Hi all! This is BáiYù of tofurocks, and I wanted to thank everyone for their patience with this long-awaited write up about the Queer Halloween Stories Bundle. For those who are just now hearing about it, the QHSB was a month-long mutual aid co-op bundle of Halloween-themed narrative games (read: mostly visual novels, interactive fiction, and adventure games) that aimed to put money into the pockets of the developers who participated. This was my first year running a bundle, and you can view our presskit here!
I spent some time swapping notes with a few other folks (such as Taylor McCue, one of two organizers of the larger Queer Games Bundle, the folks at Game Dev Galaxy, and Indiepocalypse's PIZZAPRANKS). My intention for writing this post-mortem is to share my personal experience as well as the knowledge I've gained from the process so that others who are interested in running a bundle/zine don't fall into the same pitfalls I did. This will be rather lengthy, so strap in!
A bit of background on what I do: my primary hat is that of a narrative designer/writer and occasionally a programmer. The hat I put on for most other people though is Social Media Management & Marketing. Basically, the extremely indie oddjobs role of telling people to play (and hopefully!) buy games. In August 2022, I was managing the Kickstarter campaign for Fiendish Fiction's first otome game Birds of Paradise, which was struggling to get momentum in order to obtain funding; I did my best throughout the month but it unfortunately didn't succeed because our target audience was unfamiliar with our works. Just putting the demo together was expensive enough for the team, and I felt guilty for failing them.
Yet despite the setbacks, Fiendish Fiction had their eyes set on participating in the 4th Annual Spooktober VN Jam with a commercial entry, which would be what's now known as Nameless: The Departed Cycle.
However, one of the major rules about Spooktober Jam is that all entries have to be available for free throughout the following month, which obviously means that's an incredible loss of revenue on release. Since we were planning to add partial voice acting to the game, developing this would not be cheap either.
I had to do something.
I've personally participated in every instance of the Queer Games Bundle thus far and had to strong-arm Fiendish Fiction into joining the 2022 bundle; in fact, it was the proceeds from that same bundle that actually allowed them to commission the backgrounds and GUI needed for Birds of Paradise. My share of the earnings would go towards commissioning the promotional art for this bundle. I went to go tell several Discord servers and groups of developers that I was running a smaller-scale queer bundle, this time specifically for narrative games that could be connected to Halloween in any way:
To me, it was important that I curated narrative-focused games rather than a broad spectrum of Horror games; a more specific theme tying together all the games would give the bundle a stronger identity. That aside, I'm also admittedly not a fan of common genre conventions such as jumpscares and scare chords as the primary driver of the sort of discomforts Horror intends to instill.
Horror being the genre that it is, I also wanted to ensure that other participants knew what games their works would be associated with, and for customers to know what sorts of games they'd be buying, so I after confirming which games would go into the bundle I asked for press kits that included content warnings. For the developers who didn't have press kits prepared, I went ahead and prepared something small for them to put on the QHSB website. This is definitely something I should have done differently: asking for press kits with game submissions to reduce the amount of time I spent on this part.
While this was happening, I set up a few bit.ly links links to have human-read friendly links for people to use and easily type, and had also put feelers out for press, reviewers, and content creators to apply for free copies of the bundle via Google Form. The criteria to obtain a key wasn't particularly high:
And yet the second and third point was a deal breaker for many applicants; I'd get Youtubers who hadn't uploaded a video in over half a year with inactive social media feeds (how'd they even find me to begin with?) or writers for news sites that had a track record of scorning visual novels (why are they signing up for this then?). Still, we received a sizeable amount of applicants who seemed promising, so I was confident about coverage for the bundle. I went ahead and asked the participants with commercial games to generate me a few keys to hand to some people who told me they could only cover a certain amount of games (in hindsight, I should have asked for enough for all of the approved applicants).
Finally, after all press kits and links were created, I went around and asked every participant to leverage their own personal followings by making a post about the sale the day of launch and throughout October.
The bundle launched at midnight in Eastern US on October 1, 2022. Due to my day job at the time, I was up at about 4AM or so to spread the news of the bundle and send out the majority of the bundle keys. This is where I had made a massive mistake: as of now, bundles on itch.io do not have the option to generate review keys to send to press, meaning that each copy I was giving away for free would eat into my own company funds. I had asked about this in the itch.io Discord server but never got a response, and it was too late at night to ask the other participants of the bundle with commercial games to generate me more individual keys; at the very least, it was a cost I was able to cover at no detriment to the other participants. This did mean that the sales goal was a bit offset at the beginning, however.
I checked in throughout that day and the rest of the month to retweet the other participants on all of my accounts (my personal Twitter, then the ones for tofurocks and Project Ensō respectively) and check on sales. The bundle was being received well and some independent writers had posted articles for it, the majority of content creators seemed to enjoy the games, and it was picking up quite a bit of support.
