Today I'm finally releasing Super Candle World, it's a tiny 3D platformer where you can explore a dozen of islands and collect golden cookies :) It's quite small and simple, it can be finished in about 1 hour, and it's available on Steam now : https://store.steampowered.com/app/4028490/Super_Candle_World/
I don't expect any succes with this game, but I may share some insight about the production, the marketing and the release, we see a lot of success story on reddit, sometimes it's also good to have some regular (and maybe realistic) feedbacks from other creators.
So, how did I made this game?
The idea first came with a drawing of a candle character, and the will to learn 3D modeling and rigging. It was a few years ago, I was working in a video game studio and I used a paid Unity asset to have a nice character controller. I was happy with the result, but it was nothing more than a prototype.
Now, a few month ago, after the release of Vindilis, my previous game, I wanted to try again and finish this old project. Also I saw a lot of old school 3D platformer getting quite some hype and success, and I thought I could try to get a part of this cake.
The main gameplay was here, but I added some mechanics to make a full game, a Hover movement, quite like the one in Astrobot, and a Flying movement. I created multiple levels, tried to get inspiration from various games (mario games, donkey kong, astrobot...) and it worked pretty well.
I was quite confident, I was playtesting the game sometimes with friends, with good feedbacks, so it felt alroght for me.
But then, I started marketing the game, and it was a fail.
For my previous game, it was easier to get some hype, with 2D traditional animation adding a "Wow effect". But here, it's a simple 3D platformer, and because I was less comfortable with 3D the art direction wasn't that good. It felt more generic. I shared some gif and video on social media, I tried some google ads, but that wasn't working.
And then I made a first public playtest, and it was not satisfying. First, not a lot of people joined the playtest (my last game had around 20 playtester, for this one only 4), and the feedback were mixed as the gameplay was not as fluid and efficient than expected.
I then participated in the Steam Next Fest, but I had almost no players on my demo, and almost no wishlists.
This marked the beginning of a period of declining motivation in the game's development. I questioned myself a lot, but I no longer saw the point in working on it. I made some changes, but seeing no positive feedback each time I shared my progress was difficult. I knew it wouldn't be a success, but I didn't want to just give up when I could release it in a few weeks. I took a step back, worked on other projects, and thanks to the support of a few friends, I regain the motivation to finish the game.
And now it's the release.
Here are some number :
- 375 wishlist (170 from Steam Next Fest)
- 4 month of development
- 100$ of marketing (google ads, I would have done more if I saw better results)
- 50 mails to streamers before release with free key
For comparison, my previous game launched with 2100 wishlists (1600 during the Steam Next Fest) with roughly the same marketing efforts.
What can I learn from this?
- It's nice to make a game out a little fun idea, and the will to learn new skill, but I should not put to much expectation in the potential success of the game just beacause I think there is a niche in a specific genre
- It's easier to rely on my strengths, as a 2D animator and illustrator, it was way more difficult to get a satisfying result in 3D. I know this seems obvious, but it's important to remember it when starting a production.
- Marketing consumes time and energy, and results seem random when you're a solo developer.
- If you work as a solo dev, on personnal project, focus on the pleasure you feel making a game is far more enjoyable than expecting success.
On this last point I would like to add, as a developer and a gamer, we can feel when the creator or the dev team had fun making a game. I feels more generous, more anjoyable and personnal. My game was made with the hope of success by targeting a niche, and I think that make it more generic and less interesting.
This is my personal experience, I'm no expert to really give any advice, but I hope it still gave some interesting points, or at least helped you to understand how it feel to make a game, and maybe avoid some mistakes I made.