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[Alder]

I'm going to be frank with you. No-one goes on itch.io. Most people think Steam is where you get your indie games. itch.io has a TINY user base and even then, most of that is other indie developers.

You got an e-mail from John Romero on a game you made. That's a huge win.

Now, let me ask you. Is there a demo? Is there a trailer or an e-poster? Why haven't I seen it already? Marketing is easier than it's ever been. Get your name out there better. Give people something cool and intriguing to look at. If Romero has a decent quote and is cool with you doing so, use his testimonial, goddamn. You need to have already been pushing visibility for your product, but it's too late for that so just start mailing free copies to anyone who cares about indie games and has a platform. If your game studio doesn't have a Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr you need to get on that. Be visible.

Marketing is about getting gatekeepers within your target community to vouch for you. You've got JOHN ROMERO. That's a good start. Look up visible game dev presences on Twitter or Tumblr - both are there, on Twitter especially, everyone has Twitter. Send them a copy of your game, ask humbly for five minutes of their time. Maybe reassure them that Romero thought it was cool. But you've got no platform of your own so you need to use others to get your name out there and drive up interest in your brand and product.

[Impmaster]

I've never even heard of itch.io before this thread.

[ink.inc]

itch.io has made <15k during its entire lifespan

[SolarLune]

^ Not sure if that's sales or dollars, but it's only been around for about a year, so it's going to be low numbers. Having a big-name indie game person mention it would help drive sales, I'd think. However, it is low numbers; I'm sure you would do well putting it in other places than just itch.io, and market it in addition to putting it on a distribution service.

@Impmaster - Itch's is a distribution service like Humble Bundle or Desura or Steam, but there's no client (it's just a site) and it's pretty low-profile. I believe if you purchase a game, you have future access to its downloads for free, which is nice for alpha-release games that you can't get on Steam Early Access or Desura Alphafunding. It's got kind of an interesting interface and approach to things; it seems much more on distribution than community so far, though I'd imagine such community-oriented features (ratings, tagging, comments, reviews, reporting, etc) might be coming in the future.

[ink.inc]

15k usd

[Randomasta]

^ including bundles?

[SolarLune]

umm about 70% of my sales used itchio

Do you mean you just used itch to handle the payment and distribution, and that amount came out to 70% of your total sales across all distribution services, or do you mean that traffic from itch actually supplied you with 70% of your sales so far? And would you mind telling us if that's a lot of sales or not? (No pressure if you don't feel like it, haha).

:O

[alvarop]

Funny, I just use itch.io to host prototypes and show them to friends. It's a quick HTML5 hosting solution for tests and stuff.

I think it still needs time to grow and impose itself as a legitimate way to market games...

[Erichermit]

You mentioned advertising on twitter as one of your activities. I checked out your twitter however and it doesn't have any personality. If all you do is post about how people should look at your indiedb, it doesn't make many good connections.

I watched the videos of your game and they look decent, but your graphics, sounds, and music could really use a tune up. With some changes to polish I think you might see more success. There's more to making a great game than just making a good game.

[poe]

oh i thought people were saying customers wouldn't use itchio even as just a payment handler but i misread because i'm dum

yeah vast majority of sales came via Kotaku/RPS articles - in my limited experience portals don't drive sales in any meaningful way (except Steam of course)


//edit
btw i've been approached by 2 bundle things wanting to include both Echo and my first game together - so even if your first game is crummy it seems it can still be useful as bundling leverage

Bundle sites WILL bundle anything. If money is your goal they are always an option. So make your first shitty game and feel proud and make some cash

(PS Not saying lol theyll bundle anything even caiys's game, im saying caiys's game is badass and my game is a POS)

[sperryman]

I do like your site, but I think you should spice it up a little with some Javascript. Look at using something like jQuery with Lightbox so you can have your images pop up in the same window, as well as having back and forward arrows. In general I really like the look of the game, but it feels like you are early in your game dev career. Just relax, keep making games. The suggestion above about getting an artist is a great one; made even better by the fact that you have a complete game already. If you employed an artist to redo all your sprites, it would be a whole different game.

[tjcbs]

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.

I agree, I thought the music was excellent.

[Chris Koźmik]

Graphics. Arcade games need to be beautiful, this one is not.

I would try to find an artist and go for 50:50 split (since it is doing soo porly it would be too risky for you to pay for art upfront and an already finished game is an appealing thing to an artist), then redo the graphics completely. I would also probably release it under another title (the marketing value of your current marketing efforts is zero it seems and you probably got some bad impressions over graphics).

[tjcbs]

Graphics. Arcade games need to be beautiful, this one is not.

I would try to find an artist and go for 50:50 split (since it is doing soo porly it would be too risky for you to pay for art upfront and an already finished game is an appealing ething to an artist), then redo the graphics completely. I would also probably release it under another title (the marketing value of your current marketing efforts is zero it seems and you probably got some bad impressions over graphics).

I think this is an excellent suggestion. Just tell the artist you are using placeholder art. While the artist is working, you can work to improve the special effects. Learn about blending and particle systems, and get creative. Also, the demo at least had good sounds, but they were sparse, and there was no music. Fix these things and you will have a much better product

[chris_b]

Making it isometric instead of top-down would look nicer even keeping the style and colors the same.