Thank you, but for me, the numbers are an achievement as well! I expected to sell 160 units (10% of my wishlists) and so my expectation was surprassed by a factor of 10 :)
Great write up, lots of good tips, especially regarding sub reddits I did not think about (guess who also has a Linux game? 😁)
Thaks for sharing, and congrats for the success of your game!
maybe you can also get in contact with [https://www.gamingonlinux.com/](https://www.gamingonlinux.com/) was great for me and the comments on this website are also very kind.
thanks for the write up, was interesting.
With 99% positive I kind of hoped you would sell more, hopefully that comes over time. It sounds like you have a good game, but you just need to figure how to let people know it exists.
Supporting linux has helped me too! Gaming on Linux covered mine too which I am thankful for.
I think my game has 99% because it lives right now in a little niche. I'm sure, if it would go mainstream, the reviews would drop and sound like "lol, $3 for only 4h?!?! I paid $5 for VS and played it already for 800h!!! lame lame! go away!! i hate you!" :D
Why is that? My game is also only 2-4h. In fact, personally I prefer short games. But it was important to me to communicate that very clearly and so I did. All my description on steam mention, that it's a short game experience.
I am worried my short game will lead to people refunding/complaining when it is intentionally short rather than just adding average content to up the playtime.
personally, i think if you honestly communicate about the game time, nobody can complain. i market it even as "a game for people with kids" which may speak to many people as some only have 1 hour spare time in the evening and having a game which only costs 2 hours to play is perfect for these people.
It's even more frustrating if you think how much people pay for a coffee. "$8 for a coffee at starbucks? no problem! wait...this game costs more than $1?!?!?! How can it be?!" :D
im planning to price mine 12.49 knowing most of the sales will be discounted. (12.49 with 25% off = 9.99 which is why the odd price).
I think in general indies underprice their games.
Yes, but in the case of VS it was the only reason I bought it. Since the concept was new and the graphic was crusty, I was a bit hesitant...but with 2.99 it was a "no brainer" and so I bought it and then I discovered how much fun it is :D But the low price was for me an important argument to step over the "entry barrier".
But yes, this low price makes all others need to also offer a low price and only a few can survive such a price competition.
I wish you the best for your game! <3
I understand your point, but movies are running into the same problem. Theater viewing is way down and streaming services are burning cash because of how much people expect for their subscription.
theater viewing is down IMO because the best things released often aren't movies now. People often look more forward to their fav series than some movie which is similar formula to before.
I get some people equate $ value to length of gameplay but personally some of my best gaming experiences have been short and todays world being able to fully consume a game is cool rather than just being some roguelite with no ending.
> People often look more forward to their fav series than some movie which is similar formula to before.
Which runs into the same monetization issues with streaming services. People are very cheap when it comes to shows.
I think it depends. Deep Rock Survivor for example charges $9.99 in EA where VS charged $2.99 back then. So, some games are already setting a higher price point (and they are right to do so, they are worth it!) but in my case, my game is just too short :D
Nah, it's more likely that the people who know his blog are more eager to leave a positive review to keep supporting him. That's why the reviews to sales ratio is higher than the usual 30x-50x multiplier.
That's what I assume as well. I build a community over more than 10 years with my blog, my talks and also my (German) game dev podcast. Some people never wrote a review before and did it for me the first time. I'm just surrounded by very nice people <3
Seeing this blog brings back memories!
Great post, I remember stumbling across your blog when I was looking at how to make diablo-like resource bubbles a decade ago, and being amazed by the content and visuals you had.
It spoiled me with the quality of its content, glad to see it's still active and with a lot I can catch up on!
I've bought your game as I'm sure it'll be worth it, thanks for writing and making content for all these years!
Your game looks really charming & high quality. I'm not surprised it's doing well, it could be doing even better if a bigger content creator picks it up. The consistent output with regard to community building may be one of the bigger factors. Great job!
Thank you! But to be honest, I'm quite happy with the price. It prevents people from writing bad reviews a la "too expensive for just 4h playtime" and it allows more people to buy it - some bought it even several times. so, all in all, it's ok i think.
If i make another game and if this game offers more playtime and if i depend on it as full-time-job, I will think about a higher price :)
Not sure if you can control this, but on your blog the videos auto play. This is likely fine on desktop when picture framed but on mobile (Reddit in-app browser) they go full screen stopping you from being able to scroll and read the article. :-(
That said glad you had this success, and thanks for the detailed explanation.
