Making all your old games free is quite the move! Congratz with all of the progress you've made in your dev journey and hope Sacred Forest continues to go well for you! 3000 wishlists already is pretty nuts!
Oh man... combining 3D graphics with 2D pixel art actually looks amazing. I can already tell you it will outsell all your other games. Also, cool to watch an actual indie game developer's video about how much he made, instead of all those 100k+ subs youtubers who obviously have an insane free marketing and sales purely from their viewers. I'm not saying it's bad (no way!), I'm just saying it's cool to watch a normal person like us. Edit: Okay, I watched the whole video now, and I guess I was right about Sacred Forest outselling all your other games 🤣
I think making your past games free is a great move! It'll get you a lot more exposure if nothing else. The feedback you get on them now that more people are playing could be valuable too
Man, Sacred Forest is looking sick! Congrats on all your previously released games, the quality jump in all your games as time goes by is pretty awesome to witness. Good luck!
Your next project looks SO GOOD, nice idea to make your older stuff free! I’m currently working on a road crossing sim, I’ve uploaded a few clips from super early dev on my channel
Making some games free to play is a way to market followers to your work and when they see a great looking game that comes out later on they are most likely to pay more the better the games get in the future.
First video I've ever seen from your channel, and I really enjoyed the way you were transparent about everything and also that quality leap from your previous projects into Sacred Forest is just so awesome to see! I'm currently working alongside a couple of friends on an exploration game titled "Realtor" on Steam. Thank you for your content!
I never put it together that you were the same developer from Sacred Forest. I had seen your previous videos on this channel, and some Sacred Forest devlogs. When you mentioned it here I severely shocked lol. Keep up the great work making games
Love this look into how your games have done on steam, and love the mindset you have for making them free! Wanted to ask before doing so, is it alright if I bring some exposure to Sacred Forest on my UA-cam channel?
Your process is really inspired me and many other indie dev as well. Hope you will get your goal and never give up to make more and better games (sorry for my bad english)
Been following along with the sacred Forrest devlogs, awesome to find this video! Always motivated to continue making devlogs when I see so many awesome projects being shared, have been making a stealth based destruction game for about two years now!
This is the first video I've seen of yours, it just popped up in my recommended and I was completely unfamiliar with your work before watching it. But man, Sacred Forest looks so unique, I've already wishlisted it and I'm gonna be watching the devlogs tomorrow when I have some time. Looking forward to seeing it continue development!
Love the mechanics in SF!! Also looks beautiful. Do hope the game challenge scales, and content is there too in the form of progressively harder monsters and quests. Can see myself buying it at some point, which is rare for me to say theses days
Oh, man, I love that I found this channel! I've been following Sacred Forest for a while, and it's easily one of my favorite devlogs here on UA-cam. I love your vibe with those videos, and this was a nice, laid back and chill update. It really paints a picture of how brutal the market can be, but also how much you can learn when developing these smaller releases. I can't wait to try out Sacred Forest. As for projects, I'm making a medium-sized project right now in Unity. At it's core. I want it to have a character-action feel, but with immersive sim elements. I'm currently prototyping systems, abstracting logic where I can so I can try to have more mingling of systems. I'm also trying to build a library of animations to accommodate custom characters, but when I tried extending my rig in Blender with some extra bones for hair and clothing I got some weird bugs and now my rig won't re-generate, so that's been put on the back-burner while I remake my rig with Rigify. It's been an interesting time, haha.
Great Video man, thank you for sharing your numbers. I wish you best of luck and success with Sacred Forest and all your future games. Keep on coding :)
the video was super interesting to watch! How and why did you spend so much money on the marketing for your first game? good luck with your upcoming game !!
Well in 2019-ish there was just a lot less stuff on how to market a game (at least on youtube) and it being my first steam game I just sort of sent different types of Ads not really knowing what I was doing. Also, back then Google Ads especially would easily overspend your budget. You could set something like $20 a day and it would choose to spend $100 in a day because it decided its daily budget on Monthly amounts (where the average daily amount would be $20 but it would spend whatever it wanted to early on) whereas now there is more control on limiting daily amounts. So me being naïve I thought it would stick to a daily budget (because that is what you set in the dashboard) which I believe I set to $50 a day hoping to turn it off at around 4 days which I started it at the game release time but it definitely did not stick to that and because the analytics were delayed it spent $700 before I could turn it off.
