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I didn't do any coding or school for IT before I started trying my hand in engines, but since that time I did an IT diploma while working on Usurper BECAUSE I realized I love coding while learning to develop. I always wanted to make games but was told you need to love math to even begin, which is not really true, you need to love logic and logical solutions to be good at coding as far as I can say, there is little dry math to it.
I can't say I'm successful at all, currently I am tethering on the edge of failing to remain a full time dev, After I got my diploma I was able to start being full time, but now it's getting tougher. I love doing it so I am ok with it so long as I can afford to keep making the games I want the way I want.
As much as I would love to get help or even form a team I am a miserable team player, I cannot rely on others if I can do something myself (or even attempt) I only dont do music because I literally cannot even begin on it and that I found one person I actually trust and know enough to leave it to him. Plus I am in no financial position to even pay for good illustrations anymore so yeah.
What I can say is that coding is not hard, if you like logical puzzles and are good at them, or even good at learning languages you can be good at it fast. Everyone says how to remain motivated and in the mood when working but I would give a free advice of learn discipline, if you want to start down this road its not motivation or mood that you want to maintain because that WILL falter and fae no matter what, but discipline to work even if you dont want or feel like it. At least that works for me anyways.
Oh and what I am absolutely god awful at is marketing, I hate it and cannot do it properly, that's part the reason most people only find my games by accident. That's a massive failing and one of the biggest reasons why I am currently in danger of loosing my ability to work on the games full time, so dont be like me!
Regading game devs, I am a very logical person and I am terrible at math so your words are very encouraging in that regard because math is a deterrent for me in looking into making a game. When I believe in something or someone I am very passionate about it, music is at the forfront of that passion but gaming has always been there with me growing up and I see them as more than just games but as other people's passions.
I think the way things are nowadays with media and social sites it is very taxing to get recognized and market yourself, for me I am very introverted and don't like a lot of social interactions but now in my 30s I have had to learn to deal with it. With what I have going on with my music, I am scared someone will steal my music so I haven't really put it out there, a few experimental things on Bandcamp but not the ones that I really care about so I am not doing it properly either.
Again though, I really appreciate your response and encouraging words. I hope things turn around for you. We are all struggling in this world.
Take care.
Since you are not that good in promoting the game i will try to make it some more public again... i did some giveawasy on steamgifts and mentioned your game in every thread about hidden indi gems etc... 90% positiv feedback... last person who won the game from me enjoyed it so much that he goes NG+...
I dont know exactly how i will start that promotion but i try to find a efficent way... i know you dont want the game to be "bundled" and to be honest i dont like this bundles myself (because they kill game prices and the way how people think how much games should be worth) even if i buy them myself... :/
I will make a new thread wehn i have an idea so you can follow what will happen...
Have a nice day and dont stop enjoying making games...!
Its a question of income, if the games dont make enough to cover a wage I would get otherwise than I have to stop working full time on the games, its as simple as that.
You dont have to go out of your way to do that, this is why I dont like talking about this, because it guilt people into doing stuff they should not, its my job to make this work, and if I cant its my fault.
I've never really gotten as far as you have with something like this, or probably anything, so I'm not in a place to really be trying to give advice, but it sounds like you may be putting too much on yourself.
I understand that it's your responsibility and that you are the one who has to deal with shortcomings and try to change, something I'm in the process of myself, but nobody ever makes it completely on their own. I'm not saying you should just open up and ask everyone to help you with your problems, but you don't need to take all of this on by yourself.
Obviously I don't know anything about your situation and all of this could be completely useless to you, I just figured I would say something in case it was useful to you.
Oh, and I love your game, you created something really interesting that I'm excited to figure out, I can't believe I bought this game so long ago and didn't bother really getting into it until recently.
My biggest issue is the inability and refusal to market I am trying to break it, but I have this deep hate for marketing and its starting to harm my income, now that the Steam algorithm changed.
I make games the way I like them, if that aligns with someone else's taste thats great, but even writing the short blurb on Stem makes me cringe to my core.
I understand making something meant for you and people with a really specific taste, but I think your games have the potential for more mass appeal than you may think. Shrouded in Sanity is the only metroidvania type game I could find on steam at the time that I bought it, and that genre still seems pretty popular. There are other games in the genre out now, but none of them really have the same style.
You wouldn't be trying to trick anyone into getting your game that wouldn't enjoy it, the goal is to make sure as many of the people who would enjoy that game become aware of it as possible.
The game is not for everyone, I understand that, but neither is Bloodbourne or Dark souls. Do you remember back when those games were more new? I sure do. A lot of kids today probably just accept that it is this legendary series because of how it is received, I remember back when dark souls 1 was still kind of fresh and dark souls was treated like this massive failure that was so bad it was good.
A lot of "game critics" that people still respect, I remember bashing that game, insulting anyone that "pretended" to enjoy it for attention (yes that was actually the explanation for why anyone enjoyed it) and then those same "critics" suddenly loved the game when people started understanding the idea and it started to get mass appeal.
My point is, yeah you wold have to deal with some ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ and you would have people who just sincerely don't enjoy your game because it isn't their kind of thing, but you would also have a lot more people who would actually appreciate your game. Oh, and steam has a super usable refund policy, so it isn't like you would ever be ripping anyone off.