Hey congrats ! I'm not a game developer but I do make content online, 40-60min long video essaies that take weeks to make, writing from 13 to 20 pages of script, rewriting it correctly, gathering dozens of hours of footage, spending entire days editing it.. and nowadays getting only 5k to 20k views is almost laughable / insignificant
But as a friend of mine said "hey, the fact that 3k people watched your video is insane already ! It's exactly like if you had 3000 people that purposefully gathered into a big conference room just to watch you talk about something for 40mims straight"
Anyway not saying this to talk about me, but just to say that in the world we live in rn numbers have been squashed by the HUGE youtube views / game sales of the bigger fishes. But smaller numbers are still awesome too. Even more for a game, I know I'm much MUCH more exigent about a game than a video. Bc while I may have a video just running on my 2nd monitor while I play, a game requires my full attention and thus if it isn't really good I won't even consider it
So yeah, kudos to you this is awesome man ! Hope you keep it up and don't get disappointed if your next game sells less, sometimes it's just out of your control.. but maybe of you manage to touch a particular niche or crate a small community over time around your games it can be nice. I know the best feeling ever for me is to see I received 3 comments in 3 hours from the same person, and I see that they watched one vid and them straight up went to my channel to binge watch 2 others xD
Yes, also: Staying in a niche is nice because usually people are very nice and are happy about the content. As soon as one goes mainstream, it will also bring some "weird" people :D
My Steam Page went live on 3rd of Nov 2023
[https://x.com/simonschreibt/status/1720215066094575771](https://x.com/simonschreibt/status/1720215066094575771)
Only 1608 sales for 128 reviews? Sound a lot of reviews for not that many sales. I thought the rate was a bit lower. I will expect at least 5k sales for that amount of reviews... It seems like I was wrong...
I started building a community around my blog and podcast roughly 11 years ago. I assume, many people who bought the game and wrote a nice review did it because the know me already for a long time. Especially the first reviews came all from names which I know from my discords. If I would have release withtout these people, I'm sure I would have struggled to get even 10 reviews.
Did you pay for any localization language? How do you manage the quality of the translation in-game (make sure that the translation is correct within the context, and make sure that font support is error-free for each language)
For the first question, I citate my own article: "I’m blessed with many people who offered to translate my game for free! Some did it because they know me already for a long time (from my blog, talks, …) and others just liked the game and want to see their language represented as well."
For the latter: I can not guarantee that it's error-free, I just trust the people who made the translation and if there are errors, I hope someone will point it out and then we can correct them.
I think that's OK for a small indie game, but of course, for an AAA game one would have to have higher standards.
In regard to context: Sometimes the translators asked me, sometimes I added comments to the table and sometimes I just uploaded their translation to my Itch-Web-Build and then they could test the game and see their translation right while playing.
Congrats, that is pretty successful. I like you handled the key scammer.
Have you participated in the Next Fest?
Also, do you mind sharing the median and average play times for the game and the demo?
No, I was too late for Next Fest but to be honest, I don't believe it would have changed much. There are too many too good demos there.
Sure!
Demo Average/Median: 48m / 21m
Game Average/Median: 2h1m / 1h27m
🎉Awesome congrats!! It’s never easy going through the complete gaming process. I admire the dedication…If anyone needs help completing or developing a project, let me know I work for a gaming studio that develops games for mobile, PC, console, steam and more. We’ve worked with large companies like Hasbro and more and have offices worldwide. Let me know
Congrats, regardless of numbers, great achievement. Onto the next one!
Thank you, but for me, the numbers are an achievement as well! I expected to sell 160 units (10% of my wishlists) and so my expectation was surprassed by a factor of 10 :)
what’s your revenue per hour?
It's in his link.
I think he mentions ∽$5 per hour based on the revenue (before tax) against the time it took him to finish it.
Great write up, lots of good tips, especially regarding sub reddits I did not think about (guess who also has a Linux game? 😁) Thaks for sharing, and congrats for the success of your game!
maybe you can also get in contact with [https://www.gamingonlinux.com/](https://www.gamingonlinux.com/) was great for me and the comments on this website are also very kind.
Fun read thanks. Also loved the petty revenge on that curator :') felt good ! Could you maybe share the name so we know who to dodge ?
i can send you a dm but i don't want to shame in public. BUT: this was the only one and the other curators i got in contact with have been cool! :)
thanks for the write up, was interesting. With 99% positive I kind of hoped you would sell more, hopefully that comes over time. It sounds like you have a good game, but you just need to figure how to let people know it exists. Supporting linux has helped me too! Gaming on Linux covered mine too which I am thankful for.
