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Comment by optymizer | Hacker News Reader

Congrats on releasing games on Steam! I'd like at some point quit my job and run a small game studio. I have so many questions, mostly out of curiosity. If you could answer the ones you're comfortable with, I'd appreciate it:

* What's your tech stack for the games? Are you using an engine?

* Who made the art? If you did it yourself, what software are you using?

* How was the process for releasing your game on Steam? Did you have to do a lot of marketing to get users to greenlight your project?

* How did you make the trailer for the Eldritch Zookeeper? If you didn't do the voice, how did you hire the voice person?

* The Cat Machine has 107 reviews on Steam. How many users does that translate to?

* Does your current employer have a clause in the contract discussing IP made on your own time? Did you have to get an exception from your current employer to be able to release games on Steam?

Thanks in advance.

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Mostly Unity and C#, I still use Python for bits and pieces (see my other comment). I made and make all the art myself, just painting in Photoshop, animating in the wonderful Spine by Esoteric Software (great tool that's worth every penny), and do all my video and audio editing in DaVinci Resolve (I used to use Adobe AfterEffects but the monthly fee was just too high for me). I also use Blender for any 3D work (I used to use Modo, but again, the monthly fee was too high).

Marketing for The Cat Machine wasn't too bad, I had an okay ground game with getting coverage from gaming websites and someone posts it on Reddit and for 2015 that was good-enough marketing for the time, more than enough to Greenlight the game. The voice actor is Scott Gilmour (@scottgilmour7 on Twitter) and I found him after listening to about 100 voice samples on all the different VO websites. He's fantastic! I don't share my sales numbers publicly, but Steam is about 70% of The Cat Machine sales, and about 25% is from the Apple Mac Store - where the game actually hasn't been published for about a year now, I need to get on that and reupload it. And games is right now my full time job, so no IP clauses needed negotiating, and my old employer back in 2015 was very chill about letting me work on my own stuff.

Hope that helps!

> I used to use Modo, but again, the monthly fee was too high

With Modo they do offer a perpetual license option where you can keep using the last version you paid for.

Thanks for your insights into your process. I agree, DaVinci Resolve is an excellent replacement for Adobe. I got the Speed Controller deal last year, it's nice having the jog/shuttle wheel and buttons.

Deciding what price to set games must be difficult. I'm in Australia, and the price of your cat game is $21.50. Even though that's equivalent to a large pizza and drink, it's steep for an indie puzzle game. I wonder whether a game like this would sell more and profit more if the price were $5 instead of $20.

Hmm, I would never price a game at $5, that sounds insanely low. I've sold a decent % of my copies in Oceania so I'm confident my pricing isn't off, it's been working for the last six/seven years in any case. From the looks of it the Australian Dollar price is just one or two US dollars more than the US price. There's always a bit of fluctuation over time though.

Thank you DizzyDoo for the details. It does help to understand what others are doing, so I can maybe emulate the successes and avoid failures ;) I haven't heard of Spine and DaVinci Resolve, I'll look into those. Thank you again and best of luck!

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