How my Game Launch Went on Steam
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 มิ.ย. 2024
- My indie game "Will You Snail?" is coming out now and here are some first numbers and impressions from the launch!
➤ Play Will You Snail on Steam: store.steampowered.com/app/11...
➤ Join the Will You Snail Discord: / discord
Video Content:
0:00 - Sales Numbers
(How much money do indie game developers make?)
3:41 - Reading Reviews
6:49 - Coverage on TH-cam
➤ Olexa: • IS THIS THE *HARDEST* ...
➤ Robotic Press: • Will You Snail | ALL B...
➤ Full Graemeplays: • Will You Snail? - A ra...
➤ Rotaka: • I Made Will You Snail ...
10:12 - Launch Preparations Mini Devlog
12:01 - How I Feel and Final Thoughts
For consoles:
➤ Nintendo Switch: www.nintendo.com/store/produc...
➤ PlayStation: store.playstation.com/en-us/p...
➤ Xbox: www.xbox.com/en-us/games/stor...
For press:
➤ Press Kit: jonas-tyroller.itch.io/will-y...
➤ Keymailer: www.keymailer.co/g/games/83552
#gamedev #indiedev
the fact that the number one reason for refunds in a rage platformer was ''too difficult'' is just hilarious
Reminds me of the reviews for getting over it
Literally like wtf did you expect
@@LilCheesyBean Those were hilarious
"Elden Ring is great because it's so difficult. That's why it's so success with a million people"
Any other difficult game: "Too hard, refund."
lmao
I mean, it's understandable. Who would want to pay for game you can't even finish?
Now, i'm being honest here, i really like the game, even though i died like over 1.5K times, it was easy to stay calm knowing that the game is hard, and overall it is very fun to try to find any cool secrets, like the TD levels underwater.
i died 8000 times on my first playthrough
I’ve died over 10k times now since I’m trying to do all levels on easy
@@tvs26 oh i died 8k times on my first playthrough with easy lol
Yep there's actually a bit of psychology at play here. Because the game states "This game is very hard, it's normal to get stuck and frustrated, feel free to take a break." It increases the difficulty tolerance of the average player because they feel like it's normal to die. Very good game design! :)
well, atleast you got the achievement
Awesome behind the scene look at those juicy numbers! I had a great time with Will You Snail. Listening to the sountrack while having a shower gets me dancing like a maniac.
I will never get rid of that mental image o.o
@@YaenGamedev bruh
lol
haha
Lol
Congrats on the launch! From my view (and objectively speaking) this is a massive success!
I must say I was quite concerned following the devlogs over the past few years and seeing how much time you were spending on the game but thankfully it seems like it worked out in the end.
I would not have recommended spending so long making a game on such a crowded genre but because of all your hard work and effort on the game and on this channel you were successful in the extremely difficult task of making it with a platformer game!
The ratio of first week to first year sales is around 5x so hopefully that should equal $100k first year net revenue which would be awesome!
So congrats again! I'd love to see a video on what you learned from this project, specifically on the question, will you also spend 3+ years on your next game?
You always have the best advices when it comes to this stuff! You can see that Code Monkey is a man of culture when it comes to steam sale and succes!
I have learned a lot from your videos too. Biggest thing I learned (from one of your videos) is keeping the project length shorter and go heavy on programming vs art to fits interest/skills/personality.
@codeMonkey - do you ship games or just assets? Just curious, I took a quick look at the channel and didn't see any devlogs directly related to a title.
@@thehambone1454 He made a few tycoon games in the past. (He made a video detailing his Journey as a gamedev, recommend you give it a watch)
@@thehambone1454 I have 8 games on Steam, last one in 2019 and since then I've been focusing more on making videos/tutorials.
Thanks for including some of my gameplay! I went into the game knowing very little about it, and not even knowing it was created by someone who did these sorts of dev logs and behind the scenes looks at development! It's awesome to see some crushing it as both a developer and a youtuber :D
I haven't been doing a lot on my channel lately. Tossing up the odd video here and there. This was the first game in ages to catch the audiences attention, and people were immediately asking for a full series! I do a lot of one-offs, but decided to do a proper full playthrough of WYS. And I'm SO glad I did! The game was a delight! There were so many interesting mechanics, twists, bits of lore, and all the secret hunting!! It was hard, but never TOO hard, and was consistently fun and surprising throughout. Indie platformers is a very difficult (you obviously know a thing or two about difficulty haha) space to stand out in, and you've certainly done so!
