Falrika the Alchemist—Strive to become the master alchemist!

[Jacic]

@Zaldath

This does not absolutely predict long-term sales, but from the data I’ve seen, the sales tend to start at by far their strongest, then quickly decrease over several months, until they reach some sort of semi-permanent point of stability

I’d agree with that. If your game has a poor start, it will generally stay poor and is a good indicator of future sales. I think part of that is just the audience isn’t there, part is that games get a bit buried by the newer releases (especially if no one talks about it and it’s getting few reviews moving forward to bump it to where it can be seen), and part is that once it goes off sale people are far less likely to buy it. They seem to settle down into a low number of sales each month that’s relatively consistant after being out for a while.

It’s kinda odd to think about, but my oldest game generally still outsells my newest one even though you wouldn’t generally think that would be a thing given how much older it is. I haven’t really found any significant bumps on publishing new games on the older ones, but am seriously considering including a “games by this author” tab somewhere (either at the start of the game or in the stats menu) to see if that makes any difference. (This may be a different situation for more popular authors though.)

@Zaldath

I’m not sure how widely this applies, but at least for me, slice of life just doesn’t excite me.

It’s not in the popular genre category (the big consistent hitters would probably be many of the fantasy genres, superhero, romance), but particularly over on the reddit page I see requests for it so I think the market is there.

@MoonlightBomber

And even with the foreword I wrote that addresses this exact issue,

You’ll probably still get complaints. Just a thing with this sort of medium. Because the app store needs a download, some people will get annoyed that it was downloaded and not what they were expecting. Kudos for putting it out there on the first page though. As others have observed, it’ll probably result in less sales, but also less poor reviews.

@Havenstone

Falrika was an experiment

Agree. There’s nothing wrong with experimental games that are different to the expected on HG. They pop up from time to time as hobby projects or just to see if there’s a market. As a general rule they’ll almost always do poorly, but if you go into it with eyes open and knowing that, then you can still make them, cross your fingers, and see what happens.

@LiliArch

It is quite explicitly not allowed, according to the website?

AI art is definitely NOT allowed in anything published through HG.

[Zaldath]

@ChanceOfFire That sample cover isn’t really that bad. Where do you find public domain assets like this?

By the way, “otome” in Japanese means literally “for young women”. The Japanese media/game market is quite interesting: instead of aiming for a “universal audience” (majority / lowest common denominator) like usually in the United States, they try to target very specific audiences for different types of content. I’m not sure how well that would work for Hosted Games (since the whole target audience is pretty small to begin with, not leaving much if it’s split even further!), but intuitively it makes sense to drive greater engagement from a smaller audience rather than lukewarm reception from everyone (especially with the much greater competition you face then).

Not to say there isn’t still some overlap: for example, AFAIK there are many men (and older women) who still enjoy otome games, even if they’re not the target audience. Perhaps the story can be so good that it removes that basic penalty for being the “wrong audience”? As a Western example, even though MLP: FiM was meant for girls, a huge portion of its audience ended up actually being adult men… ( FiM fandom | My Little Pony Friendship is Magic Wiki | Fandom )

Despite some exceptions like this, as a general rule, the strategy of targeting a specific audience is very successful. For example, the vast majority of the otome game audience is women below the age of 30 (see for example: An in-depth look at what otome players want – Tailor Tales ). In addition to being more numerous in the fandom, the targeted audience is usually more passionate about the genre, feeling like it’s something specifically made “for them”.

I really have no good data about the demographics of the HG audience. My rough guess would be that it’s majority women in the Omnibus apps and majority men on Steam. Zero idea about the age distribution though… I’d guess that otome games could have a meaningful but limited HG audience, depending on how well it’s executed.

It probably couldn’t succeed purely on the genre alone, though, like certain genres. In Japan, this would be fantasy isekai stories (usually meant for young men who wish for an escapist fantasy story, even if the story’s quality is very lackluster, it will still sell very well). For HG, similar big seller genres seem to be fantasy/superhero/romance (especially if combined).

Honestly, it seems more efficient to simply target the main HG preferences, since the general audience here is already quite passionate about any new game releases. Not saying that a different approach couldn’t work, but it seems considerably more challenging. Targeting more niche audiences especially works in Japan, I think, because there’s a very large and passionate group of consumers looking for media tailored to their tastes and written in Japanese. They also have clearer groups of demographics with specific preferences (such as young men looking for isekai adventures and harems, young women looking for stories of rising from commoner status to marrying a prince while in education etc.). I don’t think there are such clear/specific group preferences for English media consumers, leading to the easier / more efficient solution of targeting everyone (or everyone of a certain age group) rather than a very specific niche. Although Japanese media has been dominating globally in recent years (comics/games), so it could be that the Japanese approach is actually more efficient even for English audiences…

[Jacic]

@Zaldath

Where do you find public domain assets like this?

There are a lot of sites depending on what you’re looking for (I posted a list of some common ones a while back.) For something like this I guessed wikimedia commons and I think I might have been right (ChanceOfFire can let us know if they used a different site ). Just be very careful to check the CC. Some specify non-commercial only which can be an issue if you want to publish with HG. (Anything CC0/public domain is ideal, but there are other CC’s which allow it as long as given credit or the image is changed in some way which are also suitable.)

https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?search=anime&title=Special:MediaSearch&go=Go&type=image

Edit: Also be REALLY careful in that I just noticed there are images listed on wikimedia which have used Artbreeder which wouldn’t be allowed on HG because of the AI also.

