No, if this type of content don't get views means less developer will know how to advertise so we have less competion and we can make some sweet sweet money Just kidding ofcourse
I was really gonna be a baby and comment on your "S" pronunciation, but you mentioning it at the end of the video really cracked me up! Great video ! Zankz a lot! aaaaand zubzcribed !
Thank you! Our team will be using these steps to make the best indie game that we can. This is our fist experience in game development and I'm excited to promote it!
Q- Do you want to be a snail in a fantasy where you are abused and mocked by an evil AI? Answer - as long as I have a chance to destroy the AI, I would definitely be in for that
Good stuff man. I've been playing games for 28 years... And I'm finally going to take the plunge into creation. Your videos are very informative and no doubt will help me. All the best!
This video is less about how to market games, and more about how to make games that are naturally marketable... which is great advice! A game that can sell itself just by looking at it is the best form of marketing, IMO.
To think that a small team of passionate developers and artists can make a more appealing game than most AAA titles out there is why I'm getting into game development with the help of very generous youtube content creators who focus on teaching you all they can about the process. :) Seeing all these people become very successful in their passion even if it's not millions of units sold, just goes to show how the indie game industry is so much more honest than greedy corporates. Excellent job on your first game Jonas, I've started watching your videos and subscribed to your channel, I hope to learn all I can about game development and getting the fundamentals right to do what game devs are set out to make for everyone in the gaming community. A space to escape from the real life problems that always follows us a shadow in our everyday life.
Just noticed that the timeline is broken down tip -to-tip - makes finding the points faster. Pretty nice addition. Anyways I'm a new game indie dev and your videos have been super helpful and entertaining! Thanks!
Today kids, the magic letter is " Z " as in " Zis is a problem" and "Ze best we can " and "Zis is good! " ha ha ha , I love your video, very good work Jonas. My mom is German so I find the thick accent fun.
A tip to people who are assembling an Indie dev team: If you have a role that requires tasks of role 2 to be completed in order to progress - always have more than 1 man in role 2.
The best marketing video I have seen! Thanks for sharing your thoughts and story. You always get to the point quickly. This is just a start. I am pretty sure you will go much further. :)
So, I finally got around to playing Islanders myself, and what can I say? I think the game is absolutely fantastic. The goal was to create a simplistic building game and you guys have completely nailed it in my opinion! :D I haven't played a lot yet, but I love to play it while listening to podcasts or music. I have been looking for such a game for a long time and the game is absolutely perfect for just that. And also massive congratulations to the huge success of this game, you guys deserve every little bit of it! :D It's also great that the game helps your channel so much. Your channel has been growing a lot recently and it looks like the times of a 100% native german community are finally over. Keep going! :D
I'll certainly keep this in mind. My friend and I are starting an Indie-Game business between the two of us for a school project, and this has actually given me quite a lot of inspiration and direction on where to begin, even though this video was about marketing more than developing. Awesome video!
30 Minutes :D very cool🙂 I am so excited for the ludum dare livestreams. I will also take part. Ps: Please bring out the game at 4:50.😅 I already liked it in your video, where you showed all your games you made. 😉
I came here to get a better idea of how other devs are approaching content on youtube, but damn this video is super valuable. Lots of golden advice here.
I know this is pretty old, but I wanted to share my thoughts on the "Appeal" section of the video, more specifically the "Strong Fantasy" portion, because that was the only part of an otherwise amazing video that bothered me. I think that you're putting too much emphasis on how much a game's world being a place someone would actually want to be in affects people's draw to the game. If it was truly the way you describe it, then horror games would never sell, who would actually want to be trapped in a forest with a paranormal, faceless, monster that kills you if you even so much as look at it? I know I certainly wouldn't, but I still like Slender. Same goes for Five Nights at Freddy's, I would never want to be trapped in a pizzeria surrounded by 8-foot tall animatronics that are hellbent on killing be because they think I'm the serial killer that murdered them as children years ago, yet I'm always looking forward to the next game coming out. Another, non horror example, I don't think many people would want to be a test-subject for a giant science organization being forced to test experimental and highly-dangerous equipment all while military androids are shooting at you AND you're being tormented by a rogue AI that killed every other living being within the facility ON TOP of false promises of baked goods, yet Portal is one of the best-selling game series of all time. Minecraft is a world that would be absolutely terrifying to live in in reality, but I can lose myself for hours playing that game. I don't want to live in a world where the moon is going to crash into Earth in three days and I'm the sole person responsible for stopping it, yet Majora's Mask is my favorite Zelda game. It's not necessarily about creating a world that people would want to live in, it's about creating a world that would be interesting to place yourself in, if even for just a short time. Your snail game actually sounded quite intriguing, and I wanted to know more about this situation as soon as I heard the basic concept, so yes, it actually DOES have appeal. Sorry for writing a novel, that portion of the video just annoyed me a bit, otherwise your advice was spectacular! (Although you're probably never going to read this comment seeing as it's on a video that's over a year old...)
