Tyd wag vir Niemand - a Time-Manipulating First Person Indie Adventure

[Skobbejak Games]

Hi everyone,

We just wanted to let you all know we just released our latest game, Tyd wag vir Niemand, onto Steam.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/589730/Tyd_wag_vir_Niemand/

[video=youtube;krJhdhdD-Ps]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krJhdhdD-Ps[/video]

Please let us know what you think.

Description:

Manipulate time to your will at any moment to solve challenges, avoid deadly traps and make it to the end of this strange journey.

Tyd wag vir Niemand is an indie abstract adventure filled with mystical environments that will put your abilities to the test and engage you in a world of mystery and wonder.

Features:

-Large, abstract environments
-Fun, tricky obstacles
-Exploration
-Platforming
-Traps

 

[etienne_marais]

At R109 I can surely give it a go, once I made some space available on HD (no, I don't even have 5GB left)

 

[Skobbejak Games]

Thanks so much for the support Etienne, we really appreciate it

Haha, we feel your HD woes, there's never enough space.

 

[Chevron]

Need to remember to check this out when I'm at my pc.

 

[Skobbejak Games]

Thanks so much for the interest and support Chevron, hope to hear your thoughts if you decide to pick it up.

 

[Swa]

I'll pick it up if it releases on GoG.

 

[Skobbejak Games]

Hi Swa, thanks so much for the interest. We have submitted Tyd wag vir Niemand to GOG during its Early Access days but it was rejected, they are always open for re-submissions though and we just sent another one now, now that Tyd wag vir Niemand is fully released they might reconsider it.

I will let you know if I get any news regarding GOG store acceptance.

 

[animal531]

Looks good, I always try to support the locals.

 

[Skobbejak Games]

@animal531 Thanks for the support and the compliments hope you like the game and be sure to let us know what you think.

 

[ViciousClone]

Hoop julle klap sukses maat Is julle deel van n game community?

As nie praat met my en join my community ,dalk kan ek julle help die game bekend maak tussen my mensies.

 

[Deadmanza]

Is the game in english? Why would you choose to use afrikaans as the language for the title.

 

[Skobbejak Games]

@djbrendan: Dankie man, ons hoop ook so, ons stress maar, die sales is baie minder as ons voorige games, dit lyk as of Steam se nuwe system nie kleiner devs baie favour nie.

Ons is nie rerig deel van n community nie, ons post maar waar ons kan, ons kry niks tyd vir bemarking nie en ons het nie geld om vir dit te betaal of iemand aan te stel om dit vir ons te doen nie, maar ek probeer nou meer active raak op communities, dis net so bietjie moeilik om als te juggle.

Asseblief as ons kan connect met jou community en so bietjie met hulle kan interact sal dit baie waardeer word, ons kort al die hulp wat ons kan kry. Dankie weereens vir die ondersteuning.

@Deadmanza: Yes the game is in English. Its sort of become our trademark we feel it goes well with our surreal and abstract first person adventure games, at least it worked well for our previous game that is. There seems to be a big change in Steam's new Launch Visibility System that doesnt seem to favour the smaller devs as much, although Im not sure.

 

[ViciousClone]

@djbrendan: Dankie man, ons hoop ook so, ons stress maar, die sales is baie minder as ons voorige games, dit lyk as of Steam se nuwe system nie kleiner devs baie favour nie.

Ons is nie rerig deel van n community nie, ons post maar waar ons kan, ons kry niks tyd vir bemarking nie en ons het nie geld om vir dit te betaal of iemand aan te stel om dit vir ons te doen nie, maar ek probeer nou meer active raak op communities, dis net so bietjie moeilik om als te juggle.

Asseblief as ons kan connect met jou community en so bietjie met hulle kan interact sal dit baie waardeer word, ons kort al die hulp wat ons kan kry. Dankie weereens vir die ondersteuning.

Great,Sodra ek by die huis is sal ek jou ons TS details gee

Digital tag gaming is die community,ons het n site ook http://www.digitaltaggaming.com/index.html

 

[Skobbejak Games]

@djbrendan Weereens, baie dankie man, waardeer dit baie! Sal so lank julle website gaan uitcheck

 

[animal531]

Yeah, it's a problem for indie games. You need to get word of mouth out there, so that people start playing it and telling their friends about it.

