u/disco69games

we have this auto Firing skill in our game,
and I tried to make it a little more juicy.
my partner and art director (Riff, god bless his soul) says that one of em is much better.

give us your vote please
(and also ideas, comments & feedback are very welcomed)

Game Title: NTD: Tower Defense X Arcade

Playable Link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3921340/NTD_Tower_Defense_x_Arcade/

Platform: Steam Demo

Description: Tower Defense / Arcade / Roguelike, where you destroy derplings in space.

Become the Gun & the Architect!

Build your defense network of towers but also be part of the action!
use your gun, skill triggers and sentinels you get along the way to survive the derpy horde,
and see if you have what it takes to win

Free to Play Status:

• [ ] Free to play
• [ x ] Demo/Key available
• [ ] Paid (Allowed only on Tuesdays with [TT] in the title)

Involvement: We're a two person team :)
Kobi: Development and original game designer
Riff (Ofir) : Art director, Co-game designer, and in charge of telling kobi he's full of s#@&

We would love to hear your feedback on the game!
We're currently working on Demo 2.0 after a lot of feedbacks we got on the first one,
it should be out within a couple of weeks.
WL and stay tuned :)
(link in the comments)

7 years ago I started a journey to make my dream game.
I wanted a Tower defense but without all the clunky mouse controls,
and it ended up being a arcade-roguelike fusion too.

it's got it all:
tower customization, wacky power ups,
getting the player in on the action,
and a whole bunch of pixelated mayhem :))

to be fair, it's a long and hard journey, but I am super proud of the upcoming result.

we released the demo about 3 months ago,
and while it got some good reception, it's still not quite there yet,
and we would love to know how you feel about it.
what needs to be improved, what more would you like to see
(and of course what you like as well)

we're gonna release a Demo 2.0 in the next couple of weeks,
WL and stay tuned, I think you will enjoy it :D

Our demo launched to 350 wishlists. I'm not going to pretend that's okay. Here's what went wrong and how we're planning Demo 2.0.

I've been sitting on this post for a few weeks because honestly, it's embarrassing to write. I poured a whole year into the demo, hit the launch button, and… crickets. 350 wishlists. I've seen posts on here about games hitting 10k in a weekend. I refreshed that number every hour for three days straight.

Here's the honest truth: we did zero marketing beforehand. No devlog presence, no community building, no content, no outreach. We just kind of assumed that if we built something good enough, people would find it. They didn't. That's not Steam's fault. That's not bad luck. That's on us.

The game itself — I believe in it. The feedback from the people who *did* play it was genuinely encouraging. The problem wasn't the product. It was that almost nobody knew it existed.

So we're going back to the drawing board — not on the game, but on everything around it. We're calling it **Demo 2.0**, and this time we're treating the launch like an actual event instead of an afterthought.

Here's what we're thinking so far:

- Build an actual presence before we launch anything (devlogs, short-form content, community engagement)

- Reach out to streamers and indie game coverage outlets well in advance

- Time the demo drop around a Steam Next Fest or similar event

- Actually *talk* to people about the game instead of just dropping a build and hoping

- create a new trailer and some shorts and fund them on youtube / reddit / tiktok

But I'd be lying if I said I had it all figured out. I'm still learning. A lot.

So I'm asking for help.

For those of you who've relaunched, recovered from a rough first demo, or just know this space better than I do:

- What would you do differently if you were in my shoes?

- Any specific channels, strategies, or mistakes to avoid that you wish someone had told you?

I'm not looking for reassurance — I'm looking for real talk. What actually moves the needle for an indie game that needs to start over?