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Preparing for Steam

5 years ago807 words

Since the 'release' of Sindrel Song was so quiet due to Kartridge's obscurity, I'll need to do some research that I've mentioned in the past but haven't actually done yet... Maybe you can help, if you're that way inclined?

I published on Kartridge first because I'd been approached by them earlier in the year, and felt I owed it to them to release on their platform first. I knew that they were small from the beginning, but I didn't realise how small (my weird avoidance issues getting in the way, as usual). It seems the attention Sindrel Song got there isn't exactly lower than most games on the platform.

Kongregate used to be big back in the Flash days, but I suppose the world moves on and Kartridge is their attempt to keep up with the times. It's hard, though, competing with giants like Steam. So Sindrel Song not doing well this past week is understandable, all things considered.

So as it stands, I'm seeing the game as not having been properly released yet. Or it's like releasing a new film in a local community centre rather than the cinemas (and wondering why you're not making much money); it shouldn't really count as the premiere. Seeing it that way does help to reduce the feelings of disappointment, and renews hope.

I suppose if nothing else, it's been a good practice run in terms of mental coping, so the 'actual' release might be less anxiety-provoking.

The next course of action will be to release on Steam, but I should research how best to do this before making a mistake. I naively thought I'd gain some traction from Kartridge and could use that to give the Steam release a bit of a boost, but it seems I'll be largely starting from scratch here.

I think it'd be possible to self-publish to Steam without any issues, but I'm wondering whether it's best to try to find a publisher who'll help out with promotion stuff. This wasn't a thought I'd had until it was suggested to me, and I wonder how common it is for indie games to use publishers and how many self-publish. I'd rather self-publish, and if publishers aren't necessary to do well, then that's what I'll do. If however publishers do make a huge difference, then I should look into how to find one.

There's a lot that I need to research, but these stupid avoidance issues are getting in the way... "I'll do it tomorrow", I think, "because it's a bad time now, it's late, I don't want to go to bed anxious, I'll do it tomorrow, but not until after I've eaten because I don't want to not eat due to anxiety, oh but after I've eaten I'll feel too lethargic to do it, so I'll wait a while..."

It's so annoying, and I'm going to need to push through that somehow, but for now, if you're interested in helping me, there's something specific you can either look into or tell me about your previous experiences with.

Most of you have played indie games, but how many of those games were self-published? Do they typically have publishers, and do some publishers commonly publish indie games? Do you know how any of them were promoted, or how they gained traction originally? If you don't, would it be interesting to you to look into that?

I'll definitely be looking into this myself over the coming days, and I'll try to join indie games communities and things like that, but I'm quite ignorant because of how much I tend to avoid, so things like pointers to communities (I don't know of any) or bits of information that you already know will be hugely helpful to me in at least giving me a place to start. Or if there are indie games you like and know did well, then perhaps it might be interesting to you to look into how they got noticed, and sharing that information with me would be really valuable.

Comments on these blog posts have generally helped me quite a lot with things like this, because some of you regular commenters have much more knowledge about all this than I do!

It used to be that I'd research things as soon as I felt ignorant about them, trying my best to learn as much as I could as fast as I could... What happened? When did that change? I don't know. It's a shame. I want to do the research, it's just there's this fear-based avoidance that prevents action. I hope the cocoon I've wrapped myself into can be broken, at least.

Anyway, I feel like I'm back to where I was a few weeks ago, but I do have renewed hope that Sindrel Song might actually do alright once I release it to the cinemas!!