How to bring the first project to the end. Part 2. Myths, mistakes and failures

Hello! I have already told in the first article and the intermedial article how to complete my first project. But in the end I realized that these articles relate primarily to the development. But what about the promotion?

And now we will look at the myths and mistakes that I stumbled upon. And, although many praised the game, at the time of this writing, it received only 61 downloads!
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Well, how can this be?

Error Number One. Publish the game on Google Play right away

I made a huge, frankly - unforgivable mistake. I initially flooded the game on Yandex.Disk and began to promote it. I achieved, however, also a little, but over 70 downloads - even so it was more. And in the Play Market, I published the game when a lot of time passed (well, there was no money). Just a few people have learned in the end about entering the Play Market. And we smoothly move on to the next error.

Error Number Two. Spin the game immediately after the release

Still, there were fans who were waiting for the game. And when she came out, they calmed down on it. In the same Play Market, quite a large number of people did not recognize the exit. And so the fans were lost.

Error Number Three. Do not rely on your own strength

No matter how you spin, do not spam, do not create accounts in social networks, it will be difficult to attract any acceptable audience. In order to attract attention, you need to look for people who really have access to a large audience. Say, for a full publication in the Play Market, I found a publisher ... well, as a publisher. A studio that gave a couple of useful tips and published the game for free.

Myth One. Do not believe in the "organic traffic Play Marketa"

Of course, he is, but this applies to projects that can take care of themselves. The project itself does not promote, you know ... Well, as you can see: despite the positive feedback from players about my game, 61 downloads. So the concept is rather conditional and, as I suppose, most likely fits the definition of “Unknown sources”, although the traffic from the Play Market also plays a role.

Error Number Four. Do not hide the game from the players.

I was afraid not to have time to content the content and disappoint the players, so I started the PR campaign late. In fact, start promoting the game as early as possible . Fans know how to wait.

The second myth. Do not rely on social networks.

In fact, social networks can be beneficial, but it is not as great as expected. But without a initially large number of subscribers, they will simply take away the power to write posts.

Trouble ... hey, what about themed sites?

Wherever you look - everywhere they say: go to the thematic sites. But as it turned out, they also did not bring much benefit. With the enormous effort expended, 2-3 people became interested in the game. Even on w3bsit3-dns.com I received only one review: that the graphics are lame. But I knew that too. By the way ...

Error Number Five. Engage in graphics.

As they say, they meet each other by clothes ... And I didn’t have artists in the team ... if only because I worked alone. During the disastrous progress, I came to the conclusion that the players are primarily interested in graphics. This is logical, but not every developer will think about it. Not every player, looking at the game with mediocre graphics, will understand the gameplay. And Undertale is not given to everyone.

Error Number Six. Add content gradually.

I decided to add all the objects and resources in advance. And I did as I had intended. It turned out more than 80 objects - enough for the rest of the game. What is left? Make levels, cuts, bosses, and so on. In general, I prepared for the following updates well.

But ... there is no motivation to do the following updates. For whom? Spending a lot of time on 50 people, who will look at him? It is irrational. As a result, 70 percent of the time is already under the tail. And the content promised to be interesting and diverse.

Conclusion

I made a bunch of mistakes and completely lost. I brought my first project to the end, left the players in general satisfied with the game, did not disappoint their expectations. I did this one in two years. You could even be proud of yourself, but I just confirmed the opinion that developers are usually bad marketers.

In the meantime, I wrote this article, an article by my colleagues (with a continuation) was published, which also just came to the market. They are more fortunate, and I wish them further good luck and success! I understand you.

Well, as a final trailer for global updates to the game: