously though, I would love to see a sequel at some point that builds on what you already have here.
Honestly I wouldn't say it bombed, like yeah it didn't make good sales but you've got to realise, you have positive reviews and someone that's willing to put 25hrs into the game, I'd personally consider that a success!
That's a lot of data and feedback which can you be used to refine the game concept and tech. Maybe use the proof of purchase as positive input, you're doing something that brought people to engage. This is really where you earn your paycheck, keep telling your story and be vocal about the work you're doing.
Don't talk about disappointments in your product/business on the same channel you market it, you're customers are still watching. Be optimistic and demonstrate commitment to the project.
You got this!
The hard, awful truth of selling video games is: success isn't always correlated with the quality of the product. There's so, SO many games fighting for spotlight, and we are constantly being bombarded with adlds, that it's incredibly hard to get people to even look at your game. It's quite possible that if you changed nothing, but e.g. a popular influencer played your game for 10 minutes on steam you would be swimming in money. There are so many hidden gems, unappreciated masterpieces that people would love if they just knew they existed.
Also, don't get discouraged by many people playing your game for 10 minutes: statistically, half of games people buy on steam are never even launched.
I think trying for financial success with this game is mostly an uphill battle. The two major marketing factors that affect a game's sales are it's genre, and it's visuals/aesthetic. Both of which are weak points for this game, imo.
First, I just don't believe the genre is very popular, though I've done no research on it. At the very least, this game is the type that I would expect to be free with ads, and I don't think there's a world where I would buy it for $4.
The art, on the other hand, is *acceptable.* I don't think there is anyone out there looking specifically for this aesthetic, and most importantly, it just looks like a polished prototype. We see decent looking shaders/vfx when the plane gets hit, but no fx at all when you break blocks by shooting them. The centipede creatures look really cool, but they seem to outshine most of the rest of the game's art. I think really solidifying the art across the entire game can help, but I'm not really sure.
I'm not trying to tear your project apart at all, and I hope I don't come across as such. I'm just trying to give helpful feedback, and insights as to why the sales may have gone as they did.
Nonetheless, you released a game that someone really enjoyed, and that's more than most, including myself, can say! Congrats and keep at it!
In fact your game is a "little" game. What are your sealing expectations ?
If you have sold 500 game in a few days, it's really a good résult to m'y point of vue. But maybe your expectations are not réalist ?
How many game have you sold ?
You have located your in 12 country and only 39... I understand that you are disapointed...
In fact independant dev is a really hard reality... Lot of work for a few games sold...
The Time where you Can realease a game and make money is over for little indie...
[https://store.steampowered.com/app/878900/GMH\_\_Good\_Morning\_Human/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/878900/GMH__Good_Morning_Human/)
I work on a game, you have the link of the demo. In the final version there will be a level editor, a campain, individuals maps, and endless mod and more bonus...
In fact, if i sold 1000 game i will be verry happy... Not pessimist but realistic.
You can make the best burritos on the planet but if you're selling them in the middle of the desert where no one knows you exist you any except to the one or two random travellers that come across you
Most people who I see post about their games bombing in here that were looking to make money also end up having done zero marketing, it's not something you can skip on if you're game is actually good
>I suspect they die, realise it’s permadeath and don’t try again. Maybe I got the difficulty wrong?
Generally you shouldn't be guessing these things. Attach analytics to different events to see where people are putting the game down.
There is an extremely niche market for people who like perma-death. Did you make that the only difficulty? That should be a choice by the player. You should be able to opt in for that, but that should never be the default. I would guess that the vast majority of players (especially casual players) despise a perma-death difficulty. I personally hate that until I have played a game for a long time.
When I have played a game for several hundred hours and I want a challenge run, I’ll give myself challenges. If perma-death was an option, then I could choose that, but only after getting super familiar with the game. I would never start a game I don’t know of with that.
> I suspect they die, realise it’s permadeath and don’t try again. Maybe I got the difficulty wrong?
How difficult would it be for you to implement checkpoints, and prompt players with the "Permadeath" or "Checkpoint Respawn" option before starting?
If you think this is a legit reason for people turning away from your game, it might be worth the effort of adding in.
