itch.io

Thanks. Narrat looks cool. I may try it if I leave fungus...

Hi Sparkyyyyy (I hope I didn't mess with the number of Y in your name...). It's possible on Patreon... I hope you don't mind too much but it's part of the plan to help me finance other games like this. Anyway if you enjoyed it and found it at least funny, I am happy.

Buuuhouh (crying...). Thank you. I'll be working on the room 6 soon. You'll be controling Drea the agressive cop on that scene.

A big thank you to the anonymous guy who recently paid 10$ for the game.

Thanks a lot for your comment. The project is in pause for still a few months because I'm working on one or two shorter and more erotic visual novel that hopefully will bring a little bit of money to help me finance this. I started this project without any plan and now I have to have a strategy if I want to let you see the end of it. Anyway Merci beaucoup.

A russian model living in Paris...

@mary_blackberryy on instagram

(Adults only)

Wow... my error. I had checked the wrong boxes... Sorry.

Thanks a lot. I'm working on it.

I'll try. Give me one or two weeks. Right now I'm working on the save system....

Hey Joyless, that grammar police intervention was so cool. Bam ! I follow you.

Impressed also with the number of games you did.

Now, sorry for the interruption guys.

OK. Thanks a lot.

One of the tools you talked about could be interesting for me : Embergen. Do you use it personnaly ?

Not much to say except thank you for that.  There is nothing revolutionnary in your words but the simple fact of telling it once again how it's fun but also really hard (for you and and many other indie game devs or creators of any kind) helps in the moments of doubts... It makes me think that, at some point, there should be a church for the lost game devs to settle that for good. No ?

Hey man, how is it going ?

And do you see a correlation between the length of your game and the price that you can ask for it ?  Do you think people consider it?

0$ = 1000 downloads per day and 1$ = 1 per day...

That 's crazy... even a bit scary. You really have to fight, even on steam, to make people admit that indie (or amateur) game does not automaticaly mean free.

Hi guys ! 

Interesting and useful as usual. But also a bit sad for the itchio lovers that we are because it seems, no matter what, you automaticaly get better results on steam... 

I don't really have a clue either about the answers to the new questions that were raised except that raising the level of the graphics is always a good idea for Majid and setting a price far too low is certainly a bad idea for Edd. But I know also that this was some kind of experiment to prepare the next games. 

Now if I think about the original subject of this thread, I'm thinking more and more that one solution could be to try to make all this Public Relation experience more fun for us all. As game makers we try to make engaging experiences for people, so why not try to make something engaging for game makers (hoping it will attract other people too). For exemple, in my very little level I'm thinking more and more why not creating a little indie game festival, specialized with games that are close to mine. Nothing new but at least engaging as a PR experience.

Voilà. Just some ideas like that but the key would be to try to have a little fun while raising the awareness alout your games.

(sorry, just answering a previous question about music)

For those of us who are not as gifted as Edd, music in our games can be a big problem. It's very time consuming for me because as I don't produce it, I'm constantly searching the piece of music or sound that fits the scene I'm working on. And sometimes I already have it but I've forgotten I had it. The begining of madness, that's what it looks like sometimes...

 Now if I analize I would say that :

60% of the music and sound I use come from https://freesound.org/ This site is interesting for the sounds not really the music, as its name suggests. But you can find there some very interesting loops. I think, for us game makers, loops are more useful than a long and complete track. Of course I more than once modify what I find there but just some basic modifications to fit my needs. The site is not sexy but worth a try.

20% are real tracks (sorry if it's not the right term) like the ones you can find on incompetech of the famous Kevin MacLeod. Just saw an interview of this guy 2 days ago. He's very interesting and funny and he is the one who saved most of the content creators of the planet (nothing less) who don't happen to be musicians too.

10% from friends or people I know. 

For the rest i sincerely don't know. Each time I find something cool and free I download it even if I don't have a need for it. Sometimes I even buy things but it's very rare and I'm allways deceived by these purchase. All in all that's how over the years and diverse projects I have now a huge collection (but it's never big enough and never will). 

Majid, I hope you'll make us a thrilling RPG with good moments of tension. We're all clients for that but you cannot achieve that without the good sound or music so good luck. For the rest, the kickstarer, Patreon etc... good luck too.

Thank you guys. It helps a lot to understand the situation to be able to talk about it with other game dev. To add a little something to the conversation I can talk about my experience with Patreon as Majid mentioned it earlier in this thread.  My personal experience with Patreon is that I'll probably quit on the 31st of december. 

Patreon is an extension of the same popularity contest we're experiencing here (and on other social networks) . If you are talented for that, it would be stupid to stop but as I'm not then I think it would be stupid to continue. I have very few patrons that bring me 15euros/dollars per month and for that little money I find myself in a rather stressfull situation every month because the time used to keep my few patrons content is a  precious time lost for my game. I have a day job and the little time that is left to me is for my time consuming hobby, "my second job" : making a game. To have a Patreon is like a 3rd job (a thing that the stupid me didn't know). Probably like a real Youtube channel (I don't have any) or a successful instagram acocunt, it is a job too of it's own. One got to be prepared for that if you expect it to be worth it. It's like a chain :

Step 1. You probably need to be good at marketing your game (social networks, etc...) 

Step 2. If you have the step 1, then your game can be popular (I mean popular enough to stay visible even after being kicked out of the "NEW" category)

Step 3. Then you can get a chance to have a Patreon that is worth the time and efforts you'll have to put in it (... aside of your game... and maybe your day job).

Efficient Marketing - Popular game - Worthful Patreon  (<---as I said, an extension of the popularity contest)

If think most of us here mess it because we don't have the step one and/or we're not good at it. The truth is that all these steps need skills and as little indies... Let me use a metaphore : As indie game dev, we're certainly terrific players, but a terrific player doesn't make a team to play the game (and win).

