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[J-Snake]

http://www.desura.com/games/trapthem

Any idea why it has more watchers than sales still to this day?

Even after reusing Greenlight as an advertising platform 5 days ago and having 800 upvotes and an explicit link to the desura page, it didn't result in one single sale increase.

I can imagine the installation process on Desura can be painfull but I haven't found the rate of installation abortion in the statistics.

[moi]

Desura's registration page doesn't work, I sent a message but they never bothered to respond

[J-Snake]

I also wanted to replace the old installer with a newer one, but the support member simply didn't understand it. But I am about to complete my next game using the new installer and see how it goes after it is up.

From the statistics half of the people who played the demo also bought the game, but there are only 13 of them at this point.

[dcfedor]

Any idea why it has more watchers than sales still to this day?

I'm not sure how watchers would correlate to sales. I haven't really kept an eye on that number. I'm fairly certain that's the case for NEO Scavenger as well, though.

Some things which might impact sales:

• Windows-only: I think a lot of Desura's users are on Linux (hence the open source client), and by not having a version for that platform, you could be missing out on potential sales. It might also suggest that some "watchers" are Linux users waiting for a port. E.g. franbelle's comment on your summary page.
• XNA: I suspect some users are put-off by having to install additional libraries, and may bail if that comes up in the demo. I realize there may not be much you can do about this now, but it may explain some fall-off.
• Marketing: How consistent have you been on marketing? At first blush, your Desura page looks sort of fire-and-forget. There's one news release since May 2013, so it may appear inactive to visitors. Plus, I'm assuming "watchers" get an alert when you post news, so if you're not posting news, they may not know to come back.
• Greenlight: I'm not too surprised that Greenlight didn't send much traffic to your Desura page. In my experience, links on the Greenlight page are more often missed than not. The sense I get is that for many Steam users, if it doesn't exist in Steam, then it doesn't exist period.

That said, you appear to have a solid product there. I'm struggling to break a rating of 8.9 on Desura, so your 9.8 is commendable. And the comments you've received on the Desura page are some pretty high praise.

If I had to guess, your issue is probably marketing. 8500 visitors isn't too shabby, but maybe they're the wrong visitors (e.g. Steam hold-outs, non-puzzle gamers, Linux/Mac users).

Desura could be part of the issue, though I suspect those 8500 visitors wouldn't have come to the page at all if it was a foregone deal-breaker. Still, you could try other sales channels (personal site, IndieGameStand, etc.) to see.

Re: support, I'd agree it can be fairly spotty. The few times I've emailed Scott directly, he was very responsive. But forum tech support is something I'm not confident in.

Changing the installer shouldn't be that hard, though. The client-based MCF upload just asks you for a directory to package, so it doesn't care what's inside (AFAIK). And for stand-alone files, those too should be just a matter of uploading the new file (ZIP, EXE or whatever) you want to replace the old file.

[J-Snake]

• Marketing: How consistent have you been on marketing? At first blush, your Desura page looks sort of fire-and-forget. There's one news release since May 2013, so it may appear inactive to visitors.

I don't know how to go about marketing this one. I have recently started to contact some players on youtube. I will see how this goes. I suspected it can be perceived that fire and forget way. But fact of the matter is that I ship a complete and finished game by release. Talking to some other devs they tell me they have never seen a game that doesn't require a patch so I am on the exceptional side.

But the new game is on the horizon. Hopefully it will help establishing myself over time.[/list]

[dcfedor]

I don't know how to go about marketing this one.

Well, at least you're in good company. Nobody I know, myself included, count themselves as experts in marketing

I think it's commendable that you've managed a release that requires little patching. So kudos for that! That may mean you want to shift your marketing to occur earlier, while you're in development.

E.g. you're doing "remote control" work, so maybe that's what you post news about each day/week/month. Start a dialogue with players somewhere about what they'd like to see next. Run a contest to give away a few copies. Do a limited-time discount.

Marketing produces a flash of interest, then nothing, so a sustained effort is needed to keep the fire going. It's hard work, it requires creativity and cleverness, and it takes time away from development, but without it, how will people learn about your game?

Think about your own buying habits. Where do you go to buy games? How do you hear about them? Which communities do you trust with game recommendations?

For most, it's not browsing deep into the catalogs of places like Steam, Desura, or Greenlight. Most just look at the front page, what's on deep discount, and then leave. So getting the message out there means supplementing your presence elsewhere. (e.g. puzzle game forums, YouTubers, reddits for the indie/puzzle genre, etc.)

[J-Snake]

I can check out IndieGameStand at least. Previously I have submitted the game 2 times to GamersGate but didn't even get a reply.

[Gregg Williams]

I'm pretty sure GamersGate ignored me as well, until our game got featured in the Mac App Store, then suddenly quite a few more resellers where wanting to play ball.

[J-Snake]

Good to know.