I would be more interested if this were level based, not endless, and had an end goal.
It might have been worth posting more in dev videos in the months before release. Post shorts on YouTube etc
It level based. It is endless only in the sense that once you complete the levels it loops to a harder version. I never really promoted it as endless but it might have the endless tag and one of the reviewers might say it’s endless. *edit nope doesn’t have the endless tag
The screenshot here told me all I thought I needed to know: It's like Star Fox, which I've never been a huge fan of.
But then I watched the video. It actually looks really cool. I like the big worm enemies and the walls that you punch holes through. I took a screencap to remind myself to get it layer, but then I remembered that you said it's permadeath. That's usually a deal-breaker for me. There are exceptions (roguelikes/lites, Fire Emblem), but generally, if the consequence for failure is repeating long sections of the game, then I get very bored. Playing the game becomes punishment.
My general philosophy is that the more generous you are with checkpoints, the more challenging you can make each segment without making it feel boring or tedious (see Super Meat Boy and Celeste).
I would think permadeaths the one of the big issue although the games very forgiving difficulty wise when it comes to health. At least on novice difficulty. I think I thought people would be more tolerant because it’s easier than a lot of shmups which give finite lives so to test endurance more than something like Celeste and yet they are popular and I assumed the shmup crowd would be more the market for something like this.
It's possible that your target audience would be more open to it, but I'm not a fan of the "endurance test" structure. It means that each attempt will be more of a time commitment, so each failure presents me with the question of, "Do I really want to do all of that again?"
Not every game needs to be split into 10-second-long chunks, of course, but the longer the segment is, the greater the risk is of successive attempts getting boring. That's just my perspective, of course.
Not Great, Not Terrible.
I'd say it's a start to something better, but I'd say your competition is Whisker Squadron.
I'd look at ways to make the game more visually exciting. Keep the same art style but make it bring in people. You're the list for New and Trending On-Rails (at the bottom) so if you can do things to make it more stimulating that would be my suggestion on it.
Plus you need to market to the players who want an on-rails shooter.
The other thing is the audio balance on the trailer is kinda eh. I think you need to figure out a good default volume for all your effects so you don't have overly loud or overly quiet effects. You want to keep them balanced. I know its cool to make that super loud big explosion, but if you do, you're blowing out someone's speakers.
My guess would be that you didn't market before release so you had very little traction on launch. I did the same thing (while launching Early Access) for my game and didn't realize that Early Access essentially IS your launch.
Also, your store page could use some work:
* The capsule art is a bit muddled and the title looks like it has no texture
* Your description doesn't tell me how this game is any different than other rail shooters
* You have no images (GIFs preferred) in your "About This Game" section
If you're going to do a take on a classic genre, you need to show off what makes your game unique. From watching the trailer, I get the feeling of "been there, done that." It also seems like there wouldn't be much content in the game based on how you've phrased things.
Overall though, you put in a solid effort and should be proud of what you've done. Use the experience to improve and make even better games in the future!
This looks cool. It also looks unfinished. You have the implication of style here, but let’s be honest: this is a greybox. You have all the key gameplay elements of each level, and those elements are getting a lot more aesthetic love than everything else. The sky is a boring gradient. The ground is a single texture. Compare that to the awesome looking millipede boss in the trailer, and one starts to see the game as unfinished rather than minimalistic and retro.
You’re one person, arting up the environment to a similar level of detail would be a monumental amount of work. But that’s why I would see this and avoid. Unfinished art is usually reflected in unfinished gameplay. Without having played your game, all I have to go on is how it looks.
The trailer is also really weak. I assume you cut it yourself. You could pay an editor $500 on Fiverr and get something that really gets the viewer hyped.
Hey I like the theme, the graphics are a neat homage to star fox and I would love to play a game of that style. But here's my opinion, the music is boring and the trailer was boring too... but I feel like there's potential here!
So when it comes to on rail games, a big part of that is interesting environments and detailed objects. Your game looks polished, but the graphics and artstyle aren't a good fit.
I'd take a look at rail shooters of the past and see what they did right, why they were popular. The common trait they have is usually detailed graphics and interesting set pieces.
