u/mambasa_darkvam

Hey guys! I wonder if the genre of the game is clearly readable from the capsule onle?
My game is in "Coming Soon" for more than a month, and it has pretty decent CTR (14%) with 27000 impressions (not many, i know).

Still, CTR looks good and i wonder if i should change capsule in the future or not? Does it look appealing to you?

Thanks!

Hey, guys. I have been making games for more than 20 years. And now, having full time job hasn't stopped me from continuing my lovely hobby.
It's been almost one and a half year since i am warking on Super Special Squad solo in my free time. Steam page is up for a bit more than a month and currently i am working hard trying myself in marketing (with almost zero result yet, unfortunately).

Solo gamedev in a nutshell

Who am i to tell you how difficult it is to do everything yourself? It is a constant figting with time that goes much faster than you want - it feels impossible to get everything done. Now i struggle between completing demo and marketing early (shorts, articles, contacting content creators or establishing fan-base).
I'm not using AI, and it may look like AI speed up processes - I doubt that. If we are not talking about AI slop, you still need too much of a control, expertise and time to make everything work just well - AI wont be a solution. At least, not in the foreseen future.
If you don't have a budget or a publisher - your only hope may be luck. Either algorythms will pay off, or some kind of a butterfly effect of people sharing your game around the world.

I am aware, that there are procedures that will increase your luck chances. Still, with thousands of games releasing each month, it is more about luck if you go without proper marketing budget.

Motivation and doubts

Some people lack motivation, but i have more than enough of that! The main problem is lack of free time. I feel like im not living this life but wasting it on a race without the finish line.
Seeing games goes viral and yours doesn't - hurt. I, sometimes, consider canning the project and trying something more viral. But again, i already infested too much time to stop. Investing in a new project may not lead anywhere. Im not the only one who trying to "catch the wave". Too many "friend slop" games shows that well.

So i decided to finish "Super Special Squad" no matter what. I love my game and how it plays. It will be good and i hope someday it will get the coverage it deserve. But for now i working hard on demo. It may help a lot with visibility.

Don't doubt making your game. Released project is much better than not released one. It is a priceless experience, be it a success or failure.

Stay positive

Do not envy devs who succeeded - their cases shows that you can succeeed too. Most of devs i spoke with are really great guys who would love to share their tip and tricks. I know, when you see a game, that looks "not better than yours" going super viral and your failed - it hurts. But i like to take it as a challenge - you have an example of a success. Just do a little research why they succeeded and you didnt. That will increase your chances with a next project.
Love what you reating. Game is art. And i don't think you can only see it as a business and money - that may lead you nowhere.

Consider this post as my own subjective opinion on gadev life. Maybe some will relate. Stay positive guys ;)

Guys, 100 wishlists in first month of Super Special Squad Steam page up!

It may sound lame, but for me it is a huge milestone that i managed to cross with 0 marketing budget.
I want to also thank redditors - you was such a huge help and motivation<3

Here is a short summary of what i've tried so far:

• Reddit, obviously. Was a huge help. It gave me a decent percentage of wishlists, but what is more important - really helpful advice and motivational messages. Thank you so much!
• Shorts (YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, etc). I had either new accs or very old ones with zero uploads for like 5-7 years time span. Possibly that is the problem with traffic that almost none existent. Still, YouTube is the most promising (this short got the best views number yet)
• Social media's articles (livejournal-like) - game me some wishlists for sure.
• Contacting big game channels (IGN, Indie Hub) was in vain for now. But i'm not upset - will repeat from time to time.
• Still cant figure out chinese socials. It is really hard starting from the scratch and having literally zero chinese language knowledge :D

What i'm planning to do next:

• Building my own audience on Discord or Telegram. It is not that easy, but you should try somewhere, right?
• More content on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram. I think i need to keep pushing those algos :P
• Closed playtest build and Demo - slowly but surely moving towards it. I think it is that kind of a game, that won't have viral potential, but might be simple yet fun and solid game experience, when you just want to chill a bit - that's ok too!

