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Looking for new dev for my game project (early access, positiv rating and +50k players)

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by JannickL, Aug 5, 2019.

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  1. JannickL

    JannickL

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    Hi there,
    in early 2019 I have released an pc online-coop indie game. It's free to play with in-app purchases.
    The game has more than 50.000 downloads and 187 ratings (positiv).

    With a good monetaziation strategy you will be able to make a good income.

    I don't have time to develop the project any further.

    If anyone here is interested in buying an indie-game project with a lot potential please contact me.

    Right now the game in still in early-access which is good for changing the development team.

    https://store.steampowered.com/app/892510/Slay_Together/

    Greets
     
    Last edited: Aug 6, 2019
  2. Tzan

    Tzan

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  3. JannickL

    JannickL

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    added
     
    Last edited: Aug 6, 2019
  4. JohnnyA

    JohnnyA

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    The ratings seem to be a bit odd, did you pay or otherwise entice people to rate?

    For example below review has 0.2 hours on record yet indicates that there are hours and hours of replayability.

    1 person found this review helpful
    Recommended
    0.0 hrs last two weeks / 0.2 hrs on record
    Posted: 16 May @ 3:36am

    EARLY ACCESS REVIEW
    Hours and hours of fun, lots of replayability and progression involved. The gameplay is solid and extremely enjoyable, especially with friends. The soundtrack is also phenomenal, never before have i felt such emotions from a soundtrack alone. For a small game, it is definitely a contender for game of the year in my book. The easiest 10/10 I have ever had to give.

    Recommended
    0.0 hrs last two weeks / 0.7 hrs on record
    Posted: 10 Feb @ 9:07am

    EARLY ACCESS REVIEW
    BEST GAME 2019!!

    Recommended
    0.0 hrs last two weeks / 0.8 hrs on record
    Posted: 20 Feb @ 6:40pm

    EARLY ACCESS REVIEW
    better than league of legends.

    If there one or two like this it would be okay, who doesn't get friends to rate their games... but there are lots. Maybe you just have a lot of friends or maybe its some meme I don't know ...
     
  5. Murgilod

    Murgilod

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    Yeah, this is pretty sketch. There seem to only be 4 reviews where somebody has played more than 10 hours of this game and one of them is because the game didn't shut down properly. That seems like some pretty poor engagement for a title that's supposed to be bringing in constant IAP revenue.
     
    MadeFromPolygons and Antypodish like this.
  6. Antypodish

    Antypodish

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    There are good valid points here.
    I haven't thought much about it previously, since I rarely look on positive game reviews. I feel I had more knowladge about the title from negative reviews, of what is good and what is bad. I know positive reviews tend to be bought across games anyway. But heck, I don't know, if here positive reviewers average play time, reach even 1 hr?

    Sorry to say, but sounds like big RED FLAG.
     
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  7. MadeFromPolygons

    MadeFromPolygons

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    Im going to pass given that a lot of the reviews dont really seem to check out.

    And if those reviews are real, then even worse: It also seems to have some really serious problems with user retention and if you were unable to get users to stick around during its honeymoon phase, I am not sure if anyone else can.

    Im not really sure anyone could make this very profitable, let alone gain more reviews as there seem to be not really much of an inflow of new users, which adds to the user rentention problem.


    Certainly I think given all of these factors, I dont think you should be claiming that this can make someone a good income. I actually think anybody who takes this on will struggle to break even with the cost of aquiring it from you.

    This is before anyone sees the codebase ,assets etc which could also have all sorts of problems and be a potential nightmare to work with.
     
    Antypodish likes this.
  8. JannickL

    JannickL

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    Hey, thanks for your replies.

    Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to make the big money here, but I'm trying to give a good developer a chance to develop a successful and lucrative game with my project (which has a good status).

    All reviews are real and yes some of them seem really odd but i think thats because the game itself is pretty sarcastically.

    The community likes the game and they are willing to pay skins (that's what I have experienced so far).

    If someone is interested we can for sure take a closer look at the project setup, code (if needed), networking setup (servers) etc.

    No scam happening here just offering a serious little project to get developed further.

    Greets
     
    Last edited: Aug 6, 2019
  9. Antypodish

    Antypodish

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    No offence. But who is willing buy a skin in Slay Together, if played less than one hour?
    You would need at least 100 to 1000 user declare willingness to buy some, to get maybe hand full of actual purchases (at best).

    Problem with project going ahead on Steam, that it missed one shot opportunity.
    Chances for recovery are now very slim, with near 0 interest from community.
    Even less from developer.

    upload_2019-8-6_12-1-46.png

    So what is your proposal to even think about recovery process, with no community to follow?

