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The market is far too crowded to rely entirely on the steam store for your exposure. I'd like to know what the numbers are like for indie devs with their own t

The market is far too crowded to rely entirely on the steam store for your exposure. I'd like to know what the numbers are like for indie devs with their own twitch channel who constantly stream the development process, establishing a fan base throughout the year(s) of development before releasing on steam.

pjmlp 5y ago
The market has always been too crowded, unless we are talking about the early Atari 2600 days. Being a game dev is akin to music, acting, whatever arts related. It will cost blood, sweets and tears, full of ups and downs, and only an handful will manage to keep going at it their whole life. Just like other arts, it doesn't mean people just give up, rather be aware it isn't just because they like playing on their games console every single day, that they will make it on the industry.
jmd42 5y ago
Getting visibility within Steam itself is still probably the most effective way of increasing sales numbers - generally being featured/recommended within the platform is profoundly more effective than more organic marketing efforts (unless you really go viral on social media, for example). Discoverability and viewership numbers for game dev streamers on Twitch are really poor. Of course it can have value as a marketing initiative, but you can also grind that for months / years without seeing a significant effect on sales - the return on time investment is probably not great. Whereas getting onto the front page of Steam (as part of some seasonal event, for example) can do more for you in a single day than months/years of streaming or social media.
- pengaru 5y ago
  I wasn't clear enough in my comment; it's to crowded to just toss your game on the Steam store and expect it to magically generate worthwhile sales. You're entirely correct about being featured/recommended, and there are ways to game the platform at your release to amplify these effects. But my basic point stands; you can't just toss a game on Steam and expect good results. Between the low barrier to entry on the store ($100) and engines like unity/gamemaker enabling basically anyone to have something to toss on the store, it's overflowing with shovelware. How many reskinned game engine tutorials alone are out there for sale as games? It's a complete mess.
cableshaft 5y ago
I'm actually very curious about this too. I've been tempted to start streaming the development of my game on Twitch, but it's somewhat unnatural for me to do so (tried it a couple of times so far, been putting off doing it again for like four months now) ...but it also seems like one of the only ways to build an audience for your games ahead of time nowadays.
- juanuys 5y ago
  An alternative: make a short devlog video. Talk about the things you delivered that week, plus a few seconds worth of new demo/gameplay.
  - cableshaft 5y ago
    I did one of those last October[1] (probably too long, but it was my first one). I need to get in the habit of doing them more regularly, but I don't make enough progress to do one every week right now. I have been meaning to do another for the past four months and been putting it off though. [1]: https://youtu.be/0IAx9fsBuus https://youtu.be/0IAx9fsBuus

pjmlp 5y ago

The market has always been too crowded, unless we are talking about the early Atari 2600 days. Being a game dev is akin to music, acting, whatever arts related. It will cost blood, sweets and tears, full of ups and downs, and only an handful will manage to keep going at it their whole life. Just like other arts, it doesn't mean people just give up, rather be aware it isn't just because they like playing on their games console every single day, that they will make it on the industry.

jmd42 5y ago

Getting visibility within Steam itself is still probably the most effective way of increasing sales numbers - generally being featured/recommended within the platform is profoundly more effective than more organic marketing efforts (unless you really go viral on social media, for example). Discoverability and viewership numbers for game dev streamers on Twitch are really poor. Of course it can have value as a marketing initiative, but you can also grind that for months / years without seeing a significant effect on sales - the return on time investment is probably not great. Whereas getting onto the front page of Steam (as part of some seasonal event, for example) can do more for you in a single day than months/years of streaming or social media.

pengaru 5y ago
I wasn't clear enough in my comment; it's to crowded to just toss your game on the Steam store and expect it to magically generate worthwhile sales. You're entirely correct about being featured/recommended, and there are ways to game the platform at your release to amplify these effects. But my basic point stands; you can't just toss a game on Steam and expect good results. Between the low barrier to entry on the store ($100) and engines like unity/gamemaker enabling basically anyone to have something to toss on the store, it's overflowing with shovelware. How many reskinned game engine tutorials alone are out there for sale as games? It's a complete mess.

cableshaft 5y ago

I'm actually very curious about this too. I've been tempted to start streaming the development of my game on Twitch, but it's somewhat unnatural for me to do so (tried it a couple of times so far, been putting off doing it again for like four months now) ...but it also seems like one of the only ways to build an audience for your games ahead of time nowadays.

juanuys 5y ago
An alternative: make a short devlog video. Talk about the things you delivered that week, plus a few seconds worth of new demo/gameplay.
- cableshaft 5y ago
  I did one of those last October[1] (probably too long, but it was my first one). I need to get in the habit of doing them more regularly, but I don't make enough progress to do one every week right now. I have been meaning to do another for the past four months and been putting it off though. [1]: https://youtu.be/0IAx9fsBuus https://youtu.be/0IAx9fsBuus