Wow! Sacred Forest looks awesome. I think you are going to do well on that game because it looks soo unique. Keep polishing that gem! Was it easy to go through hole process of selling games on Steam? (To be honest to me that part sounds like the scariest part of making games)
@@KimTiger777 Thanks! Selling my first game on steam was a little daunting but after doing it once it’s actually pretty easy hah! It’s mostly learning all the settings in steamworks and of course the part that takes the longest is making all the little images that show up in various places on steam. I definitely recommend going for it if you have a game you’re happy with and if you get stuck steam support is extremely helpful. Good luck! :)
Hah thanks! During that time I worked on a number of game projects that didn't work out, and then just some projects for fun like making a gameboy game and a commodore 64 game. The projects that didn't work out are on this channel as Ex Versa and the VR Devlogs. There is a long reason for why I stopped Ex Versa, but for the VR one I just kept feeling sick when putting on and taking off the headset every time I needed to test the game which was really often. Then my headset broke and I didn't have the money to replace it lol
hey @Blekoh, insightful video man! for real. I just have one question. Are you a full time game dev or did you made the games on side while having another job. I am asking because I am curios about the game dev times. Like do you put 8 hours day strictly?
Most were done about 3 hours a day after working a full time job, KIRO II and Okashi Towers I worked full time, usually about 10 hours a day 7 days a week 🤖
me and my friend are currently working on a Metroidvania game for our school computer Exhibition and It's our 1st time Making fairly large game with multiple mechanics I hope it turns out well
I've been learning game development for a while now and get stuck and demotivated often, thinking if this is something ill ever be able to do or not. This video was weirdly motivating to me. The progress that you have made from your first game to the current one you're working on is HUGE. the current project absolutely blew my mind away. it is so fucking polished dude. And you started from the bottom too. you have inspired me in some ways. i can create my own beardy mcstrong arm. It is an achievable target, maybe in a month, maybe in a year. and game-by-game, month-by-month, year-by-year, i will be able to improve. even if it takes a lot of times. Eventually I will be working on my own Sacred Forest. Congrats Blekoh. All the best for Sacred Forts Also just a question - how did you get to 3300 wishlists? That seems like a big number, more than what I would expect from a game released by someone of the size of your YT channels / your previous game sales. Was it because of free sales after free did the games previous? Thanks
Awesome! It has definitely been a journey hah! For the wishlists they all came from making the Sacred Forest youtube channel. I knew launching devlog videos on this channel (Blekoh) wouldn't perform well so I wanted to create a dedicated channel just for following the progress of the game. I made the steam page before I launched the first video so that I could point anyone interested to wishlist the game for every devlog and I tried to make all of the branding for it look at least somewhat polished (which I need to update now that I'm further along haha) since generally the first devlog is usually the most popular and then they kind of fizzle down in views so it was important to me to make the most out of everything right from the beginning. Hope that helps and good luck! :)
@@Blekoh damn yeah i just checked you almost got 100k views on your first video thats fucking huge. i have wishlisetd the game as wel all the best, this is your big break i feel it brother
It seems to me that there are about 14k bots on steam that just claim all free games. PS. Sacred Forest looks great. It has potential. +1 sub I'll be looking forward for it's development.
Hey, really cool video! I've been developing a first-person cleaning store management game for about two weeks now and I plan to release it next month, my goal with this project is to release a game on Steam, do you have any advice on getting people to know about the game?
This is inspiring. Even if you didn't make a living wage, you still published your games. I'm coming from the art side, learning development now. I'm taking Godot classes and an animation class. Hoping to make some beautiful zen style games like Flower and Feather, but more on the 2D side kind of like Gris, because at the end of the day I love to draw. Thank you for sharing your experiences and games.
Hello I dont know why but seeing your progress has motivated me so much, I am currently working on making one game each month in Godot and actually make videos on my progress. and one day hope to inspire people like how you have inspired me. thanks for the video
It's interesting to see all those stats! Great vid and can't wait to play Scared Forest! I can see how much you grown as a GameDev 😄 For me, I'm currently working on a small puzzle/maze game called AquaDream, set in the ocean, and it's my first game ever, so I'm still learning! It's been 6 months so far that im working on it 😁
Was wondering where you've been! Glad you're still making games and videos. Sacred Forest looks amazing! I just launched my first game last year and I'm working on my second one now. Hopefully I can get it out by/in October :/ It's an arcade game where you play as a dragon! Unfortunately, productivity has hit a bit of a lull. This video has given me some inspiration though for sure!
Haha yep I'm still chuggin along! Thanks! That's awesome you got to launch your first game! I definitely have times where I'm super productive and times where I'm not lol good luck on your dragon game! 👈👈🤖
I am not a 2D nor a pixel art fan but I liked the hedgehogs in that last one. I like seeing what others are working on and how it turned out for them. Good learning tools and reality checks. The one you are working on now looks cool. I think the 2D sprite in a 3D world looks really cool. Wish listed that one. Since you asked I'm working on a 3D platformer about monsters who enter your dreams to take your "entity" which is food to them. This causes nightmares. So Monsters Inc but you are the bad guy on purpose. lol
Btw I have a question, I hope if it gets answered. Like did you had ratings of your game like age rating ? Is it necessary before publishing the game on Steam ? (I was just little bit confused)
To me it seems there is a huge leap in graphics and visual quality between Okashi Towers and Sacred Forest, great work! How did you learn to make such clean pixel (and 3D!) art in such a short time, or do you have other artists working on the game?
