How would you feel if your hard worked asset did not sold a copy

This happened to me, I made a code asset about 2K lines of code, but no one looks interested in it. (Mosly because of bad marketing or infact no marketing). Now I am felling sad and unmotivated . Although its just three-four days. I thought "Oh at least anyone will buy it, and I'll be happy if I even managed to get a dollar or tow". But stepping into the real world, I realized how brutal it is . Now I am so annoyed and unmotivated that I just don't feel like working on anything anymore, though I am also bored as when I open unity I feel unmotivated and when I close it I started to getting bored as I did not did anything on my PC (like playing games, wasting time on social sites) accept developing lately. But when I reopen Unity I feel same. I have nothing left to do now. Any Idea how can I get motivated back
Thanks

 

Not selling a product you made helps show you what not to do. Its really useful to search through these forums because there are a lot of threads that will advise you on what will sell.

 

Your product is not even on the asset store. Poor presentation + outside sales website = no sales.

 

Now that you've done something, take a step back and look at other people who were more successful. Then come back and look at what you made and criticize it, figure out its shortcomings and be encouraged that you can (and will) do better. You're well ahead of a lot of people who have never even passed the threshold of "imagining" into the realm of "doing".

 

You've worked hard in your product, but four days working on an asset is an excellent timeframe, to release products. Don't feel unmotivated.

It's difficult to market asset store stuff, because because it's usually a small product or tool, and it's hard to get everyone's attention about such small thing without feeling like a nuisance.

So how do you get people's attention?

The most profit I've gotten in the Asset store is when I added products regularly. Think about your new tool as a justification to to bother people a bit, and some are bound to be interested in what you're doing.

Think of your product as one of many. Some things you make are bound to sell less than others. But the more you have, the more attention you draw to yourself, without bothering people about the same tool over and over.

Furthermore, when you make a new tool, you might not sell just that tool, but it's an opportunity for customer to see anything else you've previously done, improving your chances of profit.

In Shia's words, DO IT!

 

First congrats for finishing something. Not to demotivate you too much but...

Most of the buyers always look for a demo first when it comes to game templates. Your demo game starts with clicking poo? and there are numbers and stuff all over the screen with spelling errors and the initial images that look like they were done in paint in 10 seconds. Text labels are misaligned and font sizes are not consistent. I could go on but theres already so much to improve that no point. First impression is very important even if its simplified asset demo.

Like it was said in the Kongregate comments by veteran player: "None of this makes any sense at all."

 

Perhaps you aren't that good at marketing, or if it refers to the idle engine in your sig, then it may be not that many people want to make idle games?

Is it even on asset store? People don't generally buy outside of it when it comes to code.

 

Firstly, I've not a clue what an idle game is.. You said they are getting popular "so everyone will know".. Well even if that's the case, put a description. It's obvious that not that many know exactly what it is / does because nobody is buying your asset.

Secondly, I'd want to see it in action and presented.. From your signature I got re-routed to your web-page then back to the Unity forums.

You need clear descriptions, lists of exactly what it does. Show exactly how you'd use it etc. etc.

It's pretty much you've done everything you could possibly do wrong in terms or marketing, it could be a great asset but I've not got a clue what it does. Plus saying I described it half way down the page is no good, because I search through hundreds of assets. It has to be straight to the point and well communicated.

Lastly, put together a good presentation and get it submitted to the asset store.

 

Yeah I didn't know either what idle game was but then after seeing the category at kong I recognized that I've player many from that genre or tried at least (cookie clicker, clicker heroes etc). Even Steam summer sales game was an "idle game"

 

The only asset that I've released on the Asset store was released for free. So I've never sold any copies. I'm fine with it. I would definitely like for more people to use it, but it was an early version, so I don't blame anyone for waiting until its a little more complete.

 

We pretty much don't know what's the asset in question is, asset store link would be helpful to bring potential buyers .

 

In case you have signatures turned off:

Idle Engine && Idle Eater (Idle Engine's Example)

 

Im with Shadow... I've got no idea what an idle game is or what your idle stuff is used for.

 

It's an alternative term for an incremental game. Gameplay typically consists of repeatedly performing simple actions, such as clicking a point on the screen, to acquire currency. Currency is then spent on items and abilities that increase the amount of currency you gain from the action.

One popular example is Clicker Heroes.

 

Thanks, maybe you should do the marketing .. !

 

I'm about to release my first asset. I hope people buy it, I think its awesome, but if people don't then maybe they'll buy my second asset. If they don't buy that one, then they might buy my third. If they buy my third, they may take a second look at my first and second. I'm not too concerned about it. Its a hobby and I've built something I'm proud of.

