4 ms·

In the modern gaming market there are now hundreds (to thousands) of new releases per month. The trick has become to stand out and sadly many great games never

In the modern gaming market there are now hundreds (to thousands) of new releases per month. The trick has become to stand out and sadly many great games never make it big, simply because their developers aren't that interested in marketing. Steam introduced curators which allows you to see special reviews or tag-lines/scores from the curator for specific games; but it seems to not be doing as well as just looking at the product's general score/rating (ie. Mixed vs Positive vs Overwhelmingly Positive). Even so you still need to search for (or randomly stumble upon) the game. Youtube videos are exactly the same thing except the youtuber has gone out to find the best (or worst) game (or which were recommended by enough of their viewers). On the positive side your game can now be seen by 1k-1m people in one video, some n% of which will buy it. On the negative side if your game is too linear, then that percentage might be quite a lot lower (all the way down to negative sales, where people who would have bought it will now skip it, because they feel they've experienced enough of it). But at the very least it's offering a new medium for discovery for smaller teams, with a very low buy-in cost/effort.

falcolas 9y ago
Someone pegged the number at somewhere around 200 new releases on Steam each day. The problem is that many of those titles are not worth the bandwidth to download them. I recommend Jim Sterling and Sid Alpha if you're curious just how bad they are, and for background on how they make money.
FTA 9y ago
I think Steam's exploration queue is a great tool for finding off the beaten path games. While some may only go through it during an event where you get cards or something for doing it, I go through a few iterations every week. It keeps track of games you've seen and up or down voted, so you're able to really explore the library without completely mindlessly walking around. I've found some niche, not reviewed often games over the course of a year or two. I haven't explored how you actually get your game listed (so perhaps there is some required marketing by devs) but I'd recommend that effort if you have indeed made a game.
AndrewKemendo 9y ago
The trick has become to stand out and sadly many great games never make it big, simply because their developers aren't that interested in marketing. I mean this is the reality of every product. It's just not the case that you can build something great and people just flock to it. They need to be marketed to.

falcolas 9y ago

Someone pegged the number at somewhere around 200 new releases on Steam each day. The problem is that many of those titles are not worth the bandwidth to download them. I recommend Jim Sterling and Sid Alpha if you're curious just how bad they are, and for background on how they make money.

FTA 9y ago

I think Steam's exploration queue is a great tool for finding off the beaten path games. While some may only go through it during an event where you get cards or something for doing it, I go through a few iterations every week. It keeps track of games you've seen and up or down voted, so you're able to really explore the library without completely mindlessly walking around. I've found some niche, not reviewed often games over the course of a year or two. I haven't explored how you actually get your game listed (so perhaps there is some required marketing by devs) but I'd recommend that effort if you have indeed made a game.

AndrewKemendo 9y ago

The trick has become to stand out and sadly many great games never make it big, simply because their developers aren't that interested in marketing. I mean this is the reality of every product. It's just not the case that you can build something great and people just flock to it. They need to be marketed to.