Love this. Would like to know when you say took 1.5 years etc is that full time or alongside a job, would be great to know how many hours of work. Thanks
@@mattallenclosedforum9505 most of these were working about 3-6 hours a day after working a full time job. Okashi Towers was about 10 hours a day 7 days a week working on it full time 👈👈🤖
Congrats on all the wishlists for your new project! Did you advertise on your old games (that you switched to free) that your new game was coming out? Maybe I'll try that strategy of releasing a game for free to bring traction to my other games. My current game releases tomorrow on Steam, wish me luck! (Decipher The Deck)
Thanks! The only advertisements I've done for the new project were making the devlogs on the @SacredForestGame channel where each devlog performed slightly worse than the last (which is usually how it goes since people watch the first one or two and then end up not watching the ones later on). It roughly broke down like this: Devlog #0 - got about 1500 wishlists Devlog #1 - got about 1000 wishlists Devlog #2 - got about 400 wishlists Devlog #3 - got about 100 wishlists Good luck on your game release! 👈👈🤖
Congratulations on your Achievements since your first game!🎉.May I ask a personal question? Judging from the Profits of your games,U must have a main Job to make a living right?What is it and Do U recommend going full time or Part time for game development??
For most of these games I worked a full time software engineering job and developed them for around 3-5 hours a day after work. For the past 1.5ish years I've been working full time on game development (generally 10 hours a day, 7 days a week) by burning through my life savings (about 10 years of savings). Now I'm pretty broke and I'm struggling to get any interviews for jobs because of the work gap (companies usually don't like seeing any gaps between jobs and they don't count self employed game development lol) so I would definitely not recommended doing what I did haha! 👈👈🤖
@@Blekoh 10 hours a day and 7 days a week.Wow,No Wonder U made a lot of progress with your New Project.😅Take a break sometimes man.Your Mental health matters. Btw,tq for answering my questions.Hope U have a blessed day!
hey idk if i’m wrong but if the blur on the pixel art character isn’t intentional there’s a setting when importing sprites into godot that does automatic anti-aliasing, forgot what or where it is but yeah
While your other games weren't profitable, Sacred Forest looks like it has potential to at least make 5 figures. I guess you could say your other games were practice before you make a game everyone is really interested in, I wish you best of luck like Jonas Tyroller who also had a similar route before success.
@@denkkab1366 I’ve worked full time as a game developer for a little over a year and I funded myself by burning through my life savings from working as a software engineer 🤖
Hey @blekoh, your video really helps me as a brand New game dev(if I can even call myself that) to just start out and make stuff. When you talk about a 6month dev time how many hours per day would that be?
@@Daanvinchie most of these I worked on after working a full time job so I would work about 3-5 hours a day on them. Okashi Towers I worked about 10 hours a day 7 days a week but I don’t recommend doing that. Good luck with your games! 👈👈🤖
@@Blekoh Thanks for your reply! Are there any lessons worth sharing you haven't shared before? I've only just started out and I have limited time each day. Thanks in advance!
Sacred Forest looking good. Hope it will go better than previous games. Also, KIRO is looking pretty nice. Maybe I expected better numbers overall, especially for KIRO. I'm preparing to publish my first game and I have no expectations since I didn't market it huh 😅
o man i dont think i even proper realised you were the sacred forest guy lol came across this channel and that one at different times independently and didnt click ig
Sacred Forest is looking very cool and I definitely will be trying out your games. I'm soon to release my 2nd game on Steam ( I'm Not Crazy). I have also thought about changing my first game to be free, but somehow I feel betraying those who have paid for it. Have you had any negative feedback? Seems like it has been a great way to get more publicity.
@@luotigames Second game that’s exciting! I have not gotten any negative feedback from making the games free however I did make a community post for a while before I did it to warn people not to buy the game in the meantime. Good luck with your next release! :)
really awesome power move my man ! incase for me I am working on my first commercial game and I am aiming to make my steam page in a bout 9 days! very excited at the same time sacred i will fail :D , do you happen to have any tips or advice ?
@@TheMaJestic14 That’s awesome! Hmm tips well a good gameplay trailer goes a long way, if you can make a demo version then joining steam next fest is great to increase wishlists, once the game releases try to push the game to get 10 reviews as soon as possible since you get a decent bump from a positive rating vs not having any rating. Good luck with your game! :)
@@Blekoh thank you! yess my aim is steam fest and i am hopping to get a nice push! hopefully i will release the game by the end of the year if everything goes well! appreciate your kind words!
this is something that feels relatable and achievable. But how did you manage to go for so long without generating profit? That is the scary part. I am not a game developer maybe someday I will try doing it. but I would really like to know how you handled the hardships and keep yourself motivated, or if your family is financially rich to support you for all these years then that's a different story.