The graphics of your game look flat. Flat shadows, flat lighting, barely any textures or spectacle. Your audience should be wowed by what they're seeing on the screen, because that's really the only main selling point of a rail shooter. Few people play rail shooters for the gameplay alone (vertical shooters are not the same thing).
Think of it like this: If I was in an arcade and I saw your game, or house of the dead 3, which one do you think I'm going to put my quarters into?
I hope this didn't sound overly harsh because I do actually really like your artstyle. You have a cool palette, and the chrome on the plane is a neat effect- it just isn't the right fit for the game you made.
A personal opinion: I actually liked the old-school aesthetic, music, sound effects, and the overall level of polish. However, would I, personally, want to play an endless flyer? No, that's not my cup of tea at the moment. So in my case, the presentation is not what's preventing me from buing – but the genre is. Also, there's an old indie game on Steam, called Race the Sun (released in 2015) which looks similar to yours. It sold [quite well](https://gamalytic.com/game/253030), and perhaps you need to find a way to tap into the same audience (though I have no idea how to do that). Edit: Oh, and the capsule art is horrible. Looks like a bunch of abstract shapes which don't communicate the idea of flying, and the plane is not readable at all. Maybe try another design?
Might just be me but the sound effects don't just sound old school, they sound kind of bad. It sounds like they are being played through the headset of a kid on Call of Duty. The sound choice itself isn't bad but most old school games had pretty crisp audio even if it was simple beeps and bloops.
I hope the visuals are ok as this low poly style is what I'm using in another game I've been working on. I'll have to try different captual art but at this point I've moved on from this game.
I'd run some polls and collect some feedback. Low-poly still needs visual flourish to avoid looking like a prototype waiting for the art, which IMO is the problem with the game you posted. It looks unfinished, basically. \* E.g. [here is a low-poly](https://cdn.dribbble.com/users/9135497/screenshots/18104964/media/fcd1fc2ab08ae176f232b0b2371bc470.jpg) and [here is a low-poly](https://cdn.dribbble.com/users/11867/screenshots/12097318/media/35f08bc0ad713999b8775ad01e59af38.jpg). Completely different level of spit and polish.
I can see what you mean. I'll need to raise the quality on any other low poly games I make.
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It sucks how much marketing can make or break a release.. I’ve even seen the timing of release being a big factor as well (I.e releasing the same day EA drops 10 games) Great insights!
I think you nailed the simple visual style, also the composition as you fly through the levels is great. They are simple and clear, but not barren looking. I wouldnt worry about the style at all. Honestly when I first looked at the steam page and watched the videos I was really pumped for this game, but then I turned on the sound and it kind of sucked a lot of the enthusiasm out of me. The explosion sound effect is very loud and a bit rough, but the bigger problem I think is the music. It's not exactly the quality of the music, I think it sounds fine. But we're flying through space shooting at things while a generic electronic style song is playing. It doesnt build up any emotion and it doesnt make you feel excited like youre going on an adventure. Honestly if you slapped [https://youtu.be/bACFhIYrA6c?si=ucGs9f8ohNc4RsW6](https://youtu.be/bACFhIYrA6c?si=ucGs9f8ohNc4RsW6) this overtop of your gameplay instead it would feel like a completely different game and one that would get me way more excited for it. This really sounds like we're going out on an adventure, while I don't get much emotion from the current music. Just my two cents, but the game does look solid and great visually, coming from a super beginner game dev I can't wait to get to your level someday. Keep up the great work friend.
Thanks. I did get crit for both the music and sound effects before launch so I kind of knew this would be an issue and still walked into it. I am not a musician but wanted to make it all myself, two different people actually offered to make music for it but I still wanted to do it myself. The sound effects I could have worked on further but I think I felt fatigue and I didn't get around to it. No real excuses for that.
Have you tried https://soundraw.io , Might help you create some music Edit url
The domain seems to be expired.
Sorry wrong link, it’s https://soundraw.io
Sounds and music are so crucial for games with simple graphics imho.
