It has got to be an amazing feeling as a solo dev to create a game and see all the positive feedback and fun everyone is having! the best part is it being a hobby of yours and over those 4 years im sure you gained so much knowledge and skill in your field as well a cheeky pay-cheque! thanks for this video, was great insight from a perspective I'd never have otherwise!
Hey man! This video really resonated with me because I've been making a multiplayer real-time strategy for few years as a hobby. It's in space, 1v1 and you can also play against bots. My biggest fear is some potential fan designing his units excited to play and show them off, but matchmaking not finding an opponent. I try to do everything I can to get even some group interested in it. Removing friction, polishing gameplay, trying to come up with a marketing plan, everything I can. Multiplayer is tough, but your game seems to do amazing! Really inspiring stuff and good tips also!
Thank you so much for the kind words! I know the feeling, I had similar concerns a few months before launch. I think since its 1v1 matchmaking shouldn't be too bad, especially if you market it as something to play with a friend. Just be sure to get a good amount of wishlist's before launch as well :) It sounds like you are making the right moves though. Having a really polished fun game goes a long way. Good luck!
Dude congrats, I haven’t had a PC In years so I don’t play steam games rn but if I did, I’d be on this in a flash. You have crazy talent. Wish I was like you, keep it up!
Looks like a really fun game both to develop and play. Have you considered making a "spin-off" or dlc with a single player campaign with just a few traversal levels (potentially with some speedrun potential and cosmetic unlocks for the main game)? Understand that this might add x hundred hours of dev time, but could be another source of income that doesn't retract from the main game being free. Also, besides the awesome playerbase, 4 years sticking with the same project is such a great achievement in itself, wish you all the best!
$1800 is a pretty hard pill to swallow considering 4 years of dev. That being said, you now have a game out there under a publisher name that was successful. The next game will get more visibility because of this and you can monetize more on the frontend.
Good job man, the game looks amazing. You didn't waste your time at all, you learned from the experience and if you decide to make another game in the future, you now know the ins and outs of what it's like to develop and publish :)
0.99$ for a limited time with an announcement that the DLC is the only way to support the game? Maybe call the DLC what it is: Dev Support Skin Pack #1, #2, #3. etc It's been proven people need a reason to "betray" themselves to buy things. The argument would be: I get those nice skins and I can afford that because I also support the developer! You could sell all those DLCs and people are just throwing money at skins that are below 1 US$. The market place is only useful if you want to implement gambling which you gladly won't. Thanks for the great insight!
Thats crazy I got this recommended to me I was just playing this game a few days ago with a friend. It was so much fun I loved the goofy movements and blowing him up with a rocket launcher lol.
For a game that managed to entertain so many people the income really shouldn't be that low I understand the amount has to do with the way the game was monetized but still and the fact it's free but still
Well.. you kind of have to bear in mind that if it weren't free then it probably would've been dead on arrival. A lot of people play it, but almost none of them would've played it if it had a price tag attached to it (partially because they just don't want to pay money of course, but also partially because it's a multiplayer game which means that if you don't have a very active playerbase then it will die pretty much instantly no matter what the game actually is - if nobody is playing the game, then even the people that were willing to pay will start to quit because they can't find matches, and it's very difficult to recover from that).
I was looking for your game 3 weeks ago! I couldn't remember what it was called, just remembered the rocket jumping, knockout (?) esque gameplay video with the buildings on the small sky islands. The only game that I could find anywhere (steam, itch, google, asking Ai), that was similar was Sky Noon. I was hoping to find your game on the Sky Noon's "More like this" box. But only now by chance through youtube did I find it again. Just letting you know I had a hard time finding your game.
Congrats, one question though. I’m a software engineer who’s new to game dev and I’m wondering how can a free game support this big number of online players. Are the servers provided by steam for free or self hosted?
Thanks! I was actually planning on making a video about this soon but yeah, steam provides the servers for free. My game is P2P and they connect players for free and charge developers nothing for the servers required to do this (besides I guess the 100 dollars it takes to put a game up on Steam). Yes they take a 30% cut of your games revenue but that's worth it imo considering as a dev you don't need to take any financial risk or worry about servers at all.
@@zoteling2817 That's actually amazing, servers are costly and hard to maintain. The only downside I guess is less control, but with the peace of mind you will have from not managing any servers I think it's worth it.
