Secrets of a developer who has sold half a million copies of games

During our half-hour conversation, Adam Nickerson, aka Nickervision Studios , repeated at least a dozen times different variations of the phrase “In fact, I don’t know how to make video games.” However, he managed alone to sell half a million copies of their games for the PC.

You probably have never heard, for example, about Bit Blaster XL , but on Steam it sold 260,000 copies. Adam developed it alone in just two weeks. Its continuation, which is nearing the same success, was developed in 75 hours.
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How did he do it? He found a way to become noticed on Steam in our time of an almost endless stream of new releases, a time that has destroyed the hopes and dreams of many other small developers.

Bit Blaster XL, a short and simple pixel art shooter, tense but not too complicated, was released last January. In the spring of 2017, Orbt XL followed, and then Diamo XL , released this month. Bit Blaster scored 260,000 sales in Steam and the number continues to grow (plus 3,684 reviews, which gave it a “very positive” rating), Orbt XL has sold 50,000 copies since its release in April, but according to Adam, it will eventually catch up its predecessor. In addition, he sold more than 200,000 copies of Bit Blaster in various Humble Bundle bundles. Games are sold at 99 cents / 79 pence, but there are often 50% discounts (the highest discount normally allowed by Valve). Each game was developed in a matter of weeks, but the subsequent grinding took much longer.


But even with such low prices, thanks to the games, the life of the former IT guy Adam Nickerson was greatly transformed. “I felt that this was what I needed to do,” this confident and at the same time modest Canadian tells me. “I have reached a state of comfort that many people will probably envy that I can work freely in it. Even if a few of my next games fail, I can go on like this for a couple of years with zero success. ”

Nickerson’s success is built on three main pillars: telling the truth, ticking every point, and not getting too attached. All this is complemented by an unusually pragmatic approach to selling games on Steam. "Many people are incredibly critical of Valve and its system, in which access is open to every developer," says Nickerson. “But thanks to the updates, Valve has achieved tremendous success.” Such a statement in and of itself can be paradoxical for many developers who resent Valve’s desire to make its storefront equally accessible to all.

Adam believes that the most important thing is to properly use the available tools. “Unfortunately, many people are trying to reach as many users as possible with the description of their game. I add tags and descriptions, trying to ensure that they are as honest as possible, more clearly and fully describe my game. I want to dispel the idea that the games are bigger than they really are. ”

“I do not want to play down the hype because sometimes it’s really worth it, but very often people overestimate their promises. I promise less than it actually is. Some of my descriptions say: „perfect when you need to play while waiting for another game“. All this is fair, anyone can do this, you just need to pay maximum attention and not give out your game for what it is not. ”


It is also important to take care of the support of seemingly minor aspects of Steam. “You need to put a tick next to each of the items: collectible cards, support for controllers, leaderboards, Steam Cloud. I added support for Steam Cloud to Bit Blaster just last week - people need this function, but I don’t know how to make games, so I didn’t know how to implement it, and only recently figured it out. When people demand these items, the more you check the boxes, the more likely you will get to the list “in this game there are collectible cards” or “in this game there is a Steam Cloud”. ”

As a result of such ticks and careful descriptions, Adam says, “Valve's internal framework only shows the game to players who are really interested in this type of game. This can be seen from the reviews of the game, which over time become more and more positive. The process of creating surveys, as we saw recently in the example of many stories with bombardment of reviews, is very important. ”

Careful attention to these reviews has become another part of the puzzle: this means that you need to cut off the negative even at the entrance, making at least the way that the game gets to the most suitable audience. “Immediately after the release of Bit Blaster, many users were outraged by" Hey, this is a rip-off. " I thought: "my God, I sell the game for a dollar, and you think that it is expensive?". But I listened to those players who said "add this simple function here" or "I need support for an ultra-wide screen". I just made these small additions and continued to work. In addition, if you want to support Linux, then at least provide support for Steam OS. "


Thanks to the lessons learned, the Orbt release was much smoother, and the “very positive” rating of Diamo, received in a matter of days, suggests that the trend will continue. After a first glance at Nickerson's games, I mistakenly assumed that their structure is simple and provides an endless stream of achievements for players who value them. There are many such games on Steam, and they have their own audience, but Nickervision Studios games don't belong to them. Yes, in general, the achievements in them are slightly more than could be expected for such small and short games, but this is also the realization of the principle of placing all the checkmarks, and not just filling the games with tens of thousands of dubious trophies.

I do not want to say that Adam did not try to take advantage of the achievements. “People like to go through the games completely, so they want their achievements to be achievable. I have noticed that very difficult achievements have a negative effect on success. People complained that they could not get them, so I changed the balance and made other edits so that the average (according to the statistics I collected) the player could get them all in a couple of hours. ”

Although it seems from the above that a developer must work almost at the level of a forensic expert to ensure commercial success, Nickerson is firmly convinced that the human approach is also important. “I saw a lot of negative reviews that said just awful things. You know, the Internet can be evil, but when I answered such people, they understood that a living person speaks to them, and not a soulless machine for ripping games, that this person makes games and seeks to solve their problems. ” Adam diluted the descriptions on the pages of his games with jokes and humility, and this also set certain expectations. “The first thing that is on the page on Steam is the developer’s note, which says:“ here’s the game you are buying, if you’ve been waiting for something else, then this isn’t here ”. I really try very hard not to sell my game to those who do not need it. ”



It seems that Nickerson is very pleased with his share and that he was able to understand the system, but at the same time he does not seem arrogant or cynical. Probably there is a reason why few of us have heard about Bit Blaster (for example, we never wrote posts about it on our website), although we most likely have friends who bought it.

“I was lucky that Microsoft invited me to E3, and I was able to meet with a whole bunch of other developers. Until recently, I never worked on the development, and quietly sat there because I felt uncomfortable. "My stupid small game has become very successful, and they argue about whether they can sell two thousand of their games." In no case do I want to brag, there are many difficulties in this business. I saw a lot of beautiful and deep games created by very talented developers who were forgotten because they could not find their audience. ”



And that brings us to the last lesson of Adam Nickerson. “I felt from the very beginning that you shouldn’t get too attached emotionally to your games. If you get too attached, a dozen people telling how bad the game is can crush my spirit. And I saw how this happens. For me it is important to avoid such situations, so I strive to be from falling in love with my game at arm's length. Don't get me wrong, I'm proud of my work, but I'm not going to enthusiastically tell everyone about it. ”

For at least the next two years, Adam plans to do what he wants, and he wants to use his freedom for further research. "I am not an expert, but I like what I do." Perhaps soon a person who has sold half a million video games will stop saying that he does not know how to do them.

Bit Blaster XL, Orbt XL and Diamo XL are already sold on Steam.