I wish I could tell you that this would be an inspiring tale of how you can succeed in making games solely on your own that are not only a personal achievement but also a commercial one. I'm very proud to have achieved the former, and the latter serves as a reminder that you should be making your games with the right agenda in mind. This game is and has always been a passion project of mine. That's what I have to remind myself of now that the commercial results are in. Analytics can be amazing, but in my case I have to be careful not to read too much into the numbers presented there or I might be left feeling severely discouraged. 

So, what do the statistics look like?

Today is the 3rd of June, 2023. Here’s where my numbers stand as of writing this post:

No use beating around the bush, from a commercial standpoint, the numbers are heartbreaking. My views stand at 119, yet out of those 119, I've yet to gain a single, paying customer. I haven't made a dime on this project that I've spent hundreds, if not thousands, of hours developing ever since I made my first model for the game in the summer of ‘22. The views received today are down from the initial 46 to 4, a severe drop in publicity. The majority of the views received have been from people finding the game through the Newest tab, and that surely explains the drop in views. 

If we move over to the post I published over on Reddit titled [RELEASED] Blackmail - A Low Poly Horror Game by Theodor Stenmo in the r/itchio subreddit, things get worse. I've garnered 450 views over the span of 3 days. That statistic alone is absolutely amazing, and I'm so thankful for it from a non-commercial standpoint. If I were to analyze it from the opposing viewpoint, the negative viewpoint, then I would instead find that not a single person has gone from that post over to my game on Itch using the link found in the post. The two upvotes the post has come from my primary and secondary Reddit account. The only comment found under the post other than my own is a person criticizing the look of the post when scrolling through the subreddit without clicking on it to enlarge it. 

What did I learn?

During the days before releasing Blackmail, I allowed myself to inflate my expectations of how much I would earn from the game. I looked at other games and started comparing them to mine, started to move away from the passionate outlook which had driven me to make what I've made in favor of a feeling that I deserve commercial success for the work I've put in. The days following the release of the game seem to be the perfect answer to that skewed mindset. It almost feels like it was meant to be, but the danger with this new mindset is that I've now started questioning my project and my own ability by extension of that. 

Was the pricing too high? Were the screenshots bad? Did I delude myself in thinking that the graphics were good? Is the story just not interesting enough? Who am I to think that people would spend money on my game?

All of it stems from the fact that I started looking at it from the commercial perspective. I started comparing myself to others. Those comparisons were often completely unfair for numerous reasons, and that's something I'm now trying to remind myself of. 

Publishing my game has been a massive learning experience for me, and that's exactly how I've got to view the release of this game. I vowed to myself when starting my education in game development three years ago that when I would publish my first commercial game, It would be a game I'm thoroughly proud of. Today, I can finally say that the dream of doing that has turned into reality. For all budding game developers out there, let this post serve as a reminder to always stay true to what motivated you in the first place. As a solo game developer, having a clear and positive mindset is what will get you through those long hours and crazy amounts of hard work that's required of us. No amount of money will ever be able to replace the dedication that passion has the power of giving to you. 

Update, 2024-10-22:

More than a year after having initially written this post, I finally feel ready to post it. And hey, the game will be on sale during Halloween if you want to snatch a look for yourself!

I'm currently developing a mobile game, a step down from this ambitious project you might say. To me, it's a rediscovery of what I was talking about in this post more than a year ago. It will be free and I'm currently hard at work in making it a reality.

Thank you for your time, and happy developing everyone.