Path indie developers on the market Steam Greenlight: Project №1
Greetings, colleagues in the shop and all those who are thinking about starting work in the gaming industry. Today, on behalf of my team of game developers, I begin a series of articles in which I am going to share with you our experience in game development. Also I will try to touch on as many aspects of how to work with the Steam market, for the most part those that have not yet been covered on Habré.
Among the topics covered will be the following topics:
1. Our experience in choosing the right idea and the movement from the first developments to the full product.
2. Conducting a marketing company. What contributed to the promotion of our game and that eventually prevented our becoming a more recognizable game.
3. Legal issues related to working with the market Steam. Opening of IP or LLC. Selection of currency account.
')
In the first article of the series 2 first points will be revealed. In general, this is my very first article on Habré. Therefore, I am ready to hear your constructive criticism and comments on the content and design. Also, please do not skimp on the feedback, questions and suggestions. The following article will try to do better.
The purpose of the article is the opportunity to share with you the experience, so in the course of the article almost no conclusions will be drawn (you will only see them at the end), basically the facts and results of some of our decisions will be presented.
For the first time they began to think about working with the Steam trading platform in September 2014. At that time, we were following the Greenlight games and came to the conclusion that this market is still not without prospects and opportunities. The following problem was brewing in us: the choice of the optimal idea that would fit the following criteria:
• Interesting to us
• There are prerequisites that she will find her popularity with a certain audience.
• It is quite clear how it can be implemented as a game.
• Not too complicated to implement (due to our limited human resources and time)
Among the many ideas, the most suitable for us was an idea with statues, characters in essence similar to crying angels from the series Doctor Who. Everything is simple with them: when you look at them they remain motionless, but if you just turn away for a moment or blink, they will appear near you at the speed of a bullet. (An even earlier implementation of this idea was in the game Condemned).
Indeed, it is best suited for selected criteria:
1. As lovers of the famous British TV series, we ourselves would be interested to bring it to life in the form of a game.
2. One would assume that if implemented on a qualitative level, it should find its popularity as among the fans of Doctor Who and all fans of the “Horror” genre.
3. In terms of implementation, this idea is not the most difficult, though not the simplest of all that we had.
Having the experience that we have now, in addition to these, we would take into account the 5th criterion: It should be easy to make game play on the game.
Steam allows developers to put on a public display of the game at all stages of development. Since we were not completely sure that we would get support from the Steam community, we decided to take advantage of this opportunity and start creating a preview of the trailer.
It turned out not enough quality. To make it on a higher level, again, our doubts and time constraints prevented. But the reaction of the community as a whole was positive (although we did not receive the coveted Green Light then), which gave us a signal that it was possible to continue working on the project. Also, thanks to constructive criticism, we have a clearer idea of which direction to go further and what the Steam Greenlight community wants from the project.
There was virtually no action taken on marketing during this period (except for publishing the game on IndieDB and GameJolt), since in fact there was nothing to advertise.
Further, having gained experience and enthusiasm, we decided not to change our approach and continue to act from simple to complex. Therefore, the next step was for us to develop a demo version, which required much more effort from us and lasted about 3 months. They made the demo almost from scratch, because somehow what was in the trailer was not suitable for the game. We have already improved the graphics quality in it, the artificial intelligence of the enemies has been registered, and simple gameplay ideas have been implemented within the concept.
The demo was the best marketing move we could make at that time. The news on the IndieDB website about the release of the demo provided us with a large influx of visitors to Steam. Our game has been made many letpleyev. Among which was one with 2 million views. Yutubeers learned about us through the IndieDB and GameJolt sites, as well as from letters received from us. From the same GameJolt with us came the journalist of the Gambling and published the news on the site.
In the process of all this, we were nevertheless noticed on Stim and in the end our project was approved (which is interesting - we were not in their top 100). This meant only one thing: we can now fully proceed to the 4th and final stage of our project, to develop the full version of the game and then publish it and sell it.
There were much more approving comments on the demo (with the exception of those given by Russian audiences on the news sites about the games). Many wrote that we did a good job and significantly raised the bar for the quality of our game.
Thanks to the feedback, suggestions, critical comments, we have a lot of information about what really needs to be improved in the game. Subsequently, this experience helped us make the final product better.
Marketing company at this stage, we were pretty meager and unbalanced. For the most part, it consisted of sending letters to the lesplayer and posting posts on facebook groups. We didn’t publish news on the IndieDB and GameJolt websites about the process of creating a demo, which could also be a good marketing tool and help us attract an additional audience.