This is a fantastic video. Can I give one piece of unsolicited advice though? Self deprecation can have it's place, and I think a lot of us do it because we don't want to come across as vain, but you need to be careful with it because it's easy to go overboard with it. This can often can lead to 1) others not having any confidence in you or 2) it comes off as false modesty. In this case you should be worried about 1), why would anyone else want to play your game if you are so down on it? Especially because you made it sound like if you had a choice you'd start over again on something different. One thing gaming has taught us is that the actual plot of the game doesn't _really_ matter. Celeste is a blue hair girl trying to climb a mountain. Portal is a AI torturing us for promise of Cake. Slime Rancher is...well, a Slime Rancher. None of those *sound* like good games, but all were not only that, but they were incredibly successful. Even Islanders doesn't have a great tag line, but it's a great game (I'm a proud owner). I'm not saying brag non-stop about your new game, but treat it with the respect it deserves because you've invested the time and energy into it. All the best!
Oh boy, your videoes ares REALLY REALLY INTERESTING, I just got an idea of indie game, learning csharp and gamedev all that makes your videoes absolutely super helpful beside of the fact that they are funny. You mentionned Will You Snail like "Who wants to be a snail in a simulation tortured by a robot?" But I think this game must be saw like a Tom&Jerry cartoon where the cat can be aparented to the snail : Always fails in ridiculous ways that are hilarious. And I really think you underestimate that watching this ;) Sorry if my english is bad
Congrats man! That's amazing for a first commercial project, especially that it only took 4 months to make. (I mean it would obviously be great even if it wasn't your first commercial game).
thank you for this simple but rich video! most of the points you bring up seem basic, but I definitely didn't thonk about them enough! I'll be rewatching this video during the development of crumble miner amd making sure to apply your tips, I'm in the process of opening up a steam page to gather some wishlists soon c: I hope it goes well, no I know it will!
I really like every tutorial you make. It is really informative, and helpful, when I applied your advices, my game making improved Also, I kinda like your accent, it reminds me of my own( I am Russian) Thank you for doing this for our community
Hey man! Dont doubt yourself! Will You Snail is a beautifully executed game. It's visuals alone bring a ton of attraction and attention! Be proud of what you have done! Because i am proud and will be buying this game!
Very insightful video, great to see that your game has had such a success on steam! The sales numbers are more than great for an indie game. Thanks for sharing your knowledge, certainly something to consider for other devs/teams.
hey guys, I have been working on this game on my own for 4 years, it would mean a lot for me if you just check it out store.steampowered.com/app/547130/The_Hero/
Good stuff Jonas, your video quality has been really top notch recently. Also exciting to see your channel growing so rapidly! Alles gute aus New Zealand :)
hey guys, I have been working on this game on my own for 4 years, it would mean a lot for me if you just check it out store.steampowered.com/app/547130/The_Hero/
Ciao Jonas, your videos and enjoyment towards making video games motivates me to create my own game aswell. I have no experience in coding at all, but I am not scared to learn it on my own. Islanders looks totally like a game I would play. It reminds me a little bit of Kingdoms and Castles and I really enjoyed that game. At the moment I am in Italy doing my internschip for a couple of months, but when I arrive back in The Netherlands I will install the game and play it. 🎈 Looking forward to your next videos and updates on Islanders. ⭐
Ahaa, ich wusste du bist deutschsprachig! :D dein Akzent hat dich verraten haha, aber echt cool, dass du dich so im Indie Game Dev auskennst. Ich habe das Gefühl in Deutschland ist das noch nicht soo verbreitet. Korrigier mich, falls ich falsch liege. Ich bin jetzt 16 und programmiere auch Spiele seit knapp 3 Jahre 😊👍
just randomly found you from searching a Philophobia gameplay. You have such informative videos, especially this one. Zubscribed on the spot!!! thanks!
