go play garbage growth
Joined September 2025
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apepatrick retweeted
2 weeks since releasing my first solo indie game (Incremental Fishing) - Here are the results & stats! 🎣
so apparently someone stole my game assets and put them on roblox
bunch of sprites stolen and even my capsule art
not only this is a clone of my game but it is actually performing well at 1k daily players in average and also making money...
btw heres the link if anyone wants to check it out roblox.com/games/10576779978…
Seeing these kind of reviews is so awesome
I am currently making a major update for my game for the past 2 month and i can says that game design takes a LOT of time..
thanks to my goat @kaangameaudio for composing the end game scene of my game
check out its website! kaansalman.com/
launched with 2k wishlists, hit 8k sales in 3 weeks
here’s how I validated the idea
to validate a game idea, you need feedback as early as possible. the problem is that getting early feedback is difficult, you usually need to market the game, find players, convince them to play, and hope they actually give useful feedback
the way I avoided most of that was by joining a game jam
game jams are extremely powerful for validating ideas because developers play each other’s games. you don’t need an existing audience or much marketing, and you can get feedback on a very early version of your game
for my game, I joined Lame Jam 59, which lasted 3 days. I made a very cheap prototype and focused almost entirely on making the core loop fun
I didn’t spend much time on art or polish. at this stage, placeholder art is completely fine because the important question is whether people enjoy playing the game
the feedback was very positive, and I received comments like “great game, but it needs X feature”
this kind of feedback is especially valuable because it shows that the player was engaged enough to think about how the game could become better
the game ended up ranking #1 in enjoyment and #4 overall, which was a very strong signal to me. people were already having fun with a prototype made in only 3 days, despite the game having very little content, art, or polish
the ranking helped show that people enjoyed the game, while the comments helped me understand why they enjoyed it and what they wanted more of. from there, I knew it was worth turning into a full game
one thing to keep in mind is that game jam participants are mostly other developers, so they are not always the same as your target audience. a good game jam result is a strong early signal, but you should still test the game later with people who already enjoy your genre
validation also doesn’t guarantee a hit. it only reduces the risk of spending months making something before knowing whether the core loop is enjoyable
if your game performs poorly in a game jam and the feedback is mostly negative or indifferent, that doesn’t necessarily mean the whole idea is bad. the problem could be the core loop, but it could also be the pacing, controls, balancing, or the way the prototype communicates the idea like it should be easy to understand
you can rework the core loop and test it again, but validating it outside a jam will usually require more marketing and effort to find players. another option is simply to join another game jam and test a new version or a completely different idea
basically game jams are one of the easiest ways to validate a game idea early
every time i break down this kind of launch i go viral I might just keep doing that
two weeks after launching my game with around 2k wishlists, it reached about 6.8k sales while spending $0 on marketing
it’s currently sitting at 90% positive reviews, with 170 reviews total. The game lasts about 1 hour, and the refund rate is around 11% which i think is around average
worth noting I consider this an outlier case. from what i've seen, a launch like this is more often tied to much higher wishlists like +10k, so there are clearly many factors to take into account beyond just wishlist count
on launch day, I got around 800 sales, with about a 10% wishlist conversion rate. but a lot of sales came from non-wishlist traffic such as steam showing the game in recommended sections etc.. The next day, I peaked at over 1k sales, which was the highest sales day I’ve had. That led to around 3k sales in the first 3 days
steam seems to give games some launch visibility. If your game converts well, gets good reviews, and players respond positively, steam may keep showing it to more people
the simplest explanation is that my game converted well, and people enjoyed it thus leading to more sales than expected
WLs do matter, but they don’t tell the whole story. a game with a lower wishlist count can still perform well if other signals are strong enough
my only real advice would be to care about your players and iterate with them. Get feedback, playtest a lot, and make the game better around what players actually respond to
often times you'll struggle finding people to play your game, and you want the less friction possible when people plays it. have a web build and post it everywhere (itch, newgrounds etc..), users don't have to download anything and is much more accessible
start building your community early, like a discord server so people can reach out to you and you connect with your players easier
the more feedback the better
one way to avoid mistakes other games in my genre did is read negative reviews of games similar to mine on steam, which helps pinpoint what really matters for your players, that will give you lot of directions in the beginning and what to focus the most
don't skip the progression aspect, this is what will make your game fun. no matter how good your art, sounds, polish are, if progression doesn't follow it will likely won't work
players care about having fun more than anything else, simple graphics can still work if art style is coherent
it's hard to know whether your pacing feels good to your players without playtesting a lot yourself, and they won't always tell you what's wrong either. analytics are one way to spot this and confirm whether players are engaging. if median time is low like 10mn it is very likely that at this point you have friction issues like you encounter a big timewall and it isn't fun
you may need a sample of at least 50 players to have "useful" analytics and something concrete, otherwise you might just keep guessing and hitting your head against the wall
one thing to keep in mind, median playtime from a free web build will usually be lower than steam playtime. on steam, players are already more engaged because they bought the game as opposed to itch or other web platforms, the game is much more accessible, but players are also more likely to leave quickly
TLDR: wishlists matter, but conversion, player feedback, pacing, and early reviews can matter just as much once steam starts testing your game
