100% agreed. Could have done a super quick explanation for those who got recommended this video without any other context. Not going to lie, I’ll click into his channel to see but most will not
Congratulations! My team of 3 was in the same boat in February, with a lot of similar feelings about the results. Pretty good for our first release which is great! But not making enough money to keep three people afloat. First video from you I've seen, I really like this sort of thing and am gonna go look at your other videos now :D
Cheers! The gap between “fun hobby money” to “cover living expenses” is very big haha 😅 But everything gets easier and better after you’ve done it once!
Congratulations on the launch! I'm releasing the demo of my game in two weeks, and this video has been such a great source of motivation for me. Thank you!
This video motivated me to continue learning programming and complete one of my dreams, which is to make a game and publish it. Thank you for this wonderful video. I will try your game soon and Good luck in your projects💪
Amazing video, Im launching in July and bit anxious myself. I neglected the marketing thing for far too long and don't got the best amount of wish lists or followers, but like you, just like making games. This video was what I needed, thanks dude
Thanks a lot! I've found a lot of value doing the "build in public" thing. Especially as a solo dev, getting a community to offer feedback is super helpful
Congrats on the launch! You covered my thoughts I've had about an eventual launch day. I really think when I get there, I'll do what I need to do early in the day and then check briefly to make sure nothing's wrong, and then go out for the day and try to take my mind off it as much as possible.
Congratulations man. I was looking forward to this video. And I really look forward to seeing what happens when you launch on console. I bought the game right when it launched (really just for support). I think the knowledge gained from the whole experience is priceless. What’s your next game gonna be?
Wow, thank you so much! I’m honored that you’d choose to support what I’m working on ❤️ I have a million ideas for my next game - but I’m trying to pick an idea with a small enough scope that allows me to complete it in a couple of months. I’m thinking about making a video with some of my favorite ideas and letting people vote for which one to tackle…
Hey thanks! Yeah I was wondering how your launch went! I know you livestreamed what you're going to work on next, but I haven't checked it out yet. Excited to see what you get up to!
Hey congrats! You got way more than I did with Heir Obscure and have more than I currently have from Heir Obscure 2 years later! The game is super visually cohesive - looking forward to seeing what you'll do in the future.
Thanks! I'm hoping I can continue to build more and more as I go! Unsure how long it'll be before I'll be making close to a full salary, but hopefully soonish!
Thank you! Yeah finishing is the hardest thing haha. My strategy is to make many small games and publish them across a bunch of platforms - that way the risk is minimized if one game flops.
I just released my first game, Zeta Leporis RTS, on Feb. 26th, with coincidentally the same number of pre-launch wishlists. However, with a much more limited social media presence (no meaningful following anywhere, but running a very focused reddit ad campaign with a $100 budget), and no nice event tie-in, I had a bit fewer sales, and just hit 50 sales now. Days 2-5 averaged 5 sales, discovery queue exposure is dropping, and I'm stuck on 2 reviews so I can't get the visibility boost; I was at only just over 45,000 post-launch impressions on Steam last I checked. Small pittance compared to the 1 million impressions steam used to give every game at launch a decade ago - though supposedly impressions are much more targeted now. Silver lining, though; more than a thousand demo downloads post-launch. Hopefully a few of those convert to sales -and reviews- over time.
Been following for a while and picked up the game at launch. Great to see how your launch week went. I am looking forward to more updates and the process of getting the game on consoles! Cheers!
Well done for launching! And great to hear your experiences of it too. As you say, I'm sure you will have learnt a TON of stuff through the experience that is at least as valuable as the income itself
Congrats to finishing and launching what appears to be a cool game! i would love to make a couch coop game too, i didn’t know Steam was bad for this.. I’ve played Stick Fight so much with my kids and might pick up yours as well! Good luck in the future! Greetings from Space Chef 😀
Thank you!! Co-op games are super fun to make and play so maybe I’ll do another in the future! Gonna try making something that will appeal to solo players next though
Congratulations on releasing the game! Thank you for sharing your experience with it, and I hope you continue to make sales. Good luck with the console ports!
Im very close to finishing my single player Mahjong game, 99 on wishlist atm. Already had the objective c code from Apple version, so just converted it to c#.
Congrats on the launch!! im also learning on solo developing for 3-4 months now and really looking forward to start my journey as game dev too. Also i have the fear like you described. I am very unsure what to do after finishing the game building. the marketing, the launch process. the steam page building so many things i dont know where to start. I really wish to know how all these things work and cant find any source on that. do you have any suggestions where i can get help or guide on building these post-game creation things? your game launch motivated me very much, congrats to you again and good luck for your further journey!!
