As I mentioned in my previous blog post, I released a small demo of my game on itch.io. “Diminishing Light: Wheeled Carnage is a zombie apocalypse action-driving game. The demo includes four missions for players to experience.
The idea here was to release some basic gameplay that I could put on itch.io, hopefully, get some valid feedback that can shape the final game and make sure the game doesn’t suck and is fun to play.
This post will cover the game’s results for the first week on Itch.
Below are the stats for the week the demo was launched.
Demo Performance (6/26/2024 – 7/4/2024)
- Views: 88
- Downloads: 16
- Collections: 4 (added by me)
Most of the views and downloads came between the 26th and 29th. After that, I only received a few views and 0 downloads.
Marketing Efforts
Throughout the week of releasing my game, I made 8-10 Twitter posts, several posts on Reddit, 2 posts on Facebook, and a couple on Instagram and TikTok.
Traffic Breakdown
| Domain | Visits |
|---|---|
| itch.io | 37 |
| www.facebook.com | 14 |
| t.co (Twitter) | 1 |
| www.reddit.com | 1 |
As you can see, most of the traffic came from itch.io. Second was Facebook. I suspect most of the Facebook traffic was from my friends and family. What really surprised me was the Twitter numbers. Only 1 view came from Twitter!
I used all the standard hashtags, like #screenshotSaturday, #indiegame, #indiedev, etc. I also post somewhat regularly, although probably not as much as I should. I have about 465 followers. I think that the 10 posts would have generated more traffic.
Reflections and Next Steps
This leads me to a few possible conclusions:
- My game sucks and doesn’t look interesting?
- Social media isn’t effective if you don’t have an established audience. (I also wonder if my account is shadow-banned. I made a prologue trailer for my video game Last Stand, which is about a zombie apocalypse. For some reason, it was banned on TikTok and YouTube for medical misinformation. Clearly, the trailer below is just for entertainment purposes. I know, WTF!)
I also wonder if most game developers are just in a bubble when they post on social media. When we do #screenshotsaturday and #indiegamedev, is that really the audience that is going to play our games? Or are we just posting to fellow game developers who don’t have the time to actually play games?
So from my perspective, Twitter and Reddit haven’t been that effective. I think I may try some different approaches. Maybe YouTube, although it’s very time-consuming to make videos. I have also thought about streaming on Twitch or maybe entering some game festivals.
In any event, I am going to keep plugging away at Diminishing Light to finish the full game. I want to be able to say I have completed and published my first game! It may not be a big hit like Zombie Driver HD, but hopefully, folks will think it’s a fun little game.
If you try my game please let me know what you think.
Also, please feel free to share your experience in how you have marketed your games.
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