You either need:
a) Extremely good reviews on Steam so you stand out when people are searching/filtering
b) People to see other people playing it (either in print reviews, video gameplays (ie youtubers), screencaps/gifs of cool things happening etc)

B is essential, and since it's very hard to get (online) magazines to review indie games until they're already very popular I'd suggest you try and find youtubers that play your kind of game and gift it to them to try out. It also depends on the kind of game, as more experience oriented games sometimes don't translate well into being watched (or rather, if people see other people play it, then they don't have to do so themselves). Having some random gameplay elements (and replayability) becomes important there.

Either way, it can be just as hard as having done the game in the first place :/

 

[Skobbejak Games]

Yeah its a huge problem. I think our main issue is Steam's new Visibility system, as we can see huge differences in our Sales and Visibility compared to our previous releases. We know it cant be the name as we've had a long Afrikaans title before with our previous game, 'n Verlore Verstand, which actually did better than our 1st game, Vapour, which is a one-word English title. We were never able to get viral suppor on any big websites or youtube or anything but that was never a problem for our previous titles, we didnt do great but we did well enough to survive and pay for rent and food, but now it seems like Visibility doesnt favour smaller devs as much.

Our reviews seem to be doing okay at least (which makes this even more frustrating as its by far our most polished game and the one everyone everyone seems to like the most) which is a relief. There are still some rough edges that we want to fine tune with upcoming updates though. We would also love to add features such as VR and a Level Creation system with Steam Workshop support, but if we arent going to get the sales we need it wont be possible.

B is the main problem, yes its nigh on impossible to get a big website to review or mention your game as they only support games that are already moderately popular, which is a real "chicken or egg" dilemma as you need to already be popular to have them give you a chance but how do you get popular if no one will give you a chance.

We are getting some bigger youtubers contacting us for the game now luckily so hopefully that helps to spread it a bit soon and we will also keep carrying on to spread it, thanks again for the support and the feedback.

 

[Insint]

Ek sal hierdie een nog koop. Desember se kant, dit sal darem nog op my ou rekenaar hardloop.

Ek sit die op my wishlist.

 

[Skobbejak Games]

@Insint: Baie dankie vir die ondersteuning ons waardeer dit baie

 

[animal531]

Yeah, more on my point B. I've read so many articles now where even games like Stardew Valley which is as successful as you can be, they only got reviews going once they hit serious milestones. The age of the magazine is sadly dead unless if you're AAA and they're just monkeying all the other reviews out there :/

The visibility thing on Steam is worrying. That means that it'll force indies into only creating games that are more "viral"; ie. being played on streams etc. It's not great for creativity :/

 

[Skobbejak Games]

@animal531: Yup, its getting nigh on impossible for the little guy these days. Im sending out emails like crazy but not getting any responses, even from local places. It seems like big sites are also very anal on press kits and press releases which we've never really concentrated on, but Im trying to set some stuff up now. But yeah it does pretty much come down to you need to already be big to get any support from anyone with a loud enough voice to make a difference.

Yeah the Steam visibility is extremely worrying as it used to be that everyone got 1m Views for their new game release over the course of a month no matter how big or small which was fair and those 1m Views were at least enough so that enough people could get a feel for your game and see where it fits if you did well you were rewarded with even more Visibility, but now your Launch Visibility is determined by how many customers, reviews and wishlists you have, which means you need to bring in a ton from outside of Steam by yourself before you get any real Visibility on Steam, which pretty much kills all the small guys or yes as you say forces the small guys to make clickbait and youtube fodder games.

It doesnt seem like GOG is any better they are super picky on what games they allow we've submitted 4 games to them and theyve all been rejected, which is understandable though they have a different business model and I can see they mostly concentrate certain types of game. But mostly again they basically only accept games that are already doing good.

Even itch.io isnt any different you need to actively search and click through a few links and filters just to find the Newly Released games, to become a featured game on itch.io again you need to already be doing very well.

I understand that these are all businesses and that they need to do well, but I feel like popularity and sales arent always the correct way to tell whats a good game and what people might like, especially in the indie sector.