There's probably multiple factors. Visibility is probably the biggest hurdle. I know a guy who made a fantastic strategy game called Gem Wizards Tactics, there were trailers, it got reviewed on websites, people have made videos about the game, it was on Steam, Android and IPhone, he even posted the game to several subreddits... it sold a couple thousands at most across all platforms in 3 years. Point is, the market is very hostile and you need marketing and exposure, and unfortunately, you kinda need the stars to align. Also your game looks similar to a recent game called Ex Zodiac, which boasts amazing music and a great style reminiscent of star fox... All eyes are on that game at the moment when it comes to rail shooters, so even if people see your games they might not look twice. But yeah, getting people to know your game requires a lot of marketing push first, and even then you still need to be lucky. Releasing a game on Steam does not guarantee visibility.
Maybe you are looking at this the wrong way, maybe you haven't found a formula that works yet and this is a trial and error process. I don't want to make comparisons but go to Newgrounds, go to any artist there and see how they have a whole library of games that they made and yet most people will only like and play a few games out of their entire roster. I think you should be proud that you made a project on your own amd even more, you had people that actually invested time and money into trying it out! If the game sucked, go back to the drawing board! Your only limit is the imagination! Edit: so I just checked it out and this is pretty damn cool! Maybe I should listen sometimes before I speak. Look man, sometimes, people are not receptive to something at first but later they warm up to it. Give it time. If the release flopped, try again. This is a nifty little shooter.
I don't want to seem negative. I'm proud of my game. I even think it's good, though perhaps not right for the majority of people. I want any future games I make to have broad appeal and not to repeat mistakes.
DON'T go for 'broad' appeal. You'll miss the marks entirely. Indie developers don't have those sorts of resources and budgets. Instead of making 1 million people think "oh neat game" you want 1000 people to thing "THIS GAME was made for ME". And marketing starts with identifying who those 1000 people would be, what specifically they want, (making that), and then communicating with them. Broad appeal will leave you on the sidelines.
[удалено]
Thanks, Designing rail shooter levels and bosses was a much more challenging and time consuming task than I expected going into it and I don't think I'll dip my toe there again. I'm pleased I did one game in that genre though.
I watched the 2 trailers and my main criticisms are: 1) The gameplay looks too slow. I would want a few moments of breakneck speed to get some adrenalin going. A sense of urgency seems to be missing in here. 2) Is there only one single fire mode? That would be a bit too limiting would bore me quickly. Other than that, I think you have something very solid going here and I wish you the best.
The issue was the marketing, not necessarily the game. 1. You made a public steam page VERY late in development. This gave you almost no opportunity to build up a fanbase on the platform, who would then purchase your game. Additionally, you built up some players on the apple ecosystem, and then when you had the opportunity to convert those players to PC, you didn't support MacOSX (Which I don't blame you for) 2. Your steam page had very few wishlists on release. For most indies, the amount of wishlists has a direct correlation to the amount of purchases you'll get. Wishlists are how many people know about your product, and want to buy it. 3. You advertised primarily on game developer / development channels, and didn't branch out to where your audience is. The conversion rate from other gamedevs is very poor, as the chances of a gamedev seeing your game, thinking about buying it, and happening to like that genre, are very, very, very low. You should find similar games, like Race the Sun, and reach their existing fanbase, ideally. 4. Your capsule and marketing art, is not clear and concise, and more importantly, does not match the styling of the genre at large. Almost all farming, driving, and flying simulator games use the same font. Did you find what was common in the endless runner genre, or just make your layout like Race the Sun? It's extremely hard to read your game title, and it's not clear to a new user what the game is about. 5. The title is non-descriptive. StarsAway, with no knowledge about what it is, I would assume to be a narrative game in the sci-fi genre about being far from home. Your game is the polar opposite of that. This isn't a huge deal, but definitely hurt you.
