Ok, so you need to accept something which is whether your game is on (itch.io - gamejolt - etc…) (gamejolt is kinda dead now, because it’s turning slowly into a store rather than an indie game place, the community is not as big as itch.io and there isn’t that much traffic out there).
So, whether it’s on biggest store out there or smallest one,
whether you work on it for 10 years or 1 month,
whether it’s big or small .
(YOUR GAME WILL EVENTUALLY DIE ) Yup it’s the hard truth, everything has an end also your game.
But the thing here is how long can you keep it alive?
Why I’m bringing this up?
I made Miko’s Adventures in about 5 months and I made lot’s and lot’s of mistakes (it’s bound to happen on a first game)
and the game lived on Itch.io for about 1 months in the top games there, it didn’t get featured but it was on top of 10 tags.
before releasing I was like (MY GOD PEOPLE WILL GO CRAZY WHEN I UPLOAD THIS GAME AND I WILL MAKE MILLIONS OUT OF IT)
No, no one got crazy and I made about 4$ from donations which is pretty good for me (But I can’t request a payout though untill it reaches 5$ )
So in the second day I got about 2 downloads (Which was the beginning of my story) … It was going to die when I first released it and I was going to die from inside, how could this happen?
Then I learned the hard way, to be out there, talk to people about your game, engage with many people as you can, make lot’s and lot’s of friends.
Your game doesn’t need to be the next Minecraft to make it alive for about 1 month but you need to make yourself out there, you need to know that no one cares about you until you go out there and care about everyone.
And after about 40 hours of not sleeping talking to a lot of people and sending the game to hundreds and hundreds of people, BOOM!!!
The game exploded everywhere and it actually reached a big Russian youtuber and lot’s and lot’s of small youtubers, and people loved it thank god for that.
When I released Miko there were another 3 games released at the same day (and I think at the same time) can you believe it ?
Like how can 3 people from different places around the world release their game at the same time and at the same day?
This is reality …
It’s big out there and If you didn’t work for it, trust me you’ll be killing your game in no time.
when you release your game, the clock is ticking, you want to stay up there? you want to make it alive? then work for it:-
0- First, make a great game (If you don’t have something good to share, you need to work a bit more)
1- Update your game at the first 2-3 weeks of your release IF NEEDED (fix bugs)
2- TALK TO EVERYONE (I can’t express how important this one is!!)
3- RESPOND to every single comment, review and video you get from everywhere on your game (Be thankful)
4- Make people know that you care for them, If someone hated your game, don’t just go ahead and explain everything, just say thank you for your feedback, so how can I improve this (thing) you hated in the game, be calm (very calm) with everyone.
5- Don’t think about going into featured games or make people care when your game is Flappy Bird clone.
6- First game? make it free (this will help a lot gaining people)
AND THE MOST IMPORTANT THING …
7- BE CONSISTENT in the first month of release. now what I mean about this is to always update your game, always talk to everyone and all of the above (YUP that’s it), just don’t release your game and go to sleep.
8- Keep learning, I mean in about 4 months I’ll start working on the next game and I’m sure I’ll get stuck at something and I’ll ask here, you always learn.
9- If you’re releasing on itch.io then Keep track of the very big jams there and make sure you publish your game about a week after the voting has ended. (Thanks MeX1Co)
Mistakes I did and I’ll fix in the next projects :-
1- DEVLOGS … something I forgot about, I was so into development that I forgot there is a world out there and trust me you’ll get there when you love what you create.
SO always post devlogs (when you find possible) DON’T post codes of your game and stuff that people won’t understand (Don’t flex on people) … you have a picture cool upload it, have a gif? awesome release it and talk about it, made a new type of mechanic in your game? very nice go for it and show it to people.
(Now this will create audience and people every single time you upload), there was a game developer who said “If you got 2 people to see your game every day, this means at the end of the year you’ll have 730 know about your game, now let’s say you make 5 people see your game every day ? Think about it ”
2- Thinking big without working for it, now :-
you don’t think about making millions and your game is Free-to-play.
you don’t think about people going crazy when people don’t even know that you exist .
you don’t think about reaching out to big companies when your are a small indie game.
you don’t think about learning when you keep making the same mistakes.
(Make your story) ETC…
3- Have a plan, don’t just go and release without any plan for the future.
4- Eliminate distractions as much as you can.
5- Think small and create big, start with a simple mechanic and build your game on this mechanic.
DON’T start big and fall in the ocean of ideas.
And a lot more but I can’t remember now (just don’t make the mistakes that no one told me about )
Note: I’m no expert at anything, just sharing my story for the past 1 month and I hope this helps anyone out there.
Miko’s Adventures now (Is kinda over on most websites) and those 3 games I was talking about that released with me (They are over as well, their time is gone as well as mine).
Time for me and them to move on and make better,bigger and great things, things that live more than 1 month
The future is bright as long as you work for it …
I have faith and I’m going to keep going until Miko shakes the ground, he managed to shake it that one time, why not again
I’m thankful for the experience and I’m SO ready for another one
If you have any other tips to say from your experience, please share it so that people know about it.
If you have any question ask and I hope I have an answer for it …
Have a nice wonderful day and always keep making games, I want to play them so bad