@@zoteling2817 there seems to be a 15$ premium DLC that adds the following - A glowing name in the chat, leaderboards and scoreboard - 12500 ($5 worth) of pux right away - Free Secret Stash refresh every 22 hours - Create and manage Camera presets - Customize your quick chat messages - Premium title on the scoreboards - Cosmetic preset creation - Permanent 10% Experience boost (does not affect gameplay) - Permanent 10% Pux boost (in-game currency) - Ability to use any highlight color for your stick and puck in the settings (the see-through colors when obstructed) - Ability to change the colors of the puck trail for yourself - Premium jersey cosmetic - Zeus hat cosmetic - LED Edge Glasses cosmetic - Premium Hoodie cosmetic
I'm pretty sure the only boost you get when doing full release after early access is the potential "new and trending" list, which can be huge, but (like everything on steam) is based on the $$$ you make. If you have a lot of wishlists and there still are people who are waiting for the full release then they will get a notification about it, which might give you big spike during the release. I think depending on how well that spike translates into money - the steam will decide if you should be in the "new and trending" section, which hopefully will give you a big boost. Not entirely sure if this is how it works for free games though.
I didn't know that but that would make sense, obviously steam would want to optimize it algorithm to make money. I'll need to look in to that more then, thanks for the heads up!
@@zoteling2817With the Early Access release and 10 reviews you got some free visibility from Sream but releasing from Early Access doesn't give you that boost anymore. But usually there is still some spike for various reasons.
I think you should make it a cheap paid game in the $5 range for the full release, especially if you spent 4 years working on it. People wouldn't bat an eye at that price as long as the full release has more content. It would also help with cosmetic sales because you would've broke the spend wall through users purchasing the game. I also think if you keep it f2p you'd have much more success with cosmetic sales if they were less than or closer to the $1 range especially with all the player traffic assuming there is a store in game and not just on the steam page. Goodluck! I wish you the best.
Being in the indie category, there was an indie game i used to play on the xbox 360 that i would love a remastered version of. There are actually 2 Total miner Forge and Castle Miner Z. If we could get a remastered Castle miner Z the people would go crazy.
How did you manage to market your game? Did you contact UA-camrs, TikTok influencers, or Telegram group owners to promote it? Over 1 million downloads is not an easy feat!
Actually to be honest, I didn't do all to much other than a couple of reddit posts, devlogs, a trailer, and getting my steam page up nice and early so that it has time to get a good amount of Wishlist's. Most of the actual traction came after its release though when people started finding it and covering it
How did you handle matchmaking? Are you using an external service? From my research all I found were paid servers to host your game which won't be nice if I'm still testing the waters.
Thanks for sharing your experience! I'm a web developer and have started creating my own game after my day job. How do you manage your online server-side costs for the game, especially since it's a online game?
Love the game, been trying to make my own game not really to share it with the public just for myself. Is there any advice you can give me as a noobie to game dev. like what software I should use and any useful youtube videos I should watch to expand on my game dev .
It's not about making money. If you in with the mindset to make money, you wont make any. If you truly love this game and if you have put your soul into it and developed a really good. Then people will buy it. Simple as that.
Hey @Zoteling, really awesome that you're having success with your game. I hope it goes the way you want from here :) I'm actually also developing a physics-based MP shooter and was doing some market research on similar games on Steam, and then came across Grapples Galore - and now randomly came across you on YT (was glad to see you make videos!). I was just wondering if you could give some insights into your development? What engine are you using and how do you deal with physics in an online multiplayer game? From what I've seen, that exact combination is very difficult because of latency. Do you use peer-to-peer hosting? All the best with your journey!
Wait, how does Wishlist works on Free to Play EA game? I remember that once a game added to your library, it deletes itself from the wishlist. For example, 1000 people wishlisted your game, pre release. Game went to Early Access, and that 1000 players installed it and no longer a wishlisters. Does that mean your f2p game will launch as if with 0 wishlist on Full Release?
dude, 1.1m users on a product is crazy. (!!!) Considering 4 years of development and you probably covering other expenses like the server... please monetize this asap. As much as we appreciate free stuff, this should at least pay the bills for you. I think everyone would agree that'd be fair. Mad respect 🙌
"I don't like Steam Marketplace..."; meanwhile 'A Free Banana' (or whatever it's called) took 5-10m to develop (it's not even a game!) and makes $3k/day Good luck with the full release! The game looks fun, I'll be sure to give a go this summer ^^ Really appreciated the transparency!
I'm working on a solo horror game at the moment and plan to put it on steam, since it is solo do you think its better to make it cost money or should I add stuff like DLCs?
I liked the idea of your game, but I wanted to know which engine you used for your game, I want to start my career as a game developer in the future when i'm older.
Just so everyone realizes what he's saying is his profit was based off a 4 year development. Luckily, because it was a hobby, it's not a total loss. That being said, Steam also gives 5 free pushes/boosts per application. Unless your game is already blowing up from a random lottery win you wont get much time/views from people. They favor what is gonna make them money, and that means little to no time for people trying to make it in the market who don't already have a presence. Marketing plays a HUGE roll, but unless that works you're pretty much gambling. And you can expect after taxes and steams cut to bring you down to at best 50% of what was made (or at least that's what I got in the states).