If you got the boom after making it free, why not start with a free game and then after updating it add a small price tag for new players who download your game? That way you would get some positive reviews while it’s free and then hopefully be showed more in steam.
Yes they do both. There is an initial fee of $100 to create a store page/sell a game on Steam (You can technically get this back but your game has to sell over $1000 which I've never done hah). Then Steam takes a 30% cut of any sales you make.
How do you like the idea of doing microtransactions?) The game is free of charge, but the player will have the opportunity to support the developer with a donation
Microtransactions are definitely a strat for making money (which I'm not against anybody adding microtransactions to their game to try to earn some income) but even though I make these videos about money they are really just for me to look back at all the games I've made to try to be a better game developer in the future. So while it would be nice to make money by making games, my number one goal is to make a great game that I'm really proud of and I just personally don't enjoy games that have microtransactions so even if it was successful money wise I don't think I would be satisfied 🤖
@@nubemuffin It was back when Gamemaker announced they were only going to offer GameMaker Studio as a subscription service and for people who had bought a one time payment license they wouldn’t get certain features unless they switched to the subscription tier. So I switched to Godot because I don’t like paying a subscription for software.
Hey, its cool you made all your past games free But is there a reason you arent cross promoting your sacred forest game inside the free games steam page?
@@Blekoh Ah good to know. Maybe something to include in the video as I think you stated how many months you worked on a game, but not how many hours per week. That sets the income from those games more into context as well, as you werent earning really anything with those first few games
I have for a little over a year but I'm actively trying to find another software job since Sacred Forest is a long term project and I burned through my life savings hah!
🌳Wishlist Sacred Forest🌳: store.steampowered.com/app/2864350/Sacred_Forest/
🌳Sacred Forest Devlogs🌳: ua-cam.com/play/PLE5VeODqOE1NhBfNzYcUq9RjWDG023YX4.html&si=mbBbgLQEF9MXY_VY
Do you do any contracted dev work?
@@sweatt4237 I haven't done it in the past usually because I spend all my free time working on my own projects hah
Looks awesome dude! I really like the combination of 2d and 3d
Making all your old games free is quite the move! Congratz with all of the progress you've made in your dev journey and hope Sacred Forest continues to go well for you! 3000 wishlists already is pretty nuts!
Thanks! :)
It’s so good that you’ve been super transparent. Helps people understand what they’re getting into.
Oh man... combining 3D graphics with 2D pixel art actually looks amazing. I can already tell you it will outsell all your other games. Also, cool to watch an actual indie game developer's video about how much he made, instead of all those 100k+ subs youtubers who obviously have an insane free marketing and sales purely from their viewers. I'm not saying it's bad (no way!), I'm just saying it's cool to watch a normal person like us.
Edit: Okay, I watched the whole video now, and I guess I was right about Sacred Forest outselling all your other games 🤣
I think making your past games free is a great move! It'll get you a lot more exposure if nothing else. The feedback you get on them now that more people are playing could be valuable too
Man, Sacred Forest is looking sick! Congrats on all your previously released games, the quality jump in all your games as time goes by is pretty awesome to witness. Good luck!
Thanks! :)
Your next project looks SO GOOD, nice idea to make your older stuff free!
I’m currently working on a road crossing sim, I’ve uploaded a few clips from super early dev on my channel
Hah! Thanks dooood! :)
Well done Blekoh! Been following your journey a while back and happy to see results
@@EmeraldWizardStudios Thanks! :)
Making some games free to play is a way to market followers to your work and when they see a great looking game that comes out later on they are most likely to pay more the better the games get in the future.
First video I've ever seen from your channel, and I really enjoyed the way you were transparent about everything and also that quality leap from your previous projects into Sacred Forest is just so awesome to see! I'm currently working alongside a couple of friends on an exploration game titled "Realtor" on Steam. Thank you for your content!
Sweet good luck with your game Realtor! :)
Use your old games to promote your newest, always a good strategy. Nice video and best of luck!
I never put it together that you were the same developer from Sacred Forest. I had seen your previous videos on this channel, and some Sacred Forest devlogs. When you mentioned it here I severely shocked lol. Keep up the great work making games
I'm one of those wishlisters! Def excited for sacred forest
I was launching all my games on Itch so far, Now I am working on making my Steam and Play Store account. You're video is a perfect guide for me.
Liked and subbed within 30 seconds. Congrats on all the great work! Giving it away free is boss move.
Love this look into how your games have done on steam, and love the mindset you have for making them free!
Wanted to ask before doing so, is it alright if I bring some exposure to Sacred Forest on my UA-cam channel?
Thanks! And yeah of course you can make whatever you want about it hah! 👈👈🤖
Sacred Forest looks extremely innovative. Well done. Subbed.
