Postmortem/Smallnalysis - In which I make assumptions on why ProtoDungeon Episodes I and II have low numbers

They’re semi-educated assumptions!

I guess this is a postmortem, except I’m not really grieving the death of a thing. I don’t consider ProtoDungeon dead. It’s just very, very small. I could call it a smallnalysis but “postmortems” are actually a thing in gamedev so I should probably use the commonly accepted terminology

Over 5 months, ProtoDungeon Episode I has sold a total of 75 copies, and Episode II has sold 47 copies over 3 months. If this were my day job… well, it wouldn’t be my day job anymore. But as a side hobby with very limited time? Not too bad!

Postmortem / Smallnalysis GO

I’m pretty much going to ignore the game’s visual appeal and fun factor here, partly because it’s subjective, partly because on these postmortems (at least on reddit) you always see armchair analysts doing that anyway, so I’ll let them weigh in if they ever find this, I guess lol.

But, for some more objective stats:

ProtoDungeon 1 had less than 120 wishlists at launch

This number is amazingly ineffective on Steam. If you want to sell a game, you need more than this. Like, orders of magnitude more.

Honestly the Steam pages weren’t up for long enough. That alone is a big factor, but I also didn’t really have a lot of traffic in general. It’s possible that this was in part due to the game’s quality or inherent attributes, but also because I was still relying on social media to an extent. More on this later.

Many of my friends and family and online followers already got it free on itch.io

Actually some friends and family bought it AGAIN on Steam which is so lovely, but I also don’t blame anyone for not buying something they already got.

They’re short

Short games don’t do well on Steam

They’re linear

Linear games don’t do (as) well on Steam

They’re priced under $10

I don’t remember if that’s the actual turning point for price to increase the perceived value of a game on Steam, but I also don’t feel good charging $10 or more for games that are 40-60 minutes for most folks. (Should they be free? Apparently that’s also a huge no on Steam. Unless it’s a demo. Are they demos? Kind of?? But also no???)

No (recent) visibility

I pretty much noped off social media right before launching my games, and I used to feel kind of like I’d screwed myself over (even though I still stand by the decision), BUT recently I found out that social media really doesn’t convert well to sales anyway! This is extremely freeing and validating! I don’t have to feed my soul to the demon machines!

So if that wasn’t it, what happened? Well according to the research, the best way to get visibility for indies is streamers. The only folks who have streamed my games did so like six years ago (and I love them for it, it’s just not exactly generating hype at this point).

Also according to the experts, devs don’t really need to worry about their short linear games being spoiled by streamers or potential players “getting their fill” by watching the game played. Apparently that’s just not a big factor in reducing sales. So, yay! On the flip side, short linear games don’t do well on Steam soooooo

(Episode III actually will end up being a slightly bigger game, but that wasn’t a result of this smallnalysis, that was just preexisting wild scope creep)

Steam art

My images for Steam (the capsule, header, and so on) are not pro level–I simply didn’t have the funds to hire an artist for episodes I or II, and I refuse to let AI create those for me. So I made them myself! And you can definitely tell. I don’t have any idea how much this has impacted sales, but I’m certain it’s a negative amount. [Episode III’s art is a HUGE improvement since I commissioned an Actual Artist Friend]

What Shall Be Done

Mostly nothing. I’m doing this my way. It’s a hobby, not a job! ProtoDungeons will still be short and pretty linear. The Waking Cloak will be the much bigger game, and less linear. I’ll still charge less than $10 for ProtoDungeons (I think, unless they get bigger). As more come out I may consider deeper sales on the earlier episodes, too.

However, I’ll try a few things!

• Getting Steam pages up more in advance - this may require me to do some more “vertical slicing” dev so I can get a basic trailer and art assets up and running.
• Contacting some friendly streamers! I’m thinking I’ll hit up all sizes of puzzly/adventure-type streamers, big to small, but focusing most of my efforts on the smaller guys. Just feels more appropriate and community-focused. Also may see if anyone wants to run PD1 and PD2, even though they’ve already been released.
• Even MORE not posting on social media (this blog excepted). I’m just not going to bother and won’t feel guilty about it.
• Professional artist Steam assets - at least as much as possible. I hired a friend for Episode III’s assets, and they are a massive improvement over I’s and II’s. If I make enough beyond covering for future episodes, I may go back and commission new assets for PD1 and PD2.

PD3 is already doing better in general, sitting at around 800 wishlists, with a Steam page up and a basic teaser trailer. Interesting to note that I was getting almost no traction from social media when I originally posted info about the game, wishlist links, trailer, etc… backs up what the experts are saying. I think once I’m done with the PD2 update I’ll start looking into getting a PD3 playable slice ready for streamers.