u/mambasa_darkvam

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 😄)