u/just_another_sheep

I've started doing a bunch of marketing for my game to try to get some coverage before Next Fest in October. I'm pretty happy about where the game is at, so I've been sending out steam keys to creators to get some first looks at it.

I'm using a batch email service to send these keys out in bulk and a pretty big youtuber replied. He's got almost a million subscribers and his videos regularly get 100k-300k views. I feel like that sort of reach would be huge for my game right before next fest - I'd really love to pump my numbers up before the event.

The thing is, he wants $5k for a dedicated let's play video. One of his videos 2 weeks ago got just 71k views - I'm wondering how likely it is I'd see my money back off that.

I sent out 250 emails over the weekend, so I'm hesitant to make any huge decisions until more data from that outreach comes back. Am I crazy for considering paying the $5k though? It's really hard to quantify what a video from this guy would be worth.

Hey! I launched my demo today with this new trailer!

The game is called Interregnum, and it kind of has a lot going on. I really like board games, and the gameplay is very inspired by Dominion with a little bit of Air, Land and Sea going on. You place units on a map to get influence that you can spend on new, cooler units.

There's also an extensive single-player mode in the works with about 20 hours of content in it by my estimates. I know a lot of gamers prefer solo play, so I wanted them to feel like they'd get their money's worth.

I think the game really shines in multiplayer mode, and there's online multiplayer in the demo! There's a lot of bluffing and trick potential that I think lands better among humans than against a CPU. Give it a go with some friends if you like!

Would love to hear your thoughts on the trailer or on the game itself!

I really loved Dominion when I first encountered it over a decade ago. I played tons with friends, family, anybody who was willing to sit down and learn it with me. I got really into custom cards, and even made a whole custom set with my brother that we played a few rounds of. But as time went on, I found myself feeling wanting to riff on the formula.

I started designing the game that would become Interregnum a few years after that. My brother and I worked on it together, took it to a board game convention in a shoebox, played with friends, and spent hours iterating on card ideas. After enough playtests on paper and tabletop simulator, I decided to invest a little over 2 years developing the game in Godot.

It's been fun! The core thrust of it is that currency and victory points are all strewn across a board that you have to claim. Each round, you play units face-down on the map to try to outbid your opponents in a silent auction kinda combat system. I was really into Game of Thrones at the time we made it, and I liked the idea of vassals sneakily outmaneuvering each other without outright fighting.

I always thought the balance between going for victory points and currency in Dominion was conceptually super interesting, and I hope you all will feel that we preserved some of that. My friend says it feels a bit more like Air, Land and Sea with the hidden combat stuff going on.

The demo is still in Valve's approval pipeline, but there's an open playtest live that you can try out through the link! This is the hardest I've ever worked on something and I hope you all take some joy from it. I'd also love any and all feedback if you wind up taking a look, and wishlisting the game would also help me immensely.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4255610/Interregnum/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=demo_launch&utm_content=dominion

Thanks!