Mr #PitchYaGame

a blurry picture of a person standing in front of a refrigerator and oven . Alt: Its Happening the office us, clip where the fire alarm goes of. Captions: Oh my GOD it's happening, everybody stay calm!

Breaking: 30 days till the first official #TeaseYaGame of 2026! 🥳🔥

The steam page again, 100x easier to put together the further you are into development.

Too early and it won't be a solid representation of your game. Design changes over time, art direction and the mere fact you'll have more screenshots and media the further in you get.

Is it steam page ready?

The demo needs to do most of the talking. Which is why it's important that it's refined, plays well, is free of bugs, so as to leave a positive lasting impact.

Bearing in mind also that the longer you take post-demo, the more hype / desire and the quality of your wishlists will dampen over time.

If I can make it all align you can also bet I'll be throwing my gauntlet into the ring with #PitchYaGame alongside you all.

In a vast ocean of games it's about aligning with your major milestones, so you can create a series of big splashes leading up to the big day.

Leaving the rest to the gods.

Promotion too early in, increases pressure, can dilute yours or your teams focus and increase workload.

My aim: a 3-6 month runway between demo and early access and 6 months to a year between early access and 1.0 release.

Demo and live steam page will be my first proper promo.

I've deliberately held back announcing mine properly because I want to get to a point where promotion makes the most sense.

To me that means at least a demo with steam page, and much shorter runways.

To get to that point I need to be confident in the game I'm making.

It's a marathon, not a race.

yoda is saying `` focus , you will '' in a star wars scene . Alt: Master Yoda from Starwars, sat in the swamp with arm outstretched in Jedi meditation. Text reads "Focus, You will"

PSA: Video games take longer when built in public.

You're not just working towards demo / release, you're actively having to work at showing them off too.

Ofttimes steering away from main task at hand; getting it made.

Find balance. Celebrate/promote major milestones more. 🧐

Pic shows a screengrab from Waterpark Simulator with a lady called Cassandra lying on a lounger with her head rotated 180 degrees.

Matched with this lady on unhinged. 🚩

My other recommendation is to throw as much weight into your announcements as you can.

Make a big deal about it.
Don't make them just the same as another throwaway post.

Cover all the bases of the announcement. You can make them informative and still make them personal.

It also confuses the heck out of the timeline, especially as you will often find the pre-announcement still being engaged with long after the main announcement drops.

Over the years running PYG, I've reduced the run up because of this.

Sometimes even deleting old posts too.

Don't dilute the main announcement with a pre-announce.

Tip. If you're going to announce something the same day. Just announce it, don't pre-announce the announcement.

Social media very much lives in the moment.

The exception being if you're announcing something in a longer timeframe away. i.e. a few days, a week, month etc.

Or equally obsessing over numbers that are largely unpredictable.

Post away. Anything above nothing is a bonus.

Case in point... followers..
X: 12K followers, Overnight: 11.9K

It really isn't healthy to be obsessing over numbers that fluctuate.

There comes a point in life where expectation just adds undue, unnecessary stress, to an oft-already stressful existence.

a man with blue paint on his face is screaming with the words freedoooom !!! below him Alt: Clip from the 1995 film Braveheart. The scene depicts William Wallace, portrayed by Mel Gibson, wearing blue face paint and yelling "FREEDOOOOM!!" The specific moment depicts Wallace's iconic speech before the Battle of Stirling Bridge, where he inspires his troops to fight for their liberty.

I'm done fighting algorithms. 😤

People either follow me or they don't, like my stuff or don't.
All my future posts either live or die by the sword.
All my future game releases either live or die by the sword.

What will be, will be. The time for caring about numbers is over. 😌

I woke up and this did indeed NOT do numbers. 🤫

Off to sleep now, if I wake up and this did numbers. 😅

For now I'm also good with the fact you're probably not going to see this post, because ultimately when it comes down to it; at the moment, hitting the demo and early access is where my focus needs to lie.

And looking at the before vs now screenshots, and playing the past vs present build.

It's clear I'm covering solid ground and strongly indicates this is a project I'm invested in. 😤

In the past I've definitely shared stuff too early into the process, to my detriment.

There's a minimum period with game dev (honeymoon phase) where you need to be sure it's a project you want to see through to the end.

This was key in my decision not to share much upto now.

Been extremely liberating NOT coding it in public.

It's also meant I've just been able to get on with it; albeit slowly in the background in my spare time, without all the additional pressures that come with it.

There's also definitely better timings to start showing stuff.

Image showing a teaser in-game render of Gachicon Arcade, a future game by Lone Spartan Entertainment lead by @LiamTwose. Image shows a person standing in front of a row of arcade machines; left-to-right: Claw machine with giraffe plushies inside. Green arcade cabinet with no game displayed, Yellow arcade cabinet with a guru meditation error (homage to the Amiga era) and a red arcade cabinet, again with no game on the screen. Logo in top right hand corner reads Gachicon Arcade with a claw machine grabber and a teddy in the center to the side.

Excited to start showing more of Gachicon Arcade soon.

Been waiting for the game to be refined enough, i.e. closer to demo/early access stage.

Definitely feel it's getting close.

Hoping people will be pleasantly surprised when MY day to #PitchYaGame finally arrives. 😤😅

Image shows a cropped top half of Unreal Engine, with an open project, with 50 tabs open. Much the same issue as when tabs were invented for browsers.

Tabs were a mistake. 😶

0 days since feeling like an imposter. 😤😑

If you could restart your #GameDev journey..
What are you doing differently? 🤔

You can either take it personally, or you can lean into it and still continue to pursue your dreams.

Sometimes we're meant for far more, than what we want out of life.

Destiny doesn't always settle for our dreams as ofttimes it has greater ones in mind.

This is a realization that I've made as I sit and ponder as to why #PitchYaGame et al worked VS my own personal growth. 😤

Space image with a planet breached by a sun on the horizon. Fireworks on the left. Text reads Celebrating 6 Years of #PitchYaGame. With the iconic PYG waving in the right corner.

Entering our Sixth year of #PitchYaGame! 😤

2026 dates..
Mar 6th: #TeaseYaGame
Jun 5th: #PitchYaGame
Sep 4th: TeaseYaGame
Nov 6th: PitchYaGame

Remember TYG = casual, PYG = formal. Post anywhere that allows hashtags.

notime.zone/OgiabDrDse-cy 👀📝

Passed a message left on a bridge today.

It read "To the wonderful lady I met on the bridge over christmas, I should have got your number, with their mobile number written underneath" (very brave I might add)

Just reminded me that we miss 100% of the chances we don't take. 😤