STATION

Advertising is confusing.

Just made a video on Hollow Knight, and it's doing better than most of my other videos so far

Does it advertise my game? Nope.

Does it bring in followers and give me an excuse to put #silksong in the title? Absolutely.

#indiegamemarketing #indiedev #gamedev #indiegame

Just gave out some Steam keys to my friends, and the entire day has just been bugfixes and tweaks lol

Good to get them out of the way, but it also means I don't have time to film a TikTok, which sucks for marketing, but ah well!

#indiedev #gamedev #indiegame

I put hours into a TikTok, and it did terribly - here's why:

2 seconds of black screen.

It KILLED my retention rates, which is what TikTok cares most about these days.

It seems to be good to aim for around 1 cut every second.

#indiegamemarketing #indiedev #gamedev #indiegame

INDIE GAME DEVS!!!

I suck at marketing.

But, would you (yes, YOU) be interested in a sort-of series, here on bsky, about my journey in indie game marketing?

That way, you could see what works well and learn from my mistakes rather than your own!

Let me know!

#indiedev #gamedev #indiegame

Pixel Art Fonts! (Premium Pack) by Pixel Overload Over 30 different font files for your games, videos, art and more!

Thanks! I'm actually using something I wouldn't entirely consider an engine - it's called Raylib. It's really fun to work with and very versatile, I recommend you check it out! And I make all the assets except the fonts myself - they're from here: pixeloverload.itch.io/premiumfonts

INDIE GAME DEVS!!!
(because that hook seemed to work last time)

How are you marketing your game(s)? How's it going? What method/platform is working best for you?

Definitely because I'm curious and not because I suck at marketing. Yeah, totally...

#indiedev #gamedev #indiegame

Here's a clip of how that all looks! And if you enjoyed reading this, consider following, commenting suggestions on features to replicate next or wishlisting my game STATION on Steam!

I also marginally increased movement speed while in-air. This made everything feel a lot smoother, despite being less realistic - which is definitely a sacrifice I'm willing to make.

I added a slight after image to the player, and froze the game for half a second to really emphasize the movement and give the player time to figure out where they'd land. That's not all I did, though...

Beyond the jump, HK also has a double jump and dash (among other things). For the double jump, I essentially allowes the player one extra jump in-air - which was surprisingly simple! For the dash, I got a bit more fancy...

(-2.5)(1 - (airtime / max airtime))

Setting the player's y velocity to the below equation every frame, we can create a relatively smooth jump curve, giving the player a decent amount of airtime AND control. But we can do a bit more...

What makes HK's jump feel so good is the control you get over the height - the longer you hold the jump key, the higher you jump. But how do we make a smooth jump curve given this?

How I imitated Hollow Knight's jump in one of my minigames (a thread 🧵):

#indiedev #gamedev #indiegame

INDIE GAME DEVS!!!

I'm curious - what engine are you using to make your game, and why?

Is there a feature that NEEDS the engine, or is it just the engine that you work best with?

And tell me about the game as well, my wishlist is looking a little empty after all!

#indiedev #gamedev #indiegame

Every time I post anything it's a question of "Does marketing fear me, or do I fear marketing". Truly a conundrum of all time.

#indiedev #gamedev #indiegame

I swear making well edited TikToks takes wayyyy too long, it is so tempting for me to just hop on capcut one day but I MUST RESIST THE URGE!!

#indiedev #gamedev #indiegame

Absolutely, it feels so good seeing it all come together!!

Ty!!

I'm finally at the point where I'm actually getting into the rhythm of making my game.

Like, before I was mostly making basic systems for everything, but now I'm almost exclusively doing cutscenes, writing and minigames - and it's really fun!!

#indiedev #gamedev #indiegame

I don't know why I keep stressing about my TikToks getting under 1K views...

Like finishing the DEMO is gonna take a couple months, and I've only been marketing for a couple days lol

And the theme of my game is overwork and perfectionism, so the irony is VERY present

#indiedev #gamedev #indiegame

Just finished a kind-of concept for a new minigame I'm working on - half inspired by that angry birds mobile game from ages ago. Lemme know your thoughts!

#indiedev #gamedev #indiegame

Now that I've spent several hours on an 11 second marketing video I just KNOW it ain't getting pushed to anyone lol

#indiedev #gamedev #indiegame

Do you overwork yourself?

Constantly anxious about everything?

Then you'll probably relate a lot to Suto, the protagonist of my indie game STATION!

There's some gameplay footage from the demo I'm working on below, so if you like it, consider wishlisting!

#indiedev #gamedev #indiegame

It's annoying how TikTok shows your video to people near your IP location, since when I'm on holiday my English videos (unsurprisingly) don't get views... I feel bad for everyone who sees them and thinks "why tf am I being shown a video in a language I don't speak??" and then immediately scrolls lol

Ended up creating a new channel - the link's now www.tiktok.com/@the.station.game!

True that, I fear I may be cooked...

Then again, making them is fun and I ain't on a schedule, so I just gotta try and keep up some kind of pace and hopefully I'll release within the next 50 years lol

I do love it when TikTok decides to give my video a grand total of 0 views...

Ah, the struggles of indie game marketing lol

If you're bored and have 12 seconds to spare, feel free to check out STATION's TikTok here: www.tiktok.com/@stat.ion.game

Thanks!

#indiedev #gamedev #indiegame

So, my game has a minigames system...

Somehow, I only just realized that I gotta create a LOT of ideas for the minigames.

So uhhh.... if you have any, let me know!

And if the demo clip below sparks your interest, consider wishlisting on Steam! (link in bio)

#indiedev #gamedev

The problem with working on a game about burnout is the irony of working on it at 2am, running on nothing but a monster I drank a couple hours ago and pure determination.

The benefit is that being in such situations really helps me get into the mind of my characters lol