Dos and Donts -
Ive had a number of GL devs ask me on their comments section or in private for tips.

Im not exactly a seasoned vet, but I have been successful in GL, and I have been successful as a freeware dev for years. Ive certainly had my downs and ups, but this advice is fairly solid.


If you're struggling in GL, please read.


Marketing and exposure
Marketing Firms, Publishers and PR companies can help with your games exposure and reputable ones can sign an agreement where they take a small cut of revenue from sales generated.

Alternatively, you can go to companies like virool, or google ads to help expose your game.


*To be Honest however, you shouldnt spend a dime*
Your best bet is to make a game that is visually stimulating, as Greenlight Relies soley on
on a strong trailer/preview.

WATCH OUT FOR

Right now, many greenlight users are being approached by a number of users offering to promote their game for a 'small fee'


The issue here is 2 fold
1 - These users may use shady practices that can end up having your game banned (not good)
2 - You shouldnt pay anything beyond your 100$ fee on anything that doesnt guarantee results or offers a strong marketing plan.









Things to ask yourself when making your GL campaign

1 - What does my game offer the player
Ultimately this is capitalism, and Im not here to talk political ideology, it's just the nature of the beast. With that said you need to know what your game gives the player.

- An interesting story, - jaw dropping visuals, - Tight and precise gameplay, - rewarding gameplay, - Loveable characters, - a mysetery to solve.

All of these are things that can be considered a 'hook' it's a reason to vote.



2- What are my games weaknesses
Because this is business, you cant say "Its my first gaem" and expect the votes to roll in
Understanding what your game cant do, and knowing how to either address that weakness or compensate with a strength is KEY.

So for my game, Cycle of Tyrfing a perceived weakness was the initially 'womanizing' get up the main character wears.

A number of people pointed this out and I compensated with 'design' choices that complement her. Yeah, she is scanly clad, but she is meant to feel somewhat primal and aggressive, alternatively, these are cloths that the character wears confidently. Armor slows her down, and so the more flexibility and agility that her get up provides the better.

Is this a solid defense- Well it's not perfect, but notice how I dont resort to calling people names.




3 - Do I have enough showable content?
Believe it or not, making trailers and promotional images is an art all in of itself.

To make a proper trailer, I find that at least 20 - 30 minutes of competent footage is needed for instance. I also have to update my trailers frequently because im always working to diligently update the visuals and content.

NO, im not saying to make a 20 - 30 minute trailer, but to make a 1 - 2 minute trailer using a compilation of the best parts of your 20-30 minutes of raw footage.

Promotional screenshots should have good composition and convey what exactly is happening.

Look guys and girls, if you're struggling for votes this is likely why.



4 - Am I looking to sell a product, or looking to obtain pity
If you're looking for pity, This is the wrong place.

No budget? We dont care,
First game? We dont care,
Your PC isnt capable of recording solid footage? We dont care

Listen this sounds harsh, but I know that I am personally not going to vote for your game because of pity. And trust me,

A lot happened to me during my greenlight campaign and I certainly did not have money. I can Sympathize, I really can, but that doesnt change the fact that these aspects do not factor in. They simply dont.

You need to objectively ask yourself "Is this a product"
Is your game going to offer genuine entertainment?
Because if not, then go back to the drawing board my friend.

Many users try fighting this fact, but it never works. One such user has spent years trying to FORCE his game through greenlight through temper tantrums and pity parades, but it hasnt worked.

I wish the world could be nicer to the little guy, but thats simply not the way things work.
Dont bother fighting it, ADAPT


Spell Check and proof Read

Failing to spell check and proof read (notice I said AND, not OR) comes off as lazy.
It is absolutely necessary to do both, and if you think relying on MS word's spell check is a good way to cut corners... well, come back when you're through middle school...

Spell check cant catch homophonic errors, and it cant fix typos that are actual words.

" and the was boy was walking the dog"
"hour spelling mite decline"

Whats worse is I've seen GL hopefuls give 'good reasons' to not spell check "Im too busy working on the game." being one that Ive seen more than once. "Focus on the gameplay." being another...

Lets be real for a minute, it only really takes about 5 minutes to proof read a GL description page. JUST DO IT OK!









***Remember ***
Game Design is Complex

Like the Genre of Heavy metal there is a lot of nuance and complexity to defining a given game.

Video games can offer so much, and this is why I love them.

With that said, you should avoid certain archetypes

=> Space themed Side scrolling shooters <=
I honestly love the likes of ikaruga, and gradius,

However the market is FLOODED, so unless you can provide a fundamentally different experience, then I suggest not uploading it.

The issue of saturation is compounded by the fact that this archetype
is "Easy to learn, tough to master" in terms of development.

You can literally make a 2d space themed shooter in a few hours even as a brand new dev...


