For context: I’ve been working on the game for almost 19 months now and for a very long time it had a low wishlist count. As I started updating the Steam page with new images and gifs and posting about it regularly the people who were interested in the game grew. Today I woke up to check on Steamworks and it turns out it’s 7000+ wishlist! (It was around 300 for the first YEAR of development).
But here is the thing, I’m not one of those guys who quits their job to pursue gamedev. You see posts like these all the time, I’m not even sure if most of them are even real, but I feel that is a HUGE risk. One I’m not willing to take, as I can’t afford to go two years without pay. A safer thing to do is to do gamedev on the side. But the amount of work you have to do is pretty much like having a second job. I think that if you treat it as hobby you will never get there. So I started treating my free time as a currency and trying to optimize how I spend it. Currently most of it is spent on game dev. Haven’t seen any of my friends for a few months now. And haven’t even turned on the PS4 in the living room since September. I only have time to play some classic games at nights on the weekend. Funny story but the other week at 2 A.M. I was staying late, with just the laptop in the dark and my girlfriend comes in and asks what the hell am I doing in the dark. I was actually playing Splinter Cell, and she looks at my screen and there it was Sam Fisher holding a terrorist at gun point.
One thing I refuse to compromise with is diet and workouts. I try to cook my own food and have only home made meals. I plan for each week so I save time when eating. Something I’ve found out is that it’s pointless to over exhaust yourself with no sleep and shitty diet. In the end you are not in a better state to be creative and as your well being suffers, your game suffers to. So I just work on my job during the day, and then from 18:00 to 23:00 I switch to my game. Somehow I squeeze in there 3 dog walks, 2 meals and a dinner with the wifu.
After almost two years, I’m wrecked. Will do it again tho. I have two cool ideas for other games and I really want to see happen (one is kind of a Psychological Thriller, the other is a Cozy Game).
P. S. Thank you if you have wishlisted it already and if not, please consider doing so : )
Congrats on 7k!
7k wishlists doesn't directly translate to sales, but it can give you a good indication. Still, it's good to be aware of the risks, and the consequences of this new, temporary life balance.
Please keep taking care of yourself!
Thank you! Yeah I'm not planning my future spending based on wishlists. I know that many things can go wrong. Some within my control and some out of it. In the end of the day I just want to say I did my best and worked as hard as I could. Will streamers play it? Will people buy it? I have no idea and no way to know really...
You can influence some of this directly, but yeah, there will be a lot of unknowns.
Valid and healthy goal! I do want to add: you can't do everything yourself. Don't be afraid to lean on your network to get help where possible. You can fill in some of those unknowns with resources from the indie scene, but that will also take time, effort and sometimes money.
Thanks, I might look for someone who is actually good at 3D modelling for my next game. Having to everything just sucks.
Send some keys around. Send one at "let's game it out" (not sure it fits the content style tho)