Don't be afraid to drop names like that in the storefront blurb. People might roll their eyes at Dead Cells calling itself a RogueVania with Souls-lite combat, but when I read that I instantly knew what it was and impulse bought it. If CSH had "Chrono Trigger meets Phantasy Star" in the blurb it might've helped on day one when the game was at the top of the list.Yeah, ultimately I think our elevator pitch (game concept, title, first impressions, overall quality, etc.) just isn't strong enough for the game to be an indie blockbuster. It's a good game that some people love and many aspects are very strong, but getting people to check it out in the first place can be difficult. I'm still hopeful that the Switch version will sell enough to fund development of the next game. And I think our next game has a much better shot at grabbing people's attention: Rx Machina (Memorable title that's easy to remember) and the quick pitch "The doctor recommends more mechs" or the longer pitch "It's Persona crossed with Trauma Center crossed with Mechs crossed with original turn-based gameplay."
Hope the port can do well for you in the long run. I pre-loaded the game before launch. I haven't actually started it yet (want to beat Octopath first), but wanted to support the release early on. I'll grab the physical too when it launches next year. I really hope your Persona-ish games comes to fruition. I love the structure of the Persona games (my screen name/avatar should be hint enough) and really like the concept. I wish you guys the best.It's all about visibility. The game was on the top of the New Releases list for a day or two in the middle of the week & then a flood of new releases knocked it off the top. No mention or promotion of the game by the platform holder and we've only had one big (100k+ subscribers) youtube channel cover the Switch release so far.
In contrast, Octopath Traveler has been heavily promoted by Nintendo for months including 2 highly publicized free demos. I mean, it's literally a 1st party published title so of course, they're going to promote it, but it should be obvious that a small indie team like ours doesn't have that kind of marketing muscle unless a platform holder decides they want to promote us.
Dead Cells had already sold around a million copies on PC by the time the Switch version came out so it was very well known AND it was officially coming out of early access when the Switch version launched. Cosmic Star Heroine's combined sales across all platforms is well under 100k so it's much less known.
Nintendo promoted Hollow Knight heavily at E3 with a "It's out NOW!" announcement at their press conference.
Yeah, ultimately I think our elevator pitch (game concept, title, first impressions, overall quality, etc.) just isn't strong enough for the game to be an indie blockbuster. It's a good game that some people love and many aspects are very strong, but getting people to check it out in the first place can be difficult. I'm still hopeful that the Switch version will sell enough to fund development of the next game. And I think our next game has a much better shot at grabbing people's attention: Rx Machina (Memorable title that's easy to remember) and the quick pitch "The doctor recommends more mechs" or the longer pitch "It's Persona crossed with Trauma Center crossed with Mechs crossed with original turn-based gameplay."
Yeah, ultimately I think our elevator pitch (game concept, title, first impressions, overall quality, etc.) just isn't strong enough for the game to be an indie blockbuster. It's a good game that some people love and many aspects are very strong, but getting people to check it out in the first place can be difficult. I'm still hopeful that the Switch version will sell enough to fund development of the next game. And I think our next game has a much better shot at grabbing people's attention: Rx Machina (Memorable title that's easy to remember) and the quick pitch "The doctor recommends more mechs" or the longer pitch "It's Persona crossed with Trauma Center crossed with Mechs crossed with original turn-based gameplay."
Really good stuff, tho imo there's an huge nosedive in quality on the very last dungeon, both on plot and balancing departments.
Alyssa, Chahn, Dave and Psybe is clearly the best team. Psybe is literally a monster, love him and his race concept. Really like how different every character feels like gameplay wise, but i didn't got the playstyle of some chars very well, i guess.
Played on the 3/4 difficulty and it was smooth sailing, no grind required. Some day will try to replay in the hardest one haha
So im guessing you gave up on that potential Xb1 port.
https://www./threads/cosmic-star-heroine-ot-alyssas-chrono-phantasy.1359357/page-10#post-233742818
How do the "game of the day" highlight work ? Is it a financial deal with Nintendo ?
The insight menu option was something I literally added to the game at the last minute (don't remember the exact date, but checking my emails, I got the art asset for the menu option 4 days before the game's launch on PC/PS4). If I had more time, I would have expanded upon it (and after launch, I was so burnt out that I didn't want to add anything to the game).
Sounds ... amazing!"It's Persona crossed with Trauma Center crossed with Mechs crossed with original turn-based gameplay."
I don't know that I agree that's the best team. Most of the characters seem pretty viable. I would say Arete and Finn are the clear weak members. But all of the others can be pretty busted. Personally I really like Clarke and Sue. I actually am towards the end of the game now (I assume anyways) and I am having a hard time deciding who I want my team to be.
I've been checking every day and it doesn't look like we're going to break the top 30 unless something big changes.
Yeah, ultimately I think our elevator pitch (game concept, title, first impressions, overall quality, etc.) just isn't strong enough for the game to be an indie blockbuster. It's a good game that some people love and many aspects are very strong, but getting people to check it out in the first place can be difficult. I'm still hopeful that the Switch version will sell enough to fund development of the next game. And I think our next game has a much better shot at grabbing people's attention: Rx Machina (Memorable title that's easy to remember) and the quick pitch "The doctor recommends more mechs" or the longer pitch "It's Persona crossed with Trauma Center crossed with Mechs crossed with original turn-based gameplay."
No, LRG are working on the XBO port and last I heard, things are going smoothly. I'm not expecting many sales there though compared to other platforms since it'll most likely be the last major port & it doesn't have the home/portability of the Switch version or the cross-buy of the PS4/Vita version.
