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I have a problem with promote my game

A topic by KittyCreamPuff created Feb 02, 2024 Views: 669 Replies: 18

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KittyCreamPuff301 days ago (1 edit)

Hey readers, well, I have an indie game, but the problem is that I want to make it grow, however, I don't have friends who can help me, and social networks don't work for me In other words, the person sees it and doesn't actually play, and I've tried the forums, but many of them I didn't get many views, I've already tried using discord, but no one sees my game, and reddit doesn't even clear a level. I've already tried the content creators, however, I send them an email, but they even respond, but they don't do anything for me. Also, I don't want to follow trends, I want to grow my game and express myself as a gamdev and pixel artist.

No Time To PlayModerator301 days ago(+1)

I recommend talking to other people. If you don't post in topics made by others, how are they going to know you exist, or care? Say something nice, and they'll be curious to see who you are and what you make.

16bitnights300 days ago (2 edits) (+2)

Is the game good enough ?

Marketing is good but no marketing can save a mediocre game.

Also what promotional material did you use? was it appealing enough ?

Also are you invested in those communities or you just spam links and pictures ?

Also did you target the right audience?

KittyCreamPuff299 days ago (1 edit)

Is the game good enough ?

Yes, my game is good, you can have fun

Marketing is good but no marketing can save a mediocre game.

I strive to create something of quality

Also what promotional material did you use? was it appealing enough ?

Okay, My text is problem or use social media not correct

Also are you invested in those communities or you just spam links and pictures ?

It seems like the social network doesn't help me much, it's like the lottery, but or not recommend for correct users

Also did you target the right audience?

It's not there yet, but I'm not going to give up

redonihunter298 days ago

Yes, my game is good, you can have fun

I did not have fun. It made a bad impression, and that got worse. I tried for like two minutes, but there was no fun emerging.

It started with the ultra high pixelated "story" that has no information value, so the character could have just been a jumping square. Controls are made for two hands, but could have been for one hand. Why return and wasd? Why not space?

The collision detection is quite bad. You die. A lot. We do not have 1985. And even then those games had something like lives or health bars. Insane difficulty does not equal fun. You swing your stick or whatever and if you are anywhere near the enemy pixels, you die. Unless you swung it before at the right moment.

There is no check point and you start again and again from the start.

Did you let anyone try the game? What did they say? And were they pixel platformer enthusiasts with a preference for unforgiving hard difficulty? Because only those type of players might think your game is good or fun.

You should try to market your game to those. But there are just so many games in that genre, 30000 on itch. Maybe get inspiration from your favorites for things you could improve.

KittyCreamPuff298 days ago

But does my game have any chance or is it just a pure waste, I migrated from Unity to Gdevelop to facilitate development, sorry if my game is a pure waste of your time

redonihunter298 days ago

Any chance for what? I dislike platformers, I dislike (extreme) pixel graphics, I might be quite far from your intended target audience.

But after looking at your gamejolt page, I can tell, you should definitivly work on the first few minutes of the game. People might give up, before seeing all the cool stuff. Imagine someone playing this for the first time. They do not know what is to come. People need to get invested, before you can punish them. And do not count on people watching any videos linked on different platforms. If it ain't an animated gif onpage, people like me will not see it.

There are near a million games on itch. People trying out games will give you a quick glance, maybe a minute of playtime if it is web and then move on if they disliked it.

What put me off at the beginning was the controls and especially the collision detection. That seems to be too sensitive. I am dead and on the condescending screen, even before I touch the enemy. Oh and on second try, it would have been nice to know that there is triple jump. Or that the space key also is jump. But attack on return is still awkard for my hands.

KittyCreamPuff298 days ago

Okay, thanks for the feedback, just because of that, my game is mediocre?

KittyCreamPuff298 days ago

I understand the gitchs, but I always say: my game is in Non-FullMODE, that is, version under development

redonihunter298 days ago

Mediocre on what scale? For your game to be in the middle or elsewhere on that scale, you would have to establish what is an excellent game and what is supposed to be a horrible game.

What is your competition?

You can find an arbitrary set of criteria to select the games and rank them.

https://itch.io/games/genre-platformer/platform-web/tag-arcade/tag-cute/tag-pixe...

Bam. 120+ games in that one. And your game is on page 1 / 4. It must be quite good then.

On that list below you are even on place #1.

https://itch.io/games/genre-platformer/last-30-days/platform-web/tag-arcade/tag-...

Unfortuantely, those lists only told what itch thinks is "popular" and recently so, not what players thought about those games. One can deduce that, after the games were around for a while and enough people rated them, but as you can tell from experience, that part is hard. Actually it is the topic of the thread here.

KittyCreamPuff297 days ago

Thanks for your help, but it's a bad idea to start a conversation saying that my game is mediocre just because you didn't like the genre, anyway, I didn't really understand the point of the conversation or what you were getting at with this dialogue, but that's okay, I know my game needs to improve by the end. thank you very much for the feed

redonihunter297 days ago

Maybe this is a language thing, but I do not remember claiming your game was mediocre.

If I were to rate your game, it would be 1/5. But I do not rate games I would not play. And I believe I made clear, that I dislike platformers and extreme pixel graphics.

For all I know your game is 5/5, but it has to be viewed in comparison to similar titles.

It started with you claiming this: "Yes, my game is good, you can have fun".

To which I replied: "I did not have fun"

If you blanket advertise your game, you should consider to whom you advertise. If you advertise to the general public, you might encounter people like me, that do not have fun playing such platformer games like your's.

And according to my little research on itch, you will have it extra hard, because if you narrow it down to the tag list I linked, so it is only a few hundred games, most of those games have less than 10 ratings. That part of the genre is not very popular. Half of them have 0 ratings. And if you use less tags, most games drown in obscurity among the 130000 platformer games on itch. Only 30000 of them seem to have more than 0 ratings.

So if you want qualified opinions about your game, you should ask pixel graphic platformer enthusiasts. They will tell you if they think your game is good or mediocre. Those are also the people you should advertise to, if you can.

16bitnights296 days ago(+1)

FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT!

Long story short, platformers sell hard, even amazing platformers sell hard(check out MoonScars).

The Indie Game Dev industry sounds romantic but it's cold and hard most of times.

View more in thread

Tadgames300 days ago (1 edit) (+1)

For reddit you need to stay on there a while, follow the rules carefully, post pictures, memes, get your karma up. A good game will get reliable traffic from reddit.

16bitnights299 days ago(+1)

True but Reddit Wishlist don't convert into sales that good

KittyCreamPuff299 days ago(+2)

I agree with your reply

Tadgames299 days ago(+1)

Yes that's true, it's just a source of general traffic.

redonihunter298 days ago(+1)

But, but ... is that not what marketing and advertising is all about? Directing traffic to your game?

It is the point 16bit made. Marketing ain't gonna rescue a game that is mediocre. And even that term is relative. You can't compare a mediocre professional game with a mediocre beginner's hobby game. Or even a mediocre hobby game maker's game from a seasoned amateur.

On global scale, if you compare this game with something like Turrican or all the Mario games, you cannot honestly call it "good" or even "mediocre". You could call several of the Mario games mediocre compared to other Mario games. It is different leagues.

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