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[Prads]

So, we released our game Chaos Shell a week ago and since then we have been able to sell only 1 copy of it. It has been a really frustrating experience since we had worked so hard to build this game. I sent lot of emails to the indie game review websites and you tubers before and after release but no one covered the game. I sent them the free access URL for full version but itch.io record shows no one even bothered to download it.
I have also posted news on indie game forums and advertised via Twitter but can't seem to get any results.
I just don't know what to do. I am not good at business and marketing stuffs, I am just good at programming and technical stuffs. So what do guys reckon? Just give up trying to sell this game and work on the next game? Or is there any other way to gain a little money out of the project? I just wished to earn a little money which would justify the time I spent day and night in front of my computer to finish this project.
Been a really frustrating week. I think the only good thing happened to me this week was getting an email from John Romero saying he liked my game. Maybe he was just being nice to me. Haha
Link to the game: http://www.virtualescapegames.com/chaosShell.html

[InfiniteStateMachine]

Actually an email from one of the original Doom developers saying they liked your game sounds pretty awesome. I'm jealous 

Is it only for sale on itch.io. It's such a new service with so many games listed already, I'd imagine it's pretty tough to get plays let alone sales from their interface alone.

As for the youtubers and reviewers. I dont know much about that.

[Mauricio Gomes]

That stuff happens.

I for example have 800k free downloads.

Yet total copies sold I think are 3000 or something like that (mind you, this is for 7 releases so far spread over 1 year and a half).

:/

[SolarLune]

As ISM pointed out, that e-mail sounds like someone, especially someone who is very well-known, noticed it. Maybe you could talk about it a bit, putting part of that e-mail on your homepage or mentioning it when you e-mail game review sites. If you're relying just on itch, it's probably going to be a bit difficult to stand out.

You could also try contacting Let's Players to see if you can get both smaller guys as well as more well-known guys to play the game and talk about it.

When you mention advertising on Twitter, have you tried networking with other developers, talking with them about their projects, following them and vice-versa, posting about ScreenshotSaturday and game development, etc.?

Have you tried other forums like Reddit's r/gamedev subreddit, or posting your progress here (not just a single "I'm done", or a "1 copy sold in a week" thread)? It seems like devlogs are the best means for following projects here, as they show a game's evolution from start to finish completely. Have you tried joining game jams to put your name out there? More games made from you and more places people see you = more people who are interested in you and your projects.

It's a bit difficult to go from 0 people knowing about your game to it being somewhat successful, I think. By talking about your game previous to it being sold, you're building hype, a community, and fans. That's part of the reason why Starbound and Cube World were so massively popular before they were even released - they kept their target audiences interested, and the longer they were in development, the more people heard about it.

[Mister Dave]

Just give up trying to sell this game and work on the next game?

Give up? No. Make another? Depends on why you do it.

I just wished to earn a little money which would justify the time I spent day and night in front of my computer to finish this project.

If money is the motivation..... then.....

Anyway, this is fairly normal for anyone's first game. Grin and bear it, and work even harder at improving. Iteration is not just a concept within a single title. It applies to the overall picture too.

Yes, it hurts at first to see poor results. Once you have a few titles out there you'll look back on this one and perhaps wish no one ever saw it, as it will no doubt be your worst effort. My first anything is never my best, unless I only do it once.

[stvr]

Itch.io is awesome for developers but not super well-known. If you're a successful developer with a bit of a following it's a good way to distribute your game, but otherwise it can be rough to make sales there.

Try to get on IndieGameStand, Humble Store, Steam Greenlight, wherever you can! Putting your game in front of eyeballs is the only way to sell it. And put a Romero quote in the email! Give the stores a reason to check out your game. Good luck!

[Prads]

Thanks all for your replies.

If money is the motivation..... then.....

Money is definitely a part of the motivation but it's not the motivation in itself. I enjoy making game so I don't think I will ever stop doing it but I would also want to earn a living doing it at some point. I have made freeware games before and this is my first commercial game.

Have you tried other forums like Reddit's r/gamedev subreddit, or posting your progress here (not just a single "I'm done", or a "1 copy sold in a week" thread)? It seems like devlogs are the best means for following projects here, as they show a game's evolution from start to finish completely.