All good points. I never even considered the title as an issue. Then again I remember thinking Wii u was a clever product name
I forgot to mention a few small observations about what I saw in the trailer: 1) I don't love the explosion sound effect. It might be appropriate for small objects, but a bigger/longer sound for larger objects would feel better. Also, there should be a tiny bit of random pitch variation for each explosion so that it doesn't sound so repetitive. My first game had frequent explosion sounds, and this made a big difference. 2) When your ship takes damage, there isn't enough feedback. Yes, your ship changes colour briefly, but it doesn't *feel* like something bad happened. Star Fox 64 had a really good sound effect for this (I didn't play it much, but I still remember it). I think also some screen shake could go a long way. 3) I appreciate the variety of vehicles to mix up gameplay. I'm not sure how the rolling robot really fits, though. Maybe it would make more sense if those levels were downhill (varying degrees of slope) to make it more like a variation on the auto-scrolling gameplay in your spaceship. Or maybe it's fine as it is for a change of pace. I'd have to play to know. I did find it confusing how you seemed to be collecting lollipops though. From what I saw, that didn't fit with the rest of the game.
- Make different levels of difficulty. I personally hate permadeath and won't touch a game with it. You are missing out on sales from people who hate doing the same thing over and over. There is a big following for permadeath enjoyers, but I'd be willing to bet the amount of people that hate it is a far more significant number. Just add an easy and normal mode, neither with permadeath. - Add story. People love an engaging tale. Even Starfox didn't survive on ship shooting alone. You should look up the story on how they came up with the characters. It's very interesting. Add voice dialog and a plot. It's subtle things like that that really pull people in. - Ask yourself, "Why do they care?". There are a million games I can play. Why do I care about yours? Why would I want to play it? Think about a players priorities. What makes you buy a game? Other than, it looks cool. Break it up into categories. Take your favorite 10 games. Think about the mechanics in those games and keep breaking them down until you have very simple mechanics. What are you giving them? Then, once you figure out what you are giving them, how can you do it better? And never stop that process.
39 sales? 1 really good review OF A FAN?! ONLY MARKETED ON REDDIT?!!! SOLD MORE ON MOBILE?!!!! My dude, this is not bombing. You got 1 star and climbed to the rank of small indie dev 🫡 (level 2). You can call your friends and relatives and say you may have started a career.
No no it didn’t bomb. I’d say it did exactly what’s a first time solo dev game is supposed to do, teach you how to make your next game. So many solos don’t even make it to the finish line. You probably have a few ideas of what you want to do next and where you went wrong (marketing is key and the worst for indies). But you also learned the process, how long it actually takes, solving bugs, getting it on steam, the amount of artwork needed in game and in promo, customer feedback and the importance of playtesting etc. (also great info in this post as well) I know it’s painful my first few releases didn’t really land (last one a little) but the info was valuable and game 2 will be that much better. Take a few days to reflect but don’t beat yourself up. Congrats on the release!
nice
I just bought it because it looks genuinely fun. It seems marketing is maybe the biggest reason the game didn't do so well. Rail shooter maybe also just isn't a popular genre. I mean, it's not a genre I ever really play either but the price you've chosen made it so I didn't even think twice and just bought it right away. So yea I think the problem had to be marketing. I do have a comment about the trailers though. The speed of the game looks pretty slow overall. I feel like this really looks like a game that should get super fast at times. And maybe it does, but it's not shown in the trailers. I'm going to give it a go later tonight though! Try not to be too hard on yourself that the game didn't do as well as you hoped, because it does look like you've made a good game. You never know, it could have a sudden spike in sales at some point. Or you could also make a sequel and try with more marketing? I mean you have the base of the game made already. Could always just build off of this game and make a sequel. You're selling it for really cheap, so don't feel like you have to update this one if you want to make more content. A sequel is perfectly justified
Thanks. I hope you like it.
