Knights of Grumthorr - Steam Keys

Started by Matty, November 09, 2020, 07:32:06

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Matty

Greetings, stats page update.

Query for you as a hypothetical:

How would any small time one man developer know if the figures for sales in foreign countries is accurate or as reported?


Matty

I will tell you an embarrassing set of stats:

Of paying customers only half of them have launched the game (57) and of them only 7 have played for a duration that could be said to demonstrate enjoyment.


Derron

There might be enough people having left some money in their piggy bank ... so they buy "on sale games" to "play later" ... buying 10 of them - and then only playing the "top 2" (visually, story... or whatever made them pick the stuff).

Of course there might also be users who disable your stat tracking somehow ... but this will be a minority.


bye
Ron

Matty

Note : those numbers are steams tracking tech not mine.  I disabled mine when I put it on steam after our discussions earlier in the year.

GrindalfGames

There could also be people who play their steam games offline. Thats what I do(My main computer is rarely connected to the internet, I have a grunt computer for that job) the problem with that is that it never updates your playtime, even when you eventually reconnect.

iWasAdam

QuoteOf paying customers only half of them have launched the game (57) and of them only 7 have played for a duration that could be said to demonstrate enjoyment.

then (i'm afraid) that 7 is the number of actual users you have.

Think of this as a longterm project.

Either sort out the issues with this game - make constant improvements, review what does and doesn't work, etc. in the hope that people will start to play it - which (if I'm being brutal) wont happen.
or...
You take what you have learned. and use that information in your new project. Doing this will show people that you are at the start of something and hopefully they will come along for the ride with you.

But you must be humble about it - accept that there are things to be improved, admit them, work on them, work out where you can do better next time around.

Lastly, think about your image (that is how you react to users, complaints, etc.) and people perception of you (as a developer). if (when checking your game), there is a lot of negativity, shoddy looking stuff - all of that builds a picture of you. this is a store front (keep the crap in the basement) and only show what you (absolutely) know is your best work.

You want people to think "i enjoyed that", or "I liked that bit - maybe the next will be better..."

My absolute best help for you is to enter some of itch.io game jams. They will really sharpen up your skills and you can get judged and compare to others. :)

Matty

Personally I think the most important and pressing concern is what the store page needs to contain during launch week to convert users who see the page into paying customers.  Of the 90,000 impressions my store page thumbnail had there were 6,000 views of the store page resulting in 6 paying customers.

Even if the game had been utterly terrible after purchase something clearly kept the conversion rate to a measly 1 in 1000 visits.

iWasAdam

1 in 1000 is very low.

But again you are starting to talk percentages, etc. When in reality you should be talking about quality NOT quantity.

The real jewel here is not the game but the underlying excellent framework code and the 'concept'.

so IMHO take the game concept, do it over again this time thinking about how to make it look and play really good.

Do not LAUNCH it and hope for the best. I think the term is "Soft Launch'/'Early Access' it being nice and clear about it'sbeta state and that you are wanting good feedback from users - then listen.

Think of this stage as a 1-4 month goal. you can then use that time to work on the marketing etc.


But... DON'T DO IT.

Do some nice simple itch.io game jams and get your game chops up to standard :)

Matty

Sadly iWasAdam there's no lengthy pc usage for me currently,  I've timed the effects of whatever that chemical is that is expelled from the vent while the pc is in use-it takes 20 minutes for me to begin feeling the effects, so sadly pc is off limits for now.  Unless of course I'm willing to accept the consequence of minor brain injury each time I use it. (Ridiculous I know but the facts and evidence are plain as day.)

iWasAdam

hmmm. Not good about the chemical/vent thing. You could always got rogue and get a Mac Mini M1 - virtually no fan ever! Or a macbook Air M1 - no fan at all... ?

Derron

I am not sure but Matty wrote about his current situation (income wise) and am not sure if buying a Apple device is of much help.


Matty, you should be able to open the computer, disassemble it ... and then clean the parts gently but firmly.
No need to open the drive case but I would at least suggest to clean the case properly, the fans with a brush - and (after unplugging and waiting for 20 minutes - of course!) the power supply.
Power supply will most probably have a lot of smeary dust in it - the best place to hold chemicals which are no longer "there".

You might also clean everything with isopropyl alcohol ... but maybe this is already "too much".

While cleaning, check if some capacitors or so are "blowing up" (get big and round) maybe something leaks out stuff ... and maybe these things are what makes your brain hurt, not some... "placed chemicals".

Also firmly clean your mouse - and the keyboard - it would be way easier to have someone gently spraying something on these devices so ones skin can come into contact with it. But if going down the rabbit hole you better buy the cameras I suggested multiple times in the other thread.


bye
Ron

Matty

I understand Derron.  However I'm moderately concerned about what may happen if I open the case and come into direct contact with whatever it is.

I'd almost be best taking it to a pc shop and asking them to clean the insides.....except I no longer have a car to carry it in.

Derron

It is warm weather in your country ... go outside of your house, wear gloves and open it. Let it there for some minutes ("to breathe") ... dissassemble and so on.

If you are afraid to find stuff, film yourself doing this stuff.


bye
Ron

Matty


Matty

As an exercise I started porting the c# code to javascript to see if it will run in a browser.  Development on pcs at thr library due to pc issues as described.