Hey its Full Graemeplays!
At this point, the best gameplay of Will you Snail I have seen... also the game has certain fun when you die... I mean, not cause you died but you don't take the death like "Oh god I died" --> ragequit... it's a different way to die. Even if that is an rageinducing game didn't feel like that to me.
Watched your video and loved it :)
Indeed I was hooked when I saw you play this! Still haven’t finished watching your last few videos on it, ima go do that now
You should add this into the Will you snail devlog playlist, would be a great round up
Huge success dude. Impressed
Hi, Thomas. How is your game I mean very cool dog game
Jonas, I am not familiar with the tax laws in your country. However, you should definitely take out your expenses making the game before paying taxes on your profits. That would prevent you from having taxes put you in the negative.
Definetly true for germany (where he's from)!
@@deetz3950 Germany yeah
@@deetz3950 Jonas is from Germany probably
@@rein556 yes he is, he said it in lots of videos
Yes, but the thing is, you cannot really release the game and say that you owe yourself 2 years of payment. Same goes for expenses, since you need to balance monthly income/outcome.
I'm not an accountant and there surely are some options, but it's not as easy as it might feel at a first glance and it's an issue, since all of your time will be translated into the taxable profit.
The game game came out amazing! Thank you for sharing your journey making it. It has been a pleasure to watch the process over the last few years and I can't wait to see what you start making next.
Hi vimlark! Love your content
privacy policy game
I'm so proud of you. It was amazing to be on this journey with you.
I played Will You Snail at launch, and it surprised me with how much effort you put into it. You definitely spent the four years wisely.
The problem with Indie 2D Platformers is that the market is saturated and even if you make an awesome game it's hard to sell. Shovel Knight would probably fail if they released it today. Braid would definitely fail because it's a puzzle platformer. The fact that you made so much money in a saturated market is actually pretty amazing. I predict Karlson will do 10x as much, not because Karlson is 10x better than WYS, but because even though there are a lot of Indie FPS there aren't so many that the market is saturated yet. Also, Karlson is an acrobatic shooter and other than Ultrakill I can't think of any other acrobatic Indie FPS games.
Because of WYS's unique gameplay and sophisticated AI, I predict it will be a slow but steady seller as long as you participate in sales and do what you can to get streamers to play it. It's just the reality of the market that it wasn't a big seller at launch. I think you would have easily made 20x as much if you had launched in 2012.
Is Karlson still in development? I haven’t heard anything about it in a long time
There's a decent few acrobatic fps games, most of them aren't very popular at all. Get to the orange door is my personal favorite
@@gatewaymusic3598 yes it is but Dani is keeping the development more private because he doesn't want to spoil everything.
@@gatewaymusic3598 I think so
@@gatewaymusic3598 It will likely still be in development - but real talk, I imagine Dani is struggling to stay motivated with the development of the game.
Making a game is hard, making a good game is even harder. Making a successful good game is even harder than that.
From Dani's point of view right now, he's putting hours and hours into development of Karlson, which has a crazy amount of hype surrounding it - yet he's making games like Crab game and Muck which are reaching massive audiences.
He's a smart guy - I'm sure he can see that Karlson just won't be as successful as these other viral successes without a crazy amount of work, and I'd be surprised if he didn't start to toy with new ideas for different games, or different ways to approach Karlson.
All the hype surrounding Karlson is likely causing a lot of stress for Dani, as he has to reach his fanbase's absurd level of expectations, knowing what he knows.
The market is tiny - majority of sales will be his fans. His average viewer age is quite low so the percent of fans that will buy the game is even smaller.
At this point he likely see's his smaller, viral successes are more fun to develop - and stop him from getting locked into developing one project for a long amount of time.
Hope you're good Dani - you're a very skilled developer, don't let imposter syndrome kick in, don't tie yourself to a project because of expectations. You've learned a lot since you started Karlson development, your fans will likely stick around no matter what you choose to do.
Congratulations my man! ❤️ Awesome video! Super exciting (and scary) to see your launch! 😅 It’s gonna reach 1M in sales 💪
+1 for algorithm juice!
