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[oahda]

Congratulations! Now we await the final reception to see whether you succeeded in conveying what you wanted. It's going to be interesting. Do keep us posted!

[Zizka]

I'm checking Steam daily to read comments and reviews. I actually smiled when I read about the guy lost in the woods in the game (it certainly rang a bell).

I'm curious about the sales to be honest. Can't wait to read about that. I'll be doing the same once my game is released and sharing stats and so on.

But yeah, it's a positive experience so far, fingers crossed!

[A Strange Bird]

Congratulations!!!  My girlfriend is going to get me the game for my birthday so I'll be looking forward on playing it! You did it!

[Franklin's Ghost]

Just purchased this and looking forward to finally having a chance to play this. Been a pleasure reading your devlog so can't wait to put away a few hours to this. Congrats again

[TurboGun]

Congrats on the release! Saw yesterday the Escapists wrote an article on the game, very cool!

[and]

Congratulations Jon! So glad to see you get this finished and out there in the world! I look forward to throwing my money at you later this evening. Good luck with the continued sales and all that, I hope it far surpasses your expectations

EDIT:

Saw these 2 reviews too that you might have missed
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/video-games/editorials/reviews/14780-Masochisia-Review-Jon-Oldblood-Horror-Adventure
http://www.adventuregamers.com/news/view/29402

[oldblood]

Hey guys, thanks for all the support! Means a lot. I'm going to be doing a devlog on either Friday or Saturday (likely Saturday as this will give me a full week of data) to review basically how launch went and take a look at sales and views over the course of the first week. So you can expect some data very soon.

I'm also slapping together some notes for a Post Mortem of the game and trying to figure out what went right and what went wrong. So you can also expect that in the next week or two. It still feels a bit early to know whats really been wrong or right but- at a high level I'm starting to see.

Side note, I'm debating sending out a final series of press release messages even though we're now past launch. I know that sounds odd, but basically I will be responding to messages where I provided a key (likely to just the larger websites and larger YouTubers etc). This follow-up would include a few snippets from a couple reviews, notate the average userscore on Steam etc. The idea being that people may have skimmed past the game because they'd never heard of it and no one was covering it- so perhaps seeing others respond favorably to it will encourage them to pick it up, even though we're past launch...

It's an odd idea (I would think) but I sort of view it as a "why not?" scenario. I don't really have anything to lose at this stage. I will only be contacting people who didn't cover it so I don't have to worry about them responding negatively and not covering the game... And even late coverage is better than no coverage. What are all your thoughts?

[Zorg]

Congratulations to the launch. I hope it was successful for you, personally. I guess i'll never play the game myself, because i'm not a horror game (nor film) fan and i would s**t my pants. The images alone are scary enough for me.

I'm looking forward to the launch data. This will be very interesting.

I think it's a good idea to write to press/YouTubers again. Just a little reminder and some press notes/user comments. They are human after all, maybe your last email was just arriving at a time they were not in the right mood, flooded with work, ... who knows? Maybe they have one more minute to read your email carefully this time.

[Osteel]

I agree with the "why not". Besides, you're right, people might have skimmed over it pre-release because it wasn't anything they heard of. But now that they'll see it's been launched on Steam, it might get their attention.

[and]

I would 100% go with the follow up email. Make sure you have the awesome/new stuff you're telling them right at the start.

I see lots of coverage of games that have been out for some time that I've never heard of, but look really cool. I can see Masochisia falling into that bucket for a lot of people out there.

I read somewhere as well that coverage begets coverage. If smaller sites are saying your work is interesting, then more sites will start to talk about it. Something like that.

[oldblood]

Just a quick update: I did decide to go ahead and reply to all of the press releases I had sent a week before release that I had not heard back from. Here is what I sent: (as a direct reply to the Press Release with Steam Key)

***

[Insert Name],

I'd be a shitty developer if I didn't follow-up once more. Masochisia is now released and has been receiving some positive initial feedback (96% user review score on Steam) but I'd love if you could take a look at the game. Just in time for Halloween...


“This game is not for the faint of heart... Masochisia is a refreshing change of pace for the point and click horror genre.”
The Escapist


“...When you realize that many of the events portrayed in Masochisia actually happened, the more uncomfortable you’ll become. Art imitating life may prove a little too much for some to stomach.”
The Digital Fix

Thanks for reading.

