Let's talk about Vampire Survivors success phenomenon

Anybody here willing to discuss the recent phenomenon of Vampire Survivors? The game appeared out of nowhere, has very simplistic design/graphics (it looks like it was done in a week or two, to be honest), but currently accumulates +1k new reviews on Steam per day, with 99% of them being positive, which is very impressive, to put it mildly. Making a game with 90% approval rate is easy, 95-96% approval is hard already, 97-98% is exceptional, and 99% is... borderline impossible? At least for a popular title. The best indie hits of the past with cult following like Terraria, Stardew Valley, and Binding of Isaac weren't able to break through that magic 99% threshold. Which says something about quality and design ideas of Vampire Survivors, I guess?

Also, for me this game is a clear illustration that despite many (almost all, actually) game developers around these forums and elsewhere constantly complaining that these days it's outright impossible for small indies to get noticed without help of a publisher or decent marketing budget/strategy, this game does prove exactly opposite. As long as you have a good idea (and a bit of luck, maybe?) you will get noticed.

EDIT: For those few of you who never heard about this game, in recent weeks Vampire Survivors has got extensive media coverage from all major news websites out there (Polygon, VICE, Rock Paper Shotgun, Kotaku, Destructoid, IGN, etc.) due to its fast escalation from a noname solo indie project to outstanding success. That's why I thought it would be interesting to discuss here.

 

Never heard of that game...

 

Same, is this some kind of really shallow marketing attempt? Problem is a forum filled with analytic game developers would not be the best place to drum up interest.

edit:

I had a look around for the game. It's basically high level decisions you make with poor gameplay but feels satisfying because of the gambling of numbers and you don't really need to be good at gaming to get far. Look at Loop Hero for more.

 

its some new game that went viral.. (and its cheap early access, wouldn't had bought it for much more really..)

i first heard it from news paper (that rarely even mentions games like this),
bought it myself and for kids too.. pretty fun little game.

adding link so no need to google,
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1794680/Vampire_Survivors/

 

I dont think I've ever read anything like that here.

The game looks well polished and the top reviews all talk about how easy it is to play and addictive. Plus it cost $3.

Looks like a simple but well polished game that has a smart and well tested gameplay loop.

 

My impression:
This game having 30k reviews on steam is as offending to all indie developers as Goat simulator making millions of dollars in revenue.

What I hate about this industry is that, from time to time it is just so demoralizing.

And no it does not look polished to me. It looks like crap, characters don't even have animations.

Years, years ago, we had crimson-land already and it is still better looking today.

 

There is many enemy types, they all read well despite hundreds of units on screen, the attack fx also read well - timing and spacing all seems to make sense - it looks like it was made with some thought.

I dont think animations would have added anything here. There is hundreds of units all wobbling towards you constantly and getting blown up almost as soon as you see them.

I think developer time spent animating every enemy would have been total waste.

Seems liek a perfect example of indie developer making a simple but well polished title within their scope. The fact that it blows up might be a just the nature of internet algorithms and all that, but I def wouldnt lump this in with goat simulator, which is just a meme. this is an actual game, and everybody is talking about how fun and addictive it is.

To me this is highly motivational. It shows that you don't need to do anything new, complex, or even noteworthy. Just a well made game even if it is dead simple. People are bored, games are just like fast food to pass some time, this game seems to understand that and managed to find its audience.

Although its not the type of game I'd play or want to make, it does beg me to keep asking that question everytime i am working on something new in my own game: simplify, or complicate? Will teh complication make a difference for my audience, or just add more work for nothing?

 

The reviewers all say the same thing. Simple, Cheap and Addictive. Some of them seem to like the "retro" aesthetics.

It looks very simple but maybe a lot of design went into it to make it addictive or did the devs just luck out?

 

It looks plenty polished. Not everything polish is about graphics and making that mistake will only hurt your own games.

 

But why?

You're forgetting that indie games: fun > graphics. Goat simulator is plenty fun (well, for a while).
Why does it offend you if a fun game is also successful?