This is one of the most useful video I've seen on the subject. I would ask you, what do you think about publishers? Congrats for your sales, that's amazing :)
Thanks. I think having the right publisher can be great if you need money or expertise with publishing your game. Having a publisher comes with up- and downsides and I'm not sure how much I can tell you about it as I haven't worked with a publisher yet. Seems to work without a publisher just fine as well. :)
Thanks buddy for sharing your knowglede with us, thats super helpful :D And of cause congratulations to your sale numbers :) I hope your new game will get the same success ;)
U are great bro! I wish u the best, thank u! Also u are very funny too lol, make more videos like the toilet, brilliant script btw, remind me to matrix
hey guys, I have been working on this game on my own for 4 years, it would mean a lot for me if you just check it out store.steampowered.com/app/547130/The_Hero/
Thanks. Sure I can. :) - It's additional management work and makes your taxes slightly more complicated. Community management and tech support gets more time intensive as well. - Splitting your traffic on launch means less traffic for each store front which might mean less promotion by the store fronts themselves.
I would really like to point out that not every one of these rules are going to apply to every game. The best example i can think of is Strong Fantasy. I understand where Jonas is coming from, but also. Some very successful games put you in an awful fantasy and are very fun. For example, Portal is a game about you being stuck in a lab being force to do dangerous trials by an AI constantly insulting you. Yet people love it
I totally agree with you on the fact that these rules do not apply to every game. That would definitely be an oversimplification. Even games with horrible graphics and a poor fantasy can become a big success. I disagree with you about Portal. I think the fantasy of portal is quite strong. Yes, being stuck in a lab being forced to do dangerous trials by an AI constantly insulting you is something not a lot of people would like to do in real life BUT if it didn't have any negative consequence, if you couldn't feel any pain and if you could quit at any time (which in a game you can) it becomes quite appealing. Not a lot of people would like to fly in a wingsuit in real life either but a game offers that experience without any of the potential negative consequences. The same goes for most popular fantasies really. Do you really want to be a warrior fighting hordes of zombies for example? I think the underlying fact that you're safe and in control of the experience is what makes a lot of settings appealing in the first place. On top of that you could argue that the fantasy of portal reads more like "You have a powerful portal gun allowing you to catapult yourself through the air." :P
I agree with PossiblyCloud, videos become better every time. I think a success makes you more confident and inspired. :-) Same happened to Tim Ruswick after Philophobia release. :-) Keep on doing great work and thanks for the usefull content for those who follow in your footsteps. :-)
Thank you! Yeah, it gave me a bit of confidence for sure, but also credibility. I feel like people are more interested in what I have to say now. This kind of video would not have worked before the release I think.
@@JonasTyroller I think the release worked the both ways. It made you more confident and luckily at the same time you got more interested eyes on you. :-) Good luck with the snail game! I don't play much jumping platformers but I like the narrative part with talking mastermind. :-) Like Glados in Portal. :-)
Wow, Jack played it? And a lot of media attention? That sounds great! Well deserved :) As for your section about appeal and your comments about Will you snail - it sounds a lot like my personal thoughts about my last game Disobey Me! (which didn't get farther than a demo). It basically fell flat exactly in the appeal section. My current project is therefore not too much in the bizarre zone. Oh, but one point that I don't really agree is that translations are easy to do. That's completely dependent on how much text is in the game. Any story-driven game is a big translation effort. ...unless it's Journey.
You're totally right about the translations. As I've mentioned in the video Will You Snail will not be easy to translate either. Really depends on the game. Good luck with your current one. :)
@@JonasTyroller I currently have my motivation back :) After spending months to fix that broken brick at the bottom of the wall, I can now get creative and think up some interesting character encounters. That's more fun than work.
hey guys, I have been working on this game on my own for 4 years, it would mean a lot for me if you just check it out store.steampowered.com/app/547130/The_Hero/
I got my own game releasing Start to Finish a brand new racing game with no limits. No disqualification. No time limit. You make the world your b**** The game is set to release on consoles including the switch as well as mobile devices and PC!
My first ever video game is going to be a story based one. I really want to do it but I also understand that I should create more games that have high replayability later on. What are your tips on indie story mode games?
Not sure how much I can say about that as I've never really made any story based games. Here are a couple of my favorite stolen tips: 1) Tell a story only you can tell. 2) Show. Don't tell. 3) Keep it simple so you can be generous. Making story based games comes with some massive downsides. They are very content heavy and quite high effort to produce as you can't recycle and reuse stuff as much as in mechanics based games. Usually story based games are short and have low replayability which means it's harder to benefit from content creators. On the plus side an emotional and well told story can be quite appealing and make for some great marketing material. I'd encourage you to go for it and just keep it simple wherever you can. Good luck. :)
@@JonasTyroller Thank you man for all the help! I've watched your videos for a while now and loved all of the things I've learned from you and your experience, it's really making an impact in my indie game design career even though I'm only a senior in high school. This game will definitely be simple as it's more of a mystery / horror game (not what I personally play all the time as I like simulation, but I thought it would be really fun) and it doesn't have any other characters to it. With the tips I've learned from you the next VR game will hopefully be something worth telling people about!
