itch.io

Welcome Back, Commander just appeared in the upcoming strategy indie games video from perafilozof

https://youtu.be/X7ja9rNqKZk?si=S00f3m9OGT4IYUV7&t=1149

New Boss animation:

https://v-2.gjcdn.net/public-data/transcoded-media/554/178/34657928/900x900-uhev... 

Good news!

We just received a Steam Deck via the Steam hardware request developer program.

Now I just need to make sure this beauty reaches my partner who deals with the programming.

We also remade the game`s capsule

I made a case study in regard to the trailer results : https://itch.io/t/3846788/game-trailer-case-study-16-bit-nights#post-10222552

we don't have in-game transactions.

For everything else, steam provides all the data needed

I only make art, for perfect pixel alignment and other implementation features I'm afraid you will need to deal with yourself. 

And results:

As soon as we released the trailer on YouTube we started getting traffic and the traffic immediately went high.

After 6 days we reached these stats:

- 9000 views

- 500 likes

- 60 comments

- + 60 new subscribers to my channel

- + 300 Wishlists so far

32% of the people watch the video until the end.

87% of the video visibility came from organic YouTube recommendations

10% Impressions click-through rate 

And the stats still keep growing

For me, these results are fantastic considering that we are a small 1+1 game development team.

Source: 

What I think caused it:

- Community boost: after the trailer got released we posted about it on our Discord community

- Thumbnail colors/design: I think using bright colors in the YouTube Thumbnail helped a lot and the yellow/orange combo was often used in movie poster design for a reason

- voice acting: I am not sure but I suspect the YouTube algorithm detected multiple voices in the video which automatically boosted the quality perception

- video length: I read somewhere that videos longer than 3 minutes tend to also boost the YouTube algorithm

Kind regards,

Cristi P. - 16 BIT NIGHTS

Hi folks,

I am writing a case study regarding our trailer debut in hopes that it will help some of you in your game development endeavors and cast another positive light on my branding.

Our first goal was to have a high production value and at the same time to mix multiple elements during the development of the trailer such as:

- Trailer content(actually its more of a teaser)

- Game startup menu(where the player chooses new game bonuses)

- Intro cinematic

- Credit screen

Bassically our debut teaser should cover the exact first minutes of the game.

Now, everyone to whom I talked said the trailer should not be longer than 1 minute, and I agree I had the same opinion but this time I wanted to experiment outside the box and take a leap of faith.

So the trailer ended up having 4 minutes, and I must say right now: I have no regrets about this decision.

Considering that the trailer is more cinematic and shows very little gameplay this was because we aimed it more for our already existing fan base, "Welcome Back, Commander" is the last game from our "Chromosome Evil" franchise.

As to the funding, we had 0 funding.

Now you are going to ask how can we make a high-value production with 0 funding.

Well, it's simple, I did the design, coordination, and artwork, my partner did the core animation and programming and then we searched for volunteers for voice acting, we received much support from the Mud&Blood community, Newgrounds, and some content creators friends.

For music, we found free-use music from the internet.

Work on the trailer took 2 weeks of full-time.

Now on to some bad news, we synchronized the trailer release with the release of the coming soon page from Steam, the problem is we did so at the same time Steam Next Fest started.

Just made an itch.io page for this and I uploaded the alpha version

https://16bitnights.itch.io/welcome-back-commander

I finally got a trailer:

5 minutes long :)))))

and ofc we decided on the title : Welcome Back, Commander

Helicopter interior 

Transport helicopter sprites for the intro cutscene and tutorial stage. 

Thank you for the kind words!

I now work on adding music, voice acting and SFX, will be probably released as a teaser trailer after its don't in one week

I am working on an intro game cinematics and I thought about sharing this with you.

I made full art in WIndows Paint 98 + I added some effects after.

The main goal was: Maximum atmospheric value with MINIMAL colors and MINIMAL details.

I hope you enjoy

Started work on animating some of these panels,  we still need to make some polish but it's almost there.

And as far as progression goes this will have a solid combo, included here it will be: the intro cinematics, The teaser trailer content, the tutorial, the interactive start new game choices.

I finally managed to finish all the intro cinematic panels.

Now it's time to add animate them.

The goal is the same: MAXIMUM Atmospheric value with MINIMAL colors and MINIMAL details

New scene progression

Timelapse of cutscene artwork

And final with full interface

More encounters

Context (mockup) 

Animation I made for camp screen

Working now on the camp choices and visuals

UPDATE

I am trying to also integrate the inventory menu within the War room interface.

Each slot will provide the player with a minimum of 2 choices and a maximum of 3 choices for upgrade equipment.
There will be no perfect build and the goal here is to create a unique build on each playthrough providing freedom to the player and more ways to play.

Please bare with me, the main target here is to have low gameplay time, around 3-max5 hours of gameplay but HUGE replaibility value

I reduced the speeds and added some adjustments.

Also my partner started adding the rollovers and tooltips I made + a mechanical arm for unit selection.

just added more polish and also additional visuals for different screen ratios

And the first iteration of the parallax effect

Made some more progress

Some more progress.

I will try to keep all details minimal on the environment and go high-detail on interactive components.

In the meantime, I start to decide on the color palette and final polish adjustments on the game design.

This is a critical part of the game because here the player will spend half the gameplay time so I try to polish it as much as possible.

Hi,

I started development on a new game from the Chromosome Evil Franchise.

It won't be a direct sequel but rather a small prequel of sorts with different mechanics mixed with the RTS combat part.
I am going for a Diegetic UI design combined with easy 3 choices per day type of gameplay but all choices must have a big impact.
This will probably also be the final entry from this franchise.



First concept:




Team
Popa Cristian Manuel - artwork, game design, marketing, balance, team management, testing, level design
Sergey Dovganovsky - programming, animation, testing, balance
Developed under 16 BIT NIGHTS studio






Gentlemen  

Just use logic

Itch io forums' target audience are hobby developers while Discord and Twitter have a wide range of target audiences such as players, content creators and other developers.

So yes they are better

Yea, I think in current day and age you must have your own established community and fan-base otherwise you are on the mercy of others

FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT!

Long story short, platformers sell hard, even amazing platformers sell hard(check out MoonScars).

The Indie Game Dev industry sounds romantic but it's cold and hard most of times.

True but Reddit Wishlist don't convert into sales that good

Yeah, I agree that Itch io engagement is not what it used to be + Itchio visibility algorithm(if there is such a thing) favorizes only the same old established games leaving very little for new titles but don't forget about Discord communities and Twitter.

As for forums, there is also Tigsource.

Is the game good enough ?

Marketing is good but no marketing can save a mediocre game.

Also what promotional material did you use? was it appealing enough ?

Also are you invested in those communities or you just spam links and pictures ?

Also did you target the right audience?

Oh boy, more lovecraft inspired environments

We decided the release date for Steam release

no skyp button on tutorial, dont waste the player time

Any cheats ? 

Awesome concept, please expand, its very addictive and the theme is solid