Horace Hagfish ( A color mixing and matching Sokoban-like) Coming Soon on Steam.

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  • Steam deck game compatibility is one of the best on the market. It runs more old games than my pc on Win 11. So you definitely should try it also this device will be useful for testing

    About switching to windowed mode and back you will help my hint :

    Do this logic with 0.5-1s timeout only. I don't know why but without timeout it is not working. But i think for Steam deck game should always be in full screen. Disable windowed mode for this platform at all

  • Same thing on my end. I get a random sale every few days but I agree everyone is probably holding off until the Winter Sale. I'm getting more wishlists post release for some reason. I'm hoping (fingers crossed) that I can pickup some sales every time the game goes on sale. But as you said, it certainly isn't paying the bills...or any bills for that matter haha.

    I was hoping it would go better for you because you pulled out a solid and beautiful product that deserves to be successful. In any case, I think it's already a big achievement to have something nice and playable out there on Steam. And I'm sure the experience taught you something that'll make you do much better next time.

    I'm still mulling over what to work on next. I have a few ideas and obviously it would be inadvisable to try working on all of them all at once.

    A big part of me just wants to dive into making a retro dungeon crawler. I know I'd never get tired of it but I don't yet have confidence in my ability to create inventory, character leveling, and turn based combat systems.

    On the other hand I've been sitting on a single player card game design that would be fun and less monumental. I've also got an action-arcade game idea that I'm confident I can make well but feel it isn't really pushing me to learn more.

    They all sound like good options to me. I'd love to know what you'll end up choosing and to see development updates. Do you have a game dev profile on social media I can follow?

    Have you zeroed in on what you're going to work on next?

    Not yet. :/ I'm very tempted to work on a point-and-click adventure game, but while this kind of game has a small, passionate community behind it, it doesn't seem to sell well at all. I still tend to put passion before money, but I'd like to make enough sales to at least cover the development time (which will likely be long). I'm also considering more promising alternatives, like a rogue-like or a metroidvania, which usually do much better on Steam. But I'm quite unfamiliar with the related target audience and communities, so that concerns me a little.

    As for what I've learned...

    Whatever the project it needs to be something you'll passionately work on for twice as long as you think it will take. That last 20% is dangerous territory!

    The other big think is to get that game out and playable in some form as early as possible. Not just for testing but also to start marketing. The only pitfall I can't get around here is that some genres just aren't built for an extended lifespan! I don't want that to drive my choice of genre though. I'm getting really tired of everything being a roguelite or loaded with crafting busy work.

    Yup, good lessons here! I'm also grappling with the dilemma that some genres are simply not suited for an extended lifespan. Unfortunately, there aren't many ways around this. It's just the nature of those genres.

  • I had issues exporting to Mac as well. None of my Mac testers could get the game running. This combined with the issues with the Steam Deck have made me nervous about releasing the game for platforms I don't personally have access to since I don't have a good way to troubleshoot the problems.

    Can you explain in more detail the issue with the Mac version? It sounds like a problem I initially had but then solved it. Maybe I can help you with that.

  • What site do you recommend for a developer's profile? It is yet again one of the many things I've overlooked creating. But I do need to have one, especially since I want to make the next project(s) visible early in development.

  • I definitely needed some downtime after the release. I couldn't afford a proper vacation so I just bought some books and carved out some time to actually play games and read.

    Now I'm getting the development itch again so I think the break worked as intended.

  • What site do you recommend for a developer's profile? It is yet again one of the many things I've overlooked creating. But I do need to have one, especially since I want to make the next project(s) visible early in development.

    I use Instagram and Twitter/X.

    Of the two, I find that Instagram is better for getting visibility and engagement and building an audience of young gamers or people who simply like your art. Older PC gamers - mostly my target audience - are hard to find there, though. :/

    I've used Twitter much less. I'm pretty sure it's easier to connect with other developers and professionals there, but I haven't posted nearly enough to know how easy it is to grow a broad, general audience.

    I'm not very familiar with other platforms, so I don't know if there are better options to consider.

  • I think I'll go with Instagram. I've also thought about using Itch.io to post demos and development logs. I'm not sure what the key is to finding venerable gamers out in the wild. I think a good portion of my sales came from the DOS Gaming Reddit. The folks there got a kick out of the EGA graphics and quirkiness of the game. I'm sure there is a similar gathering of old school adventure gamers somewhere.

    I have nothing to back this up but maybe some of the contemporary Adventure games are catching on outside their niche due to their theme or aesthetic choices. Stasis Bone Totem is horror themed and horror games seem to be stubbornly popular. Darkside Detective (I enjoyed that one quite a bit) has more of the LucasArts humor about it but is playing on ghost story tropes and Twin Peaks for the comedy. So maybe everything has to be somehow tied to the horror genre? Hah. Come to think of it I'd really enjoy a horror tinged Space Quest game. Imagine Roger Wilco stuck on the Event Horizon!:D

    san40511 can you give the game another go on your Steam Deck? I updated it with the time delay before requesting fullscreen that you mentioned. Hopefully that will do the trick!

  • Paoloq what were your export settings for your Mac build?

  • I think I'll go with Instagram. I've also thought about using Itch.io to post demos and development logs. I'm not sure what the key is to finding venerable gamers out in the wild. I think a good portion of my sales came from the DOS Gaming Reddit. The folks there got a kick out of the EGA graphics and quirkiness of the game. I'm sure there is a similar gathering of old school adventure gamers somewhere.

    Those gamers are probably spread between Facebook and Twitter, for the most part. However, finding them is only part of the challenge. Getting their interest before you have an actual product to sell (if you're still working on it) can be tough. Some developers have managed successful Kickstarter campaigns on these platforms, which is surely a good way to gauge interest in a game before spending years developing it. Personally, though, I don't feel confident enough to take anyone's money before I'm 100% certain that I can deliver. So, that's not an option for me, at least for now. An alternative is to set up a Steam page as soon as possible, allowing people to wishlist the game and then receive a notification when it launches.

    I have nothing to back this up but maybe some of the contemporary Adventure games are catching on outside their niche due to their theme or aesthetic choices. Stasis Bone Totem is horror themed and horror games seem to be stubbornly popular. Darkside Detective (I enjoyed that one quite a bit) has more of the LucasArts humor about it but is playing on ghost story tropes and Twin Peaks for the comedy. So maybe everything has to be somehow tied to the horror genre? Hah. Come to think of it I'd really enjoy a horror tinged Space Quest game. Imagine Roger Wilco stuck on the Event Horizon!:D

    Yes, I've heard others say that games with a dark/horror theme tend to perform better on Steam than games with other themes, for some reason. It's certainly something to consider.

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  • Paoloq what were your export settings for your Mac build?

    I used these settings.

    I'm not familiar with Macs, but they seem to have worked! :P

    What initially got me stuck was uploading the 'mac64.zip' folder as a Steam build. That works for the Windows build, but for the Mac version, you have to zip the 'game.app' inside and upload that instead - I don't know if this is obvious to others, but it definitely wasn't for me. I wonder if that's why your testers couldn't run HH on Mac.

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