I’m making a story game too and one way to make it more marketable is for it to have mysteries and lore that the players don’t have the full view of so that people can make theory videos and look more into the game for more clues
You say story driven games are not good for content creators, but some of the biggest games on the internet (Undertale, Fight nights at freddy's) are only popular because of their story
This is true, but those games also have very high replayability and leave enough questions unanswered to where fans create buzz through speculation. When you develop a story-driven game, you first need an interesting story, and secondly need to make it a challenge for players to piece together theories. Never give away every little detail of the story or your players will lose interest and there will be no discussion around it. With a story-driven game, secrets, easter eggs, and hints are very important to create fuel for fan theories. Undertale, FNAF, and DDLC also have unique gameplay mechanics within them that keep the player occupied.
This is the content we actually need on UA-cam not clickbait titles about life hacks 😔
Yeah....
EPIC 3AM ONE FOOD COLOR CHALLENGE (GONE WRONG ALMOST DIED)!!!!!!! yea it’s strange how this floods the site.
YES!!
I am your 100th like
No, if this type of content don't get views means less developer will know how to advertise so we have less competion and we can make some sweet sweet money
Just kidding ofcourse
50k copies of the islanders?
Thats zzzuper jonas...well done bro veeeery good job
Zzzuch a nice comment but zzzo meant at the same time. :p
idk about you guys but i see a tiny hint of sarcasm!
@@ron0studios old reply, but he's just mimicking his accent p: it is refreshing
Brilliant video, very informative! And I was very happy to get a mention hehe :P
Nice. Always a pleasure to see you in my comment section.
mention about what?
@@erikm9768 He mentioned him in the video as an example of someone who marketed his game from the very beginning of the development process.
Snail game looks nice bro! 😊
Don’t be too hard on it.
I was really gonna be a baby and comment on your "S" pronunciation, but you mentioning it at the end of the video really cracked me up!
Great video ! Zankz a lot!
aaaaand zubzcribed !
Thank you! Our team will be using these steps to make the best indie game that we can. This is our fist experience in game development and I'm excited to promote it!
Q- Do you want to be a snail in a fantasy where you are abused and mocked by an evil AI?
Answer - as long as I have a chance to destroy the AI, I would definitely be in for that
I thought the same thing, if we knew why the snail was here and what they could accomplish, it make it much interesting.
Good stuff man. I've been playing games for 28 years... And I'm finally going to take the plunge into creation. Your videos are very informative and no doubt will help me. All the best!
how's it going
This video is less about how to market games, and more about how to make games that are naturally marketable... which is great advice! A game that can sell itself just by looking at it is the best form of marketing, IMO.
One of the few content creators with humility -- love your stuff buddy!
To think that a small team of passionate developers and artists can make a more appealing game than most AAA titles out there is why I'm getting into game development with the help of very generous youtube content creators who focus on teaching you all they can about the process. :)
Seeing all these people become very successful in their passion even if it's not millions of units sold, just goes to show how the indie game industry is so much more honest than greedy corporates.
Excellent job on your first game Jonas, I've started watching your videos and subscribed to your channel, I hope to learn all I can about game development and getting the fundamentals right to do what game devs are set out to make for everyone in the gaming community. A space to escape from the real life problems that always follows us a shadow in our everyday life.
Epic. Hope my channels helps you out. Wish you the best of luck! :)
How has your game dev journey been? It’s been 2 years :)
Just noticed that the timeline is broken down tip -to-tip - makes finding the points faster. Pretty nice addition. Anyways I'm a new game indie dev and your videos have been super helpful and entertaining! Thanks!
Today kids, the magic letter is " Z " as in " Zis is a problem" and "Ze best we can " and "Zis is good! " ha ha ha , I love your video, very good work Jonas. My mom is German so I find the thick accent fun.
Thank you, i am about to begin creating a game and i didnt want it to flop even though its a passion projection
A tip to people who are assembling an Indie dev team: If you have a role that requires tasks of role 2 to be completed in order to progress - always have more than 1 man in role 2.
really good indepth video. definitly going to setup the steampage for my game in the next few days :) keep it up
I feel like I took a whole indie game design course in 28 minutes, thank you so much!