***

I don't know if wording it more casual was a good idea or not but I went with it. I sent those out last night over the course of my evening.

While no new articles have popped up as of this morning, I have received emails back from: Rock Paper Shotgun, Kotaku, RelyOnHorror, GamingExcellence, ThisIsMyJoystick & Digitally Downloaded.

The emails all said variants of: "Thanks for the heads up", "I will check it out" or "I didn't see the first email, thanks for resending".

Now, I'm suddenly nervous these sites (particularly RPS & Kotaku) are going to write about and being concerned if they hate it... Of course them responding back doesn't mean they're going to actually review or cover the game but it was definitely encouraging to receive back a bunch of responses after getting literally no responses on any of the other press releases.

So is it worth sending out new press releases after launch? Hard to say at this point but at first glance, the answer seems to be yes. Even though it hasn't resulted in any new coverage yet, just getting a responses back was encouraging so I had to share the results. Will be interesting to see if any new coverage appears during the next couple weeks before Halloween. I've just always assumed once release was over... You're shit outta' luck on getting press to read your emails, but maybe that was an incorrect assumption? Maybe they just needed to see if others were playing it first?

Guess I will find out soon. Hoping this doesn't backfire and the game gets suddenly buried under a bunch of negative reviews...

[Cranktrain]

Your email reads well. I wouldn't be too concerned with sites like Rock Paper Shotgun hating on a game, RPS seems pretty measured in their approach. I got a similar "will check it out" message back from RPS when I emailed them, and one of their writers played it for a couple of hours and posted an article that was half first-impressions, and half news that the game had been released. Hopefully, they'll do the same (or more!) for your game.

[Zorg]

The responses sound good, hopefully you'll get some good articles.

[Osteel]

From what I've seen, these article websites rarely write reviews about indie games with bad outcomes. They usually save that for the AAA "should you play this?" and for indie games simply write about ones they like. So if they do write about Masochisia, it'll probably be a good thing.

I wonder, did you include screenshots, links and whatnot with it email? Considering they're probably busy, it might be good to have a quick link to the trailer/steam page so they don't have to make the effort.

Anyway, here's hoping it pops up online soon!

[oldblood]

Thanks guys. Keeping fingers crossed. The sales have slowed down pretty heavily at this point so coverage leading into Halloween would be helpful. Just trying to keep my expectations in check...

I wonder, did you include screenshots, links and whatnot with it email? Considering they're probably busy, it might be good to have a quick link to the trailer/steam page so they don't have to make the effort.

Yes, the email above was a response to this email: http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=45372.msg1185567#msg1185567

So they could still see Steam Key, trailer, press page etc. in the email chain directly below it.

[Zizka]

Jon,

I just watched this video:




The guy in the video says that steam prevents you from revealing sales data!

Make sure you look into this before revealing anything. Just saying this so you don't get in trouble.

[Greipur]

I wouldn't worry too much about reminding people, I've found (after about 300-400 emails) that 2-3 times doesn't make your average recipient angry. Most of the time people thank me for reminding them. Most of the time I never get a reply back, but a review a week later, happened with our latest feature on RPS for example. Relax.

[and]

I'd say those responses sound pretty positive. I certainly think it's an interesting game that deserves coverage; it's also got a unique approach and style that I imagine will be quite easy to write a good article for.

I wonder, is it worth contacting some sites that are on the periphery, perhaps more culture based sites than strictly video game sites? I could imagine these types of sites may be interested in covering the game, as it is challenging in a way that most video games are not. It's easy to play, but it's difficult to play through (if that makes sense, which it may not. I'm ill. Don't judge me.)

Anyway, I hope to see Masochisia covered over the next days and weeks. Good luck!

[Miziziziz]

Saw you on Polygon! congrats on the release!

[jamesprimate]

agreed with everybody! as long as you are polite about it, there is nothing to lose from follow-ups and everything to gain. especially if you spin it in the halloween direction, i am pretty sure you'd get good result.

this might be completely ridiculously unreasonably out of scope, but if its possible i might even suggest an iPad/iOS port or something, as mobile is REALLY big on seasonal game showcases. apple loves to showcase that sort of stuff, and sites like touch arcade, pocket gamer and slide to play all give lots of coverage.