apepatrick retweeted
Perhaps they did not like it enough. Dunno. Here was a release recently with one hour progression and 11% of refund: xitter.cf/apepatrickdev/status/2…
two weeks after launching my game with around 2k wishlists, it reached about 6.8k sales while spending $0 on marketing
it’s currently sitting at 90% positive reviews, with 170 reviews total. The game lasts about 1 hour, and the refund rate is around 11% which i think is around average
worth noting I consider this an outlier case. from what i've seen, a launch like this is more often tied to much higher wishlists like +10k, so there are clearly many factors to take into account beyond just wishlist count
on launch day, I got around 800 sales, with about a 10% wishlist conversion rate. but a lot of sales came from non-wishlist traffic such as steam showing the game in recommended sections etc.. The next day, I peaked at over 1k sales, which was the highest sales day I’ve had. That led to around 3k sales in the first 3 days
steam seems to give games some launch visibility. If your game converts well, gets good reviews, and players respond positively, steam may keep showing it to more people
the simplest explanation is that my game converted well, and people enjoyed it thus leading to more sales than expected
WLs do matter, but they don’t tell the whole story. a game with a lower wishlist count can still perform well if other signals are strong enough
my only real advice would be to care about your players and iterate with them. Get feedback, playtest a lot, and make the game better around what players actually respond to
often times you'll struggle finding people to play your game, and you want the less friction possible when people plays it. have a web build and post it everywhere (itch, newgrounds etc..), users don't have to download anything and is much more accessible
start building your community early, like a discord server so people can reach out to you and you connect with your players easier
the more feedback the better
one way to avoid mistakes other games in my genre did is read negative reviews of games similar to mine on steam, which helps pinpoint what really matters for your players, that will give you lot of directions in the beginning and what to focus the most
don't skip the progression aspect, this is what will make your game fun. no matter how good your art, sounds, polish are, if progression doesn't follow it will likely won't work
players care about having fun more than anything else, simple graphics can still work if art style is coherent
it's hard to know whether your pacing feels good to your players without playtesting a lot yourself, and they won't always tell you what's wrong either. analytics are one way to spot this and confirm whether players are engaging. if median time is low like 10mn it is very likely that at this point you have friction issues like you encounter a big timewall and it isn't fun
you may need a sample of at least 50 players to have "useful" analytics and something concrete, otherwise you might just keep guessing and hitting your head against the wall
one thing to keep in mind, median playtime from a free web build will usually be lower than steam playtime. on steam, players are already more engaged because they bought the game as opposed to itch or other web platforms, the game is much more accessible, but players are also more likely to leave quickly
TLDR: wishlists matter, but conversion, player feedback, pacing, and early reviews can matter just as much once steam starts testing your game
two weeks after launching my game with around 2k wishlists, it reached about 6.8k sales while spending $0 on marketing
it’s currently sitting at 90% positive reviews, with 170 reviews total. The game lasts about 1 hour, and the refund rate is around 11% which i think is around average
worth noting I consider this an outlier case. from what i've seen, a launch like this is more often tied to much higher wishlists like +10k, so there are clearly many factors to take into account beyond just wishlist count
on launch day, I got around 800 sales, with about a 10% wishlist conversion rate. but a lot of sales came from non-wishlist traffic such as steam showing the game in recommended sections etc.. The next day, I peaked at over 1k sales, which was the highest sales day I’ve had. That led to around 3k sales in the first 3 days
steam seems to give games some launch visibility. If your game converts well, gets good reviews, and players respond positively, steam may keep showing it to more people
the simplest explanation is that my game converted well, and people enjoyed it thus leading to more sales than expected
WLs do matter, but they don’t tell the whole story. a game with a lower wishlist count can still perform well if other signals are strong enough
my only real advice would be to care about your players and iterate with them. Get feedback, playtest a lot, and make the game better around what players actually respond to
often times you'll struggle finding people to play your game, and you want the less friction possible when people plays it. have a web build and post it everywhere (itch, newgrounds etc..), users don't have to download anything and is much more accessible
start building your community early, like a discord server so people can reach out to you and you connect with your players easier
the more feedback the better
one way to avoid mistakes other games in my genre did is read negative reviews of games similar to mine on steam, which helps pinpoint what really matters for your players, that will give you lot of directions in the beginning and what to focus the most
don't skip the progression aspect, this is what will make your game fun. no matter how good your art, sounds, polish are, if progression doesn't follow it will likely won't work
players care about having fun more than anything else, simple graphics can still work if art style is coherent
it's hard to know whether your pacing feels good to your players without playtesting a lot yourself, and they won't always tell you what's wrong either. analytics are one way to spot this and confirm whether players are engaging. if median time is low like 10mn it is very likely that at this point you have friction issues like you encounter a big timewall and it isn't fun
you may need a sample of at least 50 players to have "useful" analytics and something concrete, otherwise you might just keep guessing and hitting your head against the wall
one thing to keep in mind, median playtime from a free web build will usually be lower than steam playtime. on steam, players are already more engaged because they bought the game as opposed to itch or other web platforms, the game is much more accessible, but players are also more likely to leave quickly
TLDR: wishlists matter, but conversion, player feedback, pacing, and early reviews can matter just as much once steam starts testing your game