Thanks! :)
Your process is really inspired me and many other indie dev as well. Hope you will get your goal and never give up to make more and better games (sorry for my bad english)
Sacred Forest is gonna be one of those games where people will go "This was made in GODOT?!"
Looks incredible.
Sacred Forest is shaping up really good keep it up and thanks for your transparency!!
Been following along with the sacred Forrest devlogs, awesome to find this video! Always motivated to continue making devlogs when I see so many awesome projects being shared, have been making a stealth based destruction game for about two years now!
Good luck with your game! :)
This is the first video I've seen of yours, it just popped up in my recommended and I was completely unfamiliar with your work before watching it. But man, Sacred Forest looks so unique, I've already wishlisted it and I'm gonna be watching the devlogs tomorrow when I have some time. Looking forward to seeing it continue development!
I really respect you for all that hard work, I'm sure it will pay out in the end!
I want to follow the same path, I hope I can keep going like you did
Awesome thanks! Good luck with your projects! :)
Super cool efforts there cheers and current I am working on my ancient war game, just making a small game first
That's awesome! Small games are great since the end goal seems to always be in sight hah! Good luck with your game!
👈👈🤖
O M G - SACRED FOREST LOOKS AMAZING! Can't wait to play it!
congrats brother hopefully your game goes viral
It is actually a very impressive portfolio. You are still at the beginning of the path, but it seems to me you are doing everything right. Congrats!
Love the mechanics in SF!! Also looks beautiful. Do hope the game challenge scales, and content is there too in the form of progressively harder monsters and quests. Can see myself buying it at some point, which is rare for me to say theses days
awesome journey so far. subbed to see how you future as a game dev unfolds
Oh cool didn't realize you are the sacred forest dev! Excited
I really hope youre next project will be fire 🔥
sacred forest looks insanely good man i seriously hope you get more subscribers because you make cool looking games
Good for you man. Keep going!
Oh, man, I love that I found this channel! I've been following Sacred Forest for a while, and it's easily one of my favorite devlogs here on UA-cam. I love your vibe with those videos, and this was a nice, laid back and chill update. It really paints a picture of how brutal the market can be, but also how much you can learn when developing these smaller releases. I can't wait to try out Sacred Forest.
As for projects, I'm making a medium-sized project right now in Unity. At it's core. I want it to have a character-action feel, but with immersive sim elements. I'm currently prototyping systems, abstracting logic where I can so I can try to have more mingling of systems. I'm also trying to build a library of animations to accommodate custom characters, but when I tried extending my rig in Blender with some extra bones for hair and clothing I got some weird bugs and now my rig won't re-generate, so that's been put on the back-burner while I remake my rig with Rigify. It's been an interesting time, haha.
Thanks dewd! And that's awesome! Good luck with your Unity project! 👈👈🤖
Sacred Forest looks really good! Really looking forward to the day it finally releases.
Great Video man, thank you for sharing your numbers. I wish you best of luck and success with Sacred Forest and all your future games. Keep on coding :)
the video was super interesting to watch! How and why did you spend so much money on the marketing for your first game? good luck with your upcoming game !!
Well in 2019-ish there was just a lot less stuff on how to market a game (at least on youtube) and it being my first steam game I just sort of sent different types of Ads not really knowing what I was doing. Also, back then Google Ads especially would easily overspend your budget. You could set something like $20 a day and it would choose to spend $100 in a day because it decided its daily budget on Monthly amounts (where the average daily amount would be $20 but it would spend whatever it wanted to early on) whereas now there is more control on limiting daily amounts.
So me being naïve I thought it would stick to a daily budget (because that is what you set in the dashboard) which I believe I set to $50 a day hoping to turn it off at around 4 days which I started it at the game release time but it definitely did not stick to that and because the analytics were delayed it spent $700 before I could turn it off.
@@Blekoh Damn that sucks. thanks for the answer tho
Making your games free is actually a good marketing strategy
Good luck on Sacred Forest, looks cool 👍
Thanks! :)
Grappling hooks make every game 100% better
Wow! Sacred Forest looks awesome. I think you are going to do well on that game because it looks soo unique. Keep polishing that gem!
Was it easy to go through hole process of selling games on Steam? (To be honest to me that part sounds like the scariest part of making games)
@@KimTiger777 Thanks! Selling my first game on steam was a little daunting but after doing it once it’s actually pretty easy hah! It’s mostly learning all the settings in steamworks and of course the part that takes the longest is making all the little images that show up in various places on steam. I definitely recommend going for it if you have a game you’re happy with and if you get stuck steam support is extremely helpful. Good luck! :)
Really good video!
I wish you best luck on your future journey!
Thanks! 👈👈🤖
Thanks for the video, it's very instructive and I think I'll do the same when my projects come out
Woah those claims definitely jumped going free! Great video 🍻
Numba go up! 🤖
OMG your new game looks so good! I love the LOTR vibes and the bow shooting part looks sick!