Ikr
@@MohanABK yeah
The best marketing video I have seen! Thanks for sharing your thoughts and story. You always get to the point quickly. This is just a start. I am pretty sure you will go much further. :)
Thanks. Some day I might dive deeper into marketing. For now this is actually all I got. xD
So, I finally got around to playing Islanders myself, and what can I say? I think the game is absolutely fantastic. The goal was to create a simplistic building game and you guys have completely nailed it in my opinion! :D I haven't played a lot yet, but I love to play it while listening to podcasts or music. I have been looking for such a game for a long time and the game is absolutely perfect for just that. And also massive congratulations to the huge success of this game, you guys deserve every little bit of it! :D
It's also great that the game helps your channel so much. Your channel has been growing a lot recently and it looks like the times of a 100% native german community are finally over. Keep going! :D
Nice. I'm happy you have a good podcast listening game now. Thanks for your support. :)
I'll certainly keep this in mind. My friend and I are starting an Indie-Game business between the two of us for a school project, and this has actually given me quite a lot of inspiration and direction on where to begin, even though this video was about marketing more than developing. Awesome video!
30 Minutes :D very cool🙂
I am so excited for the ludum dare livestreams.
I will also take part.
Ps: Please bring out the game at 4:50.😅
I already liked it in your video, where you showed all your games you made. 😉
Nice. The game at 4:50 is called Fish Duel. You're right, I should publish it. :)
It's so crazy to see you put down WIll You Snail every chance you got because you weren't sure, but it turned out AWESOME!!! :D
I came here to get a better idea of how other devs are approaching content on youtube, but damn this video is super valuable. Lots of golden advice here.
You're already up there and you're still humble, thanks for the content really helpfull.
Zhat wasz an Exzellent ztory! :) I really enjoyed it and your accent is just charming!!! And Isanders is very cute game (I own it! :)
I know this is pretty old, but I wanted to share my thoughts on the "Appeal" section of the video, more specifically the "Strong Fantasy" portion, because that was the only part of an otherwise amazing video that bothered me.
I think that you're putting too much emphasis on how much a game's world being a place someone would actually want to be in affects people's draw to the game. If it was truly the way you describe it, then horror games would never sell, who would actually want to be trapped in a forest with a paranormal, faceless, monster that kills you if you even so much as look at it? I know I certainly wouldn't, but I still like Slender.
Same goes for Five Nights at Freddy's, I would never want to be trapped in a pizzeria surrounded by 8-foot tall animatronics that are hellbent on killing be because they think I'm the serial killer that murdered them as children years ago, yet I'm always looking forward to the next game coming out.
Another, non horror example, I don't think many people would want to be a test-subject for a giant science organization being forced to test experimental and highly-dangerous equipment all while military androids are shooting at you AND you're being tormented by a rogue AI that killed every other living being within the facility ON TOP of false promises of baked goods, yet Portal is one of the best-selling game series of all time.
Minecraft is a world that would be absolutely terrifying to live in in reality, but I can lose myself for hours playing that game.
I don't want to live in a world where the moon is going to crash into Earth in three days and I'm the sole person responsible for stopping it, yet Majora's Mask is my favorite Zelda game.
It's not necessarily about creating a world that people would want to live in, it's about creating a world that would be interesting to place yourself in, if even for just a short time. Your snail game actually sounded quite intriguing, and I wanted to know more about this situation as soon as I heard the basic concept, so yes, it actually DOES have appeal.
Sorry for writing a novel, that portion of the video just annoyed me a bit, otherwise your advice was spectacular! (Although you're probably never going to read this comment seeing as it's on a video that's over a year old...)
This is a fantastic video.
Can I give one piece of unsolicited advice though? Self deprecation can have it's place, and I think a lot of us do it because we don't want to come across as vain, but you need to be careful with it because it's easy to go overboard with it. This can often can lead to 1) others not having any confidence in you or 2) it comes off as false modesty. In this case you should be worried about 1), why would anyone else want to play your game if you are so down on it? Especially because you made it sound like if you had a choice you'd start over again on something different.
One thing gaming has taught us is that the actual plot of the game doesn't _really_ matter. Celeste is a blue hair girl trying to climb a mountain. Portal is a AI torturing us for promise of Cake. Slime Rancher is...well, a Slime Rancher. None of those *sound* like good games, but all were not only that, but they were incredibly successful. Even Islanders doesn't have a great tag line, but it's a great game (I'm a proud owner).
I'm not saying brag non-stop about your new game, but treat it with the respect it deserves because you've invested the time and energy into it.
All the best!
Great video. Basically everything I've learned and analized about selling a game on Steam over the recent years. Gotta set up my presskit someday ;_;
Do that. Good luck. :D
Analyzed
Oh boy, your videoes ares REALLY REALLY INTERESTING, I just got an idea of indie game, learning csharp and gamedev all that makes your videoes absolutely super helpful beside of the fact that they are funny.