I will have to say however, that my personal expectations for the bundle may have been a bit too high. Many of the applicants who had received a free copy had not followed through with featuring the bundle to my knowledge. One streamer was incredibly disrespectful to the developers who'd set aside time to watch them play, and when I posted it onto Facebook, was asked bad faith questions such as "why is your sexuality a selling point for this?" I'll also fully admit to personal disappointment that we hadn't reached 100 sales with how much effort I had put into the bundle along with my other obligations that month.
Still, 90 bundles sold with $2,247 raised isn't something to sneeze at for a small-scale operation on its first year; even if the bundle ran at a loss for tofurocks, it still brought in sales and traffic to everyone's games, and I consider that alone to be a win.
There's lessons to be gleaned from the negatives above, and here's what we can take with us going forward.
1. Find the right press/content creators for your games
This means screening applicants if you've made a request form to ensure that they're not bad actors. I could have avoided the mishap with the disrespectful streamer if I had spent a little extra time researching that person's channel, and I take full responsibility for the damage they caused to the developers for this year's bundle.
2. Don't count on all press offers following through
Even after screening applicants who showed interest, not everyone will deliver on articles or streams. It happens and there's not much you can do about it, unfortunately.
3. The same marketing strategies may not work on different social media platforms
You probably won't be able to engage people the same on Tumblr the way you would on TikTok, and you wouldn't be able to make the same kinds of posts you do on Facebook as you do Twitter. My background in marketing helps me to adapt, but it's always something worth repeating. If you're not confident or familiar enough with certain places, you may want to skip posting there altogether or have someone else who's better acquainted with that community to post on your behalf.
4. Effort doesn't automatically translate into results
This sucks to say, but it's true. Organizing any crowdfunding-adjacent effort is a lot of work and sometimes you may not get the results you'd like to see. Being ambitious when you're helping others isn't bad at all but it's best to keep your expectations in check.
There absolutely are things I would have done differently while running the bundle now that I have this experience, so this section has advice and tips from both myself and some of the people I mentioned above. Please note that these tips are intended with themed & mutual aid co-op bundles/zines in mind rather than charity bundles whose proceeds will be donated to an organization, though I'm sure some points still apply.
Put feelers out and make plans as soon as possible, especially the more people who are involved in your bundle. A small group you're close to can reasonably communicate in a group chat, server, or similar— the moment you start working with developers or studios you may not know as well, you'll need to expand the scope of your organizational efforts.
If your bundle is also themed around a holiday or event, you want to make sure you launch on time. For example, I started planning the QHSB around the last week of August 2022, after the Birds of Paradise Kickstarter campaign that unfortunately didn't succeed. I started contacting folks and emailing my prospective promo artists on the last day of August and got the ball rolling early September 2022. Meanwhile, the Queer Games Bundle 2022 began preparations in January with public organizing in March (as indicated by the optional game jam hosted to give visibility to the submissions) for an organizing period of over 5 months at the minimum.
One of the most important things you should do for your bundle is to get graphics made for it, whether it's just a logo or a cover to make it easier to identify. Videos and video editing skills are also rather useful. Depending on the scale of your efforts (like whether you plan to make this a recurring bundle), it may be in your best interest to create a new email account, a new itch account, and other social media presences as well. I can also highly recommend making a bit.ly account to generate shortlinks, as these also give you some nice analytics to see where your clicks are coming from.
When it comes to large amounts of data, you just can't beat spreadsheets, and that means you need to make a form to fill out. Making a good form that gets all the information you need will be the first step to saving you time. Here's few of the fields I would have used (add or delete as per your needs):
The last field is relevant when it comes to more linear narrative games with few mechanics, where the whole experience can reasonably be gained from watching someone else play. Additionally, be sure to add a note that participants should notify you if they change their itch usernames, as that can cause issues while organizing the bundle and inviting developers to approve their games.
If you're reaching out to press and content creators for coverage of your bundle, you'll want a similar form:
Notes: Someone filled out the form for the QHSB keys with "@[InsertName] on all socials" which made it more difficult to find them, which essentially disqualified them on the spot.
For those who don't know what a press kit is, it's essentially a cheat-sheet for members of the press to base their articles on. This will likely include information like your release date, retail price, platforms, synopsis, screenshots, etc. For your bundle, this should include information about all the participants and games, when the bundle will be live, etc.
For those who dread making a press kit (or don't know how to start making one), here's a couple of resources for you.
I highly suggest forwarding these resources to your participants so they can create press kits of their own for the games, which will save them time and prepare their games for more coverage in the future.
After collecting everyone's emails, plan all official communications using that method. Depending on which email provider you use, create a contact group or list (if you use Gmail, it's called Google Contacts) to group together all the participants. This will make it so you don't have to manually fill the To, CC, or BCC lines with each email individually.
After you have your groups, you can keep everyone on the same page, whether this is sharing some posts or asking them to make announcements to their own audiences, etc. You may have to send a few short emails for particularly time-sensitive matters; if you worry this may get annoying for some people, remind everyone that it's in their best interests for the entire effort to succeed.