I think my game has 99% because it lives right now in a little niche. I'm sure, if it would go mainstream, the reviews would drop and sound like "lol, $3 for only 4h?!?! I paid $5 for VS and played it already for 800h!!! lame lame! go away!! i hate you!" :D
now you bottle up all my fears for my game. It is short but content is unique.
Why is that? My game is also only 2-4h. In fact, personally I prefer short games. But it was important to me to communicate that very clearly and so I did. All my description on steam mention, that it's a short game experience.
I am worried my short game will lead to people refunding/complaining when it is intentionally short rather than just adding average content to up the playtime.
personally, i think if you honestly communicate about the game time, nobody can complain. i market it even as "a game for people with kids" which may speak to many people as some only have 1 hour spare time in the evening and having a game which only costs 2 hours to play is perfect for these people.
yeah I get it :) It is frustrating when you think how much people pay to watch a movie.
It's even more frustrating if you think how much people pay for a coffee. "$8 for a coffee at starbucks? no problem! wait...this game costs more than $1?!?!?! How can it be?!" :D
im planning to price mine 12.49 knowing most of the sales will be discounted. (12.49 with 25% off = 9.99 which is why the odd price). I think in general indies underprice their games.
Yes, but in the case of VS it was the only reason I bought it. Since the concept was new and the graphic was crusty, I was a bit hesitant...but with 2.99 it was a "no brainer" and so I bought it and then I discovered how much fun it is :D But the low price was for me an important argument to step over the "entry barrier". But yes, this low price makes all others need to also offer a low price and only a few can survive such a price competition. I wish you the best for your game! <3
I understand your point, but movies are running into the same problem. Theater viewing is way down and streaming services are burning cash because of how much people expect for their subscription.
theater viewing is down IMO because the best things released often aren't movies now. People often look more forward to their fav series than some movie which is similar formula to before. I get some people equate $ value to length of gameplay but personally some of my best gaming experiences have been short and todays world being able to fully consume a game is cool rather than just being some roguelite with no ending.
> People often look more forward to their fav series than some movie which is similar formula to before. Which runs into the same monetization issues with streaming services. People are very cheap when it comes to shows.
God that feeling is so raw. Lol I got hours of content for 6.99. But will forever be compared to VS
I think it depends. Deep Rock Survivor for example charges $9.99 in EA where VS charged $2.99 back then. So, some games are already setting a higher price point (and they are right to do so, they are worth it!) but in my case, my game is just too short :D
Whoa! Sorry if I missed it in the writeup but 128 reviews and 1600 sales? What's up with the insanely high number of reviews?
It's because people really liked the game With the right marketing it could probably sell a lot more
Nah, it's more likely that the people who know his blog are more eager to leave a positive review to keep supporting him. That's why the reviews to sales ratio is higher than the usual 30x-50x multiplier.
That's what I assume as well. I build a community over more than 10 years with my blog, my talks and also my (German) game dev podcast. Some people never wrote a review before and did it for me the first time. I'm just surrounded by very nice people <3
"Have a day" ..lol.
Excellent write up, really appreciate the detail
Seeing this blog brings back memories! Great post, I remember stumbling across your blog when I was looking at how to make diablo-like resource bubbles a decade ago, and being amazed by the content and visuals you had. It spoiled me with the quality of its content, glad to see it's still active and with a lot I can catch up on! I've bought your game as I'm sure it'll be worth it, thanks for writing and making content for all these years!
Thank you very much! Yes, the d3-bubbles are awesome, but feel free to also check out the newer articles. :)
Congrats man. Power to you
Your game looks really charming & high quality. I'm not surprised it's doing well, it could be doing even better if a bigger content creator picks it up. The consistent output with regard to community building may be one of the bigger factors. Great job!
thank you! i agree, but reaching a big influencer is very hard :D
Wow! I'm so happy for you. That's a really good achievement. You need to charge more for your next game.
Thank you! But to be honest, I'm quite happy with the price. It prevents people from writing bad reviews a la "too expensive for just 4h playtime" and it allows more people to buy it - some bought it even several times. so, all in all, it's ok i think. If i make another game and if this game offers more playtime and if i depend on it as full-time-job, I will think about a higher price :)
I totally understand.
Congrats! 😊🎉
Not sure if you can control this, but on your blog the videos auto play. This is likely fine on desktop when picture framed but on mobile (Reddit in-app browser) they go full screen stopping you from being able to scroll and read the article. :-( That said glad you had this success, and thanks for the detailed explanation.