Now, of course, there are peolpe that manage to make it. Some fantastic indie game devs that are also good at marketing their game and having worthful if not profitable Patreon. They exist and I'm thankful to them for keeping the dream alive. Sincerely.

Just a few notes as I re-read my post... 

1- My 15euros per month on Patreon can't help me because I live in FRANCE where such an amount of money is negligible BUT at the same time they have been a huge psychological support all along. The truth is that I just can't keep up with the scheme of putting something new under the nose of my patrons on a regular basis just o keep them without spoiling the game itself and its experience. The only thing I'm good at is making the game. And that's the only thing I produce. Nothing else.

2 - And of course no, the goal was not to get rich at once thanks to my Patreon. It was just the pursuit of that old dream of the indie game dev... "if I could make just enough momey to even barely replace my day job, I would use all my time to do what I really love". But for me it will have to wait.

Thank you all for this thread. Very interesting read and at last some real questions are asked and partially answered too.

We even get a few numbers... It might be a bit rude to ask another dev how much views, downloads etc, for his game but at the same time, that lack of feedback here lets you like a sailing boat in the middle of a windless ocean (sorry for my english not 100% correct). You don't really know if you are going anywhere.

 For my part I published the 1rst part of my game 6 month ago and had about 500 downloads, (the only data that counts for me) and 5 payment of 2$ and I still don't know if I can consider these numbers good or bad. I also get about 70 people adding it to their collection but as I'm a bit stupid I don't really know how it is beneficial to my game. Maybe I shouldn't complain but I get as little feedback as many here so I don't know... and it's a litlle discouraging.

Thanks. I may try to make an atempt towards the end the year when I'm calm and relaxed. The thing is that I fear the deception if I fail and I don't want that to undermine my progression... as a solo dev I have to take care of my own mental for the sake of the project. But there is hope. Anyway a Mac version would be better accompanied with a new chapter so for now this where I put my efforts on (sorry for my not so good English).

Not for the moment. Sorry.

Thank you.

Thanks. Know that we're all very grateful for what you do in this forum. I understand now the choice for your name Mr No time to play.

I'm in the same position. My game was published 16 days ago and still not indexed. It's like itchio will never recover from the bundle for racial justice. I suggest that they should try to communicate just a little bit about the ptoblem now...

I would like to know... when it is finally indexed, will it appear at the top of the page with the newly published games or will it appear at the the bottom whith the games that were published a week ago ?

Yes, I checked the Seah & Browse FAQ and everything is ok on my side...

Hi,

I didn't want to be too impatient but I see games published today or yesterday appear on the site while mine which is called BAD LIEUTENANT is still not indexed and was published 5 days ago. It is nsfw so I can't go everywhere to make some publicity by myself like with any other game. This type of game really needs to be indexed because they are already kind of hidden (and I agree with that). What should I do ? I already mailed the support team but no response.

It's a pity because itchio is really an awsome site and it seems that its business model (so its health) depends also on these donations.

If there is no donation, there no redistribution to itchio...

Awsome ! I'll be watching you man.

You want a generalist ? I think you got another one here... Not a General generalist like you but a good little sergent generalist. I'm even modeling/acting in my own game. Oh, and of course, to begin with, I know almost nothing of code but it is becoming  common.

Anyway I'm always interested to see stories like yours of people tackling different forms of arts, different ways of expression and mixing them with their little hands to make something  personal . That's cool.

Good luck 

Hi,

(my english is not perfect but...)

For my part i'm always interested when someone tries to mix interactivity with a "classical" form of art.

The start of your "game" is a little rough because all the voices start at once at the same time.

Now if you ask me what I would change, I think I would try to differenciate the voices a lot more. For exemple I thought the shadow of the character on the right was a man while it has the voice of a woman. The three voices sound too much similar to me and that's a problem.

Secondly it is always interesting to have an idea of how long the clip (or whatever) is. You know like the red line in a youtube video.

Voilà. Now i hope you'll find more help from better game dev than I am (which I'm not really).

It's really sad for the "dance theatre in an art gallery" project... It would have been cool.

Hi, I'm Joël.

I use unity + the fungus plugin to create my visual novel but being more of a photographer/videographer I also use:

Da Vinci resolve and Premiere pro for my videos and Silkypix and Paint.net for my photos.

By the way, is there an engine in the list that you would recommended for FMV kind of games (with easier ways to integrate videos) ?

Hi,

First sorry if my english is not perfect...

I just released my first game Kinovel Noir a few days ago. I can't say if the numbers are good because  I don't know what good numbers could be but for me i had quite a few downloads but still no  comments, no feedback. And I need to know...

At first I thought I should go to go to the reddit Visual Novel forum to ask some feedback but they seem to be quite integrist about what is or not a real visual novel and it seems my game does not correspond to their definition.

I thought about the adventure game forum but it's tricky because my game contains a (restricted) erotic side. And it could be a problem for some people in the adventure game forum which I respect totally.

Now in order to eliminate this problem, even if my game is not an erotic game I thought about their NSFW games forum and erotic game forum but just a short visit there and I had seen more 3d virtual girls, pixel hentai girls etc... than I can take for the rest of my containment. It made me feel like the caracter of a film in a dystopian world where virtual sex and sex drois is king. ... So ,not for me. By the way, my game is made with photos and videos . Almost an FMV maybe. As though I like video games like all of us here, for my game I also appreciate the idea of keeping a foot inside reality... thus the photos and vidos of real people and places in my game.

So in the end I found this place to ask a little feedback  if someone played my game (which is free),. It would be cool.

Thanks

I didn't play the game. Just watched the movie and I am positively sure we've found the new Idris ELBA here...

Hello,

I think a "quit" or "esc" button could be useful