I use Steamworks for matchmaking and the game is peer to peer. Since Steam doesn't charge for matchmaking multiplayer is completely free! I just uploaded a vid talking about that actually :)
I think its really cool that you let your game be free and the dlcs are just for cosmetics. I hope its release gets you more money. Also, have you considered trying to add a in-store page for your game so players can purchase cosmetics directly from you? Im not exactly sure how something like that would work, but i figure linking it to a website that people would buy through would be the way to do it. Then you could keep a much larger percentage of the purchases!
@@kebbil what do you mean burning the bridge with steam? Im saying do what all these other big free games do. Sell cosmetics through your own store. My website through bluehost takes like 5% of sales amd then you lose 5% to card fees so itd be a 20% save.
Thanks! I could see something like that maybe helping but as a solo indie dev I think the amount of time that would need to go in to implementing and maintaining it wouldn't be worth it. I would assume people would be a little more hesitant to buy dlc on an external site. Steam despite taking a 30% cut of profits does provide a lot of benefits with just how easy they make it to handle payments
What about multiplayer server costs? Who do you use and does it cost you money that eats into your profit? If it costs you money for the server costs, how do you see the future sustainability of the game?
Congratulations on this achievement! Don't worry too much about the game being a flop financially. Just make sure when your game hits full release that you are using it as a tool to market your socials, such as your UA-cam. If you gain more loyal fans here, that will be much more of a boost to your income streams than a free to play game would be able to give you through people purchasing cosmetics and DLC.
Thank you! That's been how I've been approaching it. It's success I think will help me a lot long term and also likely funnel more traffic into my future games whether they are f2p or not.
Did you ever play that Unity attack on titan game by Li Feng? It's the only other game i can think of with actual skillful grapple mechanics instead of just point A -> point B
Was it worth it because you got experience from it? Yes. Was it good business-wise? No. The lootbox system would have been better. You can buy a lootbox and create a Steam market using these lootboxes. You could make rare skin sets, for example, a Zeus outfit with a golden outline with the character. That would be cool but if you are a single Dev I fully understand. But Overall good game and this gives me a motivational boost for publishing my own game. Keep up!
Well when I launched my game I only had around 800. I only got 5000 after the game launched and lots of people checked it out. To get to 800 though I made devlogs and reddit posts promoting it which I'd recommend doing
This is really interesting! Since it’s free, how did you decide to set up the servers for players, does the monthly profit cover those kind of overhead?
Thanks for your amazing insights. Btw do you know about how steam feels about releasing playable demos (i.e., like you said about Early Access and Full Releases)? I'm thinking of releasing a playable demo for the game I am working on.
Thanks! The most important thing before you release a game on to steam is to get your wishlist's up. Demo's can be an excellent tool for that as they increase engagement on your steam page and if people enjoy the demo they will definitely wishlist your game. It has to be a strong demo though and leave people wanting more. I think for paid games 10000 wishlists before release is recommended to get on the "good side of Steam". In my case I only had 800 but I think f2p works a little differently. Good luck!
Thanks for sharing these metrics. I'm looking at jumping back into game development, and hope to sell a game for some small amount, hopefully making something, but no expectation making a reasonable return. This helps give me some idea of what I could expect
Hi - question. Do you have costs associated with running the multiplayer/online service? I've always wondered how affordable multiplayer/live games are to maintain and operate. Appreciate your insights and congrats on the early success! I hope it continues to grow!
For my games multiplayer I use steams servers and peer to peer. Steams servers are actually free which goes a long way and removes any financial risk from my game
Here are some things that big companies use to make more money from free games: - Battle pass - In-game currencies (vbucks, robux, etc.) - Lootbox systems (basically gambling) - Rotating item shop (skins, emotes) - Subscriptions (Roblox Premium, Fortnite Crew, etc.) If you use these techniques, you could definitely go full time!
I personally I feel like all the things you've listed have gotten old and tend to be a big turn off for games I play because it feels like its no longer about the game. I don't really care, the game is great and if Zoteling decides to add this type of stuff I won't blame him because he's an indie dev following through with making a game he put his dedication to
Just wondering, what system did you use for your game’s networking? Did you do it through steam, unity’s multiplayer system, or a third party system like photon?
I was actually planning on making a video about this soon! What I do and what I recommend doing is using fishnet and fishysteamworks as a transport. This way if you put your game up on steam you have no server costs. Fishnet is also a great networking solution and has an active and very helpful community. Its very efficient and while maybe not the easiest to use, far from the hardest as well making it well worth learning!