You mentionned Will You Snail like "Who wants to be a snail in a simulation tortured by a robot?" But I think this game must be saw like a Tom&Jerry cartoon where the cat can be aparented to the snail : Always fails in ridiculous ways that are hilarious.
And I really think you underestimate that watching this ;)
Sorry if my english is bad
2010 Notch: Hey would you like to do everything you can imagine?
2019 Notch: Aw, why can't I talk shit about jews?
What a lovely bit of character development, isn't it? . _ .
@Akira He’s been uniroically spouting stuff about white genocide and literal nazi tier anti-semitism on twitter for a while now.
@@WangleLine What! Really?
@@mr.cringekid5117 Yeah, becoming a billionaire really turned him into a massive 4-chan style bigot.
@@Faebiebot People who talk about 4Chan like you do 100% haven't been there themselves, they just listen to the media
Congrats man! That's amazing for a first commercial project, especially that it only took 4 months to make. (I mean it would obviously be great even if it wasn't your first commercial game).
Yeah, it really takes some pressure off of my shoulders. Thanks. :D
Even 1,000 copies would be a huge success for the common dev
Nobody:
Jonas: Have you ever wanted to be a snail being tortured by an evil AI?
First time here! Thanks for all the honesty. Cheers from Chile!
thank you for this simple but rich video! most of the points you bring up seem basic, but I definitely didn't thonk about them enough! I'll be rewatching this video during the development of crumble miner amd making sure to apply your tips, I'm in the process of opening up a steam page to gather some wishlists soon c:
I hope it goes well, no I know it will!
your snail game looks like electronic superjoy and that game did insanely good :)
Oh thanks. Didn't know that game. Now I do. :p
I really like every tutorial you make. It is really informative, and helpful, when I applied your advices, my game making improved
Also, I kinda like your accent, it reminds me of my own( I am Russian)
Thank you for doing this for our community
Can’t believe Shaggy is making games
Hey man! Dont doubt yourself! Will You Snail is a beautifully executed game. It's visuals alone bring a ton of attraction and attention! Be proud of what you have done! Because i am proud and will be buying this game!
You're too kind. Thanks a lot for the support. :)
@@JonasTyroller Of course!!! Keep having fun with it!
Congratulations! Steamspy shows that the game has sold over 100K. Seems like you have a good "start" on your indie dev journey :)
Thank you. I'm just lucky that I found such an awesome team. xD
@@JonasTyroller Or maybe the team is lucky to have you! :D
Great advice thanks, but I feel sorry for poor William Snail. I’m sure he will be very successful 😁. Evil AIs are always good fun.
Very insightful video, great to see that your game has had such a success on steam!
The sales numbers are more than great for an indie game. Thanks for sharing your knowledge, certainly something to consider for other devs/teams.
Thanks for the informative videos!! I'm learning a lot through your channel!
Also, I quite like your pronunciation of s :D no need to fix it at all!!
hey guys, I have been working on this game on my own for 4 years, it would mean a lot for me if you just check it out
store.steampowered.com/app/547130/The_Hero/
Good stuff Jonas, your video quality has been really top notch recently. Also exciting to see your channel growing so rapidly! Alles gute aus New Zealand :)
Thank you!
hey guys, I have been working on this game on my own for 4 years, it would mean a lot for me if you just check it out
store.steampowered.com/app/547130/The_Hero/
Wow I was expecting Islanders to do decent since you have a following on here BUT 50,000 COPIES!! wow!
Most of the traffic comes directly from steam but I guess my channel helped a little bit as well. :)
Lots of golden nuggets here, thank you so much for sharing. Lots of great advice to think about when launching future games :)
Ciao Jonas, your videos and enjoyment towards making video games motivates me to create my own game aswell. I have no experience in coding at all, but I am not scared to learn it on my own.
Islanders looks totally like a game I would play. It reminds me a little bit of Kingdoms and Castles and I really enjoyed that game. At the moment I am in Italy doing my internschip for a couple of months, but when I arrive back in The Netherlands I will install the game and play it. 🎈
Looking forward to your next videos and updates on Islanders. ⭐
Awesome. I'm happy to hear that! Enjoy your time in Italy. :)
This video change my entire thought how how i would make a game. THANKS! Juat subbed
Ahaa, ich wusste du bist deutschsprachig! :D dein Akzent hat dich verraten haha, aber echt cool, dass du dich so im Indie Game Dev auskennst. Ich habe das Gefühl in Deutschland ist das noch nicht soo verbreitet. Korrigier mich, falls ich falsch liege. Ich bin jetzt 16 und programmiere auch Spiele seit knapp 3 Jahre 😊👍
Gut erkannt. Keine Ahnung wie das in anderen Ländern vergleichsweise ist. In Berlin gab es tatsächlich ne recht große Indie Szene.