I've been checking every couple of hours every day since it launched just to get an idea of how the charts move around.
We're definitely not gonna chart in the top 30.
Anyway, I think CSH is gonna do pretty decent on Switch considering what the realistic market for it is. Ain't gonna be the next Dead Cells but it's not gonna flop either. Can't wait to get it on Xbox One, and I can't wait to do the Switch physical stuff too! (I already did the manual, cover, label art, etc etc!)
I'm sad that the game isn't taking off as the deva hoped. I bought it on Switch as soon as it came out, but will probably take a while to get to it - due to holidays, finishing Octopath and then Spiderman. It's a tough time.
I have it on mine, but not sure if that's just because I bought the game.Did you guys make a Nintendo Switch channel for the news feed? I found a bunch of games because of that. Having another way to advertise the game may not be a bad way to go if you haven't done it already.
Thanks for the kind words :)Hey werezompire and bstiernberg, I just dropped in this thread to comment on the game and saw you both posting in here, and it seems as though you both worked on it. If so, I just want to thank you guys for making a game that seems like it was created just for me.
Did you guys make a Nintendo Switch channel for the news feed? I found a bunch of games because of that. Having another way to advertise the game may not be a bad way to go if you haven't done it already.
Is it possible to do a different art-style? Like say something like Hollow Knight which is 2D with layers, and also done with a few people? Having an RPG with that art-style would be so unique and amazing, that I feel like you'd have a shot at a million seller. You already have talent in coming up with great combat, so I can only imagine how cool such a project could end up being.Our elevator pitch is strong / strong enough, just look at how excited people were for the kickstarter and how much buzz that got.
What we have here is a very good, solid game but it's been a year+ since it launched initially. Generating the same kind of buzz as an actual brand new game with a (solid, quality) port isn't gonna be as easy of course.
And while certainly it's easy to (cherry) pick counter examples of games that launched on Steam and, a year later, came out on Switch to great success, I believe those tended to already have been massive hits before. A massive hit is gonna do well when ported to a new system, of course.
Something we've always known is this: we make modest, niche games that appeal strongly to a relatively small but welcoming target audience. A niche within a niche. That was always our strategy since we conceived breath of death VII. We're never going to have a mainstream appealing game as long as we focus on 2D turn-based RPGs. We don't have the resources to battle against stuff like Octopath or even a number of other indies in production values for that matter. We make good games that can reliably sell "decently" and we gotta tailor our strategy to that. We could try and make a much bigger production to try and gain a lot more appeal and thus sales, but obviously that would require a far larger budget, and probably a lot more time. In other words, a much bigger risk that could sink us entirely if it doesn't play out perfectly. That said, there's nothing wrong with designing our games with the idea of it being approachable such that someone less super into RPGs could get into.
Yeah, the icon artwork is quite poor and looks cheap. Even some of the environment art looks poor imo.call me crazy but I think its the icon artwork that is "un-selling" the game. It just seems bland. It doesn't convey the fun of the game. Not trying to be icon elitist.. but it seems. off ?
Is it possible to do a different art-style? Like say something like Hollow Knight which is 2D with layers, and also done with a few people? Having an RPG with that art-style would be so unique and amazing, that I feel like you'd have a shot at a million seller. You already have talent in coming up with great combat, so I can only imagine how cool such a project could end up being.
Yeah, the icon artwork is quite poor and looks cheap. Even some of the environment art looks poor imo.
Hey werezompire and bstiernberg, I just dropped in this thread to comment on the game and saw you both posting in here, and it seems as though you both worked on it. If so, I just want to thank you guys for making a game that seems like it was created just for me. Really, I've been wanting an RPG like this for years. I grew up on games like Lunar and Cosmic Fantasy, and this game scratches that itch perfectly. I bought it on Steam, but never got around to playing it. When it came out on Switch, I made sure to preorder it and have now put about 4 hours in. it truly is perfect for me, and I love everything about it. The music is amazing, the battle system is really unique and fun, and I love the characters and their banter. And if the game is truly between 12-20 hours, it hits the sweet spot for me, too. I love RPGs, but don't really have the time these days to invest 60+ hours.
So, again, thanks for such a great game. Really excited to see what you're working on next.
I see. Definitely wasn't thinking of side scrolling, but like a 2D character running around in a 2D background world (similar to old FF games but without 3D characters). But I guess it's not as easy to do, esp working out how to animate the 2D characters in that space. Thanks for the response.We've considered different art styles in the past. The problem with something like Hollow Knight is it only really works with a side-scrolling perspective & all our experience is with top-down games.
Got more up-to-date sales figures and the game is tracking in the same ballpark as the Steam version at this stage of its life (ignoring Kickstarter stuff). A little lower than the Steam version but the Steam version dropped off hard after the first week so if sales are more consistent over time on Switch that'll be nice. In any case, not bad for a year-old port with minimal marketing.
This pitch sounds amazing to me!Yeah, ultimately I think our elevator pitch (game concept, title, first impressions, overall quality, etc.) just isn't strong enough for the game to be an indie blockbuster. It's a good game that some people love and many aspects are very strong, but getting people to check it out in the first place can be difficult. I'm still hopeful that the Switch version will sell enough to fund development of the next game. And I think our next game has a much better shot at grabbing people's attention: Rx Machina (Memorable title that's easy to remember) and the quick pitch "The doctor recommends more mechs" or the longer pitch "It's Persona crossed with Trauma Center crossed with Mechs crossed with original turn-based gameplay."