Hey, really love your content and the game your making! I have made games in the past, but I never get to finish one. What would you recommend for actually finishing and releasing a game?
Thanks for the kind words. Finishing and releasing a game is a lot of work. Because of this usually its good to make a very small game and release it on to itch.io or steam. Game jams are great for this so I'd recommend trying a few of those to get in the habit of finishing games. I personally though just found a project I was really passionate about after a lot of just messing around in unity and would set aside a few hours every day to work on it. Keep scope small though and try not to expand it as you work on your game. Be sure to also just have fun with the process :) making games takes a lot of time so its important to enjoy the process too
Since its peer to peer I have the host handle some server authoritative logic. A lot can be achieve through good network code architecture. Since the host handles this logic though that means the host could still technically still cheat. I also build to something called IL2CPP though in unity which means a build to a low level language that's harder to modify. It is still possible to cheat though so I just make sure my game isn't too competitive so there isn't incentive to. I hope that helps answer your question :)
I chose to use fishnet and fishysteamworks as my networking solution! I highly recommend fishnet. I also use github if you are referring to version control.
@@zoteling2817 Good solution! But I am referring to a cloud where player's stats are saved. What you use to save data for players like level, xp etc.. or if you don't use, do you know any cloud service but to be completely free? Except unity cloud that has limits, google cloud the same and firebase the same.
I am reffering to a cloud where you save player's stats like level, xp etc.. It's a good idea to use steam cloud? If steam cloud gives an error for a specific player? Do you know any other cloud service but to be completely free? Not like unity cloud, google cloud or firebase that has limitations at free tier.
@@defeleDFL Actually since my game doesn't have any levelling or progression system I don't use any cloud. I think steam cloud is supposed to be a great option though
Free game with active players is always W.
best game ever
the thing is, i hope he have good financial otherwise he can't keep the game running
You gotta respect when devs go out of their way to be transparent🥺
wow thanks for the inside! Good luck with release!
Gratz on finish and publishing a game, that's an achievement by itself!
Thanks!
Amazing results! keep at it!
Congrats! Really enjoying the game and your devlogs! ^^
Thanks for the kind words!
It has got to be an amazing feeling as a solo dev to create a game and see all the positive feedback and fun everyone is having! the best part is it being a hobby of yours and over those 4 years im sure you gained so much knowledge and skill in your field as well a cheeky pay-cheque! thanks for this video, was great insight from a perspective I'd never have otherwise!
Hey man! This video really resonated with me because I've been making a multiplayer real-time strategy for few years as a hobby. It's in space, 1v1 and you can also play against bots. My biggest fear is some potential fan designing his units excited to play and show them off, but matchmaking not finding an opponent. I try to do everything I can to get even some group interested in it. Removing friction, polishing gameplay, trying to come up with a marketing plan, everything I can. Multiplayer is tough, but your game seems to do amazing! Really inspiring stuff and good tips also!
Thank you so much for the kind words! I know the feeling, I had similar concerns a few months before launch. I think since its 1v1 matchmaking shouldn't be too bad, especially if you market it as something to play with a friend. Just be sure to get a good amount of wishlist's before launch as well :) It sounds like you are making the right moves though. Having a really polished fun game goes a long way. Good luck!
"I don't speak spanish, so I usually have to get my girlfriend to translate for me"... Am I your girlfriend now? Love you too
😳 lol, u cooked on the localization
you two make such a great couple 😊hope you guys get married one day
@@zoteling2817 Thank god I am not a professional translator, I would cause wars with my translation skills xD
@@DavidCycles Seems like you did, the game is pretty violent ))
Lmao
Dude congrats, I haven’t had a PC In years so I don’t play steam games rn but if I did, I’d be on this in a flash. You have crazy talent. Wish I was like you, keep it up!
Bro I played this game randomly with a friend and really enjoyed it! Glad this suddenly came up in my recommended lol.
Happy to hear you guys had fun!
Hey! As an indie game developer, a low-cost battle pass did my game very well revenue, enjoyment, and playtime wise! Best of luck brotha.
This video made me want to try the game as well, good advertising
Ok this game is so fun!!!!! Congratz @zoteling2817
I made a video, I'm cracked
ua-cam.com/video/nJJB2s_3WaE/v-deo.htmlsi=Rb23AKZRt4ACdXA5
High quality video as always❤
Thanks!
Only 1080p lol
@@runderbeste He meant the production. Stop being annoying
@@Mojikaji It's just a joke, in this case you're the one who is annoying.
@@runderbeste such a funny joke. HARRAHHARRRAHHAR
Looks like a really fun game both to develop and play. Have you considered making a "spin-off" or dlc with a single player campaign with just a few traversal levels (potentially with some speedrun potential and cosmetic unlocks for the main game)?
