Thread by @AdventureMtn

Dome Keeper is a game that grossed $1 mil within the first week of its launch. It seems impossible and unattainable. I interviewed the developers @BippinBits and @garnettlee from Raw Fury about how they pulled it off. Here are 7 actions they took that helped them get here.

#1 Learn game design (not by watching GDC videos) but by releasing small games. Over five years @BippinBits did game jams and published over 14 games. You can play all of them here: bippinbits.itch.io

#2 They practiced a Steam launch with a tiny game. Their goal was to sell $100 worth of copies and release quickly. They did just that. It wasn't a "hit" but it taught them so much about steam. That is not a "failure" store.steampowered.com/app/1409180/Of…

#3 Compare every tiny release and double down when one "hits" with an audience! Dome Romantik was a game jam game but got so many Ludum Dare reviews organically: 278. Look at this chart of their past jam entries. Dome sticks out! People LOVED this game even as a gamejam.

#4 Do #screenshotsaturday not for the visibility but for the industry connections: @BippinBits shared the early trailer on #screenshotsaturday. @jtoresson from Raw Fury saw the tweet and reached out.

https://twitter.com/jtoresson/status/1437028018845896705

Deal was signed soon after but they kept it quite

#5 Publish a demo as part of a festival (games of Germany) and keep it UP after to maintain attention: Streamers found it and the game design was perfect for them. They played a LOT of it. The streamer coverage earned of 40,000 wishlists in a single month. Demo up the whole time:

QUICK PAUSE: Getting 40K wishlists from streamers is not normal. I attribute this to having pre-tested the design on itch.io, having the experience of releasing lots of games, and sticking with it. Don't skip that step. You need to learn how to make "hookie" games

#6 Paid visibility! Raw Fury ran paid ads on several sites like Facebook, TikTok and Instagram. That helps! But if your game doesn't have that "magic" that was proven by their 40K month, those paid ads won't work.

#7 A publisher throwing their weight around: Raw Fury negotiated with Valve to secure a pre-purchase deal for Dome Keeper. Steam doesn't normally do this for indie games. But Raw Fury got Valve to do it and they estimated it earned an extra 100K wishlists before full launch

There are more details that I skipped for brevity sake. You can read the full thing here:
howtomarketagame.com/2022/10/17/how…

Also I write a post every week about indie games and how they are marketed. If you want to see the next one check out howtomarketagame.com/free