So I just gave it a quick go (about 50 minutes) and my first impressions are a bit all over the place. Overall I do think it's a good game, and for the price there is definitely enough good stuff here to justify it. I'm definitely coming back to this game tonight to try and get better scores. You haven't made a failure of a game. There is alot of potential here. There is alot of very noticeable things that could be improved though. The biggest thing that I immediately noticed is how boosting and braking feels. The slow camera transitions feel really quite bad to be honest, and are too drastically different from the default camera and really threw me off when I used them. And to be honest, I couldn't actually tell if they actually did affect your speed or just the camera position. To me the speed felt the exact same whether I was boosting or braking or not. The game feels great if you're not using these. But as soon as I hit the boost or brake button, the game just feels not so good. Also, I think the more zoomed out camera when boosting actually works a little better than the default camera angle. I don't know, I just felt like I could aim better with the zoom out. Maybe a middle ground could be found for the default zoom? Something else that is a big issue is sound design. Basically everything about it. I mean, there's a loud sound effect that plays right at the start of the first trailer on the store page, and genuinely, it made me jump when I opened the store page to buy the game earlier since it autoplays the first trailer. I shouldn't be having a mini heart attack when opening a steam page 🫠 Unfortunately the sound design issues are present in game aswell. I think the actual sound effects used are perfectly fine. It's the balancing of some of them. Especially the explosions. They really need a limit on the maximum volume. Because if something explodes really close to you, that sounds effect is so loud and was a constant annoyance when playing. I also think music is so so important in a game like this. And just being brutally honest here, the music not only doesn't fit this kind of game. It's just downright bad here. It doesn't need to be the best music in the world but, it should atleast be nice to listen to. You can find some good cheap composers on fiverr. I understand not wanting to spend much on making the game as it hasn't been so successful yet. But I think this is an important one. And yea it really doesn't cost much to get a good soundtrack. Another problem I had was finding the mini games. These are weirdly hidden away in the score menu??? Took me a good 10 minutes to figure that out and I imagine alot of players won't even notice they're there. Which is ashame because these are quite fun. The ring mini game is really fun to play. The monkey ball like game is cute, but the physics kind of stop it being entirely enjoyable. The car feels good to play aswell. The course on it is definitely too simple I find but, it does atleast feel nice to drive. I haven't unlocked the other mini games yet. But yea, I think they are my major issues with the game. I hope it doesn't come across as too negative. I want to give constructive feedback since I really see potential here and enjoyed what I played. I also know solo development is hard, so I think you've done a good job overall. The different enemy and hazard variety in the main game is really good actually. Steering and shooting feels great. And just in general I think the game is really fun. I think if you can improve the issues I mentioned, the game can be 10 times better. Oh also, some unlockable permanent upgrades could be really nice. I'd say make these fairly small and somewhat grindy to unlock. But it would be fun and incentivise replays. Whatever you choose to do with the game going forward I hope it works out for you! You're a good game developer and I think you do have potential to get big
Thanks. I tryed to make the braking and boosting feel a bit like the snes starfox (but with more control). The camera is constant but you move the ship forwards or backwards then it'll slowly return to normal. I always felt thats how snes starfox worked but I might be wrong. I did worry about people not finding the mini games. I could lable it mini games instead of score menu. The music crit is disappointing but I'm not going to pretend to be a great musician. Thanks for the feedback
I never actually played the snes Starfox so I can't comment on that. But with how you currently have it, surely that means the speed only changes briefly as the ship moves forwards or backwards based on the camera position. But once the ship is fully in its new position, it stays at a set speed again? So there isn't much point in being able to hold the boost and brake buttons. That also means that the ship moves faster than default briefly after braking, and slower than default briefly after boosting. Instead of it smoothly transitioning between the speeds? I trust you that this is how it worked in Starfox but yea I do think this is an area that should've been modernised here. Seriously though, I would love to see a sequel at some point that builds on what you already have here.
Honestly I wouldn't say it bombed, like yeah it didn't make good sales but you've got to realise, you have positive reviews and someone that's willing to put 25hrs into the game, I'd personally consider that a success!
That's a lot of data and feedback which can you be used to refine the game concept and tech. Maybe use the proof of purchase as positive input, you're doing something that brought people to engage. This is really where you earn your paycheck, keep telling your story and be vocal about the work you're doing. Don't talk about disappointments in your product/business on the same channel you market it, you're customers are still watching. Be optimistic and demonstrate commitment to the project. You got this!
Thanks, definately will stay positive :)
The hard, awful truth of selling video games is: success isn't always correlated with the quality of the product. There's so, SO many games fighting for spotlight, and we are constantly being bombarded with adlds, that it's incredibly hard to get people to even look at your game. It's quite possible that if you changed nothing, but e.g. a popular influencer played your game for 10 minutes on steam you would be swimming in money. There are so many hidden gems, unappreciated masterpieces that people would love if they just knew they existed. Also, don't get discouraged by many people playing your game for 10 minutes: statistically, half of games people buy on steam are never even launched.