Understand that this might add x hundred hours of dev time, but could be another source of income that doesn't retract from the main game being free.
Also, besides the awesome playerbase, 4 years sticking with the same project is such a great achievement in itself, wish you all the best!
$1800 is a pretty hard pill to swallow considering 4 years of dev. That being said, you now have a game out there under a publisher name that was successful. The next game will get more visibility because of this and you can monetize more on the frontend.
Good job man, the game looks amazing. You didn't waste your time at all, you learned from the experience and if you decide to make another game in the future, you now know the ins and outs of what it's like to develop and publish :)
you are really great and cool for sharing all this valuable datas, thank you sir
0.99$ for a limited time with an announcement that the DLC is the only way to support the game? Maybe call the DLC what it is: Dev Support Skin Pack #1, #2, #3. etc
It's been proven people need a reason to "betray" themselves to buy things. The argument would be: I get those nice skins and I can afford that because I also support the developer!
You could sell all those DLCs and people are just throwing money at skins that are below 1 US$.
The market place is only useful if you want to implement gambling which you gladly won't.
Thanks for the great insight!
such a transparent and informing video, thank you !
Thats crazy I got this recommended to me I was just playing this game a few days ago with a friend. It was so much fun I loved the goofy movements and blowing him up with a rocket launcher lol.
I literally downloaded this game a while ago without knowing what it was but I had so much fun playing it.
1800$ sounds like alot to a toddler maybe.
For a game that managed to entertain so many people the income really shouldn't be that low
I understand the amount has to do with the way the game was monetized but still and the fact it's free but still
Well.. you kind of have to bear in mind that if it weren't free then it probably would've been dead on arrival. A lot of people play it, but almost none of them would've played it if it had a price tag attached to it (partially because they just don't want to pay money of course, but also partially because it's a multiplayer game which means that if you don't have a very active playerbase then it will die pretty much instantly no matter what the game actually is - if nobody is playing the game, then even the people that were willing to pay will start to quit because they can't find matches, and it's very difficult to recover from that).
@@asdfqwerty14587 yeah yeah of course, I'm aware of that. It's just kind of a shame, no real fix for it though
Just played your game with some friends, its great!
I was looking for your game 3 weeks ago! I couldn't remember what it was called, just remembered the rocket jumping, knockout (?) esque gameplay video with the buildings on the small sky islands. The only game that I could find anywhere (steam, itch, google, asking Ai), that was similar was Sky Noon. I was hoping to find your game on the Sky Noon's "More like this" box. But only now by chance through youtube did I find it again. Just letting you know I had a hard time finding your game.
I'm glad that I found this game on my youtube recommendations now! Gonna have a blast with my friends
Happy to hear that!
a man of good taste I see
@@thinkingisoverrated Hello brother
Yo this looks really good! How long did u work on it?
I respect you bro, I think making the game 2.99 or something wouldve been totally fair and wouldve really helped with the net
Love this game
Is it possible for it to be played on mac or console bc my friend has no windows pc
Thanks! Unfortunately there is no mac support, sorry. For a couple of reasons mac support isn't planned.
Zoted with the sauce
Thanks lol
Congrats, one question though.
I’m a software engineer who’s new to game dev and I’m wondering how can a free game support this big number of online players.
Are the servers provided by steam for free or self hosted?
Thanks! I was actually planning on making a video about this soon but yeah, steam provides the servers for free. My game is P2P and they connect players for free and charge developers nothing for the servers required to do this (besides I guess the 100 dollars it takes to put a game up on Steam). Yes they take a 30% cut of your games revenue but that's worth it imo considering as a dev you don't need to take any financial risk or worry about servers at all.
@@zoteling2817 That's actually amazing, servers are costly and hard to maintain. The only downside I guess is less control, but with the peace of mind you will have from not managing any servers I think it's worth it.
subbed from an aspiring indie game dev
I appreciate it!
Slapshot: Rebound has the best monetization system
I cant say I'm familiar with it. What do they do?
@@zoteling2817 there seems to be a 15$ premium DLC that adds the following
- A glowing name in the chat, leaderboards and scoreboard
- 12500 ($5 worth) of pux right away
- Free Secret Stash refresh every 22 hours
- Create and manage Camera presets
- Customize your quick chat messages
- Premium title on the scoreboards
- Cosmetic preset creation
- Permanent 10% Experience boost (does not affect gameplay)
- Permanent 10% Pux boost (in-game currency)
- Ability to use any highlight color for your stick and puck in the settings (the see-through colors when obstructed)
- Ability to change the colors of the puck trail for yourself
- Premium jersey cosmetic
- Zeus hat cosmetic
- LED Edge Glasses cosmetic
- Premium Hoodie cosmetic
I’m listening...