There's an advantage to making people aware of your bundle before it goes live, but there currently isn't a wishlist function on itch.io yet. Therefore, if you're reaching out to the press, set a release embargo on articles mentioning the bundle to the day of launch to maximize awareness. One of the websites who wrote about the QHSB continued to bring in a few hits throughout October, but since it was published a few days before it officially went live, we potentially lost a bit of visibility and thus sales.
When it comes to content creators, you're more likely to find success fitting into their schedules if you have something solid to show them at least a month in advance if possible. Many Vtubers and streamers I know of often have a weekly or bi-weekly schedule posted ahead of time to let their viewers know what to expect, and checking out new games to see if their streaming set-ups can handle it also takes a bit of time.
Lastly, you may also have members of the press or content creators reach out to you while your bundle is live. To ensure you don't miss their inquiries, have a public-facing email to direct messages to.
Let's not beat around the bush; organizing a bundle can be exhausting work. If there's someone you can trust to be on the same page as you to coordinate tasks, it isn't a bad idea to have them help you with things, whether it's covering skills you aren't as good with, alternating what days you're actively checking messages, spreading awareness, checking over things you've written, or answering questions from participants.
This isn't part of organizing things per se, but I'm going to say that this is non-negotiable. Obstacles can and will appear to disrupt things, and even if everything goes right, you'll still be tired and feel some sort of "crash" when things are over. Pacing yourself is important, and if you can get help doing a few mundane things in your life (laundry, cooking meals, etc.), now's the time to ask for that help.
This section is just my two cents and opinions on things, not to be taken as hard fact. Please take the following with a grain of salt.
Q: Should I give away keys of games included in the bundle to streamers?
A: If the bundle is small, it may be feasible, otherwise I'm not sure I can recommend it after my experience. It also depends on the discount for the games; if there's over 100 games in a bundle being sold for a minimum of $10, you probably
Above all else, it's really time-consuming. Without sounding condescending, you probably have other tasks that need attending to.
Q: Should I give away keys of games included in the bundle to my own participants?
A: This one is a bit more nuanced, and I want to say: yes, if it's feasible. They are part of the bundle to begin with. Though again with the example of the over 100 games for $10, it may offset your funding goal a bit for participants to buy their own copies of the bundle, but it's also difficult to distribute so many keys at a time. Honestly, itchio needs a way to distribute bundles for free to the developers at the very least.
If next year's QHS bundle is significantly larger, I'll personally be asking developers if they need a copy of the bundle again, especially because I know a majority of the developers this year were already struggling to make ends meet.
Q: Where can I find games writers/press/content creators to reach out to?
A: This answer will largely vary on the identity of your bundle. If you're running a bundle for RPGs, you'll likely want to find news sites that cover RPGs and other general sorts of games (think: Kotaku, RPGsite, etc.). Oftentimes you'll be able to find an email or form to contact the team on a dedicated page. Content creators will usually have their own communities where their viewers can suggest games too, though I do not recommend joining one just to drop game recommendations, as you'll likely be ignored. If all else fails, ask your participants for ideas and names; have them use their connections to get everyone's foot in the door.
Q: How many funds should I spend upfront on organizing a bundle?
A: It varies on how much you're able to do yourself. If you're able to create graphics or other promotional work for your bundle, that might save you a good chunk of cash. There's also the invisible cost of the time you spend gathering interest and talking to people, setting things up on various websites, etc. Assuming you're the primary organizer, this is a cost you'll have to bear the brunt of by default. Please keep in mind that time spent working is time spent not taking care of your basic needs like eating or sleeping.
Q: Should I run a bundle to become popular?
A: No. A lot of the organizer's work will not be seen even by other participants, and even if your bundle is widely publicized, your personal work may still be a relative unknown. You may gain some followers on itchio but I can't recommend running a bundle solely for that reason.
Q: What kind of person should run a bundle?
A: Technically, anyone can, and with this post-mortem I hope to see more independent efforts come about. The real answer I'm going to give however, is "someone who can handle pressure over a long period of time, can keep a clear head if things go wrong, and don’t mind the chance that they won’t be personally compensated for work they put in." The post-bundle crash is real and can take a long time to recover from for something that can often feel rather thankless.
Q: This all sounds tough. Why would anyone run a mutual aid bundle then?
A: There's joy and satisfaction to be derived from any form of community work. Hearing from your participants how you've helped them pay the bills, seeing people leave massive tips, feeling excitement over gushing reviews; it's hard to quantify these things but it can be so, so worth it for developers who might otherwise have trouble being seen. Any amount of sales is better than no sales.
Q: Where can I find bundles to join?
A: There's no one place to find all the bundles running in existence, but the official itchio Discord server has a channel dedicated to it. You may also see bundles running on various social media sites; follow other game developers to get the word of mouth.
And that's all I've got for now! Thank you for reading this far. Feel free to ask me questions or leave suggestions in the comments and I'll see if I can respond.
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