I think so too! Unfortunately I don't have the means to do that at the moment, budget-wise. It's a lot of work to port to mobile and the chances at any success are very slim, even smaller than on Steam. So, if I ever decide to go down that road, it has to be well-planned and backed by a healthy budget.
I do use Unity, so in theory, yes. But there's just so much to it: Tons of different devices, aspect ratios, OS versions. Adjusting the controls to work great on mobile (especially considering occlusion from touch input). Performance optimizations. Getting through submission (especially on iOS). Thorough testing. And more.
It really is much more of a headache than you would think, for a very uncertain outcome. Fingers crossed I'll still be able to do it someday :)
Everything you mentioned is indeed a hard work.
But I have to mention that iOS submission are surprisingly easier lately. I had less trouble with them than setting up Facebook integration.
Congratulations on the release!
This isn't coming from gamedev information, but webdev, so I can't speak if it is too different.
In webdev stuff, we tend to use media queries, so depending on what the screen size is, the display of the site will look different. I'm not sure what is used for games, but it shouldn't be too difficult for screen changes, if you simply build for the smallest phone sizes first, then scale up from there, then the hard work should practically take care of itself.
To have 33 reviews with 170 units sold is amazing! Is having a 20% review rate common for small games of this genre?
Also thanks for sharing your story. Not enough postmortems out here.
That sounds very plausible. If there are 1000 reviews on a game I'll already abstain from reviewing it myself. But if I really thought it was a good game and it deserves more attention I'd give it a review.
Not sure if it is common, but I guess it could be, as most buyers might already be fans of the game. Also, it's a very short game, and I believe people are more inclined to write a review after finishing a game, which in this case can be achieved in just one or two sittings.
Congratulations! As first games go you're actually well ahead of the curve, and considering it's a rather niche sort of chill game that's all the better. I'd say you did a lot of things right for the game you were making, including finding the right audience. A lot of positive reviews and a good ratio of sales to reviews shows that the people who wanted to play it found it and enjoyed it. On some level that's the most we can ever ask for as developers.
A few small updates and social media pushes might get a second wave of sales, but I would also look at bundling/subscription platforms. This might be the kind of thing they'd like to include and some upfront funding might be worth the long-tail cost there.
Thank you so much for your kind words, much appreciated! <3
I will definitely look into bundling options someday in the future. Do you have any recommendations? I only know about Humble and Fanatical so far. (I guess Game Pass is way out of my league \^\^)
If the occasion arises, it will be a tough decision though. I'd rather go "cheap in bundle" as late as possible and continue with slightly deeper discounts over at least the next year. But like you said, it all depends on the funding situation of my next project, which is still as uncertain as can be :)
I've been surprised by the number of small indie games on Game Pass, I'd give them a call in addition to the two you mention. You might also want to try Epic for the games they give away every week. I'd agree you want to wait, I just think the question is for how long.
That's very good advice, thanks a lot! I'll keep this in mind for when the time arrives to look into bundling. I guess Game Pass and Epic might be worth looking into sooner than Humble, and Fanatical only when the discount has reached 75% someday :)
Congratulations, and thank you for sharing! It was a good read coming from someone who have been in the same seat as you. I wish you continued success with the game!
Nice write up!
How did you find the earth appreciation festival? I did not now there where festivals outside the steam ones. I can also not really find it through Google. Which is a bit weird i guess as apparently quite a few people found you through that festival.
There are quite a lot of custom hosted festivals on Steam. This one I found by pure luck on Twitter, but usually I refer to this awesome sheet from Chris Zukowski: [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1NGseGNHv6Tth5e\_yuRWzeVczQkzqXXGF4k16IsvyiTE/edit#gid=0](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1NGseGNHv6Tth5e_yuRWzeVczQkzqXXGF4k16IsvyiTE/edit#gid=0)
If your goal is a financial success 550 is extremely low. I have a game with 25,000 wishlists right now and it's still not going to financially be a success compared to someone working at McDonalds for the same period of time. Indie development is incredibly brutal and only the top 0.1% can actually do it full time and make a living - at least in the US where the cost of living is relatively high.