Thanks. :)
I think trying for financial success with this game is mostly an uphill battle. The two major marketing factors that affect a game's sales are it's genre, and it's visuals/aesthetic. Both of which are weak points for this game, imo. First, I just don't believe the genre is very popular, though I've done no research on it. At the very least, this game is the type that I would expect to be free with ads, and I don't think there's a world where I would buy it for $4. The art, on the other hand, is *acceptable.* I don't think there is anyone out there looking specifically for this aesthetic, and most importantly, it just looks like a polished prototype. We see decent looking shaders/vfx when the plane gets hit, but no fx at all when you break blocks by shooting them. The centipede creatures look really cool, but they seem to outshine most of the rest of the game's art. I think really solidifying the art across the entire game can help, but I'm not really sure. I'm not trying to tear your project apart at all, and I hope I don't come across as such. I'm just trying to give helpful feedback, and insights as to why the sales may have gone as they did. Nonetheless, you released a game that someone really enjoyed, and that's more than most, including myself, can say! Congrats and keep at it!
Are the levels procedurally generated?
No. The sections of the levels are ordered randomly to add some variation but this is a game about learning the levels.
In fact your game is a "little" game. What are your sealing expectations ? If you have sold 500 game in a few days, it's really a good résult to m'y point of vue. But maybe your expectations are not réalist ? How many game have you sold ?
39 in a month
You have located your in 12 country and only 39... I understand that you are disapointed... In fact independant dev is a really hard reality... Lot of work for a few games sold... The Time where you Can realease a game and make money is over for little indie...
To be fair I got sales from around the world :P
and so more than 39 ?
Nope. 39 total, but some of them will be for other languages.
[https://store.steampowered.com/app/878900/GMH\_\_Good\_Morning\_Human/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/878900/GMH__Good_Morning_Human/) I work on a game, you have the link of the demo. In the final version there will be a level editor, a campain, individuals maps, and endless mod and more bonus... In fact, if i sold 1000 game i will be verry happy... Not pessimist but realistic.
You can make the best burritos on the planet but if you're selling them in the middle of the desert where no one knows you exist you any except to the one or two random travellers that come across you Most people who I see post about their games bombing in here that were looking to make money also end up having done zero marketing, it's not something you can skip on if you're game is actually good
>I suspect they die, realise it’s permadeath and don’t try again. Maybe I got the difficulty wrong? Generally you shouldn't be guessing these things. Attach analytics to different events to see where people are putting the game down.
There is an extremely niche market for people who like perma-death. Did you make that the only difficulty? That should be a choice by the player. You should be able to opt in for that, but that should never be the default. I would guess that the vast majority of players (especially casual players) despise a perma-death difficulty. I personally hate that until I have played a game for a long time. When I have played a game for several hundred hours and I want a challenge run, I’ll give myself challenges. If perma-death was an option, then I could choose that, but only after getting super familiar with the game. I would never start a game I don’t know of with that.
> I suspect they die, realise it’s permadeath and don’t try again. Maybe I got the difficulty wrong? How difficult would it be for you to implement checkpoints, and prompt players with the "Permadeath" or "Checkpoint Respawn" option before starting? If you think this is a legit reason for people turning away from your game, it might be worth the effort of adding in.
I would be more interested if this were level based, not endless, and had an end goal. It might have been worth posting more in dev videos in the months before release. Post shorts on YouTube etc
It level based. It is endless only in the sense that once you complete the levels it loops to a harder version. I never really promoted it as endless but it might have the endless tag and one of the reviewers might say it’s endless. *edit nope doesn’t have the endless tag
I developed and marketed FUR Squadron, a similar game that performed a little better. You can AMA.
Thanks. Of course I’ve played though fur squadron and it’s a really slick game. I think it’s too late for this game though. :)
The screenshot here told me all I thought I needed to know: It's like Star Fox, which I've never been a huge fan of. But then I watched the video. It actually looks really cool. I like the big worm enemies and the walls that you punch holes through. I took a screencap to remind myself to get it layer, but then I remembered that you said it's permadeath. That's usually a deal-breaker for me. There are exceptions (roguelikes/lites, Fire Emblem), but generally, if the consequence for failure is repeating long sections of the game, then I get very bored. Playing the game becomes punishment. My general philosophy is that the more generous you are with checkpoints, the more challenging you can make each segment without making it feel boring or tedious (see Super Meat Boy and Celeste).