Yes I have posted in reddit and also have devlog here: http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=37013.0

You could also try contacting Let's Players to see if you can get both smaller guys as well as more well-known guys to play the game and talk about it.

Thanks for the advice. I will try contacting smaller guys and see if they are interested...

Try to get on IndieGameStand, Humble Store, Steam Greenlight, wherever you can! Putting your game in front of eyeballs is the only way to sell it. And put a Romero quote in the email! Give the stores a reason to check out your game. Good luck!

I have tried IndieGameStand and Desura. My request is pending approval in both of those stores. Humble store seems like bit hard to get into since I have sent email to them couple of times but they didn't reply.

Also, do you guys have experience with indie bundles. It would be great if I could add my game in one of those bundles. I am pretty sure humble bundle would be impossible for me to get in but are there any other bundles that are easy to get in?

[feminazi]

well i decided to check out the site. i don't think getting the word out is the problem. the text and screenshots are fine but then i watched the vid and there was no sound? make a better video. it's the closest representation of a game without a demo is going to get so make it good.

[Prads]

Yeah I guess you're right. I should probably update the video. I have just created a new game play video with background music and effects:




Also, I have uploaded new trailer:

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

i think the problem is that the game looks worse than most free flash games or game maker games released on yoyogames.com. this is the type of game you'd make for a 48 hour game making contest, not the type of game you'd sell commercially, except possibly on mobile phones or something. that trailer also has some of the worst music i ever heard; buy royalty free music, don't try to write music yourself if you aren't a musician

on the other hand, flappy bird didn't look much better than this but that still made 50k a day. though that game looked like a nintendo game rather than a free flash game

if you make a game that looks and plays like indie hits like braid, aquaria, fez, etc., and then only get 1 sale then you have something to complain about, but i think anyone could have predicted that this game would sell less than 10 copies. i'd suggest improving your skills and starting a new game from scratch, take it as a lesson in the type of quality required to make commercial games, and maybe make 10 more free games before you try another commercial one

[Prads]

Thank you रिंकू for you reply. I will definitely take this as a learning experience and will improve my skills for my future projects.

However, I disagree with your comment about the music though. I really like the music that Sophie has created for this game and she definitely didn't deserve such a harsh criticism.

[HDSanctum]

The trailer now is better than before (it's a good length too), but I'd suggest adding text. You spent a long time making it and playing it so it's all entirely obvious to you, but look at the trailer from our eyes-- we have no idea what your game is and what's happening on the screen.

I checked your website and you didn't update the trailer with the new one, you should do that in the meanwhile.

There are probably good 'How To Make A Good Trailer' resources out there and I suggest looking into them before making dramatic changes. I would imagine that you should at least be telling us basics like is it single player vs multiplayer? Turn based vs action ? Deathmatch vs Gamemode XYZ ? Present these in an interesting and digestable way too, don't wall of text us :p

You will also probably want to insert the 'hook' one liner that you think sells your game the best. I'm sure there are resources to help you come up with a good one of those too.

Before looking into starting a new game, consider how much time/effort it would be to port your game to mobile/web (if you haven't already).

[Prads]

Just updated the videos on the website. I will look into the resources and see if I can create a better trailer. Thanks for the advice.

The game is created using a custom engine written is C++ so I don't think there is an easy way to port it to web platform. I am positive that compiling the code for mobile won't be much of an issue, but the main issue would be controls. When we designed the game, we had only one platform in mind: PC. So, getting the input right for the mobile will be an issue.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

my response was a bit mean, yes. if a friend or family member had shown me that game or music i'd have been like 'great work, awesome!'. because that's what friends and family are for. but indie developers shouldn't really be coddling each other, otherwise it leads to unrealistic expectations of what is possible to achieve on the market

it's just sad to see people go through wake-up calls like this over and over (i've seen it many times), and the primary cause of it is people not telling other people that their creations could be improved, or how they could be improved. the music, for example, would not be bad for a level perhaps, but for a trailer, you need to show your absolute best; you need to amaze people with how good it is, not just have it be "pretty good". people need to want to tell their friends about your trailer, otherwise it'll be stuck at less than 300 views forever