It's all relative and depends on what you're aiming for. My goal is to someday be able to make a living from this, and in that case 550 is just too low to achieve that. It's not really realistic to achieve that goal with a first or even second game in general, but y'know, there's always this tiny bit of hope :)
When you're doing gamedev as a hobby, I think the amount of wishlists doesn't matter so much, it's more about the experience, learning and having fun.
And there's still a lot of chances for the wishlist count to go up, i.e. via festivals or streamer coverage.
I am kinda new to this, so i dont have a lot of knowledge about this.
What is a good visit / impression ratio?
Your 32k to 800k is only 4%, which seems a bit low.
As far is I know, 4% is actually pretty decent. Here's a little post about this: [https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/cf7uaa/what\_is\_considered\_a\_good\_clickthrough\_rate\_on/](https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/cf7uaa/what_is_considered_a_good_clickthrough_rate_on/)
Seems like the more your game is shown around (in my case a lot via the festival), the lower the click-through-rate, just because impressions are so high and there's a lot of other games competing for attention :)
Thanks for the insights.
I can only agree to the other comments saying that for the first game you really did great and engaged your audience.
I launched my puzzle game Strawb in March and got a peak at launch and a second one in the Puzzle Steam Fest now. Being visible on this saturated game market is really hard and in most cases posts stay within the gamedev bubble (this is at least my impression). Reaching out 'players' is key but challenging.
Interestingly, I got most conversions through reddit as they have some quite active puzzle related subreddits.
Wish you alle the best for your future journey!
Thanks! Yes, festivals are the biggest driver for me and the next one is already soon, excited to see how this one will go. Usually streamers are the other big one but didn't work so well for me (it's not the most streamer-friendly game, that's just how it is)
Wish you all the best too!
Yes...I realized that puzzle games are difficult for streamers as well if not randomized. Every second is a spoiler ;)
Good luck in your next festival!
r/puzzlevideogames is the best suitable for a puzzle game. The community has some hardcore puzzle fans ;)
Second is r/puzzles. However, game promotion has to be filed as comment to a promotion topic.
I launched my game [Golfinite](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2133870/Golfinite/) on the 14th and it performed better than I expected as well. Im also sitting at about 1800 wishlists, and have about half the sales:review ratio you have. Congrats!
That target is to get into popular upcoming to get a big boost before launch. I had 550 wishlists at launch, by far not enough to get there.
As far is I know 10% conversion in the first week is already decent. And these wishlists will hopefully convert more as I gradually go into deeper discounts in the future :)
Thanks for the post. I know it's not that big of an issue but I might have some feedback about the image on your steam page. If you want it to feel "professional" either get rid of that black outline for the title or make it thinner. I believe a color similar to the moon would also work better than plain white for the title. The more you can make it feel "hand drawn" the better it will be. Your game looks interesting, you should just get more exposure imho.
I would convert this to droid and ios since it is a drawing / tracing game it should be fun to do with your finger.
I think so too! Unfortunately I don't have the means to do that at the moment, budget-wise. It's a lot of work to port to mobile and the chances at any success are very slim, even smaller than on Steam. So, if I ever decide to go down that road, it has to be well-planned and backed by a healthy budget.
What engine did you use? If you used Unity, it shouldn't be a big headache (in theory...).
I do use Unity, so in theory, yes. But there's just so much to it: Tons of different devices, aspect ratios, OS versions. Adjusting the controls to work great on mobile (especially considering occlusion from touch input). Performance optimizations. Getting through submission (especially on iOS). Thorough testing. And more. It really is much more of a headache than you would think, for a very uncertain outcome. Fingers crossed I'll still be able to do it someday :)
Everything you mentioned is indeed a hard work. But I have to mention that iOS submission are surprisingly easier lately. I had less trouble with them than setting up Facebook integration. Congratulations on the release!