Congrats on the game looks great.
I'm pretty sure the only boost you get when doing full release after early access is the potential "new and trending" list, which can be huge, but (like everything on steam) is based on the $$$ you make. If you have a lot of wishlists and there still are people who are waiting for the full release then they will get a notification about it, which might give you big spike during the release. I think depending on how well that spike translates into money - the steam will decide if you should be in the "new and trending" section, which hopefully will give you a big boost.
Not entirely sure if this is how it works for free games though.
I didn't know that but that would make sense, obviously steam would want to optimize it algorithm to make money. I'll need to look in to that more then, thanks for the heads up!
@@zoteling2817With the Early Access release and 10 reviews you got some free visibility from Sream but releasing from Early Access doesn't give you that boost anymore. But usually there is still some spike for various reasons.
Glade u dropped this game bro
I think you should make it a cheap paid game in the $5 range for the full release, especially if you spent 4 years working on it. People wouldn't bat an eye at that price as long as the full release has more content. It would also help with cosmetic sales because you would've broke the spend wall through users purchasing the game. I also think if you keep it f2p you'd have much more success with cosmetic sales if they were less than or closer to the $1 range especially with all the player traffic assuming there is a store in game and not just on the steam page. Goodluck! I wish you the best.
Being in the indie category, there was an indie game i used to play on the xbox 360 that i would love a remastered version of. There are actually 2 Total miner Forge and Castle Miner Z. If we could get a remastered Castle miner Z the people would go crazy.
How did you manage to market your game? Did you contact UA-camrs, TikTok influencers, or Telegram group owners to promote it? Over 1 million downloads is not an easy feat!
Actually to be honest, I didn't do all to much other than a couple of reddit posts, devlogs, a trailer, and getting my steam page up nice and early so that it has time to get a good amount of Wishlist's. Most of the actual traction came after its release though when people started finding it and covering it
How did you handle matchmaking? Are you using an external service? From my research all I found were paid servers to host your game which won't be nice if I'm still testing the waters.
Thanks for sharing your experience! I'm a web developer and have started creating my own game after my day job. How do you manage your online server-side costs for the game, especially since it's a online game?
I actually just uploaded a video talking about that. I use steamworks for matchmaking which makes p2p free!
Love the game, been trying to make my own game not really to share it with the public just for myself. Is there any advice you can give me as a noobie to game dev. like what software I should use and any useful youtube videos I should watch to expand on my game dev .
This is so awesome im about to go download
It's not about making money. If you in with the mindset to make money, you wont make any.
If you truly love this game and if you have put your soul into it and developed a really good. Then people will buy it. Simple as that.
game looks great gonna give it a try and reccomend it to my friends!
Hey @Zoteling, really awesome that you're having success with your game. I hope it goes the way you want from here :)
I'm actually also developing a physics-based MP shooter and was doing some market research on similar games on Steam, and then came across Grapples Galore - and now randomly came across you on YT (was glad to see you make videos!). I was just wondering if you could give some insights into your development? What engine are you using and how do you deal with physics in an online multiplayer game? From what I've seen, that exact combination is very difficult because of latency. Do you use peer-to-peer hosting?
All the best with your journey!
Wait, how does Wishlist works on Free to Play EA game? I remember that once a game added to your library, it deletes itself from the wishlist.
For example, 1000 people wishlisted your game, pre release. Game went to Early Access, and that 1000 players installed it and no longer a wishlisters. Does that mean your f2p game will launch as if with 0 wishlist on Full Release?
Great video! How did you get so many players?
dude, 1.1m users on a product is crazy. (!!!)
Considering 4 years of development and you probably covering other expenses like the server...
please monetize this asap.
As much as we appreciate free stuff, this should at least pay the bills for you.
I think everyone would agree that'd be fair.
Mad respect 🙌
Cool! I hope you keep doing it bro, good luck
Thanks!
Good stuff.
Thanks!
Great video! Love the transparency. Steam taking 30% is A LOT! Does their cut include the sales tax of the game?
"I don't like Steam Marketplace..."; meanwhile 'A Free Banana' (or whatever it's called) took 5-10m to develop (it's not even a game!) and makes $3k/day
Good luck with the full release! The game looks fun, I'll be sure to give a go this summer ^^
Really appreciated the transparency!
I'm working on a solo horror game at the moment and plan to put it on steam, since it is solo do you think its better to make it cost money or should I add stuff like DLCs?
hi zote! i would love to produce music for the game if you will ever need Custom tracks :)
whilling to do it for free as well
I liked the idea of your game, but I wanted to know which engine you used for your game, I want to start my career as a game developer in the future when i'm older.
