Bob the Hamster Dirt Dig on Steam greenlight

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Bob the Hamster
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Bob the Hamster Dirt Dig on Steam greenlight

Post by Bob the Hamster »

I posted Bob the Hamster Dirt Dig on Steam greenlight. A bit disappointed that I immediately get 4 rather negative comments. :(

Anyway, I would appreciate it if anyone who likes it would click.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/f ... =144319539
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Post by Meowskivich »

clicks awayyyyyyyyyyyyy
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Post by Spoonweaver »

Upvoted
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Bob the Hamster
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Post by Bob the Hamster »

Thank you both, Meow and Spoonweaver!

I feel better now after more comments have rolled in. I guess maybe the people who obsessively rate games in the first hour after they are posted tend to be more negative than the rest of the greenlight crowd on average :)
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Post by mjohnson092088 »

Bob the Hamster wrote:Thank you both, Meow and Spoonweaver!

I feel better now after more comments have rolled in. I guess maybe the people who obsessively rate games in the first hour after they are posted tend to be more negative than the rest of the greenlight crowd on average :)
Trollers tend to be the first to jump on anything. Although, because it looks so much like a Dig-Dug clone, I can see how many people will be uninterested. Honestly, I'm also not interested, but that's because I was never interested in Dig-Dug either. I do like that it has a level editor, that's always a nifty feature in games. More games should have sandbox modes, in my opinion. I would think that you would have a better chance at getting this game greenlighted if you added some things that make it more original and less of a clone. That aside, I think you'd have better luck with this as an App for iOS right now. The gameplay is really simple, and casual-gamer friendly. Most of the people who play games on mobile devices probably aren't hardcore gamers, so something like this would be perfect for them.

I would try adding more to it to make it more fun and/or challenging. It just seems too boring for the Steam community. Not to say that it's a bad game, but if you look at all the other games on Steam, it doesn't really hold a candle to them.
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Post by sleepish »

I don't really use my steam account but voted for.
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Post by Bob the Hamster »

Yeah, when I think of Steam, I usually think of FPS games, so I can understand that crowd disliking puzzle games.

The game play really feels a lot different than Dig Dug, in spite of the visual similarities. Unfortunately I have no idea how to bring that out in the video.

I will be working hard to make the game better, but ultimately I know I can't please everybody, and would be crazy to try :)

The feedback that I get from people who love puzzle games will be the feedback I take most to heart.
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Post by Pepsi Ranger »

The best way to get a greenlight for games that look similar to something small and old school is to create a demo version and an alpha or beta version (that you can sell for a couple of bucks to those who want more) and link them to the steam greenlight page so that people can find it.

Games like Towns and Gnomoria don't look like anything special on the surface, but they have a rather large following (and have gotten followers within the first month of alpha) because they gave players something fun to play right out the gate, but continued to update with things that make it even cooler.

When I bought Towns (prior to its release on Steam), I think it had just gotten the ability to see layers below the current one. Since then it has included a number of new items (most recently books and signs you can write messages on), a bury town system which saves a "ruined" copy of your existing down and has the potential to show up in another person's game as part of the explorable dungeon structure (in the layers underground), and they are currently developing events and gods systems for things like angering the town deity and receiving a volcano in the middle of town. All that updating is free to those who already own the game, and it makes the game more exciting for them (and for me).

I agree that Bob Dirt Dig should come with bonuses that go beyond the regular gameplay if you really want to set it above Dig Dug, but you may want to consider creating a demo version, and even though you may be against the idea, you might want to charge for the alpha or beta versions. The players won't want to pay much for a game like that, but there's also a chance they won't take it seriously if it's free. Games we pay for we're more likely to stick with and support because we have to--we paid for it after all. Of course, if you do charge for it, then you gotta keep adding to it to keep the players enticed. But it shouldn't take much to get the greenlight if that's the case.

Those are my thoughts.
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Bob the Hamster
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Post by Bob the Hamster »

Hmmm... I got the notification that this was Greenlit today.

Interesting. I was not expecting that.
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Post by Foxley »

Woohoo! I'd buy it. I fondly remember playing Bob The Hamster VGA back in the late 90s. And Bob's Quest, and DireSPAM. And Lineality.

Damn, now I want to play Lineality. DOSbox ahoy!
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Post by Spoonweaver »

That seems to be what happened with Motrya.
Out of curiosity what were/are your stats for the game that got you greenlit?
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Post by TMC »

Cool, congrats! What are your plans for it?

I'm surprised to see that you put it on Greenlight over 2 years ago. I can't imagine much recent activity on the page, so assume this is because of Valve continually slowly lowering the barrier to entry. I remember Gabe saying somewhere that they don't want to be gatekeepers.
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Post by Bob the Hamster »

Here is a screenshot from the stats page.

My Mom has been frequently asking me to finish this game, so in spite of the fact that most of my (limited) game-making time is going to Vorpal Florist or other things like Paladin Traducer and Devs Like Waffles, I have still been tinkering with it.

The latest dev version has 46 levels, and I think 50 will be enough. I want to draw a few storyboard-type images for an ending, and maybe put some finishing touches on the level editor (I don't have any convenient way to share levels yet)

Then I guess I'll just release it and see how it goes.
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Post by Spoonweaver »

Oh wow, 800+ days. I guess Tim-Tim 2 has a long way to go.
Anyways, keep up the good work. It's great how the OHR has begun to become more and more viable as an option to make great games on.
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Post by Meatballsub »

Congrats James!

As for the the Greenlight comments, definitely don't let them get you down. When Macabre was on Greenlight, there were a few people that immediately trashed it. Come to find out, the majority of them appeared to have said the same comments on multiple greenlight projects.

In other words, some people are just going to be douches. I think it would happen even on AAA titles. You got greenlit, so that's all that matters anyways!

As for greenlight promotion, what honestly helped me the most was getting Macabre into a bundle deal. The exposure from that was more than enough to push the game to be Greenlit fairly quickly.
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