Mascott platformers
Again, I love this genre personally, and intend to break this rule myself in the near future.
however platformers have flooded the market and are again "easy to learn tough to master'

Unless you can offer a fundementally different experience, these are worth pursuing.


Clones

Clones piss me off, Did you know that during the peak of Flappy birds success I had not 1, not 2, not 3, but 4 different people approach me to do a collab project mimicking flappy bird?
All in the course of 15 days.


It's alright to pay homage, in fact I respect it.
But it's not ok to simply see a success (especially if the success is a fluke) and then make a 'Me too' clone of it.

It's uncool period.


Show your game to people outside of your close circle of friends and family

One experience I am thankful for was being exposed to Newgrounds at a young age. Submitting flash animations as young as 13...

Feedback from people who love you, doesnt count.

Get freedback from your acquantances, your nitpicker friends (who compulsively pick nits)
Put a demo on Itch.io, Newgrounds, Kongregate, fgl, gamejolt, or any of the other community based websites that will happily offer critiques.

Dont take it personally, and after a few critiques, grab a pen and paper and make a LIST of common complaints and criticisms.

Then address those complaints and/pr criticisms on the list.
If criticism is directed at things that are 'by design' (for instance my character's get up) then think of a proper response to it (please for the love of Odin, dont call your critics names!)


About Asset flipping

1st of all
>>Is it OK to use bought assets ? - In good taste and moderation Yes.

!HOWEVER! Games that have their visuals 100% bought from a store ( This differs from outsourcing btw)
tend to struggle because they lack identity.

Honestly, just ask yourself this: "How much of my game is my IP?" and if 0% of the visuals are, there may be a problem.


What's the different between buying assets at a store and outsourcing?
Some devs try to pretty up the word "asset flipping" by calling it "Commissioning" or "Outsourcing" let me just burst that bubble now -

What is the difference??!
1) Assets bought at a store can be bought by anyone
2) Assets bought in the store are not designed for your specific purpose
3) Outsourcing/Commissioning is where you contract a 3rd party to develope a specific product (code, visual assets, music, etc) This typically means the product is your property and the contractor who produced it isnt normally allowed to resell it.




Avoid AT ALL COSTS -

- Showing bought assets
- why? Well if the assets were used by another company, your reception will be effected
- example, a tower defence game used the same assets as Digital Homicides Dungeons of Kragmore, the result were negative votes and comments.




- Showing laggy footage
- why? running at a consistent framerate is important, games prone to random chugging feel aweful and are difficult to play due to the inconsistency in flow, Gamers HATE this


- Replying Brashly to comments or Censoring them - Remember the Streisand effect
Youll get feedback, and as a new dev, this is important.
Naturally, because the feedback is directed to something you work hard on, you may feel upset. If you feel upset, wait 24 hours and re read it. Often feedback on the first read sounds more harsh than it actually is. LOL

On the other hand NEVER delete comments, unless they are advertisements or biggoted.

Deleting negative press brings the streisand effect into play and you dont want that.



- Making the trailer boring

Look, im no expert, but my rule is that for every 10 minutes of gameplay footage you record, maybe 0:45-1:15 of it is usuable for trailer purposes.

Level grinding, flavour text, or dialogue are all detrimental to game trailers.
It's ok to have a brief summary of your games plot, but sum it up in 1 or 2 sentences ok,

Cool effects, rapid (but understandable) movement, intimidating enemies, and things that overall illustrate the 'joy' and 'fun' factors are what trailers should have.




NEVER Sell a promise - Do not oversell and under deliver

This is a Rookie mistake, but can be seen very negatively.

You may feel tempted to discuss or announce your plans and features you will add later on... DO NOT!


Im seeing tonnes of greenlight projects make promises of things they cannot show us.
They will claim to have 4K resolution graphics, but have low resolution screen shots and a trailer capped at 480p

Or talk about having fantastic and bombastic boss fights that they cannot show because *They arent ready*

If you cant show it, then dont talk about it.

It's wise for 2 reasons
1 - Its good to have things you can announce over the course of the GL campaign, you want to keep your page lively.
2- If you announce something you cannot show, or worse fail to deliver on, the community may perceive you as 'overly ambitious' at best or a 'lying cheating jerk' at worst.



- DO NOT FORGET, YOU ARE BEING WATCHED AND TRUST IS EASILY LOST

Im an active voter, commenter and discussion contributor as well as a game dev

I can tell you with utmost confidence that there are groups that actively watch for shady behavior.

Do not trade game keys for votes,
Do not delete discussions (this is more offensive than deleting comments btw)
Do not say anything stupid or impulsive because you can bet 20$ that someone will screen cap it, post it on Imgur and share it with the world.

Love him or Hate him, Jim Sterlings Best of Steam Greenlight series will illustrate my point in stark detail. He will highlight any project he deems as exceptional in one way or another and it's usually a bad thing.


If there are questions, please ask If there is something I forgot, let me know
Thanks for reading!