Great little video. I’m following Sacred Forest, but haven’t wishlisted. Doing that today!
Thanks! :)
good luck buddy
i respect how honest you are and zero bs just stats, im subscribed
but what happened during the time skip between 2020-2023
Hah thanks! During that time I worked on a number of game projects that didn't work out, and then just some projects for fun like making a gameboy game and a commodore 64 game. The projects that didn't work out are on this channel as Ex Versa and the VR Devlogs. There is a long reason for why I stopped Ex Versa, but for the VR one I just kept feeling sick when putting on and taking off the headset every time I needed to test the game which was really often. Then my headset broke and I didn't have the money to replace it lol
hey @Blekoh, insightful video man! for real. I just have one question. Are you a full time game dev or did you made the games on side while having another job. I am asking because I am curios about the game dev times. Like do you put 8 hours day strictly?
Most were done about 3 hours a day after working a full time job, KIRO II and Okashi Towers I worked full time, usually about 10 hours a day 7 days a week 🤖
Great video man!
me and my friend are currently working on a Metroidvania game for our school computer Exhibition
and It's our 1st time Making fairly large game with multiple mechanics
I hope it turns out well
Very cool! Good luck with your game!
@@Blekoh Thanks!
I've been learning game development for a while now and get stuck and demotivated often, thinking if this is something ill ever be able to do or not. This video was weirdly motivating to me. The progress that you have made from your first game to the current one you're working on is HUGE. the current project absolutely blew my mind away. it is so fucking polished dude. And you started from the bottom too. you have inspired me in some ways. i can create my own beardy mcstrong arm. It is an achievable target, maybe in a month, maybe in a year. and game-by-game, month-by-month, year-by-year, i will be able to improve. even if it takes a lot of times. Eventually I will be working on my own Sacred Forest. Congrats Blekoh. All the best for Sacred Forts
Also just a question - how did you get to 3300 wishlists? That seems like a big number, more than what I would expect from a game released by someone of the size of your YT channels / your previous game sales. Was it because of free sales after free did the games previous? Thanks
Awesome! It has definitely been a journey hah! For the wishlists they all came from making the Sacred Forest youtube channel. I knew launching devlog videos on this channel (Blekoh) wouldn't perform well so I wanted to create a dedicated channel just for following the progress of the game. I made the steam page before I launched the first video so that I could point anyone interested to wishlist the game for every devlog and I tried to make all of the branding for it look at least somewhat polished (which I need to update now that I'm further along haha) since generally the first devlog is usually the most popular and then they kind of fizzle down in views so it was important to me to make the most out of everything right from the beginning. Hope that helps and good luck! :)
@@Blekoh damn yeah i just checked you almost got 100k views on your first video thats fucking huge. i have wishlisetd the game as wel all the best, this is your big break i feel it brother
Ayyyy thanks! Still have a long way to go hah! 🤖
It seems to me that there are about 14k bots on steam that just claim all free games.
PS. Sacred Forest looks great. It has potential. +1 sub I'll be looking forward for it's development.
Sacred Forest looks amazing. wish u all the success
Sacred forest looks bad ass. Keep going and improving!
Sacred forest actually looks gas dude, keep it up!
Thanks! :)
Thanks for making such a dope and detailed video. Did you do indie full time?
Thanks! The first few were not full time but KIRO II and Okashi Towers were 🤖
Hey, really cool video! I've been developing a first-person cleaning store management game for about two weeks now and I plan to release it next month, my goal with this project is to release a game on Steam, do you have any advice on getting people to know about the game?
This is inspiring. Even if you didn't make a living wage, you still published your games. I'm coming from the art side, learning development now. I'm taking Godot classes and an animation class. Hoping to make some beautiful zen style games like Flower and Feather, but more on the 2D side kind of like Gris, because at the end of the day I love to draw. Thank you for sharing your experiences and games.
Hello I dont know why but seeing your progress has motivated me so much, I am currently working on making one game each month in Godot and actually make videos on my progress. and one day hope to inspire people like how you have inspired me. thanks for the video
Awesome good luck with your games! :)
It's interesting to see all those stats! Great vid and can't wait to play Scared Forest! I can see how much you grown as a GameDev 😄 For me, I'm currently working on a small puzzle/maze game called AquaDream, set in the ocean, and it's my first game ever, so I'm still learning! It's been 6 months so far that im working on it 😁
@@GossiamGames That’s awesome! Good luck with AquaDream! 👈👈🤖
@@Blekoh Thank you so much ! You've been a huge inspiration for me, you and so many great youtubers ! 🤗
Sacred forest looks gorgeous. Keep up the good work !
Was wondering where you've been! Glad you're still making games and videos. Sacred Forest looks amazing! I just launched my first game last year and I'm working on my second one now. Hopefully I can get it out by/in October :/ It's an arcade game where you play as a dragon! Unfortunately, productivity has hit a bit of a lull. This video has given me some inspiration though for sure!