My first video of yours. Liked it. Entertaining. Transparency came across genuine. Delivered well polished. Nice job. I’m off to check out a vid or two from your back catalogue. Actually, I’m going to download the game just for a look. Consider it a donation to your project 😜 Well wishes from Down Under 🇦🇺
Cheers! Thanks for the support! I see lots of YT channels that lack authenticity, so I’m trying to make the kind of videos I would’ve wanted a watch a few years ago.
Congratulations on the release! Im currently working on my first release, couch coop as well. Did you look into steam remote at all? I have resigned myself to this game not selling alot of copies, I honestly just want to release a finished product to say I did it haha.
Congrats on the launch! A scary moment that I am looking forward to as well with my game. Also thanks for the honesty and presenting your numbers, it reveals what to expect as an unkown Indie Dev. Good luck, and I hope it has a long tail.
Congrats on the game launch! I do have a question. I am just starting as a game dev (who also is not in it for the money), but I want to ask, why if your game didn't get a lot of traction/'success', would you want to continue to develop it for consoles? I would think you would be looking to the next project, but I look forward to your response!
I'm curious. Why 6h15 am ? Was it to have some time to post stuff all around social media before people are more active in the morning ? Do you feel it was the right hour to do so ? Do the "time since release" have any impact of visibility ? (meaning that releasing at midnight but still waiting till the morning for posting on social media would be a bad thing ?) Also not asking you to dox yourself, but what timezone was it ? Was your sells mostly North America ?
I’d have to check my stats for the regions of sales, but I didn’t overthink my launch time much. I just wanted the launch discount to overlap with the Shmup Fest. I released a few hours beforehand in case I needed to fix a critical issue before the festival started 👍 I’m in Pacific Time
Congrats on releasing the game and that it went well. My two cents on video style, the conversation narrative style is absolutely adequate. You can spend ages editing fancy videos but it's all time taken away from work on the game in the end.
Thanks for this! I have the exact same rationale - I’d rather focus on my games and not make my YT videos “the product”. Also it’s less pressure, more fun, and more authentic. But that’s not what some people are looking for 🤷♂️
@@ThomasStewartDev Haha, I'll let you know, but I'm definitely down to review your game on my 2nd channel, because I'm gonna be rebootin' it up shortly 😉😉
Just a quick comment based only on this video and not knowing much about the game - the price point might have been too high considering the relatively simplistic look of the game. The style reminds me of awesome web games from the past, so I would have put the initial price tag around $3-5, and then a launch discount on top of that. Or possibly keeping the price as it is, but having a much more aggressive launch sale (60% discount or so). Might have converted more views into sales, but of course it's just speculation. Great job nevertheless and congratulations!
wait so my uni made me make a game for a graphic design assessment, can I just like, publish it? I don't even play games but it's been sitting in my computer.
I watched the whole vid and still dont know what your game's name is :( remember to put that out there whenever you can! (I know I can find it in the description, but featuring it in the video more often can make a big impact)
good job looks fun i'll be buying it, steam does live game streams of games not sure how do able it is but maybe see if you can't take advantage of that i really think more will buy once more see it
I want to launch my very first game too for free, with no ads, nothing Pay to Win, just a couple of skins people can pay for. What would you surgery I do?
Honestly, I'm not an expert on all the monetization methods different games use. I'm sticking with the premium model where I just sell the game for a flat price.
@@Grogu_10_10 Yeah start super super small. If it's your first game then try to make it as simple and stupid as possible. You'll learn a million things, then can make the next game a bit bigger
@@ThomasStewartDev currently im making an incremental or idle game, for which they have a community for. When i post to reddit i try to find areas i think that would enjoy the content not just posting in /indiedev or ect. Most of the traffic my channel gets its from reddit. On the other hand twitter doesnt do anything for me. But im still screaming into the void mostly.
@@BrandonFerrentinoOh yeah that makes a lot of sense. I've been having a lot more luck on Twitter recently (and YT algorithm has started to favor me more as well). It's rough to get traction though.
Your game is probably a lot of fun but doesn't even look close to a bullet hell game. Why did you add that tag? Anyway, thanks for sharing the numbers!
I took some time to save up some money and pay down debts before I quit my job - so I have a limited financial runway before I need to get another job if I can't make enough to sustain myself.
You created a very generic boring looking game for 7.99 that looks like a copy of a thousand other games like it, while indie games like Hollow Knight exist and are on -50% sale all the time for the same price. You were always doomed to fail.
Congrats on the launch!
Thanks Hugo!
Congrats on your launch too! Super fun game
This was your chance to show us your game and you blew it!!!