    Is just not gonna work. Isn't it?
    Maybe if you sell whole project for 5$, someone will be willing to look at. Probably striping it of the useful assets and making new game will be more effective than trying do anything with game itself. :D

    I may be missing elephant in the room of course :rolleyes:
     
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  10. Murgilod

    Murgilod

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    You know, just for a larf, I decided I'd look into that community.

    upload_2019-8-6_6-14-22.png

    Because from this, it doesn't look like there is a community. But hey, okay, let's check out the community itself.

    upload_2019-8-6_6-15-45.png

    See, that's a little weird because... the most recent posts in the Steam Community for the game are like five months old. But, okay, maybe there's more in the forums, surely? Right?

    upload_2019-8-6_6-17-44.png

    Well, uh... most of it seems to be posts about crashes that go without any actual response, or... complaints that the game doesn't have a community.
     
  11. MadeFromPolygons

    MadeFromPolygons

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    And now its pretty much set in stone that no-one here will aquire this. Sorry buddy but whether your trying to make "big money" or not as you put it, it wont matter as no-one is going to break even with this.

    Essentially, how it looks on the surface is how it really is. Looking quickly at the steam page made most of us think that its in a contrary state and standing to what you mention, and now the quick research done by @Murgilod confirms that.

    Anyway I wish you the best of luck but I also hope that no-one here gets fooled into purchasing this. Your better of open sourcing it and then at least the game will live on.


    Your peak players a month after launch was 29, that says enough.
     
  12. JannickL

    JannickL

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    With all due respect. I don't have to justify myself to any of you. With the game you can make money (maybe more or less) and I still do (yes it's not much right now). If you're not interested, I understand, but stop questioning me.

    I give up the project because I don't have time for it anymore and that's how the game currently looks from the community as well.

    That's all I have to say.
     
  13. Murgilod

    Murgilod

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    You actually do because you are trying to sell something and it's becoming pretty clear that what you're selling is five miles of "prime real estate development opportunity" in the middle of a swamp.
     
  14. JannickL

    JannickL

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    I don't see it that way. A game that makes a profit is not a game that is stuck in a "swamp". We're talking about a potential "shall state" so potential that is sold and not about the current "is state".

    If the game was in a perfect state at the moment, I wouldn't give it away, would I?

    As i said i don't have any time to continue developing the game.

    Just think about it.
     
    Last edited: Aug 6, 2019
  15. AndersMalmgren

    AndersMalmgren

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    These forums are mostly flocked with bitter and failed devs, you will not get much positive feedback sadly.
     
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  16. JannickL

    JannickL

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    Unfortunately I see what you mean...
     
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  17. Murgilod

    Murgilod

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    See, this is an interesting one because it turns around really easily.

    The game released in January and is not exactly feature or content rich in a way that would imply the development costs were particularly high. If your game has recouped those dev costs, then it's turning a profit. Great.

    How much of a profit?

    You've already talked up your community, but that community is near nonexistent. If you're not covering the dev costs, but you also can't keep working on the game, there probably isn't much profit there, is there? Turning a profit just means you're keeping the lights on and that's the problem. Why does this game have potential? There are plenty of far better games in the same space that are going to have to be edged out. What benefit does building off this co-op horde combat game offer?

    How much does it cost to keep those lights on?

    If it's only costing a hundred a month to keep the lights on, that's basically just 20 sales of the DLC pack. That's pretty unlikely, given the playerbase size we've seen and the fact that I can't even find other players on any of your servers. You're talking about the community (what?) and the profits ("turning a profit" means about as much as putting "the game is fun" in a review) but there's no actual reason to buy into any of this.

    Why is your game worth the effort?

    You haven't updated your game in like a year and a half, sit down.
     
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  18. AndersMalmgren

    AndersMalmgren

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    Actually we did a small update in July :D But yeah, day jobs are in the way.
     
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  19. Teila

    Teila

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    Bitter and failed devs?

    I love this thread. So someone comes to sell a game on the Unity community. The game is good, makes a profit, etc.

    The community digs in to prevent a developer from possibly being scammed..yeah it happens.

    They find out the game has a low following, the reviews are suspect due to the very low play time of the players, and the stats and discussion show that the game is floundering and players are not engaged.

    They post all this. Anders says..you will not get much positive feedback? What is positive about any of this?