[Zaldath]

Oh, interesting. Personally I prefer to pay for very customized cover art, but if your financial situation doesn’t allow for that, I guess these public domain samples could be very helpful.

[Jacic]

TBH a lot of games that are likely to be poor sellers, I can understand why people don’t want to spend a lot of money on artwork that they may never get back. I haven’t used commissioned artwork in any of mine. (They’re either images I’ve made myself or altered stock/CC images.) There is also stock which can look professional and generally costs a fraction what a customised artwork would. (Generally <$100). If you have a little skill with a photo editing program you can make stuff with stock/public domain images that can look fine and may be a lot easier than drawing something from scratch if you’re not an artist as well. (There’s a good chance it’ll look a lot better than very cheap commissioned art as well so gotta use your budget well .)

Some examples of amazing free art on pixabay that could be converted into coverart quite easily with a few alterations if they fitted the project you’re working on. (If using actual illustrations that are free stock, I think you have to be a bit careful though to screen for AI generated images which seem to be popping up more of late. I think they’re meant to be tagged as AI, but whether they all are is debatable. I tend to use photo stock if I’m going to use stuff I haven’t drawn myself and alter it into coverart personally)

(Sorry getting a bit off topic here, happy to move discussion of coverart to a different thread.)

[ChanceOfFire]

@Zaldath

Where do you find public domain assets like this?

@Jacic

For something like this I guessed wikimedia commons and I think I might have been right (ChanceOfFire can let us know if they used a different site )

Wikimedia commons is one good place (since they’re upfront about each image’s copyright). Usually, I use PublicDomainPictures(dot)net and rawpixel for public domain stuff. Pexels and Pixabay also provide images which allow commercial use without attribution (as long as you comply with the license terms).

Also, thanks @leiatalon for telling us about Canva. Looks like I’ve another place for my shopping needs.

@Zaldath

I really have no good data about the demographics of the HG audience. My rough guess would be that it’s majority women in the Omnibus apps and majority men on Steam. Zero idea about the age distribution though… I’d guess that otome games could have a meaningful but limited HG audience, depending on how well it’s executed.

It probably couldn’t succeed purely on the genre alone, though, like certain genres. In Japan, this would be fantasy isekai stories (usually meant for young men who wish for an escapist fantasy story, even if the story’s quality is very lackluster, it will still sell very well). For HG, similar big seller genres seem to be fantasy/superhero/romance (especially if combined).

@Jacic

It’s not in the popular genre category (the big consistent hitters would probably be many of the fantasy genres, superhero, romance), but particularly over on the reddit page I see requests for it so I think the market is there.

A game like this could probably work on HG if it checked the popular boxes (romance, fantasy) which Falrika did. I think the issue was overwhelmingly with how this idea was executed, and other things like the cover art weighed it down even further.

For my new project, I’m not sure if it’ll work (probably not) so it’s probably not going up on HG unless some magical flood of interest appears. It’s an experiment.

@Jacic

happy to move discussion of coverart to a different thread.

Sounds like a plan. Do you want to make one?

[AAChmielewski]

I’ve played through the free demo. The infodumps in the very beginning felt kinda unnatural and out of pace. I think it would be much better if you sprinkle the history and customs of your worlds through the stories, showing it through actions and behaviour of the characters and events surrounding them.
I personally think this would work much better as a RPG maker game. I would love to see it, frankly.
Have a good luck with your next projects!

[Zaldath]

@MoonlightBomber How did the launch sales go, by the way? I’m mainly interested in the rough scale…

[MoonlightBomber]

The sales numbers are, honestly, not doing so hot right now. But if I can market my game beyond hardcore IF enthusiasts, my game can still have a fighting chance. After all, I’ve got a pending indie game exhibition where I can exhibit my game to a much bigger audience.

[Zaldath]

Well, good luck!

[ChanceOfFire]

@MoonlightBomber

After all, I’ve got a pending indie game exhibition where I can exhibit my game to a much bigger audience

Do you have a link to this exhibition? Just curious.

[MoonlightBomber]

@ChanceOfFire

Do you have a link to this exhibition? Just curious.

It’s the Philippine Game Dev Expo. https://www.pgdx.ph/

[ChanceOfFire]

@MoonlightBomber

It’s the Philippine Game Dev Expo.

Best of luck. It still seems to be a long way off, so you might want to consider listening to feedback from your release and making updates to your game so that it might be better received and make more of a splash during the event.

[MoonlightBomber]

Great news!

Falrika the Alchemist is now formally in the Indie Game Stars showcase at the Philippine Game Dev Expo! You can try out the game and many more others on July 26-28 at the SMX Convention Center Manila Function Rooms 3 to 5.

[hustlertwo]

Congrats! Hope it does well. I tried to enter Parenting Simulator at a gaming/nerd life con in Atlanta called MomoCon that I had spoke at before, but it was scheduled for May 2020…alas. I envy you getting to see people play your stuff in real life. That’s rare for us.