 

Its not all about graphics, we are in the games industry not the graphics industry They have clearly prioritised gameplay and ended up with a decent gameplay loop that pulls users in, couple that with low price of entry and a good approach to marketing and you have a success

They didnt just get picked up by all these magazines and news outlets by chance, it takes a lot of pre-emptive work to get noticed by journalists across the board like they have and they have obviously focused on what matters, gameplay and getting the game out there and noticed. Graphics etc are nice but entirely secondary when you are on a small budget, limited skillset and small team.

 

I've heard it's a straight up clone of Magic Survival mobile game. So that's your success phenomenon - take an already successful game from a different platform, clone it 1:1 with a new coat of paint and vaguely similar sounding name and then launch it on Steam for a price of a coffee.

 

It is similar situation like with modern art.
There are talented painters that are creating a works of art and gets not much from it, and on the other side of the spectrum you got some modern art "artist" whose splats on a canvas sells in millions of $.

 

You've heard that but even looking at the trailers for either game will show dramatic differences between them that make it far less than a 1:1 clone.

 

Apparently it has the same weapons, XP progression and leveling system but is better looking and more polished gameplay wise. So it might not be 1:1 clone, but it's pretty close.

 

It's not my fault that some of you guys have been living under a rock and didn't read any recent gaming news. Polygon, VICE, Rock Paper Shotgun, Kotaku, Destructoid, IGN, and basically every other major gaming news/review website out there are buzzing about it. The game has got 30k+ 99% positive reviews on Steam in one month, which already qualifies it as one of most successful launches in the history of video games. Do you really think it needs some additional "shallow marketing" from me or anybody else?

 

Sorry, I cannot spend my time lurking on every gaming site on the web...

 

Good strategy though. Mobile has a lot of well liked, succinct and addictive gameplay loops with vast player bases that don't have Steam alternatives.

These games already have hundreds if not thousands of reviews that point out things to improve. So find one, adapt it to desktop and add some polish on top and you're golden. A lot of the risk is mitigated since game design is pre-validated. You just need to nail the theme and generally execute it well.

 

I don't think this explanation really explains anything. For starters, Magic Survival you mentioned never was a truly popular mobile game. 1+ million installs in over 2 years (it was released in October 2019) for a free mobile game is nothing to brag about, it is just enough to pass basic survival threshold in mobile market. Nowhere close enough to guarantee that any games based on the same idea will become successful. Neither that game had stellar 99% approval ratings to explain positive reviews for Vampire Survivors we are seeing now.

Also, many developers have tried to do exactly what you suggest for way more popular and way more pre-validated mobile concepts. For instance, there are literally hundreds of clones of Flappy Bird floating around Internet, with a few dozens of those being released on Steam. Despite the original game being gone and thus creating an empty niche to be taken, none of those clones ever achieved even 1% of popularity of original Flappy Bird.

So I think it takes something else than just cloning an addictive and pre-validated mobile concept and releasing it with some polish and re-skinning.

 

1 million downloads is a hell of a lot more than 0. It might not be a smash hit, but clearly something is there unless it was pushed there by some big publisher money. Reviews also aren't bad, most of the negative ones seem to be related to device specific technical issues due to Android device/OS fragmentation.

And as far as I can tell from my quick reading on these games - weapons, XP and Level progression systems are near identical between both of them, so what Vampire Survivors bring to the table is adaption to desktop and general polish.

I definitely don't suggest chasing the 0.1% hits like Flappy Bird which get instantly cloned by dozens if not hundreds of other trend chasers. That's a recipe for failing more often than not.

But I guess there are a few successful/semi-successful Minecraft and Terraria offshoots that jumped on the trend early enough if not in mechanics then at least in visual identities and I bet there are multiple Magic Survival/Vampire Survivors clones already in development. Perhaps some will gain traction if the formula is improved enough, only time will tell.