As a fellow developer I really appreciate all your content but this one is a touchy subject for a lot of people and you handled it very transparently and with no beating around the bush!
First, congrats on the 99% positive reviews. Even if it is influenced by a lot of youtube followers, the fact that you've maintained all of this content throughout the game dev process is more than enough justification to deserve that extra marketing. Even though your total revenue isn't where I'm sure you'd like it to be, yet (I also think $72k in one week is pretty damn good, but considering how many years and how much $$ you spent on it already I could understand being frustrated), the nice thing is that this can now be passive income that flares up every time there's a holiday sale or something like that, and I'm sure the total over the course of a few years will be much higher!
Also I appreciate that you read through some of the refund reasons. I also am designing a game where high difficulty is kind of essential to it (even though there is an option to lower difficulty, I'm worried that if people lowered the difficulty they would get bored quickly, since dying over and over again and learning to master a challenge is what elongates the gameplay and adds meaning to it). You talked about doing your best to warn people of that high difficulty, but it still not being enough. That's frustrating! Though the fact that those negative reasons and complaints were kept primarily in the sphere of refunds, rather than all of those people going and writing negative reviews to complain, is definitely good news. If I had the choice I'd rather a larger percentage of people refund my game rather than write shitty reviews, 'cos having overwhelmingly positive reviews is so essential for visibility and future sales and promotion efforts!
Good luck
You definitely don’t need worry at all about the reviews saying it’s too difficult. I thought the difficulty was balanced really well, and I really loved the challenge of beating all the levels on easy
I love how little sense this comment makes without context
Loved this - thanks for making a great game!
Huge congrats on the launch, Jonas !! It’s been so amazing following along with the development of WYS! I’m looking forward to your next project!😄
Also, thank you so much for the shoutout! That’s absolutely incredible- I appreciate it so much!!❤️❤️
Those refund notes were hilarious dev roasting sometimes. :D
And its great reality check to see, that even well done, well marketed game (and would love to see some breakdown of it), several years in making, can be at point of breaking even.
Also showing those lets plays is very cool, seeing how some seasoned gamers react to it.
Looking forward to next game you will make!
EDIT: And not posting on Reddit is I think missed opportunity for sure. Especially for such visual and action packed game like yorus. Still time to do so I believe.
As of march 19, 2022 its sitting at overwhelming positive (98% of 941 reviews). I think its a huge success buddy, congrats!
I really love the transparency on this video. I wasn't expecting a behind the scenes look for the game's release but I'm really happy you did, pretty enjoyable video and I hope the game keeps going well :P
Can't stop playing this game, I wish you even more success my good sir 😳
amazing! you have being transparent from day 1 about everything. I was really hoping you would let us know how it went and here you are :)
I am really glad is going well and i hope it will keep like this for a long time!
Jonas, you absolute entire legend. I found this channel last summer and loved your content and Will You Snail so much!!! I *adore* sassy and slightly evil AI characters in any game, so it fits right up my alley😁😁😁 Then I lost your channel for a bit because of, y’know, a war starting in my country, and finding out you actually finished and released it already is like Christmas, Easter and my birthday have all come early!!! HUGE congrats on the release, watching this project grow has been phenomenal and I’m extremely happy for you!!!🥳🥳🥳
Jonas, congrats on the game and with how busy you are, it is amazing you took time to make this video. Know that the time was well spent, this content is super valuable for other folks making games.
Thank you
Really glad to see this video! I was wondering myself! I would love to see an update in the next month and know when you break even!
Great job, much success!
Congratulations for the lauching, I dont folow the devlogs but seeing on prep, I felt like playing you game, Good Job and keep it on!
Congratulations on the success! Love to see it.
If you had 2000 more subscribers, then you would have 100 likes
God i love this guy's Energy. Happy i found your content bro
Amazing fun to follow you on this journey! :) Well done!
This was great! Thanks for sharing.
I bought the game a few days after launch! It's the most fun I've had gaming in a loooong time! Your launch has gone very well! Couldn't have hoped for much more!
Wow, huge kudos to you on the success but moreso a big thank you for the transparency in this video. Great stuff, I look forward to your next one.
the fact that you’re totally transparent! showing the refund notes and everything, good or bad! respect ✊
I loved this game :)
Thanks for the update!
