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[TeeGee]

I wrote a blog post with my initial thoughts after Cinders release. How much it sold so far, how easy/hard it was to promote, things like that. You may find it interesting:

http://moacube.com/blog/initial-thoughts-after-cinders-release/

Additional data for those who haven't heard about the game:

• Cinders is our first full-time indie release.
• We have around 7 years of experience working with games professionally, though.
• Cinders is a serious take on a fairytale done as a visual novel.
• We tried to make it have significantly higher production values than most VNs.
• We come from Poland, so our living costs are lower than in US etc.
• Average gross salary in Poland: around $1200 a month.

[Moczan]

What you guys failed to utilize (or I missed it) is e-mailing people who bought your previous game. I got Magi a week or two before Cinders release and I don't remember you spamming me anything about it. I know that typical Magi player will be far from VN fan, but it could net you few more sales effortlessly.

[TeeGee]

Yeah, I think we need to start using some newsletter service. I don't like spamming people who didn't specifically said they want to be spammed.

[moi]

If I was a reviewer and had a lot of games to test and had to be picky, I'd probably not review a VN because it's a bit long and not very fun if you're not a fan (more like work than fun).
So yeah, if you're develloping a VN be ready to be mostly ignored by the non-niche web.

I'm sure your sales stats will go throught the roof when(if) you release magi 2

Have you tried other digital stores than Steam? I heard it can be worth the effort. Also: bundles

[RudyTheDev]

With most VNs being of Japanese origin and art style being very manga, I would definitely expect this (amazing) artwork getting media attention. Also, thanks for sharing numbers.

[Moczan]

I'm sure your sales stats will go throught the roof when(if) you release magi 2

Too bad they treat it like a hobby game, it will seriously be the best thing ever if they took Magi and made it with the same care and polish they put into Cinders.

[ANtY]

I'm sure your sales stats will go throught the roof when(if) you release magi 2

Too bad they treat it like a hobby game, it will seriously be the best thing ever if they took Magi and made it with the same care and polish they put into Cinders.

Unfortunately the artist behind ArcMagi doesn't want to work on it full time so it'll probably get released like never  

[moi]

Does [artist name redacted] ever finish projects?

[TeeGee]

I worked with him on one of the casual games I did at my last company. He was fine and finished everything on time, with maybe a few hiccups. He's simply unable to go full or even half time indie, making ArcMagi not a viable commercial project. And yeah, it's a shame, as I think it could do quite well.

[raitasrain]

Thanks for sharing! Kudos!

[Petethegoat]

That's a really interesting read. As others have said, you should definitely look at other stores and bundles and such.

[TheGreatBundini]

Good read, thanks for sharing. Bold of you to post your sales numbers, but I think, like you said, given the niche nature of this genre, you guys appear to be off to a good start!

[Hima]

Comments in here make it sounds like this is not a good number! First week for $6,000 is already promising for a niche target game with a price higher than $20, in my opinion.

Thank you for being open about all this. I've been following the development of Cinders because it's a niche-in-a-niche type of game. Most VNs fan are used to Japanese ones with anime style involving teenagers or young adult characters. Cinders is nothing like those, so it's interesting to see how the game will do once it's released.

I've also seen from twitter than some fans already made a Cinders wiki. Congratulations!

[Paul Eres]

i'd be happy with that for a week, sure, however, i'd have expected more than 300 sales considering it got a kotaku post. i'd have thought kotaku post would lead to 1000 sales minimum, considering it's by far the largest blog about games

also i'm surprised there have only been two reviews for a game that looks as pretty as this in the first week, and disappointed by the post mocking it on RPS (i thought RPS was supposed to be indie-friendly?). and i say this knowing that my own review of this game is late (i'm working on it)

indie games live and die based on reviews. back in 2007 when i released immortal defense i had to work very hard for it to get reviewed anywhere at all, since nobody reviewed indie game back then at all. but even i had more than 2 reviews in the first week back then. and gradually game news sites have become more and more indie-friendly, my thought was that it's much easier to get an indie game reviewed in 2012 than it was in 2007. unfortunately this doesn't seem to be the case; i guess unless your indie game is an xbla game, you should expect almost no coverage from the gaming press; this is a bit disappointing

i still think these results are a bit early to draw many conclusions from, but i don't like the initial looks of it. the game is really very good, the art is the best art i've ever seen in a GM game, and to think that only 300 people actually bought the game in the first week despite all the marketing efforts i know he put into it and despite the niche popularity of the visual novel genre feels like a shame. by comparison, i believe visual novels released in japan which look much worse than this game and have no choices at all regularly sell tens of thousands of copies. but i guess the market isn't as developed in the west, or, if it is, perhaps the market here is too used to piracy (since they can't buy japanese visual novels legally in most cases, at least not without spending enormous amounts on shipping, my impression is that most visual novel fans in the west pirate everything)

6000$ for one month isn't anything to sneeze at, and it's a lot better than the ~$2000 immortal defense got in its first month (i actually don't remember the number anymore but i remember that it was about 100 copies at 23$), but for the amount of work and the quality it still feels like it could have been a lot better

what i would suggest would be to gradually build up an audience and make a series of these. now that you have the team ready and the engine, you could make these based on other fairy tales perhaps, and they'd go much quicker, and the audience from this game would already be there

[Liosan]

also i'm surprised there have only been two reviews for a game that looks as pretty as this in the first week, and disappointed by the post mocking it on RPS (i thought RPS was supposed to be indie-friendly?). and i say this knowing that my own review of this game is late (i'm working on it)

http://moacube.com/news/what-the-press-says-about-cinders/

Liosan