Just so everyone realizes what he's saying is his profit was based off a 4 year development. Luckily, because it was a hobby, it's not a total loss. That being said, Steam also gives 5 free pushes/boosts per application. Unless your game is already blowing up from a random lottery win you wont get much time/views from people. They favor what is gonna make them money, and that means little to no time for people trying to make it in the market who don't already have a presence. Marketing plays a HUGE roll, but unless that works you're pretty much gambling. And you can expect after taxes and steams cut to bring you down to at best 50% of what was made (or at least that's what I got in the states).
what are your costs for the multiplayer❔
I use Steamworks for matchmaking and the game is peer to peer. Since Steam doesn't charge for matchmaking multiplayer is completely free! I just uploaded a vid talking about that actually :)
I think its really cool that you let your game be free and the dlcs are just for cosmetics. I hope its release gets you more money. Also, have you considered trying to add a in-store page for your game so players can purchase cosmetics directly from you? Im not exactly sure how something like that would work, but i figure linking it to a website that people would buy through would be the way to do it. Then you could keep a much larger percentage of the purchases!
Not sure if 30% revenue is worth burning that bridge with steam
@@kebbil what do you mean burning the bridge with steam? Im saying do what all these other big free games do. Sell cosmetics through your own store. My website through bluehost takes like 5% of sales amd then you lose 5% to card fees so itd be a 20% save.
Thanks! I could see something like that maybe helping but as a solo indie dev I think the amount of time that would need to go in to implementing and maintaining it wouldn't be worth it. I would assume people would be a little more hesitant to buy dlc on an external site. Steam despite taking a 30% cut of profits does provide a lot of benefits with just how easy they make it to handle payments
The grapple mechanics remind me of the discontinued game “worlds adrift” good job!
How did you make this game like the development process I wanted to know about that :)
What about multiplayer server costs? Who do you use and does it cost you money that eats into your profit? If it costs you money for the server costs, how do you see the future sustainability of the game?
It’s crazy in a world where they have $70 skins you think $8 is too much😂 I’m super happy for you btw and I love your money model
Congratulations on this achievement! Don't worry too much about the game being a flop financially. Just make sure when your game hits full release that you are using it as a tool to market your socials, such as your UA-cam. If you gain more loyal fans here, that will be much more of a boost to your income streams than a free to play game would be able to give you through people purchasing cosmetics and DLC.
Thank you! That's been how I've been approaching it. It's success I think will help me a lot long term and also likely funnel more traffic into my future games whether they are f2p or not.
You should add the cosmetics to an in game shop or make a battle pass system
I am curious on how do you вщ networking? Is it Steam's peer-to-peer solution, or did you spend some money for the game servers? Thanks in advance.
Did you ever play that Unity attack on titan game by Li Feng? It's the only other game i can think of with actual skillful grapple mechanics instead of just point A -> point B
thanks for the game dev motivation !
hey I wanted to ask you why the train stopped moving a long time ago is it a bug?
Was it worth it because you got experience from it? Yes. Was it good business-wise? No.
The lootbox system would have been better. You can buy a lootbox and create a Steam market using these lootboxes. You could make rare skin sets, for example, a Zeus outfit with a golden outline with the character. That would be cool but if you are a single Dev I fully understand.
But Overall good game and this gives me a motivational boost for publishing my own game. Keep up!
I love the way, steam showed "cats" game as trending just like "banana" game got popular so many people grinding afkied.
Do you have any tips on how you marketed your game? I'm currently developing a game and was just curious on how you gathered 5k+ wishlists.
Well when I launched my game I only had around 800. I only got 5000 after the game launched and lots of people checked it out. To get to 800 though I made devlogs and reddit posts promoting it which I'd recommend doing
@@zoteling2817 Did you join steam nextfest as well? Also how long did it take to get 800?
@@Zenfuso Actually I didn't but that is a great way to gather wishlists
Do you think making a game free to play is the right move if its a multiplayer focused title? What if a campaign was added?
This is really interesting! Since it’s free, how did you decide to set up the servers for players, does the monthly profit cover those kind of overhead?
Thanks! Steam actually provides servers for free that can be used for matchmaking and peer to peer so I spend nothing on servers
How much are the server costs and do you host it in some cloud servce?
"I don't speak spanish, so I usually have to get my girlfriend to translate for me", casually flexes his girlfriend
Thanks for your amazing insights.
Btw do you know about how steam feels about releasing playable demos (i.e., like you said about Early Access and Full Releases)? I'm thinking of releasing a playable demo for the game I am working on.
