I've got a game project that I'd say is about 85% complete. I'm about to finish my Game Dev/Programming degree here in a few weeks, and while I am job searching in the new year I'd love to finish my game up and self publish it. I have no delusions that it is going to be a huge hit, but if anything I think it would be a nice bullet on my resume to have a published game.

Right now, I'm thinking I will try to go through the process of releasing on Steam. But other than that, I'm not really sure. Is the Windows store even worth it? Any other marketplaces that would be a better fit and maybe have an easier publishing process? I see a lot of marketing related posts about getting your game noticed, which I will certainly be taking in to account, but any other advice on just the process of getting your game on to a platform to begin with?

It's a shoot em up in the style of Space Invaders, not a big project per se, and would probably only list it for 99 cents or so. But, I'm proud of what I did with it and would love to just get it out there in some capacity. Thanks for any advice you can give!

Dan

You will have a minimal chance of making money on Steam unless you have substantial marketing budget. In fact, in general, Indie games are struggling on Steam. The only value is to give you experience for later released, and I'm not sure you really want to pay for that.

If your primary aim is to just put it out there itch.io is likely a better bet, whether you want to charge a small sum or not.

7 hours ago, Mike MGarcia said:

why sell it at all?

This is a huge mistake I see all the time by noobs...  publishing is easy and it doesn't really mean much these days.

Your first game will make a lot of people angry that they paid 99c... ie: ask a friend of a friend (or better still a stranger to you) if they would pay for it etc

But your better off putting it out on itch or gamejolt for free and asking for feedback or emails or follows on social media etc...

Or better still get a website, blog and put it there!

That's called value inkind , and when you're starting out in something, prepare to do a lot of it!

And if you can't get anyone to play it for free, there's no point in doing a 2nd game, IMO.

Also, I hate indies that don't use their real names.. I don't trust anything where a person doesn't put their name to what they do, especially small/solo teams.

There's a lot of crap out there, be personable and don't sell crap!

lol personable... shrug

well.. that's my advice, probably not what you wanted to hear, I could have said some youtuber "positive cliche" BS, but it's not very real... to me at least.

 

good luck.

Mike.

Not totally sure where a few of your comments are coming from, but...

Good point about selling it. I will probably reconsider that, and look to just get it out there for free. Will definitely check out the sites you suggested. This project was a pretty good starting point and learning experience for me, but probably isn't at the caliber needed for an actual commercial product. 

Appreciate the advice!

Dan

4 hours ago, Irusan, son of Arusan said:

You will have a minimal chance of making money on Steam unless you have substantial marketing budget. In fact, in general, Indie games are struggling on Steam. The only value is to give you experience for later released, and I'm not sure you really want to pay for that.

If your primary aim is to just put it out there itch.io is likely a better bet, whether you want to charge a small sum or not.

That's good to know about Steam, I think I should probably shift my focus somewhere else then. Will definitely check out the site you suggested, sounds like it might be a better fit. 

Thanks for the advice!

Dan

18 hours ago, deltaKshatriya said:

It really sounds to me as if you just want a game up for the sake of having one up, so my recommendation is stick with Steam, but don't put a price tag and don't worry about marketing. If people play it, great, otherwise, whatever right?

Yeah you kind of hit the nail on the head I think. Would be great to make money off of it, but I realize that is pretty unlikely, and at this point in my career just having the game up some where is an accomplishment in itself. So, I think that will be my main focus. Thanks for the reply!

Dan

Why to sell at first? First give a few beta copies to some selected users and then test your game. Get the feedback for your game from this early users and decide what to do.