I made some research.
Steam broke its record last year: 9 279 releases in 2020.

That's twice from 2016.

That's a release every 53 minutes.

50% of games sold less than 640 units.

75% of games sold less than 2800 units.

5% of games made 90% of all the sales.
More in-depth data if we filter only indie games:

6376 indie games in 2020.

50% of indies sold less than 640 units.

75% of indies sold less than 2480 units.

5% of games made 88% of all sales.
Also important to note:

There is no correlation between positive reviews and sales.

A good game isn't guaranteed to sell, as much as a bad game isn't guaranteed to fail.
I've jumped hastily on that last one. Please check the replies for more insightful views than mine.

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More from @mrhelmut

5 Jul
A few years ago, I started working on a Game Boy emulator for fun and paused it...

...I went back to it to implement the last big chunk: sound.

I shed a tear of joy hearing the half-assed Kirby's music through my bugged child (only 2/4 channels done).😭

Let's continue to work on this emulator and add the 3rd sound channel which is a limited wave channel.

I only got the two quadrangular channels so far, and I'm also missing the noise channel.
It sounds slightly glitchy, but we have Ch 3 Wave implemented!

I'm leaving the last channel for later. This one will be less straightforward. Noise generation is more than just random waves.
Read 7 tweets
8 Aug 20
Do you need a publisher? Or, its corollary, can you self-publish a game on your own?

The answer to this basically comes down to understanding what a publisher actually is, and what are your knowledge and capabilities to handle that.

Let's explore this through a thread!
Let's first debunk a still persisting misconception: a good game, no matter how good it is or how much effort you put in it, will not talk by itself.

It maybe was true 10 years ago (and even then), or for 0.001% of games, but let's be honest, there's only one Notch per decade.
A project is never bigger than the people behind it.
If you can't market a game or don't know (or don't want to know) what it takes, don't expect the game to do it for you.

Now we can talk about actual publishing!

IMO none of what follows can be overlooked in a 2020 context.
Read 17 tweets
1 Aug 20
Want to pitch a game project to a publisher?

Here comes a thread with some tips based on our experience!
1) Know the publisher.

Publishers have an editorial. They specialize themselves in specific types of games.

If your project doesn't fit their editorial, it is very likely that it's not worth trying.

Also, if a publisher doesn't seem to have an editorial: it's fishy.
2) Prototype.

If it's your 1st project, all publishers will expect a playable prototype. It's going to be the top request.

They are used to testing broken games with unfinished assets, so don't worry (even though a nice vertical slice is to be preferred).
Read 11 tweets

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