The fourth stage was for us the most difficult and long in time. It lasted about six months and during this period many changes and innovations were made. The main ones are significantly improved graphics, improved gameplay and AI, as well as 7 different locations, all connected by one storyline. That is, the product eventually became different, both in quality and volume.
The marketing company was conducted at this time more competently, but its effectiveness was still far from ideal. They began to conduct it a month before the release (ideally, it should be started earlier), then they began to prepare the elaboration of articles and letters for the gamers, journalists and tweeters and in parallel made screenshots and a trailer. After the first demo news was written on IndieDB and GameJolt.
In the letters we focused on two things: the gameplay and the plot. They wrote briefly and to the point: the gameplay is based on statues, creatures that move only when you don’t look at them. The plot is developed under the inspiration of such mind-reversing films as the Beginning, the Island of the Damned, Mr. Nobody.
The letter must have attached the key to the game.
Our approach from the simple to the complex was very applicable for us, but in the beginning we were at one of its extremes and risked even then to destroy the project. Therefore, the first conclusion that is brewing is “It is necessary to publish a product that is of sufficient quality”. Try to avoid showing the public raw screenshots, the same applies to the demo. Let it be small, but at the same time meet your quality requirements (what will be in the final product). Then you need to initially decide how the final version of the game should look. The main thing here is not to go to the other extreme, not to be a perfectionist who is afraid of putting a sufficiently high-quality thing into the light. Or in other words, you need to find a balance.
The second conclusion is related to the first one. Locations are best done not all at once, but consistently (at least the non-gameplate, external part). In this case, you will have a chance to make a decent amount of informative posts with new screenshots during development and constantly warm up the interest of the public to your game.
The third conclusion is to start marketing in advance (if you still used the second conclusion), and not when there is already a week left before the release. So no one will know about the existence of your game and sales will be minimal.
The fourth conclusion - marketing must be balanced. Letters should be sent not only to flyspers, but also to journalists and tweeters. Use as many news sites as possible to publish news.
As you understood, the above conclusions were made mostly from the mistakes that we made during the game development process.
To do everything almost perfectly is the lot of people with experience, so it was not without mistakes. But we hope that there will be much less of them when working on the next project. We are also sure that according to the information obtained from the article you have drawn some conclusions. So share them in the comments, it would be very interesting to learn about them.
Good luck in your endeavors!
Among the topics covered will be the following topics:
1. Our experience in choosing the right idea and the movement from the first developments to the full product.
2. Conducting a marketing company. What contributed to the promotion of our game and that eventually prevented our becoming a more recognizable game.
3. Legal issues related to working with the market Steam. Opening of IP or LLC. Selection of currency account.
')
In the first article of the series 2 first points will be revealed. In general, this is my very first article on Habré. Therefore, I am ready to hear your constructive criticism and comments on the content and design. Also, please do not skimp on the feedback, questions and suggestions. The following article will try to do better.
The purpose of the article is the opportunity to share with you the experience, so in the course of the article almost no conclusions will be drawn (you will only see them at the end), basically the facts and results of some of our decisions will be presented.
1. Select ideas
For the first time they began to think about working with the Steam trading platform in September 2014. At that time, we were following the Greenlight games and came to the conclusion that this market is still not without prospects and opportunities. The following problem was brewing in us: the choice of the optimal idea that would fit the following criteria:
• Interesting to us
• There are prerequisites that she will find her popularity with a certain audience.
• It is quite clear how it can be implemented as a game.
• Not too complicated to implement (due to our limited human resources and time)
Among the many ideas, the most suitable for us was an idea with statues, characters in essence similar to crying angels from the series Doctor Who. Everything is simple with them: when you look at them they remain motionless, but if you just turn away for a moment or blink, they will appear near you at the speed of a bullet. (An even earlier implementation of this idea was in the game Condemned).
Indeed, it is best suited for selected criteria:
1. As lovers of the famous British TV series, we ourselves would be interested to bring it to life in the form of a game.
2. One would assume that if implemented on a qualitative level, it should find its popularity as among the fans of Doctor Who and all fans of the “Horror” genre.
3. In terms of implementation, this idea is not the most difficult, though not the simplest of all that we had.
Having the experience that we have now, in addition to these, we would take into account the 5th criterion: It should be easy to make game play on the game.
2. Preview Trailer
Steam allows developers to put on a public display of the game at all stages of development. Since we were not completely sure that we would get support from the Steam community, we decided to take advantage of this opportunity and start creating a preview of the trailer.
