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[n0tski]

Hey guys!

I checked out a Greenlight stats post by another guy (a game called Tiny Thor), and their progress at the time was almost identical to how ours looks now. They got Greenlit though, so I guess all hope is not lost for us!

Basically, I'm wondering whether Greenlight stats look like this for everyone in the beginning? Is this normal? Is there anything I can/should do to ease things along? We started off stong(ish) but then our views dwindled down to near non-existence. That's sort of where we are right now.

(game in question: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=653803576)






So we're 17 days in, 2117 unique visitors and 53% yes votes. Well over half of our visitors came in the first 4 days. Since then it's sort of... died. I think the majority of those initial visitors were our friends, family, existing followers on social media, and the like. I'm not really sure how to generate more views from people outside of our circle. Any words of advice?

What we've done promotion-wise so far:

• Shared the Greenlight link on our personal Fb walls and other personal social media
• Shared the link on some Indie Game Fb groups
• Tweeted about it like crazy on our company Twitter account
• Tested the waters on Reddit, but wasn't very successful there

What we've learned through feedback, reading forums and following other Greenlight campaigns:

• We weren't specific enough in our details about the game, and we're working to fix that (e.g. instead of "every monster imaginable" the community wanted to know the exact number of different monsters)
• Our video could be better, in terms of quality and content
• Our thumbnail should be a gif
• We should have been in touch with the press at the start - might be too late now, but we'll try

Can anyone else relate to our experience? Please let me know, and ask me anything (more or less relevant  ). I'll be back with updates on our progress. Let's hope for the best...

[BBreakfast]

I've definitely heard of games with worse Yes/No ratios getting Greenlit, so all hope is not lost! I wouldn't recommend Reddit for Greenlight votes because places like reddit or 4chan can quickly turn against you and start piling on the "No's" and down votes. Stick to places you know and trust, like Facebook is a good (safer) place, game forums for whatever niche your game falls into, and YouTube streamers who tend to play the types of game categories yours falls into.

For us we started off surprisingly strong considering we didn't really advertise the Greenlight (we launched there more so to feed people into our Kickstarter running at the same time). We've noticed a considerate increase in "No" votes the higher up on the Top 100 list we get so I'm wondering if that isn't related to other folks trying to push their own games higher above ours. The animated Greenlight pic definitely helps to keep people clicking on your game long after it has fallen off the "New" list on Greenlight. Good luck & keep the momentum going, you can do it!

[n0tski]

Wow, you guys are doing well! Congratulations, and keep it up 

Thanks for your advice! Yeah, Reddit was pretty scary. I'll stick to fb :D. Don't Youtubers and streamers normally need a demo or something? Our demo isn't available just yet... I guess having one would give us a positive edge.

Apparently the yes/no ratio is actually irrelevant, only the amount of traffic matters. Around 10 000+ views should be enough to get Greenlit, although my brother's game succeeded last year with only 8326 unique visitors and 67% yes votes. Getting people to even look at our Greenlight page is proving to be difficult, though! We share our link a lot, but getting people to click it is another matter... We're def gonna try the animated thumbnail, and anything else we could possibly think of to attract views.

[BBreakfast]

Good to know about the views thing! I've voted for you on Greenlight BTW, best of luck to you with your game! 

[n0tski]

Thanks! I voted for you too . May the force be with you!

[JustColorado]

Have you seen this site?
 https://greenlightupdates.com/?s=1&o=1&b=nobundle&ts=&p=1

Look who is getting greenlit and what day they submitted
If a lot of people start getting greenlit that submitted after you
that is probably not good.

[n0tski]

Thanks, JustColorado! I had a look... some games are getting Greenlit within just a couple of days! Madness  Looks like we've got some tough competition.

Meanwhile, our campaign is moving forward, although still a little more slowly than we would like:

[io3 creations]

The initial traffic surge is based on Steam's organic player base, so pretty much ever game can have the same chance.  Of course, first impressions of the game's logo image and then presentation media counts.

From what I've heard, if you get into the top 100 then you have a good chance of getting greenlit.  Otherwise, you need a good Yes/No ratio or generate traffic with other activities: YouTubers/Twitchers and contacting online game website journalists.  There quite a few good links here on TIG and various other places.

If your game isn't greenlit, then remove it and relaunch it when a demo is ready and you can also get more outside traffic.

Good luck!

[n0tski]

SUCCESS!!! 

[io3 creations]

Congrats!

[n0tski]

Thank you! 

[io3 creations]

You're welcome!

Assuming you haven't considered it yet, of course once you have a demo, contacting YouTubers/Twitcher as well as journalists can be part of your game marketing.

[JustColorado]

Congratulations!!!!

[readyplaygames]

You did it! That's awesome! I like the insight and the greenlight updates website, too.

[n0tski]

Thank you!  Next up is Early Access! We know people are pretty strongly divided into for and against EA, but there are benefits to it, and we're going to do it right. As in, openly and honestly, and we WILL complete the game and get it out of EA in a reasonable time frame.