Demo should definitely help when you have no virality potential. Not every game should be a walking meme so i stil hoping on getting more visibility when people will be able to actually play my game.

Guys, how do you build your core communities? Maybe some advice for an introvert guy like me? :)

Guys, 100 wishlists in first month of Super Special Squad Steam page up!

It may sound lame, but for me it is a huge milestone that i managed to cross with 0 marketing budget.
I want to also thank redditors - you was such a huge help and motivation<3

Here is a short summary of what i've tried so far:

• Reddit, obviously. Was a huge help. It gave me a decent percentage of wishlists, but what is more important - really helpful advice and motivational messages. Thank you so much!
• Shorts (YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, etc). I had either new accs or very old ones with zero uploads for like 5-7 years time span. Possibly that is the problem with traffic that almost none existent. Still, YouTube is the most promising (this short got the best views number yet)
• Social media's articles (livejournal-like) - game me some wishlists for sure.
• Contacting big game channels (IGN, Indie Hub) was in vain for now. But i'm not upset - will repeat from time to time.
• Still cant figure out chinese socials. It is really hard starting from the scratch and having literally zero chinese language knowledge :D

What i'm planning to do next:

• Building my own audience on Discord or Telegram. It is not that easy, but you should try somewhere, right?
• More content on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram. I think i need to keep pushing those algos :P
• Closed playtest build and Demo - slowly but surely moving towards it. I think it is that kind of a game, that won't have viral potential, but might be simple yet fun and solid game experience, when you just want to chill a bit - that's ok too!

Demo should definitely help when you have no virality potential. Not every game should be a walking meme so i stil hoping on getting more visibility when people will be able to actually play my game.

Guys, how do you build your core communities? Maybe some advice for an introvert guy like me? :)

Само-собой это далеко не ГТА6, но я правда стараюсь!

Работаю 100% в соло в свободное от работы время. Буду честен - это такой плотненький ремейк одной из моих первых игр (да, да, еще на Флеше). Тут я подтягиваю визуал до 4к, эффекты на классненьких сочных шейдерах, сам пишу и внедряю всякие классные (на мой взгляд) системы, типа редактора волн врагов, звукового "движка" и т.п. И это при том, что я не программист (юзаю ИИ только для решения конкретных затыков - никакого вайбкодинга и тп).

Суть игрушки проста, но скоротать весело вечерок точно сгодиться!

Задача - умело комбинировать героев с уникальными способностями и весело уничтожать толпы зомби, мутантов и еще всякой нечисти - всё, как обычно, ради спасения человечества!
Продвигаемся по карте на крутом зомби траке, сталкиваемся со случайными событиями (полезными и не очень), побеждаем боссов и лутаем ресы для прокачки.

Конечно, в своё время (в те самые бородатые годы) я наверняка вдохновлялся PvZ, но всё-таки старался привнести что-то новое. Игра не Tower Defence, а скорее тактический экшен с менеджером команды.

Как вам? Сейчас готовлю билд для плейтеста. Но работы еще потеть и потеть:)

Вот тут страничка в Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4266750/Super_Special_Squad

Usually people share positive experience here. But I'm gonna share a negative one.
It's been almost a full month since i launches my game Steam page and i sit on a minimum wishlist count possible.

So far i tried many ways of marketing:

1. Shorts (YouTube, TikTok, Instagram) - YouTube was the most positive with at least over 1k views (which is still nothing, i know)
2. Articles in social medias (livejournal-like) - probably gave me some wishlists here.
3. Contacting big channels (IGN, Indie Games Hub) and several smaller ones - got almost 0 responses.
4. Trying chinese market (BiliBili, Xiaohongshu) translating my shorts on chinese - BiliBili literally game me almost no views on my gameplay trailer, tho i used most popular themes and hashtags. Xiaohongshu was a bit better, but still not so much.
5. Reddit was probably the most cool audience. You guys are always supporting and helpful, tho i didnt have a very popular post about my game here.
6. Many more smaller attemts (X and other socials)

I know, i suck in marketing. And i will probably still continue to learn many things. But having almost zero response? Maybe that means my game just not interesting at all? Maybe my steam page is lame?

