Whenever i am not working my day job as an Engineer, i try my best to find time and work on SpaceSlog. Most of this work is on my own whilst also needing to pay for two artists out of my own pocket. You won’t get any closer to a self funded indie project than this! In reality this means i not only have to work to pay my bills by i also need to ensure my artists are paid including anything else required for the game (like the hosting for this website for example) before i can even start to think about working on the game itself.
Not that many other indie developers are in a better position than i am, but it does mean i need to consider very carefully how i will structure the release of SpaceSlog ensuring i can continue development without burning myself out. The aim is to maximise revenue to not only ensure i can pay for the artists and anything else this game requires, but also enable me to quit my day job and work on the game full time. I have outlined below what i currently think would be the best approach for us to achieve this.
Releasing on Steam
Ok, this ones obvious but i have put this first because there are some things we need to get out of the way before i move onto other things. It is said that Steam likes you to have roughly 7k wishlists before release. The first week of your release here could make or break your game so its very important to ensure you make the biggest splash possible. Obviously this means the more polished and fun your game is, the bigger that splash will likely be.
This does cause a few issues with some types of games that want to release as an Early Access title. We end up with a paradox where you need to be able to sell your game on Steam to gain enough traction to continue to develop it, but you also need to have enough traction in the first place for Steam to consider showing it to others. Valve will only show your game if they feel it is going to be worthwhile to them, so if your game is unknown and Valve wont show it, how else will you gain the traction required to make your game a success?
There are of course plenty of other types of marketing you can try before you hit that big release day, many of which can be found over on the How To Market a Game website, but i may have another idea.
Opting into Epics First Run Program
I know I know, no one likes the Epic Games Store but hear me out. Epic are offering to give the developer 100% of revenue, including full marketing of your game on the EGS in exchange for rights to a 6 month exclusivity deal (More info can be found here). This even counts if your game is in Early Access! For someone like me this could lead to a massive saving. The idea is to sell the game for a lesser price to entice people to take part in the Early Access, which would theoretically last 6 months. All the while you not only get people to help play test your game but you also get free marketing from Epic to help you build up your wishlists on Steam. This also means your most ardent of fans can purchase the game and you can gain a little revenue in the process.
This does come with some caveats though. Your game still needs to be in a good enough state to play, although it doesn’t need to be 6 months away from 1.0. Ideally you want to be able to still release your game on Steam as an Early Access title, which will give you a small initial boost, but then also release a 1.0 on Steam too which will give you another boost. I think combining EGS and Steam in this way could help improve our chances of success significantly.
The other thing to remember is not many people use the EGS compared to Steam, so don’t expect to be selling hundreds of thousands of copies. As an example we currently have 2000 wishlists on Steam and 77 on the EGS. That means for every 1 person to wishlist our game on the EGS, roughly 26 others have done so on Steam. Though i think this actually works in our favour, lesser people will play the game in it’s infancy, which means less chances of negative reviews and you get to break yourself into selling your game gently. I guess this could be even more beneficial if like me this is the first time you are selling your game on a storefront.
Itch.io
Itch.io gets very little traffic, but you get to choose what percentage of royalty you give to them. This could be a good opportunity to sell your game here after your 6 months are up on Epic if you feel you are still not ready to move forward on Steam. I often see people sell their games on their own websites but i see little point in doing that when itch.io is as cheap as it is, plus they handle everything for you.
Conclusion
In conclusion, i think the best way for us to move forward is to first enrol into the EGS First Run Program, where we will release SpaceSlog into Early Access. If after those 6 months we still feel the game is not ready for primetime (Steam) then also open up sales on Itch.io. I guess from then on the best idea would be to monitor player feedback and keep an eye on wishlists to determine when we should be announcing our release on Steam.
I understand a lot of other people are in very different situations to me and this may not work as well for them as it may for me. Either way, i still don’t plan on releasing anything yet for quite some time so i still have time to think about and plan what i want to do. Nothing here is set in stone, it’s just what i currently feel is the best course of action for us moving forward.
If you have ideas or want to discuss further, feel free to join our discord. Also feel free to check out SpaceSlog on Steam and possibly give it a wishlist! Or you can head over to EGS.