    Sounds to me like a guy made a game, loves his game, but is unable to support it due to time or lack of marketing/engagement skills is unable to make a go of it. Sounds like a million other game developers out there. Kudos for loving your game so much you want to see succeed, even without you.

    Thank goodness the community did some research. All we need is another bitter and failed developer who paid money from someone off the Unity forum.

    I think the community did what it should do. And these do not sound like bitter people to me.
     
    Last edited: Aug 6, 2019
  20. Billy4184

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    The forum is not an affirmation party, nor is this thread looking for 'feedback'. There were some clear questions that shouldn't be hard to answer that haven't been. If a salesman can't take a bit of heat from a customer what does that say?
     
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  21. AndersMalmgren

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    I'm just tired on the same couple of guys who have never showed any actual own work and just S*** on people who do have something to show. it grows old
     
  22. Murgilod

    Murgilod

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    Not nearly as old as you jumping in to threads to constantly derail them.

    Like you are doing right now.

    Because we were in the process of discussing the value of a product for sale.

    And now we are not, as you have showed up to derail the thread.
     
  23. frosted

    frosted

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    Honestly, you probably can't legally sell the game because of the number of asset store items in it.

    That said, 110 reviews is a lot, as is 50k users.

    I donno if the game itself is actually worth buying, but just buying the install base might be worth something.
     
  24. AndersMalmgren

    AndersMalmgren

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    If you sell the legal entity connected to the account it should be possible.
     
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  25. Teila

    Teila

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    Not meaning to add to the derailment..but anyone who wants to do that needs to check with Unity first. They are pretty strict about this stuff.
     
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  26. Teila

    Teila

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    That has nothing at all to do with the subject of this thread. As I said Kudos to the guy for publishing a game. But..once it went up for sale, it gave everyone the right to examine and evaluate that product. They did not s**** on the guy or his game, just on his sales pitch.
     
  27. AndersMalmgren

    AndersMalmgren

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    Unity cant do S*** about it. The contract is with legal entity. Not the owner of the legal entity. I could sell my legal entity today "MDA Digital LLC" and all assets including my game and game assets there in would be theirs
     
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  28. Teila

    Teila

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    Possibly, but best to check. If you are giving advice to the populous, then it is important they make sure they know exactly what they are doing and not following someone who wants to be a lawyer but is not. ;)
     
  29. AndersMalmgren

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    Ok, sure, thats how LLCs work in my country. But pretty sure its the same in rest of the world. Thats the point with LLCs
     
  30. Murgilod

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    See, that's the thing though, it isn't 50k users. Near as I can tell? It's 50k installs. That's the thing you have to look out for in these situations. The other thing you have to look out for? Stuff like the vast majority of those reviews having less than 10 hours of playtime. This doesn't bode well because 50k installs on an F2P title? That's... like, it's not explicitly bad but it's not great either.

    The concurrent players are the big thing when you're purchasing a multiplayer title, and this game doesn't have those. A sizeable amount of posts in the discussions are even about the lack of players to actually play this title with. The question really ends up being "is this incomplete, underpopulated co-op horde game worth trying to bring to life, or would I be better off doing something else with my money?" and I'm not seeing anything indicating it'd be the former.
     
    Last edited: Aug 6, 2019
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  31. Teila

    Teila

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    It is possible the developer does not have an LLC, just a Unity account and it is against Unity's TOS to sell your Unity account. You really do not know.

    Do not every take legal advice from an online forum. NEVER. Someone takes advice here and they end up in huge trouble and the person who posted does not care at all.

    If I were going to buy something like this, I would definitely talk to a lawyer and get some legal advice ahead of time.
     
  32. frosted

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    To be clear - I would imagine just rebuilding the game entirely and using the install base as built in marketing. It's basically like buying a twitter feed with 50k followers and enough positive reviews that you look legit.

    I don't think the game itself has enough going on to warrant purchase on its merits, and since all the art is asset store, there isn't a lot of value there.
     
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  33. AndersMalmgren

    AndersMalmgren

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    I said legal entity. Which indicates a company does it not?
     
  34. AndersMalmgren

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    Its like buying a 50k wishlist almost :D
     
  35. frosted

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    Exactly. The userbase is worth more than the game imo.
     
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  36. AndersMalmgren

    AndersMalmgren

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    Which is not that shabby, only have roughly 10k wishlist myself
     
  37. frosted

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    Yeah, 110 reviews and 50k installs is a lot. There's value there.
     
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  38. Antypodish

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    You could at least add some your expertise evaluation to your comment, of the product, which tries to be sold to community memebers. Otherwise your comment is pointless.

