Footseps in the maze - Post mortem

        After almost half a year since I created my first game "Footsteps in the maze", I decided to end any form of updating the game. The simple reason is that the game was my first "try" to see the result of my month-long effort to attract as many viewers as possible. The result I got however was a catastrophic one, because I was sure I would get at least a few followers to try the game, but the hard truth is that itch.io has many games that clearly can look better than your game, so the chances of someone finding your game is one in a thousand.

        So taking into account the previously mentioned things, I will answer the following questions that the readers of this post-mortem will probably have.

What went wrong?

        Well, first of all "Footsteps in the maze" was my first game ever made and for me it was very difficult to make, because it represented the transition from the skills that I learned from YouTube tutorials and what to do in reality to do in a game. This involves game design, that is, the creation of the 3D model of the world you create, as well as its import into the game engine.

        To make the game I used Bender, because it is compatible with the game engine I used called "Unity". The reason why I chose Unity was given by the fact that it was the most suitable option to learn better what video game development entails (also, it could make games with acceptable sizes and had compatibility with several platforms, the change made from one platform to another is possible just by making a few changes).

        Obviously, in many cases I had problems when importing certain models from blender into unity, but after more time and watching tutorials on YouTube, I managed to solve these problems.

        Another big problem I encountered was the light. If you try the game, you will notice that the light looks strange on the floor and sometimes on the walls, this is because I built the level using its "modular" parts (this involves creating a section with 2 walls, a ceiling and a floor, and then you multiply it in one direction to make a hall). The problem with this "modular parts" is that the light tends to "bleed" between the areas that are not joined, this means that no matter how hard you try to put the walls next to each other, the light will always spread strangely on them. I know that in Unreal Engine there is a method to join 2 objects together, but unfortunately in Unity the only way I found valid was to re-enter Blender and use the modifiers to join the walls together.

        I encountered many other problems with this game, but the most important ones to mention are the ones listed above.

        One mistake I made at the time was that I didn't register my game for a Game Jam. Game Jams are a method to make your game more noticed, but in order to receive as many feedbacks as possible, you must also give feedback on other games (although not everyone will give you a feedback to your game, even if you gave a feedback to them). I think that 99% of the views I received over time were due to the fact that I participated in several Game Jams. Also, NOT ANY Game Jam is good if you want to make your game more popular.

        For example, I participated in a Game Jam called "The worst game of the year" which was very pleasant to participate in and easy at the same time, but in the end the number of views was much lower than that of the followers from another Game Jam ( "Game Dev" Game Jam), that's because many people don't look for bad games on itch.io. So aim for Game Jams that have more than a thousand followers and you will see that you will receive a lot of feedback even from other developers.

Why wasn't I monetized?

        Well, first of all, because itch.io doesn't pay you for views and downloads, that means you have to create a method to advertise your itch.io page. Unfortunately, I could not find such a method, so the only method by which you can receive money at the moment is either to make the players pay to play the game, or to put the option to let the followers support your game .

         Now, if you choose to make them pay, especially if you are new to itch.io, the possibility that they will buy it is very small, and if you leave the option to support the game, you might not get anything (like in my case, but that's because it was also my first game and because its graphics aren't too good either).

Final conclusions

1. Don't expect to have too many followers at the beginning, because this can be achieved over time (maybe if your game looks or has an incredible concept, then maybe the number will be higher).

2. The only way to be monetized is either to sell the game or to allow the players to donate (itch.io can also be used as a method to sell the assets at a certain price).

3. Aim for the biggest Game Jams to get as many followers as possible, but at the same time be active in the feedback others give you and give a feedback yourself!

        I hope that this post mortem will be helpful to those who are just starting with itch.io and I hope that the information mentioned above will help them better understand what creating a game for this platform entails.