(also i may be being mean here, but notice that none of the "nice" people actually bought your game. that kind of shows they don't actually think it's very good, either.)

anyway, here are 3 quick ways to improve the game's chances on the market

1) better graphics (probably the biggest thing) -- it feels like most of the graphics are programmer art. it's not bad programmer art, i've definitely seen worse, and the color selection is okay, it's just that the individual objects and sprites have no shading, no animation, no aliveness, they're too small for the screen, and they look like a programmer drew them rather than an artist. the quickest way to fix this is to team up with a competent artist (someone who actually has a degree in art or does it professionally and has been paid for it in the past i mean, not just anyone who calls themselves an artist). not all of the graphics need to be replaced, the backgrounds/walls/floors and stuff are mostly okay, it's more the sprites that are the problem: the things that shoot and the things that are shot. it's mostly this stuff:



i'm not an artist at all, but even i could come up with better sprites in a couple of minutes. it felt like very little work at all went into creating those sprites, it's just geometrical shapes inside other shapes and then filling them with some colors; a lot of them don't even look like anything but colored squares or circles. a big part of it is how small they are (the sprites should never be that small in relation to the play field, typically you want to go for 1/10th to 1/16th the size of the length and height of the screen at the smallest).

2) a demo; there didn't seem to be a demo available on your site. how do you expect sales without a demo? having no demo is basically suicide unless you or your game are already famous, or unless it's a mobile game (mobile games can sometimes get away with no demo, but PC games usually cannot).

3) the trailer needs some kind of editing; it needs to make the game look exciting, intriguing, etc. -- it also needs more explanation, either words or a voiceover explaining what the game is. and as mentioned, the music could be replaced too (that music track could still be used in the game of course, but for a trailer you need to use a track that will make the people watching it email you to ask if they could buy the game's soundtrack). you need to look at the trailers of other successful games and decide what made those trailer work, a trailer needs to tell an interesting short story about the game, it shouldn't just be a brief showcase of everything in the game. i make trailers for indie games as a hobby, and the best advice i ever got about that is: a trailer should be entertaining even to people who do not play video games. like, even an old 80 year old grandmother who never touched a game in her life should be entertained by your trailer. once you can do that, it's a good trailer.

[feminazi]

if this game isnt salvagable after all this i guess the only thing to do is start your next game.

if you cant find an artist i'd do glowy vectors or something
and a more exciting concept than bouncing a ball

for your next game, so you dont waste time figuring out if it's going to sell, post an early screenshot or video or build or something and see if people respond, if they don't it's probably not going to sell

[J-Snake]

Also, do you guys have experience with indie bundles. It would be great if I could add my game in one of those bundles. I am pretty sure humble bundle would be impossible for me to get in but are there any other bundles that are easy to get in?

I am making my first experience with that on Desura with my first game. In my case I was approached by Desura itself and asked whether I am interested to include TrapThem in the actual bundle:

http://www.indieroyale.com/

I need exposure and that's great. The sales jumped up within few days up to over 2700 and still counting. It won't make you rich but the exposure alone is certainly worth it.

[abajur]

my first post!
sorry my english.

Well, I am not Romero, but think the concept is really nice!
and I like original ideas.
Well done!

[Gluntronics]

I think the concept is good but the art direction isn't compelling. There's a saying in the film world "People will watch anything as long as it sounds good". Audio is such a determining factor of quality in film / video, I think that graphics are the parallel in games. Now I don't mean photo-realistic graphics but a cohesive and strong art style that conveys a mood or evokes emotion.

I've played a few games with bad mechanics longer then I should have because they were able to create an atmosphere I wanted to spend time in.

[ryansumo]

You could also spend more time marketing yourself and making your presence felt on the forums, etc.  I clicked on your blog and the only entry was about the release of the game, which is a huge mistake.  Having a proper blog would not have solved all your problems of course, neither would having better art/music on it's own.  It's all these little things that add up and ideally will catch someone's attention.

btw just shared the game on Twitter.  Probably won't get you a sale but who knows?

[BridgetInua]

We are about to release our game in couple of weeks time and it is scary. You never know what can happen.
I know it have been a stressful experience for you, but thanks for sharing!