Launching A Steam Game With Stefan Persson (Imphenzia)
What Is Steam Next Fest? (01:37 - 04:28) Steam next fest is an event that lasts for a week which steam runs twice a year and any game due for release in the next 6 months has the opportunity to participate in the SNF. Demos are a great way to get player feedback to help improve the game. imphenzia.
Industry veterans Rick Davidson & Tim Ruswick are joined by Stefan Persson, from Imphenzia, to discuss the trials and tribulations of launching a game on Steam.
As with many indie game devs, Stefan has a day job (as an IT consultant) and a young family. In the evenings, once the kids are in bed, he invests time in his creative outlet of game dev, creating and selling sound effects, music, game assets, and games!
In this devology livecast, Rick Davidson & Tim Ruswick* talk to Stefan about launching a game on Steam, the challenges he faced and the lessons he learnt!
(*Rick has more than 14 years experience in the game dev industry, working on IP's that include Mario, Transformers, Captain America and Mortal Kombat. He's done it all, from Game Designer, Producer, Creative Director and Executive Producer to GameDev.tv's very own Instructor extraordinaire. Tim Ruswick is a successful YouTuber and indie dev, who's created more than 30 games in the last 5 years (wow!), and joined GameDev.tv as their marketing monster).
Listen to the whole chat here: https://www.gamedev.tv/courses/1565268/lectures/38353586
Our 'AHA' moments
- Don’t build big projects on preview tech
- It’s easy to apply for Steam Next Fest (more info below)
- Make sure when you stream to your Steam page use your actual game APP ID, not the demo.
- Look into pros and cons of using a Publisher (legal worries). If you’re able to self publish you have more control
- Have a YouTube channel or social media presence? Use them to help promote your games/hype if it is under the radar every so often
- Market your games in social gaming channels.
- Make your screenshots unique so that they can’t be confused with another game.
on our Discord server. You can catch all the recordings, including this episode, in the Devology Livecast course - it's free to join. Until next time, happy dev'ing!