Thanks! The most important thing before you release a game on to steam is to get your wishlist's up. Demo's can be an excellent tool for that as they increase engagement on your steam page and if people enjoy the demo they will definitely wishlist your game. It has to be a strong demo though and leave people wanting more. I think for paid games 10000 wishlists before release is recommended to get on the "good side of Steam". In my case I only had 800 but I think f2p works a little differently. Good luck!
@@zoteling2817 I see. Thanks again man! ✌️
So what was the total from release to now if you sum all of that up?
Thanks for sharing these metrics. I'm looking at jumping back into game development, and hope to sell a game for some small amount, hopefully making something, but no expectation making a reasonable return. This helps give me some idea of what I could expect
Happy to help and good luck!
Hi - question. Do you have costs associated with running the multiplayer/online service? I've always wondered how affordable multiplayer/live games are to maintain and operate.
Appreciate your insights and congrats on the early success! I hope it continues to grow!
For my games multiplayer I use steams servers and peer to peer. Steams servers are actually free which goes a long way and removes any financial risk from my game
@@zoteling2817 oh that’s awesome! Glad that there’s a less risk method :)
Hey! Im also making a multiplayer game, just wanted to ask if you use client auth or server?
you should make a limited timed dlc for one day only for the launch release of the game
This looks like Minecrafted Bionic Commando
Here are some things that big companies use to make more money from free games:
- Battle pass
- In-game currencies (vbucks, robux, etc.)
- Lootbox systems (basically gambling)
- Rotating item shop (skins, emotes)
- Subscriptions (Roblox Premium, Fortnite Crew, etc.)
If you use these techniques, you could definitely go full time!
I personally I feel like all the things you've listed have gotten old and tend to be a big turn off for games I play because it feels like its no longer about the game. I don't really care, the game is great and if Zoteling decides to add this type of stuff I won't blame him because he's an indie dev following through with making a game he put his dedication to
Dropping a comment for the algorithm. Good luck fellow game dev :)
dont you have to pay for servers to run when offering an online multiplayer game?
Just wondering, what system did you use for your game’s networking? Did you do it through steam, unity’s multiplayer system, or a third party system like photon?
I was actually planning on making a video about this soon! What I do and what I recommend doing is using fishnet and fishysteamworks as a transport. This way if you put your game up on steam you have no server costs. Fishnet is also a great networking solution and has an active and very helpful community. Its very efficient and while maybe not the easiest to use, far from the hardest as well making it well worth learning!
Nice dude grats!
can you make a vid on how you marketed, 750k downloads is insane man.
Just played it, fun game
Oh sick I downloaded this game I didn’t even realize you made it
Those cash flow numbers are straight robbery fk steam, congrats on the success none the less. But I'm definitely glad i never went the steam route.
Human Fall Flat with guns, hooks, and health
1 million download is insane
Hey, really love your content and the game your making! I have made games in the past, but I never get to finish one. What would you recommend for actually finishing and releasing a game?
Thanks for the kind words. Finishing and releasing a game is a lot of work. Because of this usually its good to make a very small game and release it on to itch.io or steam. Game jams are great for this so I'd recommend trying a few of those to get in the habit of finishing games. I personally though just found a project I was really passionate about after a lot of just messing around in unity and would set aside a few hours every day to work on it. Keep scope small though and try not to expand it as you work on your game. Be sure to also just have fun with the process :) making games takes a lot of time so its important to enjoy the process too
how much time it took from start to launch?
How do you handle cheaters if the game is free?
Since its peer to peer I have the host handle some server authoritative logic. A lot can be achieve through good network code architecture. Since the host handles this logic though that means the host could still technically still cheat. I also build to something called IL2CPP though in unity which means a build to a low level language that's harder to modify. It is still possible to cheat though so I just make sure my game isn't too competitive so there isn't incentive to. I hope that helps answer your question :)
"This may sound like a lot"... no it doesn't
What network service and cloud save did you use for game? Thank you, Zoteling!
I chose to use fishnet and fishysteamworks as my networking solution! I highly recommend fishnet. I also use github if you are referring to version control.
@@zoteling2817 Good solution! But I am referring to a cloud where player's stats are saved. What you use to save data for players like level, xp etc.. or if you don't use, do you know any cloud service but to be completely free? Except unity cloud that has limits, google cloud the same and firebase the same.
I am reffering to a cloud where you save player's stats like level, xp etc.. It's a good idea to use steam cloud? If steam cloud gives an error for a specific player? Do you know any other cloud service but to be completely free? Not like unity cloud, google cloud or firebase that has limitations at free tier.
@@defeleDFL Actually since my game doesn't have any levelling or progression system I don't use any cloud. I think steam cloud is supposed to be a great option though