Your Doom game on Steam! Do's and dont's and maybes

[Szuran]

For years in my spare time I've been developing my GZDoom game. I saw many Doom games way better than mine waste their chance and underperform on Steam.

 

Since I helped to advertise/market quite a lot of games on Steam and beyond, I thought I'd share my thoughts on Steam. Maybe it'll help you if you plan to launch your standalone game.

 

There's a lot to talk about and I won't cover it one post, so it's probably going to be a thread. Let's see if this catches on.

 

But first, here are some base assumptions for this thread:

 

• If you have a specific question or topic, you can ask me here or hit me via DM.
• If you're looking for advice with launching or optimizing your Steam page, I can help for free (but only with Doom-based projects).
• If you're looking for a publisher for your project, I can probably help find one.
• I will never talk about or criticize a specific game without the consent of its creator.
• If I need to show an example, I'll use Beyond Sunset since it's a GZDoom game originating from this community, and one I help with.

 

My cred if you're interested:

Spoiler

I worked on 30+ games. The biggest ones I was involved in were Dying Light add-ons and DL2, albeit in a tiny scope. I also worked on Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Heart of the Forest, Gas Station Simulator, Drug Dealer Simulator 1&2, and a bunch of others. I am especially fond of Lust from Beyond because it was beyond controversial, banned even on PornHub, and it was a lot of fun to work on.

 

Let's start with the general rule related to placing your game on Steam for people to see:

 

You only get one chance to make the first impression. Don't waste it. Don't rush it.

 

I know how impatient you can get when you have something you want to share with others, but think twice, and then thrice if your game is ready to be on Steam.

 

Yearly, 10k+ games are launched on the platform. Gamers won't ever hear about 95% of them. You want to be in the 5%.

 

Generally algorithms everywhere support things that get immediate traction. It's like on Twitter - if your post gets likes early on, it's going to be shown to more people and get more likes. If it doesn't succeed right away, it stops being shown. It works the same way on Steam, so your Steam page needs to be in pristine condition at launch and generate page traffic within the first days of posting.

 

Make sure your WIP Steam page doesn't have the following issues:

 

• Low-effort capsule image that doesn't say anything about the game. Immediately you get little clicks from the impressions of your capsule image. And if you get little clicks, the number of impressions decreases. It's a slippery slope.
• Bad tagging that makes your game never be recommended to players who actually might like it
• Boring selection of screenshots that makes people exit your page
• Trailer with bad pacing that doesn't get to the point immediately - bad trailer is instant death for a game
• The description being a huge, boring block of text. No one reads descriptions, but this matters anyway. An interesting question, for another time.
• Relying too much on the games that inspired yours
• Publishing your Steam page along with your demo. Don't do that, trust me. I can explain.

 

Since this has been one long post already, let's see if anyone wants me to continue. If yes, I'll also be happy to cover any topic you choose or answer any question you have.

Let me end with a suggestion. On Steam, unreleased games get visibility boost if they generate page traffic and wishlists. So if you'd like to support the people from our community who announced their games on Steam, find their games and wishlist them. This is one click, it's free, and it's literally the easiest and greatest help an indie game can get.

[RataUnderground]

Yes please, continue. I'm very interested in this, since I'm slowly developing a project myself. Thanks in advance : )

[Szuran]

I'm glad the thread found some interest. :)

I guess I'll start with what matters the most: when to place your game on Steam. The answer is: when it's going to generate the most traffic considering your resources.

• If you can get featuring on some kind of event, it'll be good to tie it with the Steam reveal. Event organizers are more likely to select your game to their show (for free even) if you give them something exclusive. Announcing a game during their stream is a strong argument for them to choose you.
• If you can't be on any event, try to choose a moment where you'll most likely to get the spotlight. For example, don't do it around the release of the new Call of Duty. No one's going to give you coverage.
• Prepare some kind of communication around your reveal. Find emails of media or journalists that cover shooters and let them know you've announced your game. At least try to get coverage, it'll cost you only time and the results can be great.

As for the demo, never reveal a game with a demo. To put it bluntly, the demo you want to show probably isn't very good just yet. And it's unlikely that someone who downloads a mediocre demo is going to wishlist your game or give you another chance in the future. That's why it's better to run a playtest first to see what the reactions are. Gamers are more forgiveable towards playtests because that's what playtests are for - getting feedback for future improvement.

Also, if you're going to look for a publisher, do not use up your one and only Steam Next Fest appearance slot. For a publisher, this is one of the strongest marketing beats they can build a campaign around. If you use it and the results aren't impressive, it's less likely they'll want to work with you.

I think the next post is going to be about something visual so it's not just a long read.

[Lobo]

Very interesting stuff. Looking forward to the next part.

[Redead-ITA]

this might be useful, i suspect the next thing you are going to talk about are going to be vertical slices, am i correct?

[UltimateDecaf]

Szuran, please continue this thread! It is useful not only for GZDoom-engine game releases, but for aspiring game developers (like myself) in general

[Szuran]

On 3/25/2023 at 12:07 PM, Redead-ITA said:

this might be useful, i suspect the next thing you are going to talk about are going to be vertical slices, am i correct?

Hmm, vertical slice is important from the production & publishing standpoint, but not really from the perspective of a dev who wants to self-publish. So I don't know. Should I talk about it?

EDIT: After considering this, it actually might be important for someone who seriously thinks about self-publishing a game, but like, seriously, not just because his fan project turned out bigger than expected. So OK, this goes on the list. :)

 

Edited March 27, 2023 by Szuran

[TheShep]

I wonder if this thread should be in WAD Discussion, as it's not about a particular project or megawad?

