@winterwolves@mastodon.social
@winterwolves@mastodon.social avatar

winterwolves

@winterwolves@mastodon.social

Visual novels, dating sims, RPG! LGBTQ+ friendly :)
Exclusive pin-ups and more in our Patreon: http://patreon.com/winterwolves

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

winterwolves, to random
@winterwolves@mastodon.social avatar

I think one of the worst advice around for indies is "you need to do marketing!!!". If by marketing you mean posting 1000 times a day on socials, sorry but that will bring you minimum results.
I'm not saying you shouldn't do anything - I do some social media posting too. But you'd better spend time working on your game instead, than "marketing".
If you can afford to PAY for ads, that is probably the most effective way of expanding your reach. Just my 2 cents 😄

winterwolves, to random
@winterwolves@mastodon.social avatar

Evelyn and Lilith are traveling to Dingirra, and she casually mention that she burned alive one of the leader of the four families... no big deal, accident happens! lol

Very few days left!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/winterwolves/tales-from-the-under-realm-lilith

winterwolves, to random
@winterwolves@mastodon.social avatar

question for : do you make the kind of games you also like to play? I did VN/RPGs mostly, a few card games, one first person adventure and some sports/strategy sims (but loong time ago). However the kind of game I play most are souls-like, though I can't make them for obvious reasons (too difficult to code).

winterwolves,
@winterwolves@mastodon.social avatar

@eniko Spiderweb isn't doing something like that? though party based

winterwolves, to random
@winterwolves@mastodon.social avatar

beautiful day today, the sky was cloudless and so blue it seemed fake. Lots of tourists in the area, so we prefer to explore lesser-known paths, discovering small villages seemingly lost in time. The swallows’ song, the scent of flowers, the lush greenery, and the ancient stone houses create an enchanting experience. Italy has a lot of issues but during those trips I forget them all

image/jpeg
image/jpeg

winterwolves, to random
@winterwolves@mastodon.social avatar

I'm getting more and more people asking for guides, even for really basic VN where you can just rollback if you pick the wrong choice.
Maybe the demand for kinetic novels (VNs without any choice) is bigger than I thought, or otherwise I don't understand this need for a guide for everything...

winterwolves, to random
@winterwolves@mastodon.social avatar

I went to fix my car today, and surprise! the replacement part magically doubled the price from the quote they gave me 3 days ago. I love those unexpected expenses... 😠

winterwolves, to Yuri
@winterwolves@mastodon.social avatar

my Kickstarter campaign for TFTU: Lilith is now live, check it out: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/winterwolves/tales-from-the-under-realm-lilith?ref=bzu9z0

and of course spread the word. Thank you ❤️

winterwolves,
@winterwolves@mastodon.social avatar

I just made an update on the campaign since we're about halfway (time-wise, 15 days left): https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/winterwolves/tales-from-the-under-realm-lilith/posts/4101662
lots of sketches for the game CGs. There are a lot planned!

winterwolves, to random
@winterwolves@mastodon.social avatar

how many games on Steam already use AI? more than you think.
https://www.totallyhuman.io/blog/the-surprising-number-of-steam-games-that-use-genai
it creates very unfair competition (imagine being able to instantly get images for a visual novel you're making). I hope that players will appreciate devs that still don't use it...

winterwolves, to marketing
@winterwolves@mastodon.social avatar

so, what did I do for my new game? (warning, long post)
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1965960/House_Of_Chavez/
crowdfunded in October, I released it yesterday, so about 7 months (I had started preliminary development in May though). KS contributed to some marketing.

I did 1 post a day, with screenshots, and about 10-12 post with videos. Crossposted to X, mastodon and bluesky. Consideration: totally useless. Indeed for my future games I might post weekly, I have better things to do with my time 😊

-> continues

winterwolves,
@winterwolves@mastodon.social avatar

Did several reddit posts. 50% of them were removed by <insert random reason>. The remaining one got a lot of impressions. Total 115k views between all of them. But wishlists? maybe 100? not sure, hard to tell, but not many.

A few paid ads in some comic networks. Unsure about results.