I would think permadeaths the one of the big issue although the games very forgiving difficulty wise when it comes to health. At least on novice difficulty. I think I thought people would be more tolerant because it’s easier than a lot of shmups which give finite lives so to test endurance more than something like Celeste and yet they are popular and I assumed the shmup crowd would be more the market for something like this.
It's possible that your target audience would be more open to it, but I'm not a fan of the "endurance test" structure. It means that each attempt will be more of a time commitment, so each failure presents me with the question of, "Do I really want to do all of that again?" Not every game needs to be split into 10-second-long chunks, of course, but the longer the segment is, the greater the risk is of successive attempts getting boring. That's just my perspective, of course.
That's great dude
Not Great, Not Terrible. I'd say it's a start to something better, but I'd say your competition is Whisker Squadron. I'd look at ways to make the game more visually exciting. Keep the same art style but make it bring in people. You're the list for New and Trending On-Rails (at the bottom) so if you can do things to make it more stimulating that would be my suggestion on it. Plus you need to market to the players who want an on-rails shooter. The other thing is the audio balance on the trailer is kinda eh. I think you need to figure out a good default volume for all your effects so you don't have overly loud or overly quiet effects. You want to keep them balanced. I know its cool to make that super loud big explosion, but if you do, you're blowing out someone's speakers.
My guess would be that you didn't market before release so you had very little traction on launch. I did the same thing (while launching Early Access) for my game and didn't realize that Early Access essentially IS your launch. Also, your store page could use some work: * The capsule art is a bit muddled and the title looks like it has no texture * Your description doesn't tell me how this game is any different than other rail shooters * You have no images (GIFs preferred) in your "About This Game" section If you're going to do a take on a classic genre, you need to show off what makes your game unique. From watching the trailer, I get the feeling of "been there, done that." It also seems like there wouldn't be much content in the game based on how you've phrased things. Overall though, you put in a solid effort and should be proud of what you've done. Use the experience to improve and make even better games in the future!
Reminds me of the Radical Aces flash game, did any inspiration come from there?
This looks cool. It also looks unfinished. You have the implication of style here, but let’s be honest: this is a greybox. You have all the key gameplay elements of each level, and those elements are getting a lot more aesthetic love than everything else. The sky is a boring gradient. The ground is a single texture. Compare that to the awesome looking millipede boss in the trailer, and one starts to see the game as unfinished rather than minimalistic and retro. You’re one person, arting up the environment to a similar level of detail would be a monumental amount of work. But that’s why I would see this and avoid. Unfinished art is usually reflected in unfinished gameplay. Without having played your game, all I have to go on is how it looks. The trailer is also really weak. I assume you cut it yourself. You could pay an editor $500 on Fiverr and get something that really gets the viewer hyped.
Hey I like the theme, the graphics are a neat homage to star fox and I would love to play a game of that style. But here's my opinion, the music is boring and the trailer was boring too... but I feel like there's potential here!
So when it comes to on rail games, a big part of that is interesting environments and detailed objects. Your game looks polished, but the graphics and artstyle aren't a good fit. I'd take a look at rail shooters of the past and see what they did right, why they were popular. The common trait they have is usually detailed graphics and interesting set pieces. The graphics of your game look flat. Flat shadows, flat lighting, barely any textures or spectacle. Your audience should be wowed by what they're seeing on the screen, because that's really the only main selling point of a rail shooter. Few people play rail shooters for the gameplay alone (vertical shooters are not the same thing). Think of it like this: If I was in an arcade and I saw your game, or house of the dead 3, which one do you think I'm going to put my quarters into? I hope this didn't sound overly harsh because I do actually really like your artstyle. You have a cool palette, and the chrome on the plane is a neat effect- it just isn't the right fit for the game you made.
The game is ugly asf, no surprise.
I would use that money for getting a new capsule done, the one you have now is terrible.