It was in his screenshot
100% agreed. Could have done a super quick explanation for those who got recommended this video without any other context. Not going to lie, I’ll click into his channel to see but most will not
Congratulations! My team of 3 was in the same boat in February, with a lot of similar feelings about the results. Pretty good for our first release which is great! But not making enough money to keep three people afloat. First video from you I've seen, I really like this sort of thing and am gonna go look at your other videos now :D
Cheers! The gap between “fun hobby money” to “cover living expenses” is very big haha 😅
But everything gets easier and better after you’ve done it once!
Congratulations on the launch! I'm releasing the demo of my game in two weeks, and this video has been such a great source of motivation for me. Thank you!
This video motivated me to continue learning programming and complete one of my dreams, which is to make a game and publish it. Thank you for this wonderful video. I will try your game soon and Good luck in your projects💪
Amazing video, Im launching in July and bit anxious myself. I neglected the marketing thing for far too long and don't got the best amount of wish lists or followers, but like you, just like making games. This video was what I needed, thanks dude
I loved the honesty and direct info. Good luck m8 😊
very cool! congrats on the launch and it's success!
🥹Thank you dad…..I mean AIA…
Thanks for sharing! Love this kind of format after a game launch ;)!
Great, glad you enjoyed it! I’m a big advocate for transparency and helping people set expectations for their own games.
Wow man, this video is great. I love the new shot, the editing, cadence and cuts. Great work. Glad launch went so well! Keep it up my dude.
Thanks my man!
Wish I hadn't accidentally unplugged my mic after the intro but oh well haha
Congratulations! Great to hear about the community you have created with this game. Can’t wait to see how it goes!
Thanks a lot!
I've found a lot of value doing the "build in public" thing. Especially as a solo dev, getting a community to offer feedback is super helpful
Congrats on the launch! You covered my thoughts I've had about an eventual launch day. I really think when I get there, I'll do what I need to do early in the day and then check briefly to make sure nothing's wrong, and then go out for the day and try to take my mind off it as much as possible.
Exactly! I love the process, but not the big launch stuff. Happy to be back in the trenches :)
@@ThomasStewartDevCongrats on your first Steam release.
God bless you and your future projects
Congrats on the launch!! It's been a fun game to play around with on the Steam Deck before bed 😊
Thanks, that’s awesome!!!
I didn’t get a chance to test on Steam Deck, so I’m glad it works haha 👍
Really cool to see. Congrats!
Thanks!
Congratulations man. I was looking forward to this video. And I really look forward to seeing what happens when you launch on console. I bought the game right when it launched (really just for support). I think the knowledge gained from the whole experience is priceless. What’s your next game gonna be?
Wow, thank you so much! I’m honored that you’d choose to support what I’m working on ❤️
I have a million ideas for my next game - but I’m trying to pick an idea with a small enough scope that allows me to complete it in a couple of months. I’m thinking about making a video with some of my favorite ideas and letting people vote for which one to tackle…
It's pretty incredible how mirrored our launches were. My stats were almost the same for Attack of the Karens! Congrats on launching your game!
Hey thanks!
Yeah I was wondering how your launch went! I know you livestreamed what you're going to work on next, but I haven't checked it out yet. Excited to see what you get up to!
@@ThomasStewartDev likewise!
Hey congrats! You got way more than I did with Heir Obscure and have more than I currently have from Heir Obscure 2 years later! The game is super visually cohesive - looking forward to seeing what you'll do in the future.
Thanks! I'm hoping I can continue to build more and more as I go!
Unsure how long it'll be before I'll be making close to a full salary, but hopefully soonish!
Congrats! amazing and so motivating, We been struggling to finish games just because of the thought that it is not going to perform.
Thank you! Yeah finishing is the hardest thing haha.
My strategy is to make many small games and publish them across a bunch of platforms - that way the risk is minimized if one game flops.
@@ThomasStewartDev Sounds like a good strategy!
Congratulations on your release , you will reach new heights man keep going
Thank you! 🙌
I’m loving the process! All I want is to continue being able to make games full-time
I just released my first game, Zeta Leporis RTS, on Feb. 26th, with coincidentally the same number of pre-launch wishlists. However, with a much more limited social media presence (no meaningful following anywhere, but running a very focused reddit ad campaign with a $100 budget), and no nice event tie-in, I had a bit fewer sales, and just hit 50 sales now. Days 2-5 averaged 5 sales, discovery queue exposure is dropping, and I'm stuck on 2 reviews so I can't get the visibility boost; I was at only just over 45,000 post-launch impressions on Steam last I checked. Small pittance compared to the 1 million impressions steam used to give every game at launch a decade ago - though supposedly impressions are much more targeted now. Silver lining, though; more than a thousand demo downloads post-launch. Hopefully a few of those convert to sales -and reviews- over time.