Promoted it to my own site, mailing list (20k contacts), Patreon, other forums like adventure game forums, etc (without spamming of course!).

-> continues

winterwolves,
@winterwolves@mastodon.social avatar

Did several videos, including some "tutorial videos" which still promoted the game. About 100 views overall. Pretty useless as well.

Then, arranged several cross-dev promotions. Banner exchange, launch co-op bundles, etc etc. This was by FAR the most effective way to get WL. Like, 100x times more than ANYTHING else.

-> continues

winterwolves,
@winterwolves@mastodon.social avatar

Asked several friend devs to help me spread the word, sadly majority didn't do anything, but it's not something I can take for granted, so not an issue.

Recently started contacting youtubers to see if anyone wanted to play the game. A few did, waiting for more replies.

OK I think this is all 😂all of this, didn't get me to even 1000 WL on launch. I don't want to scare or vent or anything, just reporting the cold numbers in case could be useful to someone!

winterwolves,
@winterwolves@mastodon.social avatar

I got first negative review on the game, but it's fine, what I really wanted to know is which bugs they talk about and which "initial choice" but they disabled comments...
Sometimes I feel like reviewers leave a negative review and then run away fearing dev's rage lol. I'm not angry I just want to know if there's a bug in my game that I haven't found! 😂

winterwolves,
@winterwolves@mastodon.social avatar

now they replied, I've asked them to send the saves for the bugs (grr doing an adventure game is really much more complex than a VN, so many "points of failure"!).
Regarding the other thing, I thought that in a horror game a sudden death could be acceptable but maybe I was wrong. Probably in a romance game having your love interest die in a branch is not a good idea? 🤔

winterwolves, to Yuri
@winterwolves@mastodon.social avatar

my new #yuri #psychologicalhorror #visualnovel with adventure gameplay and optional minigames "House of Chavez" is now out on Steam!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1965960/House_Of_Chavez/
please RT and share!

winterwolves,
@winterwolves@mastodon.social avatar

I just woke up with two good news:

  • no one found bugs in the game
  • it's not snowing 😅
winterwolves,
@winterwolves@mastodon.social avatar

@eniko wait, it's snowing again now :D

winterwolves,
@winterwolves@mastodon.social avatar

interesting, so far not a single refund. I think it's the first game I released in the last 5 years that haven't got a single refund after launch day 😱

winterwolves, to random
@winterwolves@mastodon.social avatar

completely normal weather for being the 22nd April... my anti climate change "friends" are having a serious brain meltdown trying to justify this (forecasts say 3 more days of snow, never seen anything like that!)

image/jpeg

winterwolves, to random
@winterwolves@mastodon.social avatar

two days left! today got a big bump and I'm at almost 750 WL, at this point I think a realistic goal could be 800 WL at launch!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1965960/House_Of_Chavez/

winterwolves, to random
@winterwolves@mastodon.social avatar

when I did my previous blog post for my 40th birthday (10 as indie) I had a lot of comments. This year for my 50th birthday? zero 😂
the social media really destroyed the concept of selling direct and contacting devs through their websites uh

winterwolves, to random
@winterwolves@mastodon.social avatar

three days until the release of my new game: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1965960/House_Of_Chavez/
will I manage to get to at least 1k wishlists? 😂(I hope so lol)

winterwolves, to random
@winterwolves@mastodon.social avatar

It was 27 degrees only two days ago... 🤔

winterwolves,
@winterwolves@mastodon.social avatar

@eniko well here in the mountains it's not too bad, it's really too hot for 2-3 months a year max but if I was living near the big towns no way :P

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • megavids
  • mdbf
  • everett
  • tacticalgear
  • magazineikmin
  • thenastyranch
  • rosin
  • tester
  • Youngstown
  • khanakhh
  • slotface
  • ngwrru68w68
  • kavyap
  • DreamBathrooms
  • JUstTest
  • InstantRegret
  • osvaldo12
  • GTA5RPClips
  • ethstaker
  • normalnudes
  • Durango
  • cisconetworking
  • anitta
  • modclub
  • cubers
  • Leos
  • provamag3
  • lostlight
  • All magazines
    •