Ryan Sumo's Blog
Member Blogs
I respond to each of Cliffski's (Positech Games) points about improving your indie game development process without being a jerk about it!
I explore why Academia : School Simulator might not be doing well compared to other similar games. It turns out theme/genre fit might be our biggest problem.
I reflect on Squeaky Wheel's 2018, opining on conventions, keeping up motivation, and how the Steam algorithm changes affected us.
I talk about some of the productivity tools like Flock, Hacknplan, and Airtable that we use to make making games easier.
I've soured on game conventions as a good means of marketing, but found something else that will keep me going.
Despite getting front page exposure on Steam, our launch for Political Animals did poorly. Academia : School Simulator's launch sold almost 3x more units without a Steam feature. I explain why I think this was the case.
Ryan Sumo's Comments
Comment In:
[Blog - 07/05/2019 - 11:06]
Hi Andy, you 're probably ...
Hi Andy, you 're probably right The point is that it IS an easy comparison to make, and I 've heard some other devs saying oh if you don 't get x views on your trailer don 't bother. I wanted to test that theory and share the results.
Comment In:
[Blog - 12/10/2017 - 07:01]
While we did make an ...
While we did make an assumption that Academia 's likeness to Prison Architect would be something that works in its favor, I think it 's only in hindsight that one can make the assumption that it was going to be a surefire success. We certainly weren 't sure it would ...
Comment In:
[News - 06/23/2017 - 06:38]
I think a lot of ...
I think a lot of people are looking back at Prison Architect with rose colored glasses. I would argue very strongly that when they launched Prison Architect as an Early Access title it too was in a relatively niche genre at the time and there was no expectation that they ...
Comment In:
[Blog - 01/18/2017 - 10:46]
Hey Matthew, thanks for writing ...
Hey Matthew, thanks for writing this. We 're currently mulling Early Access/Kickstarter ourselves for our next project and this has given us a lot to chew on. r n r nWanted to ask about your example of a positive way of responding to player feedback. You said : r n ...
Comment In:
[Blog - 11/21/2016 - 12:47]
Of course I try not ...
Of course I try not to think too much about that as without a publisher this game wouldn 't have been possible anyway. r n r nHaha I had a similar situation when we launched our game, looking at the numbers and thinking hm. If we didn 't have a ...
Comment In:
[Blog - 11/10/2016 - 10:11]
Yeah, our break even is ...
Yeah, our break even is looking more like two years at this point. Luck and timing definitely has an effect.
