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Hello all. I have been on itch.io for just a few months and have already got made some gross sales and have all my three paid listed objects within the prime 10% of ‘widespread’ part. This is my recommendation, damaged down, for indie devs:
1) Make a artistic, top quality product and value it very moderately. I notably like going for ‘beneath served’ niches and pushing pricing as little as I can justify in hopes this may increase quantity of gross sales and ideally rankings/evaluations, enhance buyer satisfaction, phrase of mouth from completely happy folks, and many others. There are quite a lot of indie devs right here on Itch.IO, virtually as many devs as gamers, and means fewer objects within the Recreation Belongings part than in ‘Video games’ so I centered on asset packs out of the gate – which you’ll see right here, with intent to launch my video games ie. Miniature Multiverse, a bit later.
2) Promote like loopy on-line. Boards you are energetic on, social media, wherever you will have a presence and following, use it to hype your mission, and for those who adopted step 1, there will not be quite a lot of complaints about your mentioning it. I am doing that now. And for those who’re considering, ‘promoting makes me uncomfortable’ then possibly you must look again at step 1 once more, make your product higher for purchasers, till you truly know your product is sweet and an actual discount for purchasers, then hopefully it is possible for you to to really feel snug promoting.
3) Visuals promote. When you have some cool imagery, put it entrance and heart, to seize consideration, and know animation may be very efficient too if you wish to go the GIF route.
4) Sure, let folks donate. I’ve had beneath 20 precise gross sales [so far], however had a number of patrons purchase my objects and depart a tip. That occurs extra incessantly when the merchandise is free or filth low-cost AND additionally good, you will discover folks will recognize the work you probably did – a whole lot upon a whole lot of hours of it – they usually’ll tip greater than you assume they may.
5) Upsell with a reduction – bundles are superior, folks will typically click on on one merchandise, see it’s a part of a bundle, and find yourself selecting the bundle as an alternative even when it prices extra. In fact, they’re additionally getting 2 or extra merchandise, not one, nevertheless it does not actually matter to you because the ‘value per merchandise’ is negligible in a digital retailer!
6) Use the merchandise itself as promoting. Together with a notice throughout the downloadable, like a PDF readme or one thing, works nice. Add your web site and itch profile hyperlinks there, and embody low cost codes as a result of no person is a extra promising prospect for future gross sales than individuals who have already purchased one merchandise from you and had been pleasantly stunned by it.
7) Your itch.IO product pages ought to, when helpful, remind folks that you’ve different objects on Itch.IO, or stuff in growth. And higher, you’ll be able to put up free stuff, little free samples or demos, that then seize visitors and direct folks to the complete paid model as an choice. Many individuals will gripe at this, saying it’s a paywall, however I believe a small paywall is best for the gamers and for the sport high quality, than the inherently damaged mannequin of freemium nickel and diming. However if you need the complete recreation playable with out a cost, do that: Put adverts on the loading screens within the free model, adverts to your different merchandise or different peoples’ adverts, however not the type that aggressively and annoyingly interrupt play. (This is the reason a loading display banner between every degree, is smart) after which provide a paid premium model with adverts eliminated and a few extras just like the soundtrack, an artbook/making of video, and many others. That means it feels extra value it. By the way, I am attempting this with ‘Panoramic Worlds’ about one 12 months from now. There’s an fascinating facet to that launch additionally insofar as the sport will not be finite, it would proceed being expanded and the additions will occur sooner the extra typically persons are shopping for the premium model.
8) Make your recreation accessible to as large an viewers as potential, on as many platforms as potential. I really like HTML5 because of this, however it’s also limiting in some ways and that is why I am specializing in desktop programs Mac/Home windows – for some graphics intensive video games. But when you may make your recreation run in HTML5 extra energy to you!
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