Haha yep I'm still chuggin along! Thanks! That's awesome you got to launch your first game! I definitely have times where I'm super productive and times where I'm not lol good luck on your dragon game! 👈👈🤖
I am not a 2D nor a pixel art fan but I liked the hedgehogs in that last one. I like seeing what others are working on and how it turned out for them. Good learning tools and reality checks. The one you are working on now looks cool. I think the 2D sprite in a 3D world looks really cool. Wish listed that one.
Since you asked I'm working on a 3D platformer about monsters who enter your dreams to take your "entity" which is food to them. This causes nightmares. So Monsters Inc but you are the bad guy on purpose. lol
@@milantiquestudios7460 Thanks! And nice that’s awesome good luck with your monster game!
👈👈🤖
Btw I have a question, I hope if it gets answered.
Like did you had ratings of your game like age rating ?
Is it necessary before publishing the game on Steam ?
(I was just little bit confused)
Before you launch a game on steam, steam has a survey you have to fill out for each game and they give your game a rating based on your answers
@@Blekoh Thanks a lot, it means a lot to me.
I like the style of Sacred Forest. Would be cool listening about 2D in 3D environment or 3D to 2D conversion.
To me it seems there is a huge leap in graphics and visual quality between Okashi Towers and Sacred Forest, great work! How did you learn to make such clean pixel (and 3D!) art in such a short time, or do you have other artists working on the game?
@@denkkab1366 Thanks! Sacred Forest is just a solo project for me and it just took a lot of practice
👈👈🤖
@@Blekoh that's super impressive, thanks 👌🏻
ngl sacred forest looks insane its definetely gonna do well
wish you luck, this project will pay you the 4 years of hard work
@@bhuvneetsaggu4011 thanks! :)
Love this. Would like to know when you say took 1.5 years etc is that full time or alongside a job, would be great to know how many hours of work. Thanks
@@mattallenclosedforum9505 most of these were working about 3-6 hours a day after working a full time job. Okashi Towers was about 10 hours a day 7 days a week working on it full time 👈👈🤖
@@Blekoh amazing thanks. Keep up the great work.
Congrats on all the wishlists for your new project! Did you advertise on your old games (that you switched to free) that your new game was coming out?
Maybe I'll try that strategy of releasing a game for free to bring traction to my other games. My current game releases tomorrow on Steam, wish me luck! (Decipher The Deck)
Thanks! The only advertisements I've done for the new project were making the devlogs on the @SacredForestGame channel where each devlog performed slightly worse than the last (which is usually how it goes since people watch the first one or two and then end up not watching the ones later on). It roughly broke down like this:
Devlog #0 - got about 1500 wishlists
Devlog #1 - got about 1000 wishlists
Devlog #2 - got about 400 wishlists
Devlog #3 - got about 100 wishlists
Good luck on your game release! 👈👈🤖
Congratulations on your Achievements since your first game!🎉.May I ask a personal question? Judging from the Profits of your games,U must have a main Job to make a living right?What is it and Do U recommend going full time or Part time for game development??
For most of these games I worked a full time software engineering job and developed them for around 3-5 hours a day after work. For the past 1.5ish years I've been working full time on game development (generally 10 hours a day, 7 days a week) by burning through my life savings (about 10 years of savings).
Now I'm pretty broke and I'm struggling to get any interviews for jobs because of the work gap (companies usually don't like seeing any gaps between jobs and they don't count self employed game development lol) so I would definitely not recommended doing what I did haha!
👈👈🤖
@@Blekoh 10 hours a day and 7 days a week.Wow,No Wonder U made a lot of progress with your New Project.😅Take a break sometimes man.Your Mental health matters.
Btw,tq for answering my questions.Hope U have a blessed day!
hey idk if i’m wrong but if the blur on the pixel art character isn’t intentional there’s a setting when importing sprites into godot that does automatic anti-aliasing, forgot what or where it is but yeah
thanks for making ur games free. i will give one or 2 a try for sure :)
While your other games weren't profitable, Sacred Forest looks like it has potential to at least make 5 figures. I guess you could say your other games were practice before you make a game everyone is really interested in, I wish you best of luck like Jonas Tyroller who also had a similar route before success.
Thanks! :)
@@Blekohman steam be raking too much in from everyone's own games 😢 that's rough
Have you been working as a full-time game developer since your first game? If I may ask, how do you fund yourself working on the games?
@@denkkab1366 I’ve worked full time as a game developer for a little over a year and I funded myself by burning through my life savings from working as a software engineer 🤖
@@Blekoh awesome to hear, because that's exactly my story right now :) gives me some hope that I can get to the same point as you!
Hey @blekoh, your video really helps me as a brand New game dev(if I can even call myself that) to just start out and make stuff. When you talk about a 6month dev time how many hours per day would that be?