I'm sorry if I'm getting annoying, but I feel like maybe you are crippling yourself with that kind of worry.
EDIT: Read your other comment about it not being a metroidvania, fair enough, I still stand by the idea that this game has the potential for a much bigger fanbase. I don't think the desire for this type of game is as niche as you may think.
I understand and know it has appeal for a wider audience than they currently have, but I cannot bring myself to do marketing instead of getting actual work done and improving my skills at making the games I want. Crowdfunding would be pointless since that is almost entirely marketing in the first place. So I either grow slow or dive head first into concrete from the 40th floor by spending money on marketing.
I have never once seen an ad for crusader kings 2 or mount and blade, but those are some of my favorite games. I found one through odd forum posts and the other through some article talking about underrated games. Money isn't the only way to get your game out there.
Take for instance, reviews. I am not saying you should do this, just pointing out that this is a mostly free marketing tactic. Companies obviously don't pay popular youtubers to review their game, they give them review copies. They get a free copy of the game, they help promote the game. Yes there is a chance they will hate the game, a decent game and enough points of view will usually get you a net positive imo. Even if it doesn't, that is exposure and a lot of people who know it is the type of thing they would be into can go try it themselves.
I really wish I was in your position. I have never been able to finish a project, not even a decent youtube video I can feel proud enough of to leave up, let alone a functioning game. Funny enough I think promoting my crap was the only thing I was good at, at least to get tripple digits on terrible videos that were usually just me practicing chroma key on shotcut.
If I ever made anything close to the style and quality of Shrouded in Sanity I would be trying to show as many people as possible. Maybe I'm just a little shameless when it comes to stuff like that, but I think you kind of have to be to break through that wall.
I would probably also ♥♥♥♥ it up if it was me, my first instinct would be weird youtube videos that show some things but explain nothing just to make people curious, or the old standby, satirically bashing more popular games and declaring them inferior. "Oh you kids like your red dead redemption? Oh can you play as the bosses in that game? Oh, well you can in Shrouded in Sanity but I guess we can't hold every game to that standard" dumb joke I know, but the best part is if someone misses the obvious joke and takes it too seriously, it could end up blowing up into a thing that more people see, are amused by, and now the existence of that video game is stuck in their head.
A lot of the things you mention used to work, but youtubers are dying atm thanks to the Ad-pocalypse and game coverage is a dwindling genre. The big ones will NOT cover you, and the small ones have literally zero reach and audience. Sites will not cover you unless you are really lucky or already established, there are way too many indie games now and its getting REALLY really over-flooded.
I agree and I do see the issue with the oversaturation, but I disagree about the small youtubers thing. In a way, the smaller ones are often the only ones with a real connection to the audience, unless I am misunderstanding what you meant. Yes the ad thing sucks, but not everyone is just going for the youtube gold rush, some of us never expected to make money on it to begin with and still just want to entertain people (and the existence of things like patreon means the whole youtube partnership thing is far less enticing now) and a lot of those types of people still have an audience.
Alright just as a for example, recently I started watching a channel called Civie11. Obviously not the type of channel that would show off your game, he focuses on shooters, but he has promoted a ton of small indie FPS games. Yes a lot of them are well known and his exposure will hardly effect it, but he also shows off some lesser known gems that I never knew about. You can have that because he specializes in something so specific that indie games that would normally be buried under more popular ones could be dug up since they fit that specific niche.
What I'm getting at is that yet, most gaming channels wouldn't bother with a game like this over a more popular game or something easier to make jokes from, but channels that focus on combat focused games, adventure games, lovecraftian stories, or stuff like that may not only find it worth talking about but might bring it to exactly the type of audience that would enjoy the game.
I know the youtube situation sucks for people, but the platform isn't dying. The big youtubers mostly figured out how to make money from their work elsewhere and all this drama really hasn't stopped people from actually watching videos on the platform. I bring up youtube because it is, as far as I know, the video platform with the most viewers and the easiest one to get content on completely for free.
I'm not trying to push you into doing something you don't want to do, just want to present another side to this. You are obviously really talented and I would hate to think that what you managed to create won't be appreciated or rewarded.
Each time I used the same approach I looked for channels that covered similar genre and tier games, and approached them via email got less than 10 responses for ItF...
It's really not easy, and it has gotten a lot worse recently.
Every day there are over 10 games on steam now... average 8 of them indies.
Obviously it sucks, I guess I had no idea how saturated the market really was with the indie games. Still, don't lose hope. Who knows, maybe the thing that ends up blowing up and drawing tons of attention to all your games is a project you didn't even care about or think would take off that well, kind of like HP Lovecraft with Reanimator.
I really shouldn't be trying to give advice, I know. If anything I should be asking you for advice but I should probably focus more on finding a real job and getting my prescriptions refilled than trying to learn how to design games again.
I guess it just bums me out to think that someone who made something like this wasn't really rewarded for it that much. I guess that's real life though, people that create cool things don't usually just become Stephen King and live comfortably while ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ out half baked ideas (I love his work, but you know what I mean) Lovecraft only got his massive fanbase after he died and Nick Cage had to do direct to Netflix trash because of financial issues.