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[wolfsden]

I made a playlist of all the demo LPs I've seen! It's also a good way to see the game in action

[wolfsden]

Important dev update... you can now pet the dog! :D

[wolfsden]

mini dev/marketing blog:

Social media helps a lot, yes, but nothing comes remotely close to being featured in Steam sales. Both Tokyo Game Show and RPG Maker Festival Steam sales have been the major wishlists boosters by FAR. So now I'm hunting down sales/events I can be a part of and came across this beautiful excel: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1NGseGNHv6Tth5e_yuRWzeVczQkzqXXGF4k16IsvyiTE/edit#gid=0

If you're a game dev reading this, please don't underestimate the power of being featured in Steam sales, even as an Upcoming/Coming Soon game.

Aaaaand here's a battle gif:

[wolfsden]

Dev update: Manafinder is content-complete! It is now in the testing phase! I've already tested it myself, but of course, now there are some testers testing it. I was a bit nervous at first, but overall the build seems pretty stable. 33 bugs found so far, with only one being a major bug. Now I will start working on the Spanish translation, Steam integration, and finally figuring out the release. 

[Beastboy]

Very nice artwork

[wolfsden]

A friend confirmed the demo is fully playable on Steam Deck!

Very nice artwork

Thanks a lot! You can see the Pixel Art team listed in the first post

[wolfsden]

Japanese translation is underway! (not by me, but a professional)



There were some challenges and plugin changes I had to make to accommodate Japanese, such as:

• Change the font when switching to Japanese because my current font did not support JP.
• Use a different word-wrapping logic when using Japanese because there are no spaces between words most of the time.
• I switched new area places to display vertically when playing in Japanese.

Let's see what else comes up during the translation process. But so far it's been fun!

[wolfsden]

So I'm part of the ongoing Steam NEXT Fest and I'm excited about my first Dev Live-Stream tomorrow! I've never done this before so wish me luck
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1582410/view/3333240592868855695

[JWMatthews]

I'm impressed with the unique style and feel of the game. RPG Maker games can tend to share the same general 'vibe', so I think you did a pretty good job making it your own. I'm rooting for you!

[Alain]

Cool, good luck with the Dev Stream tomorrow!

[wolfsden]

I'm impressed with the unique style and feel of the game. RPG Maker games can tend to share the same general 'vibe', so I think you did a pretty good job making it your own. I'm rooting for you!

Thank you so much!

Cool, good luck with the Dev Stream tomorrow!

Thanks! I did hit a couple of technical problems, especially at first, but despite it all, I did peak at 200 views which hopefully translates to some wishlists (I'll know tomorrow).

I'll be doing a second one (and last one, Steam only allows 2 for the Fest) tomorrow morning (10AM PDT)! Hopefully this time I won't hit those pesky technical issues!

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1582410/view/3333240592872626844

[Sima]

Hey there.

How was the second live stream? Did everything work out technically?

I'm planning to join the autumn Next Fest, and I'd be super happy to know some more things... 

- Was the live stream worth it regarding wishlists? Do you see a wishlist spike during the live stream days?
- What was your technical setup?
- Did you live stream playing your game or did you show game dev related sutff?
- Was it a real live stream or a recorded session + live Q'n'A in the chat?

Cheers,
Sima

[wolfsden]

Hey there.

How was the second live stream? Did everything work out technically?

I'm planning to join the autumn Next Fest, and I'd be super happy to know some more things... 

- Was the live stream worth it regarding wishlists? Do you see a wishlist spike during the live stream days?
- What was your technical setup?
- Did you live stream playing your game or did you show game dev related sutff?
- Was it a real live stream or a recorded session + live Q'n'A in the chat?

Cheers,
Sima

Hi! Yes, the live-stream did direct more people towards my page but the jump was not gigantic. Overall Steam Next Fest was not the wishlist booster I was hoping for. Tokyo Game Show is still king, by far. Maybe the genre of my game was very fit for TGS. And yes my second live stream was much better, only a few Internet issues the first minutes. But I averaged 180-200 viewers during the entire stream.

Overall I would still say it was worth it. Some genres also probably work better on stream, so your game may be more fit for it. My technical setup was a logitech webcam I had since 2018 + a mic I recently got from Amazon. Nothing special about it. I used OBS and used Steam's own guide on how to set everything up. They provide the guide as part of the Next Fest post-registration steps.

I live-streamed playing my demo and it was not recorded. I answered questions from the chat, but there weren't that many tbh so it did not get overwhelming.

[Sima]

Hi! Yes, the live-stream did direct more people towards my page but the jump was not gigantic. Overall Steam Next Fest was not the wishlist booster I was hoping for. Tokyo Game Show is still king, by far. Maybe the genre of my game was very fit for TGS. And yes my second live stream was much better, only a few Internet issues the first minutes. But I averaged 180-200 viewers during the entire stream.

Overall I would still say it was worth it. Some genres also probably work better on stream, so your game may be more fit for it. My technical setup was a logitech webcam I had since 2018 + a mic I recently got from Amazon. Nothing special about it. I used OBS and used Steam's own guide on how to set everything up. They provide the guide as part of the Next Fest post-registration steps.

I live-streamed playing my demo and it was not recorded. I answered questions from the chat, but there weren't that many tbh so it did not get overwhelming.

Hi there. Thanks for the info.

Glad to hear that you think that it's worth it.

[wolfsden]

Spanish support is now official and also included in the demo!
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1582410/view/3327612290701157678 (Fun fact: Steam won't put this news piece on the game's store page. It never passed moderation. My guess is that they didn't greenlight because it's mostly in Spanish. I'm not complaining btw, just pointing it out.)

Spanish is my native language so I did the translation myself.

Beta testing is coming along really well so far!

And Driftwood Gaming just made a really fun LP of the demo:

[wolfsden]

Got a herniated disk in my lower back so I've slowed down game dev-ing. I'm healing up, but man this takes a long time. I still can't sit for extended periods of time.

Pro-tip to fellow game devs... REMEMBER TO STAND! Change positions often! Go for walks, even if short. Sitting all day long unfortunately makes you more injury-prone.

Anyways, here's another LP of Manafinder




Btw, does anyone know how to find/reach out to more YT/streamers that are indie-friendly? In particular RPG friendly.

[Alain]

Got a herniated disk in my lower back so I've slowed down game dev-ing. I'm healing up, but man this takes a long time. I still can't sit for extended periods of time.

Sorry to hear that, that sucks. Best wishes for a speedy recovery!

[wolfsden]

Very exciting news! I'll be presenting Manafinder in a small booth at SIX 2022 in Seattle on September 4th!



To any game dev here that has been on conventions... any pro-tip on calculating how many postcards to print? The obvious upper bound is budget, but any other pointers would be greatly appreciated!

Sorry to hear that, that sucks. Best wishes for a speedy recovery!

Thanks a lot! I am indeed recovering, but it's a slow recovery. Apparently, it's normal in cases like this (looking at a 6-month recovery timeframe approximately). The good news is that the severe symptoms are long past

[wolfsden]

I had a blast showcasing the game at SIX! But I'm also happy to announce that I finally have set a release date of October 5, 2022! 

I made a final trailer to announce the release date:

[Alain]

Awesome, October 5 is pretty soon!