Simple Shark (The Stickman 1.0 out now!)

After 5 years of solo development, my movement shooter, The Stickman, finally releases on September 21st!

To celebrate the launch, I'm hosting a speedrun competition with a prize pool of up to $350!

Check it out on Steam and add it to your Wishlist!
store.steampowered.com/app/2781680/Th…

How is it I thought the Sharks were going to be decent and the Warriors were going to struggle. A few weeks later and its the other way around

What is a One Piece

My pumpkin this year 😁

After releasing my first solo-developed game and ultimately having a failed, poor launch, I thought I'd share a bunch of things I learned from my experience, what worked and what didn't.
These are notes I made for myself after releasing my game, and I thought I'd share them here in case they might help someone.

For Context: I made a movement-based FPS (Titanfall + Trackmania)
- Prototyping is way more important than I thought it was. I redid multiple levels multiple times and wasted so much time. I scrapped multiple full levels, abandoned numerous mechanics, and even a half-built raid.
- You cannot merge two games that are incompatible with each other. I originally tried to merge Destiny and Titanfall, quickly realizing why Destiny doesn't have wallrunning. I ended up choosing to keep the fast-paced movement over the slow puzzle mechanics.
- Having a solid plan is also super important. I started making without a plan, ran into a bunch of hiccups, and ended up redoing more than I should've.
- Scope out the project and see how many days/weeks/months it'll take. I ended up making so much more content than I realistically should have
- Playtesting is super important early and often. Players see things differently and do things differently. They can also give feedback on what it reminds them of and how to improve it.

Engine and API:
- Unreal Engine is huge, and learning it from the ground up was a steep learning curve. Performance was really tricky to get where I wanted it. Building a movement system, weapons, AI, and a level editor from scratch in Blueprints was tough, but I can carry those skills over to my next games.
- Materials are just math. After I realized this, they became a lot easier.
- Steam's API is massive but allows you to do basically anything. I found it nice to work with, and the uploads were all instant. The Steamworks Dashboard took a little time to learn, especially in remembering where certain options were. The initial setup of the store page took a while. But if I need to adjust something now, it's super easy.
- I learned so much software for making a game, and that was both fun and hard. But being able to carry those skills over into future projects is super useful.

Player Numbers:
- Do not build a level editor if the player base isn't there; I regret spending time on this and would've rather built more levels myself
- Don't have speedrun competitions if the player base isn't there. It's not going to magically up the player numbers and will just make you depressed in the end when you see only 3 people did it at all
- Do not have a demo until the game is basically done. I had a demo almost a year before the actual release, which tanked all momentum
- Do not add more game modes if there's no player count. I ended wasting time adding a bunch of new PvP game modes which were fun with friends but ultimately a waste of time.

Marketing and a Successful Launch:
- Wishlists are important, but wishlist conversion is even more important for success. For context, I got 1700 wishlists from a shoutout and then waited a year to release the game, which ended up with a sub-1% conversion rate.
- Trailer structuring is important. I watched a long video by Derek Lieu who perfectly explained the types of trailers and how to do them properly
- You are fighting against hundreds of releases on the day it releases. Without wishlists, you get buried in the algorithm unless you have good conversion and review counts.
- No matter how tempting it is, number watching is not good for your mental health. I learned this lesson from making YouTube videos, but checking every week or so is fine; refreshing constantly or checking every day won't magically make the number go up.
- On this same idea, your art style needs to be GOOD, not good enough. I thought I did a decent job, but compared to other indie games, I now think I didn't do well enough. My art style was sort of inconsistent, and I am not an environment artist, so it looks kinda like a bunch of assets thrown together kinda randomly (which is exactly what it is)

Investments:
- Professionally made artwork can help you stand out and look more like an actual game. Even though the game didn't do as I hoped, I don't regret it
- A Custom soundtrack is super cool and helps make the game feel real as well. This is another thing I don't regret even if it wasn't the wisest investment.
- YouTube and TikTok promotions are cool to rack up views, but are not a good Return on Investment (ROI).
- Keymailer is a cool idea, but it did not help create any launch day velocity.

I'm still immensely proud of what I accomplished. A solo-developed Movement-Based FPS isn't easy to make, which is why there aren't many. Finishing it taught me a ton about project scoping, the indie dev world, and how hard game launches are. I'm now working on my next game with all of these things in mind.
If you read the whole thing, I hope it helps you make better decisions, and I wish you luck