Plenty of Battle Royales are still successful even if none of them made Fortnite money. And there are several Stardew Valley inspired games in the works that are highly anticipated - Chef RPG, etc. The thing about trends is that if you're early enough and good enough, you can still grab a piece of the pie. Players usually look for more content that they like. This time is no different.

Ideally, you'd be a trend setter like Vampire Survivors. And there was nothing quite like Magic Survival on Steam until Vampire Survivors as far as I'm aware. So my suggestion was to look for fun experiences on mobile that don't have Steam alternatives but also aren't the 0.1% hits that already have dozens of clones on all platforms in existence.

Yea, you need to place some points in Luck and Timing stats. And/or unlock Precognition skill. I don't believe there's some secret sauce here besides an easy to get into and solid core loop with apparently great execution published at the right time for the right price. There is a lull of AAA news/releases around this time of year.

 

Well it was my initial impression. I felt it was so vague and unsubstantial at first. I've played similar condensed games - check out Loop Hero for example.

I think it may have hit it's market cap in each area so far. I mean, I can't see it going any further than it's niche. Those clicking cookie games are similar flash in pans.

 

That "flash in the pan" known as cookie clicker earned its developer $2.6 million on Steam alone... Just saying

 

Yeah but all the thousands of clones make nothing, just saying.

 

It is actually quite sad. Belle Delphine and Ninja from Fortnite also made a lot.

 

People who are looking for validation of the effort by making indie video games are in for a rude awakening. Focus on what works for you, not being sad because someone else is more successful in way you don't value, you are only hurting yourself. The sucess of other don't devalue your work. There is always a bigger fish.

 

Dev probably put all their time/money into marketing and promo?

 

Bought it yesterday and played for about six hours straight and I actually forgot to eat and sleep . It's pretty addictive and solid entertainment for a few hours but I don't see playing more than that myself. It would need like a campaign or co-op or something more to justify more hours. I'm still curious though why some of these titles get picked up so quickly by the press and gamers alike. I mean there has to be at least hundred games like this on Steam right?

 

It is a fun game with a very balanced loop that always keeps you wanting more. For $3 why wouldn't you play it for a few hours.

Does that justify its relative to success to other similar games, no, but there are always viral hits. There's a lot more work in this than flappy birds or even more polished titles like tiny wings.

Not that I think that "amount of work" (or any other metric) is a very valuable way to quantify "allowable level of success before mass outrage from indie devs".

 

I am still not hearing anything that makes this success different from others at all. A focused balanced and addictive gameplay loop, low cost / high value vs cost, strong marketing.

This is literally what every successful game needs/does in order to stand on its own feet if you are not going the route of using an established publisher or are not established yourself already.

I think the (negative) focus on graphics by some , especially when talking about a $3 indie game on a forum of indie developers is...strange to say the least

I would have thought most would be happy here to see that you do not need amazing balls-to-the-walls graphics to be successful, as the opposite would mean majority of users here should quit the industry immediately. So yeah the idea that this is some sort of slap in the face to other indies is ridiculous.

 

Was there strong marketing, though? From what google shows me, there was next to none in December when the game launched. Seems like it's grown either from word of mouth or Steam algorithm really liked something (like player retention) about this game and went with it. The press seems to have jumped on the trend when the game already was pretty big on Steam towards the end of January, not the other way around.

EDIT: Also, the game uses royalty free art and other bought assets. Jeff Vogel would be proud.

EDIT #2: Read the VICE article: https://www.vice.com/en/article/z3n...rom-obscurity-to-27000-people-playing-at-once

Some rather popular Youtuber picked it up, which caused other Youtubers/Streamers to try it out. It snowballed from there. If there's a takeaway here, make your game Youtube'able.

 

It was played by some of the top twitch streamers, that snowballed it into avalanche.

 

So I guess it wasn't just general youtubers and twitch streamers but people specialized on roguelike and similar content. They had a massive audience for this kind of game. The game is addictive and fun in itself. Result is rise in popularity and finally Steam algorithms start recommending it it appears on the frontpage?

 

That about sums it up. Dev managed to deliver a fresh experience for a profitable niche.

