It's time for

Mike Rose's 5 Horrible, Brutal Reasons Why Your Game Isn't Going to Sell, and What You Can Potentially Do To Turn It Around

This is going to be unpleasant!!

Thread:

1. Is this your first game?

Then look, I hate to tell you this, but you're probably going to fail :\\

Stop making that epic 5-years-in-development RPG, and start thinking smaller. The "big" game can come later, once you've worked out how the heck to actually do everything!

Spend a year MAX making your first game, and in that time learn your craft, learn how the stores work, learn how to sell your game...

Then when you come to make The Real One, you'll be going into that with all the right knowledge, and know exactly what you need to do

2. You're spending too long making your game

Are you planning to develop your game for more than 2 years? If so, the chances you'll make your money back, let alone make a profit, are extremely slim.

Longer development time ≠ better game

It comes down to basic maths:

3 people making a game full-time for 2 years = ~$200,000 in costs
$200,000 = ~25,000 units sold

The average game sells less than 10% of that... In other words, the chances you'll make even just your salaries back are slim to none.

3. You're making a game that no-one will want to buy

This is perhaps the hardest point to hear, but the chances are you're making a game in a bloated genre, that offers nothing that a bunch of other games haven't already done before

So why is anyone going to buy your game?

Ask yourself this simple question:

Can I describe my game in a single sentence, where that sentence does not describe a single other game, and is quite clearly about my game?

If the answer to that is not a straight-up "hell yes", then... you've got a problem

4. Is your game *genuinely* visually attractive?

This is a difficult one to admit to yourself, but the brutal truth is that if your game doesn't stand out visually from the pack, then you're immediately at a disadvantage

So: What's the true answer to this?

I don't mean it has to be some raytracing phenomenon. It could gorgeous pixelart! Lovely cartoon 3D! Gritty dark 2D!

But this is one of the core topics that most dev teams aren't willing to be truthful with themselves about.

If your art style isn't *amazing* -- rethink it asap

5. If you don't know how to sell games, either learn, or get someone to do it for you

Do not wait until 3 months before your launch and think "oh hmm, I guess we need to think about selling this now"

Because this approach will guarantee your game dies a horrible death

Knowing how to sell your game is *just* as important as making the damn thing.

Of course, they're very different skill sets, so if you have to admit to yourself that selling isn't your strong point -- find someone who can do it for you! A marketing employee, a publisher, whoever

So concludes this horrible thread

And look, I'll be honest with you -- yes, *you* reading this right now:

You're guilty of at least one of the above things.

The faster you admit it to yourself and deal with it, the better your chances of making video games for a living

As a final thing:

I'm doing a talk at GDC Summer later today, about how to gather Steam wishlists for your game! If you have a GDC Pass, do consider checking it out :)

https://schedule.gdconf.com/session/skill-building-series-a-step-by-step-guide-to-building-steam-wishlists/875766