What I've Learned After Releasing 4 Games on Steam

For me, it's a pleasure to write as a game developer, inspiring others to pursue their dreams and overcome obstacles. That's my idea - to give you courage to confront every challenge. During these years, I had the experience of releasing 4 PC games, each one with their current characteristics, where I could learn important things that I carry today. First, let's see what they are and what I could learn from each one:

Clown2Beat

Clown2Beat, released in 2016, was my first game project to release on Steam, it's a free-to-play game. I had the great experience of releasing my first game and getting the players' feedback. 4 months later I released a DLC, with a total of 30 levels of gameplay.

Like every first game, it lacks some details, but some people had fun with it, and reading the comments on Steam gave me that extra boost to keep going.

Shadows of Kepler

On the way, in 2018 I did a prototype called Shadows of Kepler with the help of 3 friends, very similar to Resident Evil mechanics. With a demo on Steam, a Kickstarter campaign, and a real-size weapon game replica, we could find a lot of interesting things. Our expectation was high at that time, cause we invested our time to produce a lot of trailers, and we also traveled to GDC in California.

Looking at the comments about the potential was great, but no one gave that investment at that time. So we held the project, maybe in the future we can revive it.

Parallel

So in 2020 I started a new project, this time an open-world RPG called Parallel, this was incredible, cause the game mixes different ways of story and different characters, all mixed on a mysterious world where you have to evolve a little soul to have a physical body. So it involved a lot of studies and mechanics where the player can play in first or third person. I experienced having a booth on a game fair and also a complete cosplay of the main character, a red clown very intriguing.

Parallel taught me how difficult it is to launch a game by ourselves. It's not an easy mission if your plan is to get noticed by the industry without a publisher. But I had to try and get the game results, like sales, impressions, and all that stuff, that really makes me think how difficult it is to achieve some expectations.

Cyborg3003

And in 2023 I had the experience of releasing an early access co-op game called Cyborg3003, with a roadmap that concluded in 2024. A co-op game is really fun, and I could see how difficult it is to make a multiplayer game.

The game included 5 maps, 7 enemies, and 9 weapons. A more action game where I could see once more time, the difficulty of releasing a game alone.

Max Madness

For Max Madness, we are completely focused on finding a publisher that can see the great potential this game has and invest in our production and marketing. This is our new game project, utilizing every technology we can. I'll share more news over time, so don't forget to sign up for our newsletter and stay tuned.

Conclusion

You might argue that there are many resources available to help indie games get noticed in the market. And you're right, there are. However, the reality is that your indie game is competing with dozens of other indie games releasing every day. Even with some investment in promotional sites or coverage from a few big YouTubers, your views will likely be dwarfed by what a mid-tier or major publisher can achieve.

Every game can generate sales, but what's your conversion rate? For instance, if Steam showcases your game to 6,000 people and you get 10 sales, that means you could potentially sell a lot more with a larger audience - but reaching that audience requires significant investment. To put things into perspective, an average indie game gets negligible views compared to big triple-A games or even mid-tier games released by publishers. Top-performing games can rack up 180 million views online to generate sales that justify the investment. In contrast, if your solo indie game gets 100,000, 500,000, or even 1 million views, it's a drop in the bucket compared to the marketing muscle of a big publisher.

So let me make one thing clear: a publisher is essential for any indie game developer.

What I've Learned After Releasing 4 Games on Steam? Trust me, if you want to launch your game independently and achieve significant sales, be prepared to build a Steam wishlist of at least 50,000 and invest $50,000 to $100,000 in marketing. And make sure your game is compelling and resonates with players, or you'll be throwing money away.

That's a tough road; I've never invested more than $2,000 in my game marketing, which is one reason why it doesn't achieve strong sales, despite having an 8,000-strong Steam wishlist, big YouTubers playing it, and positive reviews. It simply doesn't matter, because, as I mentioned earlier, Steam showcases your game alongside thousands of others. The numbers just don't add up. You need millions of views to get noticed by the market, and that's exactly what a publisher can deliver.

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Rodrigo Banzato