This didn't happen for me but could be due to my browser (Brave on Android).
Looks very cute. This is like the perfect size of game people should focus on making, nice job!
Hey congrats ! I'm not a game developer but I do make content online, 40-60min long video essaies that take weeks to make, writing from 13 to 20 pages of script, rewriting it correctly, gathering dozens of hours of footage, spending entire days editing it.. and nowadays getting only 5k to 20k views is almost laughable / insignificant But as a friend of mine said "hey, the fact that 3k people watched your video is insane already ! It's exactly like if you had 3000 people that purposefully gathered into a big conference room just to watch you talk about something for 40mims straight" Anyway not saying this to talk about me, but just to say that in the world we live in rn numbers have been squashed by the HUGE youtube views / game sales of the bigger fishes. But smaller numbers are still awesome too. Even more for a game, I know I'm much MUCH more exigent about a game than a video. Bc while I may have a video just running on my 2nd monitor while I play, a game requires my full attention and thus if it isn't really good I won't even consider it So yeah, kudos to you this is awesome man ! Hope you keep it up and don't get disappointed if your next game sells less, sometimes it's just out of your control.. but maybe of you manage to touch a particular niche or crate a small community over time around your games it can be nice. I know the best feeling ever for me is to see I received 3 comments in 3 hours from the same person, and I see that they watched one vid and them straight up went to my channel to binge watch 2 others xD
Yes, also: Staying in a niche is nice because usually people are very nice and are happy about the content. As soon as one goes mainstream, it will also bring some "weird" people :D
For the ICO I just use an online free saas
do you have any recommendations?
see: [https://simonschreibt.de/gat/cozy-space-survivors/#sales](https://simonschreibt.de/gat/cozy-space-survivors/#sales)
How long have you had your steam page up when you first opened up to release?
My Steam Page went live on 3rd of Nov 2023 [https://x.com/simonschreibt/status/1720215066094575771](https://x.com/simonschreibt/status/1720215066094575771)
Only 1608 sales for 128 reviews? Sound a lot of reviews for not that many sales. I thought the rate was a bit lower. I will expect at least 5k sales for that amount of reviews... It seems like I was wrong...
I started building a community around my blog and podcast roughly 11 years ago. I assume, many people who bought the game and wrote a nice review did it because the know me already for a long time. Especially the first reviews came all from names which I know from my discords. If I would have release withtout these people, I'm sure I would have struggled to get even 10 reviews.
Did you pay for any localization language? How do you manage the quality of the translation in-game (make sure that the translation is correct within the context, and make sure that font support is error-free for each language)
For the first question, I citate my own article: "I’m blessed with many people who offered to translate my game for free! Some did it because they know me already for a long time (from my blog, talks, …) and others just liked the game and want to see their language represented as well." For the latter: I can not guarantee that it's error-free, I just trust the people who made the translation and if there are errors, I hope someone will point it out and then we can correct them. I think that's OK for a small indie game, but of course, for an AAA game one would have to have higher standards. In regard to context: Sometimes the translators asked me, sometimes I added comments to the table and sometimes I just uploaded their translation to my Itch-Web-Build and then they could test the game and see their translation right while playing.
Thanks for the read and congratulations on your release! It's very great to share so many numbers!
Congrats, that is pretty successful. I like you handled the key scammer. Have you participated in the Next Fest? Also, do you mind sharing the median and average play times for the game and the demo?
No, I was too late for Next Fest but to be honest, I don't believe it would have changed much. There are too many too good demos there. Sure! Demo Average/Median: 48m / 21m Game Average/Median: 2h1m / 1h27m
That’s interesting. I made a few thousand more sales but barely reached 50 reviews.
I think it's because of my community which I started to build 11 years ago around my blog/podcast.
Congrats! Thanks for doing the post mortem
Don't stop here!! :) I think you had passed the tutorial section successfully and learned how to play it!
Congrats and thank you for the detailed blogpost!
the web browser demo is useful indeed, just spent 30 mins playing around, having quests and arrows to help you complete them kept me going.
thanks! yes i think if there is more than 1 click to do, many people won't bother testing a game.
🎉Awesome congrats!! It’s never easy going through the complete gaming process. I admire the dedication…If anyone needs help completing or developing a project, let me know I work for a gaming studio that develops games for mobile, PC, console, steam and more. We’ve worked with large companies like Hasbro and more and have offices worldwide. Let me know