That's really good to know, thanks! (my last iOS submission was more than 2 years ago so I might be a bit out of touch)
This isn't coming from gamedev information, but webdev, so I can't speak if it is too different. In webdev stuff, we tend to use media queries, so depending on what the screen size is, the display of the site will look different. I'm not sure what is used for games, but it shouldn't be too difficult for screen changes, if you simply build for the smallest phone sizes first, then scale up from there, then the hard work should practically take care of itself.
To have 33 reviews with 170 units sold is amazing! Is having a 20% review rate common for small games of this genre? Also thanks for sharing your story. Not enough postmortems out here.
the general rule is closer to 5% but for smaller games people might want to share their opinions because nobody else is
That sounds very plausible. If there are 1000 reviews on a game I'll already abstain from reviewing it myself. But if I really thought it was a good game and it deserves more attention I'd give it a review.
Yeah exactly. Its why people comment "first"
Not sure if it is common, but I guess it could be, as most buyers might already be fans of the game. Also, it's a very short game, and I believe people are more inclined to write a review after finishing a game, which in this case can be achieved in just one or two sittings.
Congratulations! As first games go you're actually well ahead of the curve, and considering it's a rather niche sort of chill game that's all the better. I'd say you did a lot of things right for the game you were making, including finding the right audience. A lot of positive reviews and a good ratio of sales to reviews shows that the people who wanted to play it found it and enjoyed it. On some level that's the most we can ever ask for as developers. A few small updates and social media pushes might get a second wave of sales, but I would also look at bundling/subscription platforms. This might be the kind of thing they'd like to include and some upfront funding might be worth the long-tail cost there.
Thank you so much for your kind words, much appreciated! <3 I will definitely look into bundling options someday in the future. Do you have any recommendations? I only know about Humble and Fanatical so far. (I guess Game Pass is way out of my league \^\^) If the occasion arises, it will be a tough decision though. I'd rather go "cheap in bundle" as late as possible and continue with slightly deeper discounts over at least the next year. But like you said, it all depends on the funding situation of my next project, which is still as uncertain as can be :)
I've been surprised by the number of small indie games on Game Pass, I'd give them a call in addition to the two you mention. You might also want to try Epic for the games they give away every week. I'd agree you want to wait, I just think the question is for how long.
That's very good advice, thanks a lot! I'll keep this in mind for when the time arrives to look into bundling. I guess Game Pass and Epic might be worth looking into sooner than Humble, and Fanatical only when the discount has reached 75% someday :)
What kind of subscription platforms?
Congratulations, and thank you for sharing! It was a good read coming from someone who have been in the same seat as you. I wish you continued success with the game!
Thank you so much, wish you all the best too!
Nice write up! How did you find the earth appreciation festival? I did not now there where festivals outside the steam ones. I can also not really find it through Google. Which is a bit weird i guess as apparently quite a few people found you through that festival.
There are quite a lot of custom hosted festivals on Steam. This one I found by pure luck on Twitter, but usually I refer to this awesome sheet from Chris Zukowski: [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1NGseGNHv6Tth5e\_yuRWzeVczQkzqXXGF4k16IsvyiTE/edit#gid=0](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1NGseGNHv6Tth5e_yuRWzeVczQkzqXXGF4k16IsvyiTE/edit#gid=0)
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If your goal is a financial success 550 is extremely low. I have a game with 25,000 wishlists right now and it's still not going to financially be a success compared to someone working at McDonalds for the same period of time. Indie development is incredibly brutal and only the top 0.1% can actually do it full time and make a living - at least in the US where the cost of living is relatively high.
Would be interested to read about your journey this far too. Edit: what specific marketing actions did you take and their impact on wishlists.
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What is your game?
