Actually I have no numbers on how effective this can be to market a game. My instinct says not very (traffic you send there could just have easily been sent anywhere else)... but it's easy to make, so why not make it and see. The plus side may be... well, if there's some kind of wishlist feature that steam will email them when it moves to Greenlight?  And again when it launches? That can save you some hassle.

If you could post some numbers as to how much audience you drew directly and how much audience found your page unrelated to you that'd be very handy for everyone!

My problem with spore (this was probably brought up but I just want to complain because I feel just as the OP did that it was not the game I had hoped) was that both PLACEMENT and the actual mutations you place on the creature had no impact!

I want a horn on my ass so I can kill things by running backwards! Maybe that's not optimal but I wanted to have limited resources that I could spend crafting the perfect killing/survival machine in a world that was evolving with and against me. To me that was where the fun was, and sadly, spore (and no other game that I know of) has even come close.

Well it sounds like Plan A is an "easy" roguelike and Plan B is a RogueLite (I dont know when this term came about but I love it).

Basically in Plan A you can lose. In B it only gets easier. These games appeal to different people so I would start there: Who do you want to play your game? The type of hardcore gamer that gets thrills out of grabbing the Orb of Zot in Dungeon Crawl and seeing if he can go through Dark Souls without taking any damage (Those people make me sick btw, I died like a million times before I beat DS2) or do you want to appeal to the gamer who enjoys the challenge but never wants to be "too" frustrated.

Once you know who you're making the game for perhaps some of the finer details will become obvious choices. If not, well... pick one :D Or maybe work on the core gameplay and see what emerges as the best option.

If you like Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup I reccomend Tales of Maj'Eyal. It's free too

Just as an aside about keeping your chin up. Two of my clients over the last several years failed their first kickstarter and succeeded in their second... with the same game! Don't forget that the #1 kickstarter of all time (Coolest Coolers) ALSO failed their first kickstarter for the product.

Sometimes you just have to take the first one on the chin and learn from it (lots of Chin references) to make your next one all the better!

It's never too early for a devlog for two good reasons:

1) If the product takes off it will be very valuable, both to other developers and as a PR tool.
2) It can help you mentally decompress what you're doing and actually aid in development. Especially for those of us who try to keep a lot of their design in their head, only.

So go forth and write!

Welcome to the new hell of having to continuously promote your game Don't slow down! Keep e-mailing youtube casters and press to keep the buzz going strong. Congrats!

1. Do you even like strategy games? Why? Do you like real time strategy games?

I love strategy games, but don't consider RTSs strategy games (Whoa, don't lynch me yet, let me explain). Most RTSs really boil down to the meta of understanding what your opponent is building and building a counter to it, and then micromanaging movement of your resources to, on the micro level, counter their individual battle groups. This is certainly strategic, but happens at a pace that becomes closer to muscle memory than it is cerebral strategy. That's not my personal definition of what a strategy game is, so I tend to not enjoy RTSs despite loving dozens of TBSs.

2. What do you like about real time strategy games? Could an indie strategy game contain what gameplay you like?

See above :D

3. What would you want in Reservwars? What multiplayer gametypes?

I do game marketing as the center of my career (12 years now) - I can say this: If you make it only multiplayer you're dooming yourself. So make Single Player your primary focus. BUT if you DO go multiplayer as well, make sure you go full in. Due to budget/time this may mean multiplayer may not be important. Basically no multiplayer is better than half-ass multiplayer, and half-ass is better than ONLY multiplayer (even if its done well). The reason for this is reaching a sustainable population for online play is the most difficult part of any online game. Whereas a single player game can hit middle of the road numbers and be called a success, online play requires absolute success to go anywhere at all. I've worked with several failed RTSs in my time that ran into this problem: They simply never had the population online to convince people the game was excellent (which several were), and therefore received negative reviews focused on the lack of execution of online play rather than the game its self.

4. What do you think about LAN multiplayer? What do you think about single player campaigns?

See above :D Single Player should be your focus... if your product kicks serious ass, a fully fleshed out multiplayer comes next. Nothing inbetween!

5. How should we market this strategy game? What aspects of the game should we highlight?

Sadly your site doesn't give me enough information to even begin to tell you my opinion. So start there! Get some good, meaty, info on your site.

6. Send me any thoughts you have on this game. I'm looking for constructive help!

I hope that this post does indeed help you frame some good questions. My overall dislike of the RTS genre makes me (at times) a poor judge of what makes a good RTS. I believe what I say above is accurate based on my past experience with this genre but I want to be perfectly clear that I am not an absolute expert on marketing RTSs (but do consider myself an expert on overall game marketing).

The problem, or possible problem to be more precise, is to avoid falling into the gap between education and fun. My favorite Extra Credits video of all time covers this:



That said, once you DO have a game that is actually fun and actually delivers a learning experience... well you can keep your options open I think. If the game is truly fun on its own it can stand on its own legs and just be an entertainment product. Or you could call up a local credit union and see if they'd be interested in taking a look. I'd certainly start with the local credit union approach as that will be a lot easier to set up a meeting. I'd just walk into my local branch, meet with the branch manager, explain you'd like them to put you in touch with their marketing department. Odds are it will take a day or two but shouldn't be that hard. The hard part will be finding a figure and licensing terms that makes everyone happy! Sounds difficult, but if it works and you have good success with it (and the right terms) licensing to one credit union per state could be a very viable business model.

Again this ALL comes back to avoiding the gap between education and fun... so watch that video :D

I'm signed up and looking forward to seeing if my own personal list is missing anyone you have!

I gotta go with To the Moon's trailer:

Hey everyone,

12 year industry veteran focused on game design and game marketing/business (AKA: thedarksideofgames).

Looking forward to totally silly posts about games and random nostalgia about the good old days.

It's dark... you're likely to be eaten by a grue.
-Joe