Entry #15 - Upcoming Steam Demo

Past

Since the last post, I've been working on the project much more than before. I've gone full time in September, my girlfriend's joined me in October. First of all, we've managed to finish all the core game mechanics, needed for the 3rd stage of characters' development. It meant a lot of core systems refactors, introducing GAS into the project etc. Then, we've released a simple, early demo on itch.io. It highlighted what I was afraid of all the time: I need a better way to make the project discoverable. Even with posting on different SM platforms, the total amount of traffic is simply too low. And honestly, marketing actions are the most annoying and unpredictable part of the development for me right now. So I've taken down the itch.io build and focused on preparing a better, more polished Steam Demo.

Present

I'm really happy with the current state of the game. We have 4 levels, 2 of which are completely ready, 2 are playable. Overall, starting experience is pretty good, with all elements in place. I've set up a demo steam page, prepared all the deployment scripts etc. So we are getting ready to release the Steam Demo next month. I don't want to rush it too much this time, taking my time with polish and proper marketing actions. One thing that I still can't do properly myself, is recording and editing trailers. I can do it. Just not very well. So it's sth I will have to pay for. Considering we are living out of our savings right now, it's going to be painfull. But the good thing is, we are still within the budget. The bad thing is, the industry is in an even worse state than when I've decided to quit a regular job. So if the project fails it can be tough.

Future

Assuming everything goes well ( so very unlikely), we plan to run a playtest in a couple of weeks. Then release the Steam Demo to public, hopefully getting some WL traction. What comes next is going back to ultra speed with content creation and small, missing mechanics. So that we can have very polished, complete demo on June NextFest. And release late June / early July.