Really nice! Thanks for sharing! And you're really sincere and kind, its nice to see your videos
just randomly found you from searching a Philophobia gameplay. You have such informative videos, especially this one. Zubscribed on the spot!!! thanks!
This is super helpful! I am a VERY young gamedev and I post lots of games on itch.io, and I have been trying to figure out how to market my new game.
I'm a really new Game developer and this will help me a lot in the future, thank you! and its my dream to make games :D
This is one of the most useful video I've seen on the subject.
I would ask you, what do you think about publishers?
Congrats for your sales, that's amazing :)
Thanks. I think having the right publisher can be great if you need money or expertise with publishing your game. Having a publisher comes with up- and downsides and I'm not sure how much I can tell you about it as I haven't worked with a publisher yet. Seems to work without a publisher just fine as well. :)
awesome! 28 min of gem with no ads
Great tips and thanks for sharing!
Sure. You're welcome. :)
It's so funny to watch this 3yrs later knowing what Will you Snail evolves into
Thanks buddy for sharing your knowglede with us, thats super helpful :D
And of cause congratulations to your sale numbers :) I hope your new game will get the same success ;)
Thanks a lot! That's very kind of you.
Thanks for sharing! I'm just starting out, but I have no idea how to grow from here.
I mean, if anything, being a snail tortured by an evil AI will sell to a very unique audience. And it will stand out in that regard from other games
U are great bro! I wish u the best, thank u! Also u are very funny too lol, make more videos like the toilet, brilliant script btw, remind me to matrix
I am rooting for you too! : )
Thanks for the helpful content!
I enjoyed this video after 51 seconds great stuf
Invaluable content. Thank you soo much, Jonas!
You're welcome. Glad if I can help. :)
hey guys, I have been working on this game on my own for 4 years, it would mean a lot for me if you just check it out
store.steampowered.com/app/547130/The_Hero/
Really awesome Jonas! Thank you so much for all this incredible info.
Nice video, a lot of good information, thanks, Jonas!
Thanks for the great video, very informative.
i just wanted to ask you about that "*yes, there are" @ 26:13 , can you explain a little bit more ?
Thanks. Sure I can. :)
- It's additional management work and makes your taxes slightly more complicated. Community management and tech support gets more time intensive as well.
- Splitting your traffic on launch means less traffic for each store front which might mean less promotion by the store fronts themselves.
@@JonasTyroller oh i see what you mean, that makes perfect sens, thanks for answering :)
I would really like to point out that not every one of these rules are going to apply to every game. The best example i can think of is Strong Fantasy. I understand where Jonas is coming from, but also. Some very successful games put you in an awful fantasy and are very fun. For example, Portal is a game about you being stuck in a lab being force to do dangerous trials by an AI constantly insulting you. Yet people love it
I totally agree with you on the fact that these rules do not apply to every game. That would definitely be an oversimplification. Even games with horrible graphics and a poor fantasy can become a big success.
I disagree with you about Portal. I think the fantasy of portal is quite strong. Yes, being stuck in a lab being forced to do dangerous trials by an AI constantly insulting you is something not a lot of people would like to do in real life BUT if it didn't have any negative consequence, if you couldn't feel any pain and if you could quit at any time (which in a game you can) it becomes quite appealing. Not a lot of people would like to fly in a wingsuit in real life either but a game offers that experience without any of the potential negative consequences. The same goes for most popular fantasies really. Do you really want to be a warrior fighting hordes of zombies for example? I think the underlying fact that you're safe and in control of the experience is what makes a lot of settings appealing in the first place.
On top of that you could argue that the fantasy of portal reads more like "You have a powerful portal gun allowing you to catapult yourself through the air." :P
Jeez you don’t sound too keen on your new game 😂
Haha. I am. I really like the game. I just realized I made some mistakes early on that are a lil hard to fix now. xD
It's an honest review 👌🏻
Will you snail?
Will you fail?
Thank you. You seem like a really nice person. Thanks for sharing your knowledge
pure gold... Thank you this is amazingly summed. Thanks
Amazing video, thanks for sharing your insights. It's really helpful as I'm working on a game with my team as well. Did you sell without a publisher?
Awesome advice!
Nice Work Jonas
I agree with PossiblyCloud, videos become better every time. I think a success makes you more confident and inspired. :-) Same happened to Tim Ruswick after Philophobia release. :-) Keep on doing great work and thanks for the usefull content for those who
follow in your footsteps. :-)
Thank you! Yeah, it gave me a bit of confidence for sure, but also credibility. I feel like people are more interested in what I have to say now. This kind of video would not have worked before the release I think.
