Show HN: I got laid off from Meta and created a minor hit on Steam

Post by SXX » Thu, Feb 27, 2025, 9:04 AM UTC

isaacremuant wrote: post #35

Congratulations. Looks fun and one of those "omg, I've spent so much time on this" kind of game. Can you expand in the part of talking to publishers. How did you approach it, how much previous context did you have, how did you evaluate what was good vs not. I know what mobile game publishers ask for but not desktop/steam ones. Any advice? (Not that I'm making games but just curious what form it actually takes)

  1 - You need to decide whatever you looking for a funding and how much you need. No matter where you're located majority of indie publishers operate with budgets under $300,000. AFAIK there is under 30-50 companies that can even provide funding over $1,000,000.
  2 - Even big publishers dont like to take risks. So if you're self-funded or have investor your chances to sign publishing agreement are much higher since then publisher risks almost nothing.
  3 - You go and check what games each publisher release on Steam and check how much marketing there are for their titles. "Good" publishers usually only release 1 game a month or less since marketing is both time consuming and costly. So obviously it's much harder to get selected.
  4 - There are "spray and pray" publishers that can even give you some money easier than others, but they sometimes release 3-10 titles a month and just look what sticks. They mostly dont do marketing before release whatsoever so it's not exactly an optimal choice unless you working on a games that can be built cheap and under 6 month.
  5 - When you start any negotiations normal net revenue split after budget recouperation is around 50/50 (with 40 / 60 both ways also possible). So you can filter out those who try to pray on inexperienced people.
  6 - Also unless you getting serious funding (not $300,000) publishers usually only get exclusive distribution license on your specific title for 3-5 years, but they dont get your IP. If some small publisher ask for full IP transfer it's not a good deal.

Post by genewitch » Thu, Feb 27, 2025, 9:06 AM UTC

autoexec wrote: post #222

myl wrote: post #219

I never felt more like a grandpa developer since having to google every word in the description of what this game is :)

These days grandpa developers (and many grandpas in general) grew up playing rogue/roguelikes and watching plinko played on TV while being reminded to help control the pet population by having their pets spayed or neutered. I don't know how popular pachinko is outside of japan though. All the pachinko video games I've played to date were old and intended for a Japanese audience.

Post by johnnyanmac » Thu, Feb 27, 2025, 9:11 AM UTC

makerdiety wrote: post #168

monideas wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That type of content is extremely useful for younger developers and the publicity probably has other benefits, but it's not for everyone.

[flagged]

Post by windward » Thu, Feb 27, 2025, 9:13 AM UTC

martinmakesgame wrote: post #162

newobj wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was intentional that the game got harder by broadening the pool of drafts. The design goal was that you need to develop your skill to build more flexible boards, that don't rely on just forcing a single synergy to materialize. Unfortunately, I don't think the game communicates this goal well, AND prevailing design trends (rogueli T e, which this game is NOT) I think have trained players to expect that games should…

The widening of the pool of drafts doesn't work because it is not fun. When you find something that works you want to use it as much as possible because as the player all I want to see is the numbers get higher and higher. This is where the fun is. Most of the additional drafts aren't fun. Some I never use. When I play I don't even care about the forces that make it harder at the start anymore because most of the gam…

Post by kleiba » Thu, Feb 27, 2025, 9:15 AM UTC