Gosh you handle everything with such an upbeat and collected attitude. Criticism, deadlines, trending placement. I admire how well you stay composed. I’m stoked to play this game too!
Always nice to see a new video from you.
Well done ! It's especially interesting to see how your community really pushed this game into a successful launch (making up for the lack of any significant press attention). Now complete your next game faster ;)
I didn't realize this game came out, I'm going to get it and rage to support you!!! Amazing work!
Grats on the release. It has been very funny and informative to follow the process - Looking forward to your next "tried your games" vid. :)
Just found the channel but I love it! I really enjoyed this look into your release of the game. Keep up this amazing work!
You really make great devlogs and i loved to follow your journey! You rellay motivated me to keep on doing on my Game. Its seems like a so cool feeling to see others enjoy your game! :) Hopefully the curve will be stable for some time and i wish you great success!
I found the game like six months after it came out, and after some back and forth I decided to play it. I loved the game a lot!! And you can only imagine my surprise when I found a devlog series to watch. Thank you for sixty hours of engaging gameplay!
Really awesome to see this behind the scenes of a developer, at this crucial moment. The negative reviews were very funny, should make a long version of that, if you can stomach it :)
It's amazing to see that your game stayed on the Frontpage for so long :D
It was super fun to play. Good job and congrats 🥳
Yannick! Nice to see you here!
For a solo effort this is a fantastic launch. The logistics of managing marketing and patches ( + all the other demands) is hard to comprehend let alone execute. Well done man. I think this will have a really long tail. Can't wait to see you embark on your next adventure.
I have waited eagerly to see this video, I will check it out right after I get home
I think you have earned more then 133k people of community it was worth it we all love your content and some day I will reach you.Keep doing bro don’t give up👍👍👍
Very impressive, that you worked through that whole project alone. Awesome!
Dude, great job, the game was amazing, and I'm looking forward to your next one!
Congrats! This is an amazing start for the game. I can't wait to finish Elden Ring and play Will You Snail :D
Congratulations! It Was So Inspiring to Watch You Go Through The Progress of Making This Game and Can't Wait to See What's Next! :D
Congrats on the launch!
The honesty of this video is fantastic. Thank you Jonas.
I got w ill you snail a couple days ago and I love it. Keep up the good work.
Congrats mate! This is just the beginning :)
Loving the transparency there
It's so awesome to see you game finally released Jonas...it's been awesome watching you build it, and it's awesome watching you being able to talk about it as you are now...
I haven't gone really far yet...but I'm on my way haha
Squid is something else lol
never heard of the game before but congratz on the successfull release and thx for the informativ video
I bought the game just to give it a shot and was certain I won't like it and the AI would just feel either "too dumb" or "too hard". But, the game was surprisingly really fun. Probably the most fun I have had playing any platformer in a long long time. The concept is so well executed. Hats off to you!
Congrats on the launch, found you through graeme's channel
I really wanna play! I watched your videos back in the development stages and I REALLY hope it’s a great success. I know you were talking about revenue from the game but you should also attribute the TH-cam revenue bc I really hope you came out on top! I stopped the video about half way through bc I don’t want any spoilers bc I’d love to make a video on this game. You were a huge contributor to why I got Inspired and started working on my own game! I’d love to see more videos and games created by you.
Congratulations on your release!
We can tell how much effort you put into your game and videos. Stay awesome Jonas!
Congrats dude! You were my source of inspiration for the last few years!
Congratulations on the successful release! :) Was cool to see the numbers!
Very Grateful for your channel's inspiration in dark times. My game is set for Steam after two years of learning!
It's great to see how the game is fairing. All the positive reviews are fantastic and I hope you manage to recoup your recent costs. Can't wait to see what else you've got in store for the future!
Thanks for the little insight. It really interested me. Even though I can’t afford the game by myself I really enjoy watching it and your videos.
Time to get this game in the hands of Ludwig, etc. and I'm sure sales will get another big boost once streamers pick it up.
Dudddeee that's genius!! Jonas, get on this!
Yeah I mean since that was the original point he needs to reach out to some big streamers
@@-Teague- I don't know the big streamers, but Jonas could ask Dani if he has a hookup; he interacted with a bunch of them before.
