u/eldany_uy

Eso.
Ojaldre.

Ayer fui a ver El Día de la Revelación al Moviecenter con mucha expectativa y la verdad que no me convenció para nada.

Alguien más la vio? Me interesa leer opiniones porque salí bastante decepcionado y quiero saber si soy el único.

After spending almost three years building an indie multiplayer esports game, I've come to a realization: making the game fun and amazing was actually the easy part.

The hard part is getting people to know it exists.

I'm curious how other indie developers with limited budgets (4 digits) approach marketing. If you had, say, some thousand dollars to spend, where would you put it?

Would you focus on social media ads, Reddit ads, TikTok content, YouTube, or would you put that money into streamers and content creators instead?

What I'm struggling to understand is how much a streamer is actually worth. If someone has 10,000 followers, 100,000 followers, or averages a few thousand views per video or stream, what would you realistically expect to pay for coverage? Is there any rule of thumb people use, or is it completely all over the place?

I've been learning the hard way that visibility seems to be a completely different skill set from game development. You can spend years polishing a game, but if nobody hears about it, it might as well not exist.

I'd love to hear from developers who have already gone through this. If you had a limited budget and could start over, where would you spend your marketing dollars?

After spending almost three years building an indie multiplayer esports game, I've come to a realization: making the game fun and amazing was actually the easy part.

The hard part is getting people to know it exists.

I'm curious how other indie developers with limited budgets (4 digits) approach marketing. If you had, say, some thousand dollars to spend, where would you put it?

Would you focus on social media ads, Reddit ads, TikTok content, YouTube, or would you put that money into streamers and content creators instead?

What I'm struggling to understand is how much a streamer is actually worth. If someone has 10,000 followers, 100,000 followers, or averages a few thousand views per video or stream, what would you realistically expect to pay for coverage? Is there any rule of thumb people use, or is it completely all over the place?

I've been learning the hard way that visibility seems to be a completely different skill set from game development. You can spend years polishing a game, but if nobody hears about it, it might as well not exist.

I'd love to hear from developers who have already gone through this. If you had a limited budget and could start over, where would you spend your marketing dollars?

Hi everyone,

I've been working on a multiplayer esports game called Roomballs for a little over 3 years now. A lot of people compare it to Rocket League when they first see it, which is fair, but the actual gameplay is quite different.

Lately I've been struggling with a decision that keeps me awake at night: should I launch it as a paid game or go Free-to-Play?

The reason I'm even considering F2P is that building a community has been way harder than I expected. I've been posting regularly on TikTok and Instagram, spent some money on promotion, and while I've had some encouraging moments, growth has been painfully slow.

One thing I've noticed is that whenever players actually find other people online, they tend to have a great time. I've had people tell me they were surprised by how much fun the game was. The problem is getting enough players online at the same time. Most people launch the game, see empty servers, play for a few minutes, and leave. Then they never come back.

I think I made things worse during Steam Next Fest.

At the time, the game was basically multiplayer-only. There were no bots, no solo progression, no academy mode, no cup mode, and not much to do if nobody else happened to be online. I also didn't realize how valuable Steam Next Fest was. Looking back, I treated it more like a test than a major opportunity.

About 1,200 people downloaded the demo and I got around 1,800 wishlists, but a lot of players probably had the same experience: launch the game, find no matches, quit.

The frustrating part is that most of those problems have since been fixed. The game now has bots, solo content, progression systems, cup modes, and enough things to do that it feels much more complete. But obviously I can't go back in time and replay Steam Next Fest.

So now I'm trying to figure out the launch strategy.

Part of me feels like charging upfront would be a mistake because multiplayer games live and die by player population. Every extra barrier means fewer people trying the game, fewer matches happening, and a harder time reaching critical mass.

But the other part of me is terrified of going Free-to-Play. I've put more than 3 years of work and pretty much all of my savings into this project. I have over 300 playable characters and skins ready for monetization, but there's always that fear that people will happily play for free, never buy anything, and I'll never recover the investment.

I'm curious what more experienced developers would do in this situation.

If you were launching a small indie multiplayer game with a tiny community, would you prioritize getting as many players as possible through a F2P launch, or would you still charge for the game and hope the smaller audience is enough?

I'd really appreciate hearing from people who have been through something similar.

Thanks.
Dany

Hi everyone,

I've been working on a multiplayer esports game called Roomballs for a little over 3 years now. A lot of people compare it to Rocket League when they first see it, which is fair, but the actual gameplay is quite different.

Lately I've been struggling with a decision that keeps me awake at night: should I launch it as a paid game or go Free-to-Play?

The reason I'm even considering F2P is that building a community has been way harder than I expected. I've been posting regularly on TikTok and Instagram, spent some money on promotion, and while I've had some encouraging moments, growth has been painfully slow.

One thing I've noticed is that whenever players actually find other people online, they tend to have a great time. I've had people tell me they were surprised by how much fun the game was. The problem is getting enough players online at the same time. Most people launch the game, see empty servers, play for a few minutes, and leave. Then they never come back.

I think I made things worse during Steam Next Fest.

At the time, the game was basically multiplayer-only. There were no bots, no solo progression, no academy mode, no cup mode, and not much to do if nobody else happened to be online. I also didn't realize how valuable Steam Next Fest was. Looking back, I treated it more like a test than a major opportunity.

About 1,200 people downloaded the demo and I got around 1,800 wishlists, but a lot of players probably had the same experience: launch the game, find no matches, quit.

The frustrating part is that most of those problems have since been fixed. The game now has bots, solo content, progression systems, cup modes, and enough things to do that it feels much more complete. But obviously I can't go back in time and replay Steam Next Fest.

So now I'm trying to figure out the launch strategy.

Part of me feels like charging upfront would be a mistake because multiplayer games live and die by player population. Every extra barrier means fewer people trying the game, fewer matches happening, and a harder time reaching critical mass.

But the other part of me is terrified of going Free-to-Play. I've put more than 3 years of work and pretty much all of my savings into this project. I have over 300 playable characters and skins ready for monetization, but there's always that fear that people will happily play for free, never buy anything, and I'll never recover the investment.

I'm curious what more experienced developers would do in this situation.

If you were launching a small indie multiplayer game with a tiny community, would you prioritize getting as many players as possible through a F2P launch, or would you still charge for the game and hope the smaller audience is enough?

I'd really appreciate hearing from people who have been through something similar.

Thanks.
Dany