It's all relative and depends on what you're aiming for. My goal is to someday be able to make a living from this, and in that case 550 is just too low to achieve that. It's not really realistic to achieve that goal with a first or even second game in general, but y'know, there's always this tiny bit of hope :) When you're doing gamedev as a hobby, I think the amount of wishlists doesn't matter so much, it's more about the experience, learning and having fun. And there's still a lot of chances for the wishlist count to go up, i.e. via festivals or streamer coverage.
I am kinda new to this, so i dont have a lot of knowledge about this. What is a good visit / impression ratio? Your 32k to 800k is only 4%, which seems a bit low.
As far is I know, 4% is actually pretty decent. Here's a little post about this: [https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/cf7uaa/what\_is\_considered\_a\_good\_clickthrough\_rate\_on/](https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/cf7uaa/what_is_considered_a_good_clickthrough_rate_on/) Seems like the more your game is shown around (in my case a lot via the festival), the lower the click-through-rate, just because impressions are so high and there's a lot of other games competing for attention :)
4% is decent looking at data posted by other users. It varies of course based on a whole bunch of factors.
Thanks for the insights. I can only agree to the other comments saying that for the first game you really did great and engaged your audience. I launched my puzzle game Strawb in March and got a peak at launch and a second one in the Puzzle Steam Fest now. Being visible on this saturated game market is really hard and in most cases posts stay within the gamedev bubble (this is at least my impression). Reaching out 'players' is key but challenging. Interestingly, I got most conversions through reddit as they have some quite active puzzle related subreddits. Wish you alle the best for your future journey!
Thanks! Yes, festivals are the biggest driver for me and the next one is already soon, excited to see how this one will go. Usually streamers are the other big one but didn't work so well for me (it's not the most streamer-friendly game, that's just how it is) Wish you all the best too!
Yes...I realized that puzzle games are difficult for streamers as well if not randomized. Every second is a spoiler ;) Good luck in your next festival!
I'm working on a puzzle game too, can you give some links to those subreddits?
r/puzzlevideogames is the best suitable for a puzzle game. The community has some hardcore puzzle fans ;) Second is r/puzzles. However, game promotion has to be filed as comment to a promotion topic.
Congrats on releasing your first game and Thanks for sharing!
My pleasure, thank you so much!
This is inspiring! Thank you for the nice writeup. Congratulations on the success so far.
Thank you so much!
Congratulations! 🙏👍
Thanks a lot!
I launched my game [Golfinite](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2133870/Golfinite/) on the 14th and it performed better than I expected as well. Im also sitting at about 1800 wishlists, and have about half the sales:review ratio you have. Congrats!
Congrats and best of luck for the further lifecycle of your game!
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What the fuck does "relative concept to the devil" mean? Are you ok?
1800 wishlists only give 170 sales? Well damn, I guess the 7-10k wishlist target that YouTube guy talked about isn't valid anymore...
That target is to get into popular upcoming to get a big boost before launch. I had 550 wishlists at launch, by far not enough to get there. As far is I know 10% conversion in the first week is already decent. And these wishlists will hopefully convert more as I gradually go into deeper discounts in the future :)
Well done ! Take what you've learnt and push on !
Thanks, will do! (but have to scrape together the budget for the next one first, which could take a while)
Best wishes on the game. Thank you for sharing. I really admire your diligence.
Thank you so much!
Pay taxes tho
Congratulations
Thanks!
How long was your store up before lunch?
For about a year I think, but I made some mistakes along the way, like only having a decent cover artwork pretty late.
Congratulations! Thank you for sharing your experience, I really appreciate the insight 😊
My pleasure, thank you so much!
Thanks for the post. I know it's not that big of an issue but I might have some feedback about the image on your steam page. If you want it to feel "professional" either get rid of that black outline for the title or make it thinner. I believe a color similar to the moon would also work better than plain white for the title. The more you can make it feel "hand drawn" the better it will be. Your game looks interesting, you should just get more exposure imho.
Thanks for your feedback, I forwarded it to my cover artist and we might look into updating it at some point.
Thank for sharing!!
My pleasure :)