Since these posts aren’t getting much traction, I haven’t made any in what feels like an eternity. Since I last posted, I have made lots of improvements to the game:
- Improved the map both visually and its inner workings, now offering more paths
- Added some juice, by improving some of the game’s visual effects, adding a slight screen shake, and blood stains on the board
- Added a lot more pieces, relics, and items
- Prepared the infrastructure for the full game (3 chapters + final boss)
You can check out all these improvements on the Steam demo and on itch.
Additionally, I’ve participated in a couple of festivals, getting to ~250 wishlists. Assuming I double the number of wishlists by launch, that wishlist conversion rate is 20% and the price is 10€, the game will make ~1.000€ and I’ll probably get half of that amount after steam cut and taxes. This figure is way below my initial expectations, but it’s only my first commercial game and I’ll still be happy. However, I’ll still do what I can to get it to more people.
My plan is to release it in February. Before launch, the plan goes as follows:
- Finish the game by the end of December. This includes a new type of map location involving sacrifices in exchange for more powerful units and relics, completing the game lore (I have a draft in my head but it needs some ironing), and populating the final stages (90% of the content is made, I just need to tell the game where to show it)
- Run a beta to gather some feedback. I’ll get players for the beta from alphabetagamer and some specific subreddits. My plan is to credit and give steam keys to everyone that makes a contribution to improving the game
- Contact streamers (hopefully by mid-January) to start generating some interest in the game
- Participate in February’s Steam Next Fest
- Release a week after Next Fest
So that’s that. Hopefully, the plan works out and I can be here in a couple of months talking about a successful launch 😉