I see a lot of people saying this, and I understand that this how games get popular and how Jonas' last game got a lot of popularity (jacksepticeye played it), but Jonas can't just tell big streamers to play this game, he simply doesn't know them. Sure, we could all go spam it in youtubers comments sections and streamers chats, but it would just be annoying and probably make them not want to play the game more than anything, You have to remember that the game only exists for a little over a week, for many games it takes months or even years before being played by big creators and getting major popularity. What I'm saying is that the best thing we can do right now is probably wait, if a big creator wants a suggestion for a game then we can suggest Will You Snail to them, but otherwise the best bet would be to let them discover it by themselves. Jonas' best thing to do right now is probably to try and make videos that will get very popular and attract a bigger audience to his channel and therefore to his games.
@@gamean5873 he could give them steam keys 🤦
The person who wrote the "Not enough game-play Depth" review was 100% the person that refunded the game for the same reason XD
So many of the most famous games out there have very simple controls. The depth comes not from the controls but from the levels you use those controls in. If there were a million different buttons to do a bunch of different things it would be a totally different kind of game, and lose a lot of the charm of what it is as it is. That guy is just weird, I don’t get it.
Great video, thanks for sharing! Already looking forward to your next game ;)
Dude, first big game on steam and you rocked it. You have to think beyong the dollars....think about the goodwill from the good reviews....you are growing in awareness, and in great spot. Congratulations! You did great!
Congrats!! Please make a video soon about your next game project! (or possible ideas) :D
That was an interesting watch.
Nice Jonas, you did well!
Awesome video. It's nice from you to share the sales information!
By the way, do you plan to release a physical edition for console? I would love to get one for switch!
congrats on the launch man!
Well done mate!
Good job on getting stuff done!
So happy for you can't wait where your Dev Journey goes
Very interesting to get this insider look! This makes me smile. I will soon challenge your cool and sarcastic AI...well...maybe not soon. But later. Eh...I have no clue when it will be, but I must play your game. I must. Thanks for your work and this video. You seem like a really cool and great guy. Best wishes!
Your game is great Jonas and I hope the curve levels off at a higher level than you expect and you view this release as a success in retrospect.
Great game, Jonas, congratulations on finally releasing it. Hopefully some of the popular streamers will play it which would increase sales quite a bit. And eventually even with the lower sales/day ratio it would probably end up profitable, in the long term.
I enjoy your gamedev content a lot, so I am looking forward to see development of your future projects.
By the way, your expression at 4:03 was priceless (like how someone could possibly refund such an amazing game). I think difficulty settings were very nicely implemented, but apparently, for some people the game is too hard even on the lowest difficulty.
I loved the game Jonas! I think you did a great job with implementing unique ideas and gameplay, and I really like the ost too. I would predict the game selling steadily over the future, and getting picked up by a famous streamer / TH-camr.
Even if not, you made a great experience for those that played your game, thank you!
This is such a cool insight!
Damn! Congrats man, you really wanted this one!!!!
it's kinda sad how much money went into this, and how little you got back. I love your determination to make a great game that so many people can enjoy. I could never do what you've done, man! I will be making a "Why it's Great" (YT series I've been planning for a while) video on this game very soon. I just have to uncover all the things which takes way to long to make the video in a reasonable amount of time XD
Congrats on the launch, Jonas! This game looks really creative, so, seriously, well done.
Your game was awesome! I enjoyed every single second of it!
This is such a great ending to the story that's been 4 years in the making. 💪
Glad you had a successful launch, really happy for you :)
Congratulations, seems like a victory to me. Keep up the good work!
youtuber and streamer maxim found your game and he was playing it for his new video. thats how i found you. i think the idea of the game is amazing and its super well executed it seems like.
Congrats and thanks Jonas for releasing this masterpiece to us!
It's such a good game. Once the big video makers post this on their page, you'll be making big sales and will probably be known as one of the most awesome game developers. Thank you for making this outstanding game, I enjoy it very much!
Yes, This is so cool. I hope your game sells well because it's so interesting game API you have
Congrats!
You deserve everything, gut gemacht Jonas!
Got the game on my PS5 and I love it! Keep up the great work!
Well done on launching man. Huge achievement.
🥳🥳🥳 CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!!! 🎉🎉🎉