@@JonasTyroller I think the release worked the both ways. It made you more confident and luckily at the same time you got more interested eyes on you. :-) Good luck with the snail game! I don't play much jumping platformers but I like the narrative part with talking mastermind. :-) Like Glados in Portal. :-)
God bless you, thanks for this video on marketing
Wow, Jack played it? And a lot of media attention? That sounds great! Well deserved :)
As for your section about appeal and your comments about Will you snail - it sounds a lot like my personal thoughts about my last game Disobey Me! (which didn't get farther than a demo). It basically fell flat exactly in the appeal section. My current project is therefore not too much in the bizarre zone.
Oh, but one point that I don't really agree is that translations are easy to do. That's completely dependent on how much text is in the game. Any story-driven game is a big translation effort. ...unless it's Journey.
You're totally right about the translations. As I've mentioned in the video Will You Snail will not be easy to translate either. Really depends on the game. Good luck with your current one. :)
@@JonasTyroller I currently have my motivation back :) After spending months to fix that broken brick at the bottom of the wall, I can now get creative and think up some interesting character encounters. That's more fun than work.
Your tips are soo good with I think that could be applied in any area of software development. I'm app developer and your tips help me. Thanks
Thank you! Great video
This is a really interesting video. btw I played the christmasrelease of "Will you snail" and the jump mechanics feel really smooth :)
Nice. That's something I guess. xD
Great video with a ton of great content. Thanks for putting this together.
Thank you for watching. Glad if you found it useful. :)
hey guys, I have been working on this game on my own for 4 years, it would mean a lot for me if you just check it out
store.steampowered.com/app/547130/The_Hero/
i think you are my new god
I got my own game releasing Start to Finish a brand new racing game with no limits. No disqualification. No time limit. You make the world your b**** The game is set to release on consoles including the switch as well as mobile devices and PC!
Thanks for the video! Great content =)
Thank you very much for the video.
Great tips!!!
Really nice video again Jonas - thanks!
Sure. You're welcome. Thanks for watching. :)
snail game looks amazing
Do you think after Will You Snail comes out you could port it to the Switch?
Also, thank you for making this video! I feel like I’ve learned from it.
It really seems like your main reason for making will you snail is to make a game you enjoy and have fun making and I really like that
I like your snail's evil AI, at least the bit I've heard so far... Sounds better than Glados. IMO, I think you have something there.
Nice video! Thanks
After watching your videos I feel like I should try making a game
My first ever video game is going to be a story based one. I really want to do it but I also understand that I should create more games that have high replayability later on. What are your tips on indie story mode games?
Not sure how much I can say about that as I've never really made any story based games. Here are a couple of my favorite stolen tips:
1) Tell a story only you can tell.
2) Show. Don't tell.
3) Keep it simple so you can be generous.
Making story based games comes with some massive downsides. They are very content heavy and quite high effort to produce as you can't recycle and reuse stuff as much as in mechanics based games. Usually story based games are short and have low replayability which means it's harder to benefit from content creators.
On the plus side an emotional and well told story can be quite appealing and make for some great marketing material.
I'd encourage you to go for it and just keep it simple wherever you can. Good luck. :)
@@JonasTyroller Thank you man for all the help! I've watched your videos for a while now and loved all of the things I've learned from you and your experience, it's really making an impact in my indie game design career even though I'm only a senior in high school. This game will definitely be simple as it's more of a mystery / horror game (not what I personally play all the time as I like simulation, but I thought it would be really fun) and it doesn't have any other characters to it. With the tips I've learned from you the next VR game will hopefully be something worth telling people about!
I’m making a story game too and one way to make it more marketable is for it to have mysteries and lore that the players don’t have the full view of so that people can make theory videos and look more into the game for more clues
Just for me : )
Simple top down shooter but every round a new rule is added (e.g. harder enemies, one bullet, shield(tower defence mode?))
I think will you snail looks really good
Yup
Danke für das Video 🙂
Thank you Jonas for your tips!!!
You say story driven games are not good for content creators, but some of the biggest games on the internet (Undertale, Fight nights at freddy's) are only popular because of their story
This is true, but those games also have very high replayability and leave enough questions unanswered to where fans create buzz through speculation.
When you develop a story-driven game, you first need an interesting story, and secondly need to make it a challenge for players to piece together theories. Never give away every little detail of the story or your players will lose interest and there will be no discussion around it.
With a story-driven game, secrets, easter eggs, and hints are very important to create fuel for fan theories. Undertale, FNAF, and DDLC also have unique gameplay mechanics within them that keep the player occupied.