Progress Report
Long time no see. XD I wonder if anybody is still listening to this reports.
The most recent game I have created has sold 365 copies.
Slaves of Nautika This is the most recent game I have created.
Profit
Sales
Profit
813,225 yen => 1,170 usd
Discord
I now have 252 members on my discord channel.
Now, I did not do the marketing plans that I had last post.
I did not create multiple accounts or create multiple gifs in order to mass market my game.
What did I learn
1. dlsite likes new games
One thing that I have noticed while publishing 2 games on DL is that they likely rate new games higher than old ones.
Now you might say that this is of obvious, but DL site does this to a great extent.
Ranking 3 "Whip / Rope / Candle"
Ranking 13 "Sexual Bondage"
This is surely not possible because the games sell alongside sells to the thousands. I only sold 300.
What I also knowticed is that the "new game buff" goes off after about a week. And it totally runs out after a month.
I may or may not be true about the week and month timeline, but I am most certain that
1. there is a new game buff
2. this buff runs out after time
2. dlsite likes high quality games
Now you might say that this is also so obvious. But hear me out. Because sometimes we ignore it in plain sight.
I have published 2 games on dlsite.
One sold to 355, One sold only 79.
You must be registered to see the links
(355)
You must be registered to see the links
(79)
The difference I think that made this is
1. High quality game
2. Free demo
3. Interesting video
4. Interesting game
5. Cheaper price
Now this is quite obviously the move to make, but you must know that dlsite rates your visit / buy ratio.
With better visit / buy ratio, disite will rank you much more higher and promote your game much more.
Slaves of Notika sold over 72 copies on 1 day compared to my previous game selling 79 copies on total.
Make your game interesting and higher in quality. And make your front page better.
3. dlsite does not like low ranking games
This one is also so obvious but this is the trap I have fell through.
The first 2 bars on this graph, was when I was rated with no scores.
But after my game had rating 3 stars when it was buggy, the sales dropped to half.
I have communicated with my fans, and fixed as much bugs as I can,
Currently fixed all the bugs and rated 3.7 on the game. But unfortunately the sales did not go back up.
Bad reviews do not dissapear they stick on your game forever.
You kinda can get away with a interesting looking game but buggy on the inside.
But it won't last 2 days after it gets a bad review.
1. Do not release a buggy or unfinished game and plan to fix it after release
2. Playtest your game again and again
Now what?
I am planning to release another game.
I have learned a lot about myself while making this game.
Things I have done wrong
* I am not skilled enough to making a big game
* I tend to have big dreams while having bad skills
* I tend to rush things to deadlines
* Does not test game throughly
Plans
1. I will make a souls like game.
The dark souls like game does not have extreme mechanics like a city builder stratagy game. (slaves of nautika)
It has the same mechanics repeated a bit differently with different animations and enemies.
This is (I hope) easier to manage than a stratagy game with complicated logic and mechanics.
2. I will make the same genre again and again.
A lot of Indie games do not change genre so easily. They recreate the game with a different story, but never changes the core of the game. Fromsofware (dark souls) Bethesda (skyrim 1,2,3,4, fallout, starfield) Ubisoft (Assasins creed, far cry).
While this is not the case for all game studios, This is how to make games faster with low risk.
I am not saying that I will make the same shit over and over again.
I cannot make the best game on the first try, I will make a mid game, and improve bit by bit on the next and the next.
After some time, I beileve I can create masterpieces again and again because I have extreme baseline of the genre.
3. I will make games every 2~3 months.
This is a financial decision and a non risk decision. I have seen countless people creating games for years and years on end either h game or not.
Currently to make this financially duable, I need to create games every 2 months getting the same success.
This is quite crazy, but after the first game, I think this is duable.
Because I will repeat the genre, I can reuse most of the code and systems I have used.
The first game might be a pain in the ass, but after that it will be easier as time goes on.
4. I will do better marketing after being able to consistently make B+ games with ease.
I think DLsite has more population and traffic for sellers to be worried about marketing.
As far as I learned from the last game, if you make good games on DLsite, the sales will come naturally.
I have not hit that hard limit on DLsite yet, so I will put all my effort in making the best game I can.
I will still do marketing here and ci-en and discord.
But I think pixiv marketing has to be cut off as it takes a lot of time.
Finally?
Good luck and enjoy the ride. Cuz I am enjoying this one.
Life has no meaning. We are all but tiny dust wandering the universe.
We might as well enjoy it while it lasts.