@@Daanvinchie most of these I worked on after working a full time job so I would work about 3-5 hours a day on them. Okashi Towers I worked about 10 hours a day 7 days a week but I don’t recommend doing that. Good luck with your games! 👈👈🤖
@@Blekoh Thanks for your reply! Are there any lessons worth sharing you haven't shared before? I've only just started out and I have limited time each day. Thanks in advance!
Sacred Forest looking good. Hope it will go better than previous games. Also, KIRO is looking pretty nice. Maybe I expected better numbers overall, especially for KIRO.
I'm preparing to publish my first game and I have no expectations since I didn't market it huh 😅
@@RootGames Good luck with your game!
👈🏻👈🏻🤖
Finally !!!!
someone Without clickbait ❤❤❤
damn your game looks sick! Nice vid
@@alsethe2nd656 thanks! :)
o man i dont think i even proper realised you were the sacred forest guy lol
came across this channel and that one at different times independently and didnt click ig
Sacred Forest looks like its going to be your breakthorugh game. Congrats!!
Thanks! :)
Sacred forest looks amaazing!
Thanks! :)
Sacred Forest looks dope af
the reality is much harsher, but it is the truth
Sacred Forest is looking very cool and I definitely will be trying out your games. I'm soon to release my 2nd game on Steam ( I'm Not Crazy). I have also thought about changing my first game to be free, but somehow I feel betraying those who have paid for it. Have you had any negative feedback? Seems like it has been a great way to get more publicity.
@@luotigames Second game that’s exciting! I have not gotten any negative feedback from making the games free however I did make a community post for a while before I did it to warn people not to buy the game in the meantime. Good luck with your next release! :)
U lost Monay and time but gained experience that's priceless ceep it up
really awesome power move my man !
incase for me I am working on my first commercial game and I am aiming to make my steam page in a bout 9 days! very excited at the same time sacred i will fail :D , do you happen to have any tips or advice ?
@@TheMaJestic14 That’s awesome! Hmm tips well a good gameplay trailer goes a long way, if you can make a demo version then joining steam next fest is great to increase wishlists, once the game releases try to push the game to get 10 reviews as soon as possible since you get a decent bump from a positive rating vs not having any rating. Good luck with your game! :)
@@Blekoh thank you! yess my aim is steam fest and i am hopping to get a nice push! hopefully i will release the game by the end of the year if everything goes well!
appreciate your kind words!
new game looks cool
this is something that feels relatable and achievable.
But how did you manage to go for so long without generating profit? That is the scary part.
I am not a game developer maybe someday I will try doing it.
but I would really like to know how you handled the hardships and keep yourself motivated, or if your family is financially rich to support you for all these years then that's a different story.
sacred forest looks amazing
sacred forest looks sooo sick
If you got the boom after making it free, why not start with a free game and then after updating it add a small price tag for new players who download your game? That way you would get some positive reviews while it’s free and then hopefully be showed more in steam.
Am I not understanding? You're taking 2 steam fees out of your profits?
They take a cut of sales AND have a flat $100 fee? I'm confused.
Yes they do both. There is an initial fee of $100 to create a store page/sell a game on Steam (You can technically get this back but your game has to sell over $1000 which I've never done hah). Then Steam takes a 30% cut of any sales you make.
very cool! So many games
Thanks! :)
How do you like the idea of doing microtransactions?) The game is free of charge, but the player will have the opportunity to support the developer with a donation
Microtransactions are definitely a strat for making money (which I'm not against anybody adding microtransactions to their game to try to earn some income) but even though I make these videos about money they are really just for me to look back at all the games I've made to try to be a better game developer in the future. So while it would be nice to make money by making games, my number one goal is to make a great game that I'm really proud of and I just personally don't enjoy games that have microtransactions so even if it was successful money wise I don't think I would be satisfied 🤖
Why did you move from GameMaker to Godot while still making a 2d game?
@@nubemuffin It was back when Gamemaker announced they were only going to offer GameMaker Studio as a subscription service and for people who had bought a one time payment license they wouldn’t get certain features unless they switched to the subscription tier. So I switched to Godot because I don’t like paying a subscription for software.
Hey, its cool you made all your past games free
But is there a reason you arent cross promoting your sacred forest game inside the free games steam page?
Sacred Forest somehow reminds me of Attack on Titan :D
Are you working full time on those games?
@@eliashrebik6786 most of them I just worked 3-5 hours after work. The past year and a half has been full time 🤖
@@Blekoh Ah good to know. Maybe something to include in the video as I think you stated how many months you worked on a game, but not how many hours per week.
That sets the income from those games more into context as well, as you werent earning really anything with those first few games
Do you work as a fulltime game dev?
I have for a little over a year but I'm actively trying to find another software job since Sacred Forest is a long term project and I burned through my life savings hah!