Intro

It’s been about a month since the launch of V-Hunter Puzzler Dx, so now’s a good time as any to work on a postmortem. For some context on the game, V-Hunter Puzzler Dx is a simple grid turn-based puzzle game where you must destroy all the monsters in each bite-sized level.

Let’s dive into the numbers.

Numbers

Sales: 46

Returns: 2

Wishlists: 453

Lifetime Unique Users: 59

Impressions: 163,099

Click-Thru Rate: 42.03%

Visits: 68,552

Pre-Launch

Dev Logs, Steam Page, and Demo

This game began with Mini Jam 118 (Halloween 2022), and I decided to pursue a full release since it placed 4th Overall in the results.

From then, I posted dev logs on itch.io every 1-2 weeks. I’d post the dev logs on Twitter, Mastodon, and Reddit, with an accompanying GIF.

I didn’t go crazy with optimizing the timing of posts, but I’d recommend it at least for Reddit. There’s a great site Later For Reddit that will help you get the times for specific subreddits that have had the most successful posts.

I finished the development of the core game by mid-January. I commissioned my friend, Dylan Wilde, to do the awesome title art and also a video editor on Fiverr to draft a trailer. At the end of January, I launched my Steam page.

There’s a lot of good info out there on Steam pages, so I’ll keep my advice succinct. Have a trailer, decent screenshots with as much action as possible, and GIFs in your description. Finally, amazing title/banner art is imperative.

Demo

Along with the Steam Page, I uploaded a demo. This is worth it for so many reasons. It gets you more visibility, gets wishlists, and also ensures a happier buyer. I believe demos reduce overall sales, but I’d rather have fewer players if they’re happier.

I’d also highly recommend using an html5 build, and putting the demo up on itch.io and any other web game sites. I used Newgrounds, my old stomping grounds back in middle school!

February to May was primarily spent trying to gain wishlists through posting on Twitter, Mastodon, and Reddit. I also created a press kit using Feepresskit.

Sending out Press Keys

About one month before launch, I sent out approximately 700 press keys to press outlets of all sizes. This was suggested by Martin at Daisy Games and it was great advice.

I’m gonna go on a mini tangent here, but I’d highly recommend reaching out and talking to devs who have released games before in your genre, especially if they’ve released multiple well-reviewed games. They’ve been through the trenches and can tell you what does and does not work. Martin helped me a great deal and I’m really grateful for it.

Anyways, sending out the press keys was able to generate some written/video reviews and let’s plays of the game. I wasn’t able to determine how many wishlists I got from them, but at the very least it was a positive mental boost to see people playing and overall enjoying the game.

For Steam keys and press, I’d recommend a Google sheet to keep things organized. I have one Google sheet with Steam Keys and who received the Steam Key. This makes it clear what keys are still available. I then have another Press related sheet that has the name, contact info, date I reached out, and response.

Another advantage of using Google Sheets or Excel is that you can export a CSV file. I wrote a JS (I don’t know why I didn’t use Python) script that would read from the CSV files and send an email to each press outlet with a unique Steam key. Work smart, not hard.

Bundle Up

The final thing before I launched was to team up with Daisy Games and bundle his game Dark Crypt with mine. Our games had somewhat similar gameplay and it was cool to launch with a bundle. I got a decent chunk of sales due to this bundle and I can highly recommend bundling up with a developer who has games that are similar in feel.

Puzzle Fest

I also joined Puzzle Fest before launch, with just my demo. While I did get some wishlists from it, it wasn’t overly successful. I expect better results next year when the game is actually out.

Launch

First off, keep in mind that you have to physically press the release button yourself. Not a big deal, but something to keep in mind if you were expecting it to launch automatically.

I launched with ~130 wishlists.

10 reviews

For release, my first goal was to make sure I got to 10 reviews from paid copies of the game. If you don’t know, Steam gives a huge visibility boost when you hit 10 reviews.

This was mainly accomplished by the support of my friends. On this topic, I have some advice. Your friends likely want to support you, but they have their own lives and passions to live. What this means is that unless your friends show genuine interest, don’t spam them all throughout the development. That way, when you bring up the game release it’s new and exciting. You can find out more info on why getting 10 reviews is important from this Chris Zukalous article.

After 10 reviews

Traffic shot up big time here. I didn’t get as many sales as I wanted, but at least the wish lists grew a decent chunk. I think I messed up a bit here by not continuing my marketing as hard, but truth be told, I’d come nowhere near the traffic Steam was sending my way, so the lack of sales is mainly on me and my game.

Conclusion

I went into this as a learning experience and on that end, it was a major success. From a sales standpoint, it was a bit under expectations, as I was hoping for 50-100 units, but still in the same ballpark.

I think there are a few reasons why the game had lackluster results. The biggest of which is that the game art is too simplistic. Looking back, I think I should’ve commissioned Dylan (who did the awesome title art) to do the game art in a similar style. Most of the game art was from an Oryx asset pack and while I like it, I think modern gamers expect more.

Another reason I believe is that the game is fairly short (1-2 hours) and has simple gameplay. This was by design for casual players to beat the game, but I should’ve kicked up the difficulty a bit. It also makes it harder to get reviews, as Steam gives a reminder to review at 3 hours of gameplay.

Finally, the puzzle genre is really hard to thrive in. It’s not a huge audience and there are a lot of puzzle games released.

Overall, I’m glad I released the game. There’s so much that goes into the game dev cycle and there’s no real way to learn it all except by releasing a game. I would also recommend NOT making your dream game your first release. You’ll likely make mistakes and it’s better to not make those mistakes in your dream game.

Alright, I’ve rambled on long enough. I’ll put major learning points below to summarize everything. Thanks for reading and if you’ve liked what you read, consider following me on Twitter or any of my socials on LinkTree!

Oh yeah, go check out V-Hunter Puzzler Dx and leave a review!

Lessons Learned aka TL;DR

• Hit 10 Steam reviews ASAP. Ask friends, family, and fellow game devs.
• Talk to and get advice from accomplished game devs.
• Release a demo for your game. It’ll get more visibility and get happier customers.
• Invest in high-quality title art and Steam capsules.
• Send out press keys to a LOT of press about 1 month before launch. Use an automated script to send the emails.
• Use later for Reddit to find optimal times to make posts.