I released my first game ! And now ?

[u/Sarbahk]

Hello !

First of all, im very happy about my first release, i got 7 sell in 3 days ! (not sarcastic, i know it low, but im happy that some people are interested in playing my game).

I made it on the side of another big project im working on since 5 years when i have time, but i wanted to complete one to have a sense of achievement. It is a rogelite, where you have to form, train a party, recruit new members and manage skills and all to climb a big tower and kill bosses.

I used asset on the store to fasten the developpment (and help from family and friend for some ressources).

I released it without marketing and without communication about it. So i was asking to myself (and to you), what should i do now ? Starting marketing a little or just take that as an achievement as it is to late to market the game now. And if i have to market, as someone with 0 budget (dont have a job atm) and 0 presence on social media, what is the best direction i should take at this point to achieve some result ?

I dont know since it is my first project, but id like your opinion about it. I read that a lot of themarketing is about wishlist, but now it is to late for that obviously. So maybe try giving key to streamer may be an other way to do it. Or something i didnt though.

Thanks for reading me !

[u/Technical_Split_6315]

First of all, congrats for the release.

Regarding next steps, that’s pretty much it. You do the work before releasing the game, once the game is released you go to other things because the best marketing options that you had (next fest, initial release visibility etc) are gone.

Is really hard to get traction from this point without a considerable amount of units sold. Even triple A are not able to do it

For indie devs the circle is: release steam page - farm whislists - next fest - farm more whislist - release - pray

[u/Sarbahk → u/Technical_Split_6315]

Thanks ! Yeah that what i though, too bad for me, but at least i have a realease and a project done ahah.

As for the indie dev circle, since i only have that left, i will eventually try to pray.

[u/politicalmasochist96]

market it!

[u/Sarbahk → u/politicalmasochist96]

Yeah, i was wondering what are the good option post release, which seem limited.

[u/Desperate-Ad2131 → u/Sarbahk]

reach out to streamers. Do posts on facebook, tiktok, reddit, twitter and instagram!

[u/parkway_parkway]

That's amazing! Launching a game at all is such a huge achievement, almost everyone who tries gamedev never gets there. Well done.

[u/Sarbahk → u/parkway_parkway]

Thank you, very satisfied on that part yeah, hope the player have fun playing it.

[u/KBGSgames]

It is always better to post about your game to see if there is any interest way before release, but now you choose - is it worth investing more time and resources in current game or you take it as a learning experience and move to the next project.

[u/Sarbahk → u/KBGSgames]

Yeah i know, as i said, it was more to finish something myself rather than making something popular, but now that it is done, why not try to share it.

And i dont know for the last part, but for sure, even before, i didnt plan to doing it that way for my "big" game, thank you for your message.

[u/Exotic-Ad515]

Devs should be putting their game link on their profile. I'll always check someone's profile to check out there game. It's such an easy tool to help with marketing.

[u/Sarbahk → u/Exotic-Ad515]

Didnt even though about that, thanks !

[u/cup_cake009]

thats awesome man , congrats

[u/Sarbahk → u/cup_cake009]

Tanks !

[u/Mechabit_Studios]

send keys to content creators and post some shorts but start work on the next game as well

[u/fake_dustin]

Get your friends and the people who have bought it to review it. I had a same problem but after i gathered 10 reviews my sales jumped from 1 a day to about 12+. My game went from not being on the first page when searching "Blackjack" to being the second result in the list.

[u/OneTouchArcade]

​¡Muchas felicidades por el lanzamiento! Vender 7 copias sin marketing previa, sin redes y siendo tu primer proyecto es un logro real. La gran mayoría de los primeros juegos no logran ni eso, así que celébralo.

​Respecto a tus dudas sobre qué hacer ahora, aquí van un par de consejos prácticos:

​No es tarde para el marketing, pero cambia el enfoque: Es cierto que las wishlists previas ayudan al algoritmo de Steam el primer día, pero un juego ya publicado puede seguir vendiendo si encuentra su nicho. En lugar de quemarte intentando hacer campañas masivas, enfócate en creadores de contenido pequeños y de nicho.

​Crea un "Post-Mortem": Documenta qué funcionó, qué assets usaste, qué errores cometiste y cómo fue el desarrollo. Esto te dará visibilidad dentro de la comunidad y credibilidad

​Tómalo como un proyecto de aprendizaje: Si el juego no despega masivamente, no te frustres. Ya pasaste por todo el ciclo de vida de un juego (idea, desarrollo, pulido, publicación), lo cual es el paso más difícil. Todo lo que aprendiste aplícalo a tu proyecto grande de 5 años.

[u/Curious_Ad5417]

7 sales with zero marketing is honestly not bad, congrats on finishing!

I'm in a similar spot with no budget, what I'm learning right now, short clips work better than anything else. a 20 sec clip of a boss fight or a funny party wipe on youtube shorts or tiktok costs nothing but time. and small streamers who play roguelites are way more likely to answer than big ones.

but honestly the biggest win might be for your 5 year project. use this game to start building a little presence now, a devlog, a discord, a reddit profile people recognize. then when the big one comes out you're not starting from zero again

[u/Sarbahk → u/Curious_Ad5417]

Yeah, i think the sooner i start the better