 

Hi there! Just a 2 cents. TL DR: combination of things..I tried to dissect this success with nuancing.

I think it is a combination of things...I too am trying to understan...d??? we can't pin it..it's so many possible things for such financial success (a 1 off'/random pure luck? lighning in a bottle)...but.,

Vampire theme (CastleVania-style vampires); it's not like that, but vampire theme can sell much more than other horror themes. I noticed that 'goth' vampire theme could sell Very Well or not at all (like depending on the style, 'demon vampires' (Diabloesque goth) or 'heavy metal vampires'..etc the design/presentation affected liking or not. It means that a game could be too horror like or gory or not enough, etc...with the vampire theme. They had done a research and vampires, were the most iconic and chosen one among 'monsters (among, zombies, wereworlfs, witches...etc halloween characters; humans have had a fascination with vampires since it started with Vlad (Vlad Drăculea /dragulia; in fact, dragon is the name of romanian source name dracula; dragon is vampire/dragon/dragoul); Don't ask yourself why Batman is the most selling comics character (besides Spiderman) and Batman movies selling like crazy...because Bats/Vampires...Bats vs Spiders). A bit like a that Adam's Family movie, vampires just keep on interesting people because very interesting and mysterious; bloodsucking/drinking - as humans (not flesh eating like zombies); but not walking dead (like unconscient zombies; but 'undead' vampires). Blood is the fluid of life and hence it triggers human/brain. The whole lore of vampires is why games like CastleVania had such interest (and Japanese were really good at giving that vampire vibe with this game; the Japanese Castlevania-Style of vampire is very interesting).
Gothic theme/'Goth'/'Dark Goth'.. = seller, if well-made.

This game is a bit like that but more like shoot everything that moves (bats) in the dzillions that come...
it's very impressive and as others said, there are others game like that - that did not find any success like that.

This game is very well executed - but it does not explain (alone) why - Only - this game reaches 30,000 reviews...there is a bit (or a lot) of 'hype' effect and this game was picked up (as others said) by major online press (and other games, like it, were Also picked up and Never gained 30,000 reviews so quickly...)
it means that, the style, the design, the 'hooking' (addiction), of it combine to make a hit. But, if this game had been something else (than vampires...) it might Not have had the success...even if it was Very Addictive and Fun...it would just not be bought as much. Because, interest weaker. Many people are at home (COVID) and want to have (quick) arcade fun; this games provides that...nothing 'overly heavy/overdone'...

One person said, they must have put all their money on the marketing...there is a lot that. The Hype hyped it (marketing hype -and ear to ear- people told others about it; I think that Steam Algorhitm picked up on it - the Interest -and Worked On It; as in, Steam Algorithm Showed the Game Even More, because it detected it was Succesful and Sold Like Crazy -> Snowball Effect)...and the auto-hype was justified, they did a great game and it's fun...and the visuals are nice...(old style, on purpose)..with vampire survivor (survivor + vampire...title name attracts also); plus, this is relatively unknown person/developer (poncle) it almost sounds like unreal/false/fake dev; I read it is a solo dev so it evens makes it more special. Amazing work by him/her. It is also a bit of 'mobile' (itch.io) like game...and there are Tons of mobile players; and many of them also play games on Steam..so it was a bit of 'two birds with one stone'...low price 3$ = accessibility, many reviewers from Other Countries = too expensive, can't buy it, -> 3$, can buy it...other games of this price could be thought of as low/cheap/crap...and not worth buying. But, this one is low-priced and well-exectued (execution/polish is crucial) -> Extreme Value Proposition/Perception, when give AAA-like game for 5$ or less even...; it's incredible that it is in Early Access and it got to so much momentum (when other games in Early Access...sleep in it); Still, all this does not explain really why would this 1 game be getting so much success...

luck? timing? perfect circumstances?..(some...but it's not just luck,..they made a polished game; and people noticed it; no matter how much luck...if unpolished it would not have this success; but No Marketing = 0 Success; the game 'marketed itself' (or had great paid/press/Youtube trailer views marketing) and people noticed it - and then, More People Knew About it; eyeballs/ears necessary to know game exists in first place). Steam = Large Audience Pool available; 150M userrs....if you do 'catch their eyes' = lots of eyeballs/potential customers. Steam picked up the 'pulse' of Vampire Survivors (pun intended) - it was High Blood Pressure.