Been following for a while and picked up the game at launch. Great to see how your launch week went. I am looking forward to more updates and the process of getting the game on consoles! Cheers!
Hey thank you so much!
What an encouraging comment!
Things are looking good on the PlayStation build, so hopefully will have more news for that soon!
Well done for launching! And great to hear your experiences of it too. As you say, I'm sure you will have learnt a TON of stuff through the experience that is at least as valuable as the income itself
Thanks Andy! Definitely.
It’s funny how separate the skills are for creating games vs publishing games 😅
This is great that your game launched not horribly!
I hope long tail will be plentiful!
Thanks! I’ll be sure to keep y’all updated
Congrats to finishing and launching what appears to be a cool game! i would love to make a couch coop game too, i didn’t know Steam was bad for this.. I’ve played Stick Fight so much with my kids and might pick up yours as well! Good luck in the future! Greetings from Space Chef 😀
Thank you!!
Co-op games are super fun to make and play so maybe I’ll do another in the future! Gonna try making something that will appeal to solo players next though
Congratulations on releasing the game! Thank you for sharing your experience with it, and I hope you continue to make sales.
Good luck with the console ports!
Thanks so much!
Good video games! Keeps it up with a good works and keep going!
Im very close to finishing my single player Mahjong game, 99 on wishlist atm. Already had the objective c code from Apple version, so just converted it to c#.
Nice! Best of luck to you!
Good job Thomas Strangart
Thanks for sharing these findings, I can't wait to see how the console launches go.
Yessir! Consoles have been an entirely separate beast so far - so should be interesting!
Congrats on your launch. I can see this doing much more strongly on console for sure. Ganbatte!
Appreciate it!
Yeah I think it’s made for consoles - so we’ll see how it goes!
Thanks for the honest video and information!
Honesty is the best policy!
Congrats on the launch!! im also learning on solo developing for 3-4 months now and really looking forward to start my journey as game dev too. Also i have the fear like you described. I am very unsure what to do after finishing the game building. the marketing, the launch process. the steam page building so many things i dont know where to start. I really wish to know how all these things work and cant find any source on that. do you have any suggestions where i can get help or guide on building these post-game creation things? your game launch motivated me very much, congrats to you again and good luck for your further journey!!
Nice to see you happy about feedback not about money
I also want to make a game 🎮
Do it!!!
It’s a lot of work, but so much fun!
@@ThomasStewartDev Yeah 👍 You are nice to your subscribers
Keep it up 💯
My first video of yours. Liked it. Entertaining. Transparency came across genuine. Delivered well polished. Nice job. I’m off to check out a vid or two from your back catalogue. Actually, I’m going to download the game just for a look. Consider it a donation to your project 😜 Well wishes from Down Under 🇦🇺
Cheers! Thanks for the support!
I see lots of YT channels that lack authenticity, so I’m trying to make the kind of videos I would’ve wanted a watch a few years ago.
Wow I actually saw this game on my steam page and I remember Thinking that I loved the name!
Congratulations on the release! Im currently working on my first release, couch coop as well. Did you look into steam remote at all? I have resigned myself to this game not selling alot of copies, I honestly just want to release a finished product to say I did it haha.
Congrats on the launch! A scary moment that I am looking forward to as well with my game. Also thanks for the honesty and presenting your numbers, it reveals what to expect as an unkown Indie Dev. Good luck, and I hope it has a long tail.
Cheers! Let me know when you launch - maybe we can do a bundle deal or something
@@ThomasStewartDev nice idea! Will be a while in development still, but we can sync about that when release comes closer.
Congrats on the game launch! I do have a question. I am just starting as a game dev (who also is not in it for the money), but I want to ask, why if your game didn't get a lot of traction/'success', would you want to continue to develop it for consoles? I would think you would be looking to the next project, but I look forward to your response!
I'm curious. Why 6h15 am ? Was it to have some time to post stuff all around social media before people are more active in the morning ? Do you feel it was the right hour to do so ? Do the "time since release" have any impact of visibility ? (meaning that releasing at midnight but still waiting till the morning for posting on social media would be a bad thing ?)
Also not asking you to dox yourself, but what timezone was it ? Was your sells mostly North America ?
I’d have to check my stats for the regions of sales, but I didn’t overthink my launch time much. I just wanted the launch discount to overlap with the Shmup Fest.