[Szuran]

On 3/27/2023 at 8:49 PM, TheShep said:

I wonder if this thread should be in WAD Discussion, as it's not about a particular project or megawad?

Yes, I wasn't sure either where to place it.

 

Anyway, art and capsule images. I think this is perhaps the weakest point of self-published games in general. The reason for that is the game devs do the marketing art themselves. That should be rule #1: never do marketing art for your own game. If you're the developer, you lack distance, and you might not see what's actually the most cool and amazing thing about your game.

But anyway, promo art. On Steam, capsule images are the #1 thing that most people see related to your game. It's the _first_ first impression. If the game is recommended or featured in an event, or in a discovery queue, the art is the first (and often only) thing the user sees. Wrong art = you just wasted your chance to get a new user. And you reduced your chances for the future because the algorithm just saw that your game isn't appealing to this person. Now your game is less likely to be proposed to users with similar tastes.

Since I promised a visual example...

Here's the capsule image art for Beyond Sunset. Coming up with the new look took not just the time needed to produce it, but also the time needed to research the competition.

 

 

The main reason it was designed this way is to serve the functions of Steam's capsule image, which is:

• simply catching your eye among other capsule images that you see on Steam
• capturing the essence of the game and explaining it to any random user that might encounter it
• communicating the standout quality of the game
• fulfiling the expectations of a user that knows the genre

All of this combined makes producing art difficult since these goals might be a bit contradictory.

 

First of all, fulfiling the expectations is all about working withing a genre framework. FPS games, especially boomer shooters, tend to use a character in a fighting stance in their capsule images. (That's understandable because in general people react better to art with characters in it.)

 

In a game where you shoot guns, your character will be someone who shoots guns. So it might seem that you don't have a lot of wiggle room here. And if you're not a recognizable brand, you shouldn't stray far from the widely accepted path. But then, you need to show your standout.

 

In Beyond Sunset's case, one particularly stron point is the character of Lucy, who's a cyberpunk samurai sporting a sweet katana. Katanas in boomer shooters are a rare sight, and here, the katana gameplay is very cool and worth highlighting. So you can draw Lucy in a dynamic pose to show that it's an action-packed game, and emphasize the sword which is an important part of your inventory. You keep the unique color palette, and voila. You have something unique within an easily recognizable boomer shooter framework.
 

But what if Beyond didn't have Lucy? Or what with other games, where you just use guns, and the character is a dude in armor?

I know it might be tempting to go the Quake way: choose a minimalist art style and just use a big cool logo. But Quake is Quake. Everyone knows it, their logo is iconic. When Doom still was a fresh game, its cover wasn't just the logo. It had Doomguy shooting demons. You also need your game to be understood. Of course you _could_ try to be minimalistic, and you _could_ succeed, but that's just way more risky. Even Dusk, arguably the most influential retro shooter, has art that somewhat tells you what the game is about.

 

But Dusk is also an example of how to approach the art if you don't have a strong protagonist. You could go with a cool enemy, for example! You still fulfill all your goals, mostly.

 

Bottom line: make sure your art says what your game is, and what new and interesting it brings to the table. If someone sees the capsule and doesn't click it, you lose a bit of your future on Steam.
 

 

[Redead-ITA]

6 hours ago, Szuran said:

Yes, I wasn't sure either where to place it.

 

Anyway, art and capsule images. I think this is perhaps the weakest point of self-published games in general. The reason for that is the game devs do the marketing art themselves. That should be rule #1: never do marketing art for your own game. If you're the developer, you lack distance, and you might not see what's actually the most cool and amazing thing about your game.

I know it might be tempting to go the Quake way: choose a minimalist art style and just use a big cool logo. But Quake is Quake. Everyone knows it, their logo is iconic. When Doom still was a fresh game, its cover wasn't just the logo. It had Doomguy shooting demons. You also need your game to be understood. Of course you _could_ try to be minimalistic, and you _could_ succeed, but that's just way more risky. Even Dusk, arguably the most influential retro shooter, has art that somewhat tells you what the game is about.

 

But Dusk is also an example of how to approach the art if you don't have a strong protagonist. You could go with a cool enemy, for example! You still fulfill all your goals, mostly.

 

Bottom line: make sure your art says what your game is, and what new and interesting it brings to the table. If someone sees the capsule and doesn't click it, you lose a bit of your future on Steam.

I am a little bit against not making the art for your own game but i can understand why, my game followed a similar take on quake and i got some interest mooostly because the game was free when i shared it on twitter, but regardless.

 

In regards of the capsule image, what if you were to go in a first person perspective approach to it? you would still get monster in focus but it would help to sell what more the genre that the player might expect but also will tell what weapon he will expect to be using i suspect.

[Szuran]

On 4/1/2023 at 1:22 PM, Redead-ITA said:

In regards of the capsule image, what if you were to go in a first person perspective approach to it? you would still get monster in focus but it would help to sell what more the genre that the player might expect but also will tell what weapon he will expect to be using i suspect.

 

If it sells the idea and looks cool, then it might be good to try. It's a cool idea! I haven't seen anything like it yet, so it might bring the uniqueness that every game looks for. Depends on the execution, I guess, but I like the concept.

Also, it's not like you can't change the capsule later. You can, you should if it doesn't perform well. You should always optimize, we can cover this later on. I'm always for trying stuff. You'll never know otherwise.

Edited April 2, 2023 by Szuran