Also,
it's execution, timing....vampires...fun mobile game, simple, easy control, responsive, speedy/addicting/split decision, kamikaze ennemies (suicide exploders, a bit like Serious Sam's charging kamikaze-ennemies that explode themselves when near you, this increases the 'challenge/fun', there is also a Timer/Time bar - it's a 'Speed Run' to survive/increasing the difficulty/challenge/imperativity of the situation and skill-floor entry/skill-ceiling -- ''simple enough to play/pick-up, complex enough to master/level-up''), survival, very crowded/tons of monsters/action/VFXs happening, low price, just putting word vampire/survivor attracts (I mean other games were called vampires and sold nothing...but it does help; certain words 'trigger the mind'; it's why it is important to have a Title that sticks in the mind of the player and hopefully, a genre/style/design that people like)...it makes me think also a little of Ghouls & Goblins on NES nintendo 8-bit (again with castle vania/luigi mansion vibe', they/he went for the NES pixel-art of old look)...halloween is a great (horror) theme for game, when well executed. Game page description:

''Mow thousands of night creatures and survive until dawn! Vampire Survivors is a gothic horror casual game with rogue-lite elements, where your choices can allow you to quickly snowball against the hundreds of monsters that get thrown at you.''

Trigger words:

Mow, thousands, night creatures, survivors/survive, dawn, gothic, horror, casual, rogue-lite, hundreds of monsters that get thrown at you. ----> snowball (snowball, that's what happening to this game's marketing success).

Thanks for reading,
Just a 2 cents. Sorry for the length and many observations.


PS: The trailer is well made also, shows the gameplay, the pixelart is commendable with nightmare creatures, the features, etc...a solid trailer helps.. (again it's not the only thing...it's just one thing; others have made Great trailers...and the game saw no real success, certainly not 30K reviews).
I would say with this game it is the hype + vampie theme (or just the name itself) + execution + 3$ price = High Value, all this increased the luck and chances of geting so much more reviews (and that they are 99% Overwellmingly Positive; out of 32,000 reviews - only 296 negative reviews - that's something rarer than rare!; the negative reviews are even saying 'we want to like it More...we like it...but we give it negative thumbs down; not because we hate it...because we want to be Best of the best; because we do like it'...this means that even negative reviews are not very negative (and that's Really great for poncle dev and almost 99.9% everyone likes this game (!); that is people who like this type of game...ther are probably a ton of people Who Don't like this type of game..style, genre (most likely Not Steam Players and not people into Indie 2d retro NES pixel art vampires/arcade mobile-like games or Any Indie 2D game or Any games..they are just not a 'sample audience' on Steam reviews)...But, they are almost unanimously saying the same thing - the game itself, as a Game, .. is Great, made-well. People Like This Game - A Lot..99% a lot. and Want It.)). Graphics are important, the graphics are well made (the art direction, is great), but graphics are not all there is to a game (but have major '1st impression' impact (bad graphics can leave 'amateur impression/vibe' if gameplay bad too)...it's the gameplay after that that makes or breaks the 'graphics' as mattering or not; they Lift Each Other/Synergize together; Graphics feedoff of Gameplay; Gameplay feedsOff of Graphics...Sound of Graphics, Graphics of Sounds...it's the combination/synergy/'''when all the stars, signs and planets align themselves -- you are firing on all pistons''); this is why this game works; because it marries NES-pixelart 2d castlevaniaish graphics, with indie arcade addicting mobile-like gameplay, survival (onslaught of monsters in waves coming at you, a bit like those old Japanese pixel arcade games with starships in the 1980s; with Tons of stuff happening on screen simultaneously, in a pixelized VFX spectacle) and a great theme (vampire)...


