What I’ve learned from saturated Steam markets (Journey of a solo game developer)

Jestercraft · · Towncrier
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INTRODUCTION

Approximately six months have passed since I started making games solo. For people who don’t know me: I’ve been in the game industry for around 15 years and this decision was mainly because I’ve been dreaming of making games solo for as long as I can remember.

Previously, I’ve never really had the courage or financial possibilities to try such a ”stunt”. Not that it means I now have some extra courage, it’s just I finally wanted to try it. Also, not because I feel that I can succeed, but because it’s been on my mind for way too long.

I feel that if I don’t try it, I’m going to regret it in the future.

So, here I am. Six months after the ”leap of faith” and I wanted to share my experiences so far.


THE MARKETS HAVE CHANGED (So much!)

First of all, It’s been very, very rough to discover the PC (Steam) markets these days. Getting enough exposure for your game(s) is harder than ever. And even if you get that exposure, the games that you make need to be very, very specific to catch the interest of users.

By making a game and releasing it on Steam, does not guarantee players. Sure, it will guarantee eyeballs for your game. But the sales of a game can really be close to zero.

Back in 2016 or such, you could release basically ”any type of game” and you would get people to try it. You would get feedback and reviews. The markets are so saturated right now, that it’s insane. In a practical sense, saturated markets mean that the players have so many games they can play. They have so much to choose from, which boils down to a situation that a game can be buried within Steam in days. Maybe even hours, depending on when you launch.

Some might consider that ”you just need to make a good game” to get the attention. But I dare to say, it’s not that simple. Let me explain.


THE ART OF SIMPLIFICATION (And why it's required)

There are ”bad games” on Steam that get massive amounts of interest from players. And with a ”bad game” I don’t mean there is something wrong with the quality, content or such. These games are, in my eyes, ”low-effort” games. The coreloop and the design are so simple that it’s even ridiculous.

But, these games do exactly what they’re designed for. And I feel that there is so much to learn from these, when considering the saturated markets we have these days.

These games are easy to understand, have a clear target audience and they don’t try to ”invent” anything super fancy. These games are underlined: Entertainment.

They don’t go too deep into the nuts and bolts of some specific mechanics. They present the easily understandable mechanics in a fun environment with a small little twist.

And that has been the biggest discovery for myself within my solo game developer journey.

I overthink the designs and mechanics.

I feel that I want to offer depth in my games, something the user can experience with time and slowly start understanding the meaning of the game, and while at it, start getting that ”entertainment” they are after.

But for today's markets, it’s a totally wrong approach.

What this causes:

  • Potential player enters my Steam store page
  • Within the next 10-30 seconds they try to understand is this game interesting enough for them
  • If they ”don’t get it”, they jump into a next game

Let’s stop it right there for a moment.

If I’ve been making a game for months, or even years and I fail to communicate my approach within my store page: The players will never even experience the ”deep gameplay” I’ve been after. Hundreds of hours of work are destroyed within 10-30 seconds, just because I couldn’t communicate it within the store page.

But it does not stop there. What if the user ”risks it” and still wants to try the game?

  • The player purchases the game
  • Opens it up and at the same time, they realize that ”I have two hours to decide whether I like this or not, so I can refund”
  • The game starts up and the user starts to learn the game
  • It’s not clear. It’s hard to grasp it.
  • 10 minutes have passed and the user is not convinced.
  • A hard moment comes up in the game and the player is struggling to continue
  • ”I am not entertained” the user thinks
  • Uninstalls the game and asks for a refund

Yet again. Hundreds of hours of work were destroyed within minutes. Not because the core game would not have been entertaining, but because they had to make a decision to ”find something better” before the refund time runs out.

Maybe my game could have been interesting for the user, if they would have continued? Or maybe not? We will never know.


KEY TAKEAWAYS

The learning from this, is that the saturated markets are more or less ”forcing” the developer to make games that are appealing and catches the interest of a user very, very fast.

I’ve been focusing too much into creating games that are ”interesting” when experienced fully. Instead, I need to focus more into catching the interest ”without too much work”.

Maybe it’s better to get feedback like ”I liked the game but it was very short” - rather than getting any feedback or even purchases?

It’s like starting to listen to a new song on Spotify which you don't know. If the ”intro” of the song is not interesting enough, do you really want to ”risk it” by listening to it to the end, or ”play safe” and listen to a song that you know that you’ll like instead?

"I ended up throwing many of my designs into the dumpster"

For many, the decision is easy. Since the user is listening to the song to feel entertained. Sure, there are people who have a ”long attention span” to learn new things and experience those as such. But with today's saturated markets, people know that they don’t need to do that ”work”.

Now to wrap this ”music metaphor” up, it’s good to bear in mind that ”innovation” can come from artists that have an audience already. People who start to listen to their new song, are convinced that there is something ”special” in it. They will give it time, maybe even listen to it again if ”they didn’t get it”. Most likely, there are also influencers and such already posting thoughts around the song, explaining what it is about. Which, obviously makes that ”innovation” more easy to understand and get the ”entertainment” out of it.


THE REALITY

But if you’re a nobody. You’re that solo game developer, making games that take ”work” to understand. There are very few people who are willing to put in the hours to find the value in it. And if that is the case, you won’t get enough sales to get the algorithms to promote your product.

So, what’s the catch?

As a solo game developer. I need to focus and learn so much more about making ”instantly appealing” games, rather than games that have a long learning curve. Starting from the store page itself. It needs to be simple, it needs to be clear. The amount of content, or depth is non-relevant, until you catch the interest of some specific target audience.

And as a solo game developer, my time is limited. I can’t offer a large amount of content with depth and also make clear and fun introductions to teach the player to keep them inspired.

I need to prioritize. And right now it feels it's a much better decision to simplify the designs and focus much, much more into making something more simple and ”instantly appealing” rather than trying to offer the engraved entertainment with depth.

It feels a little sad to admit this. But if I ever want to get players for my games, it feels like the only way to do it.

I ended up throwing many of my designs into the dumpster, since I realized that it will take too much work for me to introduce the player to these mechanics, or from the player to understand these.

Maybe there will be a day when I can create more ”complicated” games for players to experience. But before I can do that, I first need to learn the art of simplification.

The journey continues!


Want to support my solo game developer journey?

- Purchase Seeker: Quest on Steam

- Wishlist Cats With Standards on Steam (Or play the demo!)