How much I made from my first ever game on Steam

Strasco

10598

Hello guys, I would like to share with the community my thoughts about how I successfully failed in launching my first game.

I will go about these topics:
• Steam income in the first 2 weeks
• Marketing
• The gamedev itself

→ Steam income

I will put this on top for everyone to see not to waste anyone's time

If this is the only thing you wanted to see, there it is and thank you for your attention. This information is pulled directly from my steamworks account to-date(14/11/2019).

►The game was published as coming soon 2 weeks prior to the launch (1st of November).

►At the point of launch the game had ~100 wishlists. (I was really happy about it, thinking 100 people WILL buy my game). In the end only 37 sales came around.

→ Marketing

I tried my best showing gameplay and somehow interacting with the community on twitter.
I tried e-mailing known (romanian) youtubers with the hope of getting some recognition.
Sent curator copies of the game to relevant curators on Steam
A friend of mine bought 2 copies of the game and he made a giveaway on Steamgifts:
https://www.steamgifts.com/discussion/gbdk0/first-game-on-steam

The best part about Steamgifts is that this is where I got most of my feedback! Nowhere on the web I go this much feedback and it felt really overwhelming(The game only has 1 review on Steam).

→ The gamedev itself

Well this is my favorite part! I've been studying game development for about 2 years when I started this project I thought it was time for me to release something

Like many other game developers I went for something 2D. I wanted to be able to finish the game in 3 months right before exam period (Little did I know it took actually 8 months total, with 6 of actual work). The idea of the game is a kill them all type of where you have predefined levels with some easy puzzles. After a few levels you get a boss room which you need to find out how to defeat. It also features an attribute point system Sword power, bow power vitality, etc.

That's all I have to share, I want to thank you for your attention, if you think the game is worth your time please give it a try otherwise upvoting will also help me enormously.

Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1169770/Swordrite/

Cat tax incoming:

EDIT: I had a picture with a cat for tax for you but Imgur placed it on the top for some reason I am not sure why, I will post it separate.

indie_dev

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Shiep

Thanks for sharing.

5 years ago |

Bardcrest

Do you want to sell more copies? Cause that's how you sell more copies.

DUCKFORABUCK

Keep at it.. and congratulations on the profit

Thank you.

jiynxed

People wishlist games so they get alerts when they go on sale.

rianstar

Mainly a reminder that the game once caught your attention enough to consider buying it for me.

TheSockGnome

It looks neat, you did a good job on the sprite animation :). I'll have to look at it when I'm home

Hey, the credit goes to the artist that made it. The main character asset is actually free but all other enemies were bought

HyruleAttacker

https://youtu.be/4CSYA9R70R8

This guy helped my dev process a lot

I admit my trailer was actually pretty bad. A lot of repetitive stuff, people didn't know what the game is about and many other mistakes.

I hear ya. Past is past. Some of us been Deving for a long time and still struggle. Get back up and show you can do better =]

Gunshanks

Approximately how many man hours did you put into making it?

It took me 6 months of total work. Honestly I didn't count the hours but I would say at least a daily average of 4-5 hours(1/2)

which is like 720-900 hours(6 Months * 30 days * 5h). That's around 0.09 cents per hour with the sales current sales (2/2).

Did you find it as a learning experience/passion project it was "worth" your time?

I definitely learned a lot. Would do it again.

Iwilltrytobenicer3

This type game has been around for 50 years. What did you do differently?

DefinitelyNotMadeOfBees

This is a blunt but critically important question.

LinkWieldsTheTriforceOfCourage

You're right, but with a correction, the oldest game that could be called an ancestor of this is probably 1979's "Adventure" for Atari 2600.

I am a Professional Estimator. Na

That's a good point +1

Tru

Comments (24)