 

Congratulations. You have completed your first failed project. That's one step closer to completing a successful product. Very few make it on their first try.

Idle games are reasonably popular in some areas. There is always at least one or two that make it into the top list on Kongregate. But the things are so darn boring to code that I never get very far. In other words I'm right in your target audience. I'm the type of person that would buy your asset, reskin it, and upload it up to make a quick buck.

Trouble is your demo game inspires no confidence. A 12 year old could make a better presentation with OnGUI. Your manual mentions pages of set up that I would need to do to get it to run. And the asset was rejected from the asset store. Combine all of these together and you can see why I am reluctant to spend time and money on this. I want an asset I can flip. Not something that's going to take me days to get to my standards.

 

Looks like the website and asset needs some polish and definitely needs marketing. Like @BoredMormon said, your first failed project. Take what you learn from here and apply it to your next assets. I've seen increases in sales from my first asset to my second asset. In the first asset I made I didn't really advertise it and it wasn't too polished up in terms of the editor GUI.

Idle games are super simple to make and is probably luring your customers away. Why pay $9.99 when all I have to do is, if(buttonClick) score++;

Show off more demos and more flashy art, give the customer the incentive to purchase your assets. Make a video showing how simple it is to make a fully functioning game from start to end.

 

Thanks. And from posts above, I realized that the biggest reason for failure is bad marketing and demo and as Idle Games are sill not known by many it makes the matter worse. I am going to create a new demo. manual and better marketing material now. I'll also try my hands in a custom editor, giving a reason to buy it. But regarding the asset store. I can only wait. It usually took 9-12 days whenever I submitted an Asset.

 

It may simply be the term you're using that is unfamiliar. An alternative like "clicker game" may be a better choice.

 

The term will be known by many younger developers. Most older devs will refuse to actually acknowledge these as actual games. When we were kids you actually had to participate in the game playing. There was this thing called interaction.

 

Well to be fair when I was a kid I couldn't simply pull out a device and start poking it at any moment. Rather I had to turn on the power to my Commodore 64, insert a floppy or tape, type a quick command, and sit there waiting for the few minutes it took to load some of the games. I believe Spy vs Spy took fifteen minutes on a 1541 drive.

Finally acquiring a 1571 drive and an Epyx FastLoad cartridge made a world of a difference.

 

Most people give up before their first product. The next biggest group is after the first product. Success pretty much universally happens sometime long after your first product launch. So you should feel bad, because that is what motivates you to do better. Pretty simple really

 

You really can't complain about not selling your asset if you've done no marketing. That's like standing silently on a street corner and being upset that nobody bought the fake Oakleys you had inside your jacket pocket.

Marketing doesn't have to be buying ad space and big, flashy presentations. It can just be tweeting or posting to Facebook groups or something. If people don't know your product exists, they can't buy it.

That said, you should also have a product worth selling. From what others here have said and from looking at your website and forum post myself, your asset reeks of coming from a novice developer. That's an immediate red flag to me, as a consumer, since in my mind, I'm likely to get halfway into my project and run into a problem, and you'll be unable or unwilling to assist me. It doesn't matter if that's the case or not. If that's what I feel, I'm not going to commit to the purchase.

Exposure is difficult enough. Selling your product is even harder. I actually plan on releasing my first game for free, without ads or any type of revenue-generating content. Just to prove that I can make a good game, and to get people playing it. Then when I make a second game, maybe that one will make me some money.

If you don't have a smash hit on your hands, you need to build a reputation first. And one way to do that is to give away your product. Get people using it, and if they love it, they'll tell their friends. And if you get enough exposure, then you can start selling things to your captive audience.

 

Would you buy this product if someone tried to sell it to you?

 

Don't write the problem off as 'marketing' the problem is really general presentation and communication.

How you present something is unbelievably important. Your demo starts with a pile of poo and massive typos like "hit potions". Someone looks at your demo and goes "this is a giant mess, and if this is a mess then the code is going to be worse".

Typos and stuff (especially at the scale here) are huge red flags.

That your demo starts off with you eating a giant pile of poo also doesn't add confidence.

 

The demo is also unplayable. Poor instructions to actually play the game lead to poor confidence in docs for the code.

 

I think it works, you click the poo. Each click does 5 damage against hit points, minus armor. Sometimes you get bonuses and they increase your damage (I think). There are calories and stuff which add to fullness I think.

Then you click on the toilet which empties your fullness.

You unlock new things to click on which have different stats and different rewards.

I think it all basically works, it's just a giant mess.

 

Finally decided to give it away. Atleast it will prove the I can develop and some people who consider me as noob because of my dorky posts, will not thing so

 

Anyone remember Progress Quest? Anyway, my favorite clicker game is Clicking Bad.