    Describe please, where you see value in current state of the proposed title. How you can make money out of it, based on what has been already gathered and more. That will be much more constructive, if you think, some of us see the product in wrong light.

    I will write again as in past. Many of us has wide range on expertise, beyond / outside game making. That gives use opportunity, to look at the problem from different angle, than just purely game dev.

    But any of us here can be potential buyer.
    We need positive assurance on the product. This thread is nothing less/more, than any asset on asset store, which has reviews. You want sell, sell it in good light. Your product is bad, fix it, or accept bad reviews.

    We get just to, to tons of shovel ware and abandon ware. No fewer scams going either. In current economical light, trust is hard to earn, easy to fall.
     
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  39. Billy4184

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    The question is, are those customers willing to buy stuff, or are they out to play rando freemium games? Not every customer is the same. Sometimes starting of on one foot and trying to change to the other is difficult.

    If I was a customer, I'd be particularly interested to hear more about what is actually generating revenue for the game, because that's where any potential really exists, if any. Unfortunately there hasn't been much of a reply to questions about this.
     
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  40. Murgilod

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    Okay, but again, that doesn't really mean anything here. 50k installs on f2p is great, but only if there's a community there.

    But there isn't, because the whole game had an all time peak of 30 players. Even the community activity petered off pretty quick, averaging about 1 post per month on its own forums. In a multiplayer game reliant on an active playerbase or community? That's not really great.

    But there's still more to it.

    Let's say you buy the game, do a spit and polish, do it all up real nice, yeah?

    What do those 50k installs get you?

    It's not like they're going to be a great community seed, there was never really a community to speak of. Maybe you get access to the Discord server, but honestly even it seems to mostly be full of people idling, another server on their list. And so maybe you draw a couple of those 50k back.

    So what?

    No, really, so what? The game is free to play. The barrier to entry is honestly so low at that point that it may as well not exist. It's not like Slay Together has any real brand recognition either.

    And that's the big set of problems here, isn't it? Sure, you get those 50k installs, but how many of them even remember the game? What is a 50k install base for a free to play game really worth independent of the game when the community itself doesn't exist?
     
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  41. AndersMalmgren

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    We have about 10% of the install base but roughly 50% of the reviews. I wonder if free players are less likely to write reviews?
     
  42. Teila

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    Do you know he has a legal entity? No. You are assuming.
     
  43. Teila

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    Probably they are less likely to write reviews as they can try the game for free and if they do not like it, they can just stop playing it. There is no investment in the game. Usually it is people with strong opinions on the game who write reviews. Playing for .7 of an hour is really not enough time to form a strong opinion.
     
  44. frosted

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    Agreed. The question though is how much does it cost?

    Buying the store release is worth a hundred dollars, if the asset packs are included those are probably around $300 worth of asset store stuff. So how much is the community itself worth? $200? $100? Maybe $1 a review is not unreasonable.

    If you are buying an LLC (needed to legally buy the assets) - the paperwork and stuff has gotta be worth another couple hundred. If you aren't, then OP can't legally sell the assets and you're down to the $100 store price, and the community. So maybe $300 is a point to start negotiation there.

    Is that worth it? Maybe to someone who really wants to take a shot at F2P on Steam.

    Note that I'm discounting 100% of the work that OP has done. I don't mean to be disrespectful to OP, but there is no way to know what the value of the actual work is without knowing how all of it's built.
     
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  45. Teila

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    I imagine the filing fees and legal fees to transfer the LLC would be more than the game or assets are worth.
     
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  46. AndersMalmgren

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    Almost all negative reviews for our game is less than 0.7
     
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  47. frosted

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    Game refund rates are usually around 5%-15%, almost all refunds happen in under 2 hours. A lot of them happen in under an hour. So getting through .7 hours with users having a positive feeling for a game is important!

    Although I wouldn't put a lot of stock in positive reviews at under an hour, its not nothing.
     
  48. AndersMalmgren

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    In my country it can be transfered in one click online. But I suspect we are in the frontline when it comes to electric services in the public sector
     
  49. frosted

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    My guess is that OP probably doesn't have a legal entity, so its probably moot.

    One major point of concern is that only like 500 players are following the game.
    https://steamcommunity.com/search/groups/?text=Slay Together#text=Slay+Together

    Admittedly that's because most of them probably just downloaded it - but still - it means that publishing a new announcement won't find as many fresh eyes as you'd expect from 50k installs.
     
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  50. AndersMalmgren

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    Isn't a legal entity required to publish on steam? Doesn't mean he used that entity with unity asset store though
     
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