It turned out not enough quality. To make it on a higher level, again, our doubts and time constraints prevented. But the reaction of the community as a whole was positive (although we did not receive the coveted Green Light then), which gave us a signal that it was possible to continue working on the project. Also, thanks to constructive criticism, we have a clearer idea of which direction to go further and what the Steam Greenlight community wants from the project.
There was virtually no action taken on marketing during this period (except for publishing the game on IndieDB and GameJolt), since in fact there was nothing to advertise.
3. Demo version of the game
Further, having gained experience and enthusiasm, we decided not to change our approach and continue to act from simple to complex. Therefore, the next step was for us to develop a demo version, which required much more effort from us and lasted about 3 months. They made the demo almost from scratch, because somehow what was in the trailer was not suitable for the game. We have already improved the graphics quality in it, the artificial intelligence of the enemies has been registered, and simple gameplay ideas have been implemented within the concept.
The demo was the best marketing move we could make at that time. The news on the IndieDB website about the release of the demo provided us with a large influx of visitors to Steam. Our game has been made many letpleyev. Among which was one with 2 million views. Yutubeers learned about us through the IndieDB and GameJolt sites, as well as from letters received from us. From the same GameJolt with us came the journalist of the Gambling and published the news on the site.
In the process of all this, we were nevertheless noticed on Stim and in the end our project was approved (which is interesting - we were not in their top 100). This meant only one thing: we can now fully proceed to the 4th and final stage of our project, to develop the full version of the game and then publish it and sell it.
There were much more approving comments on the demo (with the exception of those given by Russian audiences on the news sites about the games). Many wrote that we did a good job and significantly raised the bar for the quality of our game.
Thanks to the feedback, suggestions, critical comments, we have a lot of information about what really needs to be improved in the game. Subsequently, this experience helped us make the final product better.
Marketing company at this stage, we were pretty meager and unbalanced. For the most part, it consisted of sending letters to the lesplayer and posting posts on facebook groups. We didn’t publish news on the IndieDB and GameJolt websites about the process of creating a demo, which could also be a good marketing tool and help us attract an additional audience.
4. Full version
The fourth stage was for us the most difficult and long in time. It lasted about six months and during this period many changes and innovations were made. The main ones are significantly improved graphics, improved gameplay and AI, as well as 7 different locations, all connected by one storyline. That is, the product eventually became different, both in quality and volume.
The marketing company was conducted at this time more competently, but its effectiveness was still far from ideal. They began to conduct it a month before the release (ideally, it should be started earlier), then they began to prepare the elaboration of articles and letters for the gamers, journalists and tweeters and in parallel made screenshots and a trailer. After the first demo news was written on IndieDB and GameJolt.
In the letters we focused on two things: the gameplay and the plot. They wrote briefly and to the point: the gameplay is based on statues, creatures that move only when you don’t look at them. The plot is developed under the inspiration of such mind-reversing films as the Beginning, the Island of the Damned, Mr. Nobody.
The letter must have attached the key to the game.
5. Conclusions
Our approach from the simple to the complex was very applicable for us, but in the beginning we were at one of its extremes and risked even then to destroy the project. Therefore, the first conclusion that is brewing is “It is necessary to publish a product that is of sufficient quality”. Try to avoid showing the public raw screenshots, the same applies to the demo. Let it be small, but at the same time meet your quality requirements (what will be in the final product). Then you need to initially decide how the final version of the game should look. The main thing here is not to go to the other extreme, not to be a perfectionist who is afraid of putting a sufficiently high-quality thing into the light. Or in other words, you need to find a balance.
The second conclusion is related to the first one. Locations are best done not all at once, but consistently (at least the non-gameplate, external part). In this case, you will have a chance to make a decent amount of informative posts with new screenshots during development and constantly warm up the interest of the public to your game.
The third conclusion is to start marketing in advance (if you still used the second conclusion), and not when there is already a week left before the release. So no one will know about the existence of your game and sales will be minimal.
The fourth conclusion - marketing must be balanced. Letters should be sent not only to flyspers, but also to journalists and tweeters. Use as many news sites as possible to publish news.
As you understood, the above conclusions were made mostly from the mistakes that we made during the game development process.
To do everything almost perfectly is the lot of people with experience, so it was not without mistakes. But we hope that there will be much less of them when working on the next project. We are also sure that according to the information obtained from the article you have drawn some conclusions. So share them in the comments, it would be very interesting to learn about them.
Good luck in your endeavors!
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/307552/
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