I still hope for demo launch and SteamFest, but having this wishlist count - no sense entering SteanFest at all.

Here is my game's Steam Page. Any advice?

Hello guys.

Im making a game that could possibly be interesting for a chinese market. I've read a lot about chinese platforms, but so far i cant understand how can a solo dev reach for them.

So here is my experience so far:

1. douyin - basically a chinese tiktok. You simply cant upload anything there if you dont have chinese citizenship or a resident card. You cant register = cant upload.
2. BiliBili - chinese "YouTube". I came across a positive experience. I tried to register there. It says that you can register with a foreigners IDs. But everytime im trying to upload my scans im getting an error. Something like there is a problem with my acc (PC/APP/WEB - tried everything). I wrote to BiliBili customer service, asking for manual registration, but everytime im getting like "just try later via App form". I think they just dont want foreigners there.
3. Xiaohongshu (little red book) - the only platform where i could register with 0 problems. I can also see many foreigners there and chinese people seems liking it. But it is hard to market there without an already established audience - got almost 0 outcome.

So either some devs are not 100% sincere and use paid ads services or publisher's help or im just super unlucky.

Please share your stories/advice. Thanks!

Long story short: I cranked up the enemy count and added "a couple" of explosive barrels to the battle arena. I set it to 4K in Unity and hit "REC". The experiment was positive - I got completely smooth gameplay with zero spikes and lag (sure, gif does eat fps and resolution, but you get the impression).

You can see the enemy counter at the bottom right. I could go further, but there's no point, since my game isn't really a pure "bullet hell" - it's more like real-time tactics: you need to pick heroes with different abilities and weapons and combine them to win battles.

Fixed the bug when enemies wouldn't spawn at the bottom lane. Common mistake with the list length range.

P.S.: Seeing how idle games and bullethells are kind of popular right now, I'm eager to change my game mechanics :D Should I consider swapping from the "Plants vs. Zombies" lookalike to something like the "Zero Stress King"? What do you guys think?

P.S. 2: The game is called Super Special Squad, and it is on Steam "coming soon" section.

Long story short: I cranked up the enemy count and added "a couple" of explosive barrels to the battle arena. I set it to 4K in Unity and hit "REC". The experiment was positive - I got completely smooth gameplay with zero spikes and lag (I decreased the resolution to FullHD just for the sake of Reddit; I wasn't sure if uploading a 4K video was a good idea).

You can see the enemy counter at the bottom right. I could go further, but there's no point, since my game isn't really a pure "bullet hell" - it's more like real-time tactics: you need to pick heroes with different abilities and weapons and combine them to win battles.

P.S.: Seeing how idle games and bullethells are kind of popular right now, I'm eager to change my game mechanics :D Should I consider swapping from the "Plants vs. Zombies" lookalike to something like the "Zero Stress King"? What do you guys think?

My game is called Super Special Squad btw :)

2D games should be fine, right? Still, stress testing never hurts! So far so good - except my enemies refuse to spawn on the bottom line for some mysterious reason. 😂 Fixing that ASAP!

Too much chaos going on? Let me know your thoughts!

Super Special Squad - is a real-time tactics with humorous twist. Combine heroes and eliminate hordes of enemies. Journey through a post-apocalyptic world. Gather resources, level up your squad, equip your Zombitruck, and crush everyone in your path to victory.

Making this game solo (everything, except C0 music) in a free time after working hours. Wont make it a secret - this game is based on my old "Super Squad" flash game (i think it was made almost 15 years ago, my God... Time fly).

Im a complete noob in marketing, taking my first steps in it. Not my cup of tea, i'd make games 24/7 instead 😃

But i love to hear any feedback guys. Feel free to share your thoughts on my game.

You may consider watching trailer/wishlisting here on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4266750/Super_Special_Squad

(AI free content. I only used AI dealing with some code problematic points, since im not a coder myself 😄)