PPS: IF you look at Stardew Valley...same thing...it was a success not just because it was a fun, addicting game, but because it had what the people wanted - a 2D Farm Simulator Game with Retro Japanese (Moon Harvest) SNES palette style pixel art....this one here...there is similariy...(with the Japanese Castlevania/Ghouls'n'Goblins NES pixel art/icons pixel art direction..). I think this game is like a retro hit (like Stardew Valley was...for Moon Harvest). If Vampire Survivor had bad pixel art and bad pixel art direction, and no NES style pixel art 'Retro Look'...I'm not so sure it would have had as much success; and, especially, with no vampire/halloween theme. People buy 2d indie pixel art games...oftenly for the Retro Vibe - but only if Well-Made (like with SNES/NES Quality); think Flappy Bird having Mario like NES pixel art...but many people don't want that anymore (tired of pixel games/too many), it,s why many 2d pixel art games (that emulate NES/SNES/Sega...) can have litte success; because they are trying to emulate it but people will only gravitate to the Best pixel art that makes them feel quality-retro console vibes (not an amateur pixel game that looks bad/unpolished pixel art; I think this is why 'certain' pixel art games find such success and Tons of other pixel games...are forgotten; of course, if the Gameplay is Fun too; Plus, there is the whole 'we are blasé of yet another metoo pixel art game' - - Stardew Valley and Vampire Survivors (which have excellent pixel art direction)...are the exception to fill a empty niche and are as said well-made; I guess you could say Vampire Survivors found its niche/filled a hole...now that vacant hole is - plugged/filled/unvacant). I guess this kind of reiterates the point that graphics do matter, quite a lot (more), humans are Visual Creatures - eyesight/Vision Sense Crucial; especially, the Style, the Design, the Art Direction of the graphics, very important (it does not matter as much, that they be 2d cartoonish or very simplistic -- just that the Art Direction, Presentation, Polish, Execution and Cohesion of them be great and not look amateur/game made in a 2 weeks or 48hour jam); if the gameplay is awful, you can't save Great graphics in it; but when the Great Graphics converge with Great Gameplay --> The Fun/engagement/ interest/addiction to play; that's when the magic happens and holds the player interest for Whole game. The games Stickman or One Hour One Life show that graphics are not all that matters to a game's success (heck, even 'text games' can be fun...with almost 0 graphics...but, just and only, text/blabla...);...when were were kids we used to make games with just our hands (like making hand-shadow figures on the walls...), it did not take much to have fun/make/play a game and giggle; gameplay is primordial, but graphics are substantially important too; if your game is fun and has bad graphics...it may lacking potential (selling); if your game has great graphics but the peters out in terms of fun or just not fun at all; graphics won't save it (when can look at the game 'The Order 1866' on PSX; a CGI visually impressive game, but people felt the gameplay was lackluster with too much Quicktime/FMVs cutscenes...hence it did not reach its potential despite its very very pretty graphics).

 

Guys, honestly, while i dont even plan to purchase this game and have zero interest in it i noticed this game while everyday insight around all gaming sites + youtube sub channels i do, yeah everyday from dont even know when.
How did you know what to develop if you dont even know about biggest games not in terms of $$ spend on production but ammount of attention around it.
Dont take it personaly you simply veterans here and i'm amazed by that you dont hear about this game.

As for this game, it became successsful cause of having hooky mechanic where you as a player are the bullet hell, different every playthrough + OFC Twitch payed streamers to show it off. In my opinion.

 

I love tis indie games or from small company's.

 

I have other things to do, I earn my living and I don't spend my time hopping from one site to the other to see what's going on, especially since these sites will talk about the obvious leaving the rest out. And I'm sure there are gems among that "rest". Better not knowing anything than what people want me to hear about.

 

And yet you seem to have plenty of time to talk about how you haven't heard of the game the thread is about.

 

I know you wont listen because this has been said to you by many members multiple times, but nobody is going to read a badly formatted post of rambling that is longer than all the text in this thread combined.

