Game Dev

Learned from me, then got 100k Wishlists!

In 2023 this dev finished my Free Kitchen Chaos course, and then started making their first game with some friends, Urban Jungle which got a Steam page in January 2024, and now one year later they are at 90,000 Wishlists! That's a huge amount!

Going from knowing absolutely nothing, to learning by following a course, to then publish a Steam page and have that game gather almost 100k wishlists is a massive achievement. Not to mention how they spent $0 on marketing, so this isn't a story of some rich guy who brute-forced success with tons of money on ads, no, this is all organic thanks to learning and then making an awesome looking game.

The game is all about cozy vibes, you turn your home into a luscious urban jungle with lots of plants and animals.

Visually the game looks absolutely excellent! This is a huge reason why it has found so much success, especially in the cozy genre that is all about vibes, you really need your visuals to stand out.

Also interesting how Wishlists are 90k but Followers are only 3k (which would estimate just 30k wishlists). Is this game an outlier in that multiplier because it appeals to a more casual audience? Or is the general guesstimate of Wishlists = Followers * 10 no longer accurate? Not sure.

I really hope this story inspires you! If you just started learning game dev right now, then perhaps 1 year from now this will be YOUR story!

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Game Dev

6 Ways to Guide your Players

Guiding your players is always a huge challenge. If you do it wrong it leads to a ton of frustrated and angry players, if you do it right it leads to a game that flows very smoothly with very happy players.

If you want to learn how to make your games more understandable and playable by your players then go read this excellent article.

It's all about 6 subtle ways you can use to guide your players in the right direction.

• Signifier: The most straightforward approach, just an arrow pointing in the right direction.

• Affordance: Make your levels/objects work like the players intuitively expect. For example, a door handle invites players to push or pull, stairs imply vertical movement to some upward or downward area, etc.

• Signal-to-Noise Ratio: Add more details to areas you want your players to notice, and fewer details to background areas. One common mistake a lot of devs make is just having tons of detail all over the place, like in the background of a platformer. That leads to player confusion by not knowing which elements are interactable or not.

• Instinct Elements: Human beings are drawn to faces, silhouettes, blood, signs and various shapes. Extremely important especially in Horror games where you really want to appeal to the player's natural instincts.

• Art: You can guide your players with shapes and color. As your player exits a corridor, make sure the first thing they see is some tall important building. You can draw objects in such a way to guide the players eye, or use color contrast for much of the same effect.

With these tips you will be able to make your game flow more smoothly and subtly guide your players to where you want them to go.

Tech

TikTok US Shutdown

It's January 19th and TikTok has shut down today in the US. Users that try to open the app are met with a message saying “Sorry, TikTok isn’t available right now. A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means you can’t use TikTok for now.”

But the message also says “We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office. Please stay tuned!”

So is this really the end of TikTok in the US or is it coming back? Nobody knows.

In the past few years TikTok has been a very powerful tool for indie devs. Many devs went from 0 to 10k wishlists with a single viral TikTok, which does not appear to happen as much on Instagram/YouTube. Maybe with this ban those 170 Million US users will move to Instagram/YouTube and maybe those will then start to become better for indie devs.

Gaming

Switch 2 Officially Announced!

After months (or years) or rumors and leaks, Nintendo has finally announced and unveiled the Switch 2! This is the first time, in their 50 year history, they have named a console as just a new number.

It is bigger than the original Switch, there's a redesigned kickstand, the controllers are now magnetic instead of rail based, they are bigger (which is great for people with bigger hands), and there's a mysterious new button on the right Joy-Con. The Dock is also slightly redesigned with a more rounded look.

Increasing the size is an interesting choice. I think the Switch is already pretty big for a handheld, it doesn't fit into a pocket, so making it bigger (while awesome in terms of visuals) will make it even more unwieldy. Personally I only use my Switch in docked mode so that's really not a concern for me.

No details on what is inside the console, rumors are that it will take advantage of DLSS to boost games as much as possible, maybe upscaled 4k? Native 1080p60?

This is just a teaser, there will be a full announcement on April 2nd.