Chet FaliszekVerified account

And yes, ends up these are from the same developer which is more forgivable but the issue remains. This style is the new pixel art and doesn’t help you sell the game. Yell at me all you want, the player review count agrees with me...

And since some people responding to this don't seem to understand the issue... (and review count isn't the end all) Steam works by the top of the funnel being images. So if you are listed on @Steam or even on the site itself - your first exposure is a still image.

So this means - with no other information - people are deciding to make their next click based on that information. To help promote those, you will also see @WhatsOnSteam and others listing new releases - again using still images. @microtrailers helps a little with moving images

Those short movies help give more information which is why when posting on your own - devs should always post gifs - not just because they grab attention but also because they convey more information... But...

I see these posts of look at Nintendo games look the same - They have name recognition that in a list of games even absent of imagery people can assign a value judgement to them - I like Valve games, I live Nintendo games, I don't like publisher X games...

And saying Value Judgement - isn't to be saying these are good or bad games, but that potential players cannot make a judgement on if they should spend their time on these games. In this case, even the developer is making a value judgement by pricing them differently.

But they are making that judgement obviously with loads of data from how those games performed on other platforms. (I'd argue they might be under pricing some of them) but oddly the price - $9.99 v $1.99 helps a player decide if this game is worth their time as

under a certain dollar amount the entirety of the decision is based on - worth my time and not price - but here price is a signal of value. I am so happy they didn't flat price the whole collection...

So that is just the first step before a potential player reads one word of text (past the name), sees one video, finds out the publisher... So why do I mention this at all on twitter? because I post about the biz of indie development (as one myself) and how Steam works is...

They build an algorithm on the engagement people have with a game on steam - so if people are shown those images but don't click - they stop showing those images as often or at all - it filters down games so non-engaging games don't "spam" the system. (this algo does change)

So everyone releasing on steam should have a bit of fear of not engaging the users at every step - be it main capsule, side bar, sale capsule. This isn't just on steam by the way but most stores with a high number of titles.

So this isn't saying - these games are bad, this art style is bad, instead it is saying - if you have never played these games you better have another way of marketing your games because these images are going to struggle to carry that weight.

In this instance, the developer created a great community outside of Steam to help mitigate that but unlike let's say building a discord community (@RaveofRavendale has some great talks on this) it is also a problem as the community built has already purchased the game.

And they purchased it back long enough go that the buzz from twitter etc has died down and they aren't actively going in and buying the game now and might even skip it if they see it since they already own it - so the algo is being smacked.

Hopefully this will make some sense to people who are unfamiliar with how Steam works as those who are already seem to understand this post. And if you want to truly be terrified - read up on how little time people spend on the store page or watch the video with sound off...

When selling your game not just on Steam but any store front where as the developer you can't hold their hand a bit - it is a cruel world and you often have only one chance to make an impression and separate yourself out from the crowd.