I released a few hours beforehand in case I needed to fix a critical issue before the festival started 👍
I’m in Pacific Time
@@ThomasStewartDev Oh ok so your ultimate goal was to be ready for Shmup Fest. Gotcha. Thanks for the info !
Congrats on releasing the game and that it went well. My two cents on video style, the conversation narrative style is absolutely adequate. You can spend ages editing fancy videos but it's all time taken away from work on the game in the end.
Thanks for this! I have the exact same rationale - I’d rather focus on my games and not make my YT videos “the product”. Also it’s less pressure, more fun, and more authentic. But that’s not what some people are looking for 🤷♂️
GG mate!
Thanks! Let me know if you ever want to do a "US Presidents Play Tanks, But No Tanks"!
@@ThomasStewartDev Haha, I'll let you know, but I'm definitely down to review your game on my 2nd channel, because I'm gonna be rebootin' it up shortly 😉😉
Just a quick comment based only on this video and not knowing much about the game - the price point might have been too high considering the relatively simplistic look of the game.
The style reminds me of awesome web games from the past, so I would have put the initial price tag around $3-5, and then a launch discount on top of that. Or possibly keeping the price as it is, but having a much more aggressive launch sale (60% discount or so). Might have converted more views into sales, but of course it's just speculation. Great job nevertheless and congratulations!
Thank you!
Yeah, pricing was a bit difficult for me. I'm trying to discount it to under $5 as frequently as I can.
How much profit has it made roughly? And how much marketing has gone into it?
wait so my uni made me make a game for a graphic design assessment, can I just like, publish it? I don't even play games but it's been sitting in my computer.
rad stuff
how did you get $501 net out of $549 gross?
I watched the whole vid and still dont know what your game's name is :( remember to put that out there whenever you can! (I know I can find it in the description, but featuring it in the video more often can make a big impact)
Yeah, really good point! I sometimes forget that I'm making videos or people who have never seen my other videos...
@@ThomasStewartDev don't worry about it, I've watched a lot of your videos after this. Amazing stuff, thank you 💪
good job looks fun i'll be buying it, steam does live game streams of games not sure how do able it is but maybe see if you can't take advantage of that i really think more will buy once more see it
Hey, thank you!!
That’s a great call, I’ve made a note to look into streams 👍
I want to launch my very first game too for free, with no ads, nothing Pay to Win, just a couple of skins people can pay for. What would you surgery I do?
Honestly, I'm not an expert on all the monetization methods different games use. I'm sticking with the premium model where I just sell the game for a flat price.
@@ThomasStewartDev Yeah. That makes sense. But do you have any advice as to how to actually launch the game?
@@Grogu_10_10 Yeah start super super small. If it's your first game then try to make it as simple and stupid as possible. You'll learn a million things, then can make the next game a bit bigger
its funny how different marketing strats work different for other people. Most traffic I get it from reddit probly cuz I hate interacting with it.
Oh interesting! I also hate using Reddit haha.
What subs do you post on? I typically will do /IndieDev /DevBlogs & /TheMakingOfGames
@@ThomasStewartDev currently im making an incremental or idle game, for which they have a community for. When i post to reddit i try to find areas i think that would enjoy the content not just posting in /indiedev or ect. Most of the traffic my channel gets its from reddit. On the other hand twitter doesnt do anything for me. But im still screaming into the void mostly.
@@BrandonFerrentinoOh yeah that makes a lot of sense. I've been having a lot more luck on Twitter recently (and YT algorithm has started to favor me more as well). It's rough to get traction though.
@@ThomasStewartDev I feel that, im happy to just keep growing the community i have now but im adhd asf and want to make more than just game dev stuff.
Your game is probably a lot of fun but doesn't even look close to a bullet hell game. Why did you add that tag? Anyway, thanks for sharing the numbers!
You bet!
How do you make a living with the revenue you published?
I took some time to save up some money and pay down debts before I quit my job - so I have a limited financial runway before I need to get another job if I can't make enough to sustain myself.
Good job man. I cant wait until I'm at this point
you're really handsome
no u
These are my favorite comments on all of Thomas's videos.
I m the 1k th like u enter 4 digits now 🙌
You'd think you'd at least show some screenshots or clips of your game in this video.
I know 😂
Literally didn’t even think about it until I posted it…whoops
Maybe it's a good thing because it did force me to go watch the trailer, increasing the view count.
collabgame
Hey Thomas Stringert. It would be good if you showed the game you made too. Better luck next time
STEAM sucks honestly
You created a very generic boring looking game for 7.99 that looks like a copy of a thousand other games like it, while indie games like Hollow Knight exist and are on -50% sale all the time for the same price. You were always doomed to fail.