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.

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!

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.

Thank you both for the tips. I'll look into setting up a virtual box.

As for Steam Deck I'm still having the issue of the game switching to windowed mode constantly. It is a very odd problem!

How has compatibility been on the Steam Deck for you? I'm somewhat interested in getting one but I mostly play old PC games using dosbox. I'm curious how it handles historical relics.

Thanks for the purchase! The current build is using NW and not Webview2. There are some issues with certain versions of Greenworks not working with the steam deck. Some clever individuals have figured out which old versions of Greenworks still work on the deck. So I have a new build that does "work" on the deck but I haven't uploaded it to Steam as there are still issues. Basically the game will not stay in full screen and keeps reverting to windows mode. This makes it very difficult to play. I have a few folks testing out various builds so hopefully I'll find a solution soon although I'm not optimistic.

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.

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'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.

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

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.

I agree. LucasArts did it the best. Maybe the nature of the genre is just especially good at making flaws glaringly obvious. If all the gameplay is story and puzzles it's easy to see the cracks in the writing and the detached game-iness of the puzzles.

I also know my tolerance for being stuck has declined! Back in ancient times I thought sitting on the phone with a friend, both of us playing Monkey Island, and trying to work out the same puzzle together was a really good time. "Did you use all your inventory items on the tree stump?" "Yeah, I tried that...What do we do now?"

Thank you! I definitely need reviews haha.

Underwhelming so far. Twelve copies sold as of right now. But no catastrophic bugs reported or returns so that's good.

Horace Hagfish is now available on Steam!

I would like to thank everyone for being so helpful in the Construct forums.

So far the launch is going smoothly. I am being inundated with spam emails asking for free steam keys.

Thanks! I agree, translating the game is an excellent idea. I'm going to see how it does (released it this morning) and then decide what I'd like to improve or expand on. Luckily there isn't too much text but what is there I'd like to think is entertaining haha.

I did neglect to add achievements since I got kind of burned out developing the game toward the end. That last 10% of polish and bug fixing is really arduous! It is another thing I'll consider adding into it once I'm refreshed.

Onto your page, the Steam approval can be slow and frustrating. But once it is finished you can make changes to the page without submitting for review.

I did. I played it to the end so I guess it clicked somewhat but I was expecting a lot more due to how famous it was. I think people simply forgot that you could make a suspenseful story with simple graphics and so everyone thought it was some amazing revelation!

I recently finished Stasis Bone Totem. I enjoyed it although it has the same problems as the prior games. The moon logic around the puzzles is insane...you really do need a walkthrough and some of the writing was ridiculous. But overall it created a very intense atmosphere, some of the characters were amazingly written, and I was so curious about the environment that I just kept playing for hours.

I guess the common thread is the payoff wasn't as interesting as I was hoping in both games.