Format your posts and try and be concise. Its better to say what you are trying to say in 4 lines, than 400. More people will listen to you, engage with you and as a result you will have a better and more inclusive time on the forums.

Just my "2 cents"

 

I would also add that it looks like copy/paste I'm starting to believe all this topic is just a marketing

 

I did read, wdym? He talk about ho stardew valley is relative to harvest moon (not moon harvest come on! don't butcher the name like that!)

 

Never heard the game before
I give it a shot on itch.io, and it's actually not my cup of tea, my 1st impression is the pacing is too slow and to be honest, looks like something I made when I tried to make game using construct years ago.
Not really sure what drives people to buy & play it, luck and hype train maybe?

as independent game developer, I make/develop game independently based on what I want to make, not what is having attention or making big $$

 

The way how OP introduced the topic, and discusses it, highlighting various major key word, looks like SEO attempt to me. And as already mentioned by few, it feels like marketing.

How come this title brought so much attention to OP, so it had to highlight it in so various wa in single posty, instead posting perhaps single link to a game. Even title sounds now very clickbity.

Srr, but I am sceptical about OP intentions, for not being solely marketing.

Who is actually a developer behind a game and what is its experience in game industry.

Even falppy bird was result of previous years of game industry experience by its dev. Not just random noname indie dev.

How come flappy birds for example, doesnt deserve same attention to details in hisnthread?

 

With 30k+ "owerwhelmingly positive" reviews on Steam and 1k+ daily new reviews? Obviously a thread on a internet forum, any forum really, isn't going to have any visible effect anymore at that point.

 

Yea, they're successfully marketing to the dozens of us here! They need all the players they can get. It's not like this game is the 18th most played on Steam right now:



Why would anyone try to market in Unity forums of all places? For a Unity asset, sure. But a game that's not even made in Unity? This is not exactly the prime location for some kind of marketing stint.

People are simply attracted to success and are trying to understand what made this game blow up and how we could potentially replicate it ourselves. Being an indie is not exactly easy.

 

OK. So forum denizens even mention their game they got shot down and those same folks are here helping hype this obvious marketing play.

 

This is why I don't think this is a marketing attempt. This, in combination with the fact the OP has multiple threads and over a hundred posts about game development and technical issues makes me think this isn't marketing, but a crude form of market research.

To claim this is a marketing ploy is a conspiracy theory bordering on utterly laughable.

 

Some long time forum denizens seem to over-inflate the impact Unity forum has on sales.

 

Okay, you guys got me. I'm actually Luca Galante in disguise. I just got my January million dollar wire transfer from Steam, and instead of sipping on Blue Hawaii in my London penthouse I went on a streak copy-pasting clever marketing texts to pitch my game on random gamedev communities. Because I'm THAT smart. /s

As soon as your game skyrockets in one month from no-name, zero-budget, obscure solo project to all the top charts of Steam, I, personally, will be quite happy to discuss it and learn how and why you managed to achieve that outstanding success. Because your game apparently has something I can learn from. But if the best thing one can say about their indie game is "oh look, I have one more indie game that nobody knows about and nobody wants to play", then all mentions about it should go to "made with Unity" subforum, where they belong.

https://forum.unity.com/threads/how...ersy-is-helping-us-build-better-games.227848/

Back in 2014 it got its own thread and was discussed. Personally, I think that Flappy Bird is also an interesting phenomenon of its own. But taking into account that it is almost a decade old and long dead, I think that pretty much everything that could be said about it, was said already.

Out of several youtubers I follow, two have played the game, and both prefaced their let's plays by explaining that they decided to give it a try because they heard it's a new viral hit. My understanding is that almost all the news and YouTube coverage happened after (and because) the game became successful already, and that there was no marketing budget/strategy by the developer. And while subsequent coverage by media websites and youtubers certainly added some popularity to the game, it doesn't explain why it became successful, in the first place.

 

*snork*

I don't know you, but I think I like you! Thanks for the laugh this morning