Star Keeper PC

[RetroX85 | 64]

2 hours ago, Ferris Bueller said:

I can text Riggs. What's going on?

Yes, contact him if you can. I'm sure he will be thrilled with the idea of ' Star Keeper' finally getting a release for PC.  Just forward him to this thread. 

 

Edited June 1, 2023 by RetroX85

[Tulpa | 3,488]

6 hours ago, BlackVega said:

Well, 30$ high or not you still can't deny the fact there are production costs for this in the 1st place. Maybe the creator will lower the price in the future if sales are growing, who knows.

The problem is that at $30 he'll maybe get 100 people to buy. That's $3000, he gets 65%, which is $1950, and Steam takes a commission and taxes after that.

If he prices at $10, he'll probably get 3,000 or more people to buy. He gets $19,500 after the 65%, Steam gets another cut, but he's a lot better off.

$5? He might get 50,000 people to plunge, because it's $5 so why not? He's got $162,500 at that point. Star Keeper 2-6 confirmed!

[a3quit4s | 4,093]

59 minutes ago, Tulpa said:

The problem is that at $30 he'll maybe get 100 people to buy. That's $3000, he gets 65%, which is $1950, and Steam takes a commission and taxes after that.

If he prices at $10, he'll probably get 3,000 or more people to buy. He gets $19,500 after the 65%, Steam gets another cut, but he's a lot better off.

$5? He might get 50,000 people to plunge, because it's $5 so why not? He's got $162,500 at that point. Star Keeper 2-6 confirmed!

I agree that a lower price may lead to more sales but you have to remember there are like a million $5-$10 games on steam. He is only advertising here thus far. Gotta put some bucks up to market the game or maybe Riggs can help put the word out

I’m still under the impression the creator is wildly overestimating the popularity of this game. Sure we all know about it, but the average joe doesn’t even know what a NES is anymore much less Star Keeper. 

Edited June 1, 2023 by a3quit4s

[Tanooki | 4,930]

I think he is too I mean even the usual lame stream media for gaming really hadn't taken notice as of yet.  Having some YT and twitch hitters blow it out for people and sending info to some media outlets that'll cover this stuff (nintendolife, polygon, kotaku) would go a long way to get general awareness.

It needs to be well shown with like 3 solid 30sec trailers with most that time not being just the title and who made it, but of core gameplay moments.  One to introduce, another showing off a stage or parts of a few stages, another with the bonus area in play.  Play off peoples memories, it is very influenced by the type of game you'd find in Balloon Fight/Kid, Joust and their sort so get people who like those mechanics to take notice and get more sales.  Blowing this out to a bunch of sandbox simps who get their rocks off in rockstar land would largely not give a crap so targeted ads are vital.

[MrWunderful | 2,926]

3 hours ago, a3quit4s said:

I agree that a lower price may lead to more sales but you have to remember there are like a million $5-$10 games on steam. He is only advertising here thus far. Gotta put some bucks up to market the game or maybe Riggs can help put the word out

I’m still under the impression the creator is wildly overestimating the popularity of this game. Sure we all know about it, but the average joe doesn’t even know what a NES is anymore much less Star Keeper. 

Thats what I was saying earlier, and agree. 
 

Its a really well made and fun NES homebrew by a creator who obviously cares about it. It even has fun easter eggs which is a great touch. 
 

It had a huge amount of value and hype in a super niche community, based on the physical possession of the cart, something that is 100% irrelevant on steam.
 

I buy and have played a huge amount of budget titles on steam, and a majority have a staggering amount more production and replay value than Starkeeper. 
 

There is a huge amount in limitation of the physical hardware of the NES when it comes to games available on PC potential. Steam is not the best venue for true retro games- retro “style”, modern PC games, yes it is. 
 

Let alone the short attention span of the majority of “modern pc” gamers. Let alone at 30$. 
 

If my opinion matters, I say pretend like its 29.99 and as “early release” or whatever- make it 9.99 via discount out of the gate. 
 

Trick people into thinking they need to buy it now and hope for the best. 
 

Outside of the niche community that specifically will spend money to support you, the chances of selling downloads at 30$ are slim. 

[Link | 2,708]

1 hour ago, Tanooki said:

sending info to some media outlets that'll cover this stuff (nintendolife, polygon, kotaku) would go a long way to get general awareness.

Do they cover homebrews that aren't related to AAA companies and hacks of their stuff?

[Tanooki | 4,930]

I've seen stuff pop up from megacat before and other similar tier projects of homebrew get picked up, at least with nintendolife and kotaku.

[zxdplay | 149]

5 hours ago, a3quit4s said:

I agree that a lower price may lead to more sales but you have to remember there are like a million $5-$10 games on steam. He is only advertising here thus far. Gotta put some bucks up to market the game or maybe Riggs can help put the word out

I’m still under the impression the creator is wildly overestimating the popularity of this game. Sure we all know about it, but the average joe doesn’t even know what a NES is anymore much less Star Keeper. 

I agree with your conclusion, but I haven't overestimated my game. We all know that the VGS homebrew community is very different from the Steam community, so it's hard to say how the game will perform on Steam. The game's sales could be in single digits, or it could be a lot. As I mentioned before, it's possible that we may never reach our goal, or we could achieve it quickly. Everything is filled with unknown variables.

[a3quit4s | 4,093]

7 hours ago, zxdplay said:

I agree with your conclusion, but I haven't overestimated my game. We all know that the VGS homebrew community is very different from the Steam community, so it's hard to say how the game will perform on Steam. The game's sales could be in single digits, or it could be a lot. As I mentioned before, it's possible that we may never reach our goal, or we could achieve it quickly. Everything is filled with unknown variables.

I agree there are a lot of unknown variables but the people on this site are your biggest supporters and are the ones who are most likely to buy your game since they are your key demographic (they already know about Star Keeper, buy homebrew games, and want to support the development of new IP) at least for now. They have straight up told you $29 is to much and most of them won’t even buy it.

Shit I’m in the key demographic and I don’t even have a steam account and when I get a free digital version of a game with a physical purchase, I give it away lol

I’m not sure what you have planned marketing wise, but this game is not going to sell itself the way you think it will. Don’t get me wrong I hope it does but, personally, I think your on your way to wasting all that time porting the game. 

[Khromak | 768]

I wouldn't say wasting his time, because he can always lower the price later on if it doesn't sell at the initial price he set. The effort will never be entirely wasted, and it can sell for the rest of his life, so the effort will pay off in some way, just maybe not as much as it could have at a different price point.

It will be very interesting to see what the sales numbers look like regardless. Let us know once the game is live on Steam.

[Gloves | 11,761]

6 minutes ago, Khromak said:

I wouldn't say wasting his time, because he can always lower the price later on if it doesn't sell at the initial price he set. The effort will never be entirely wasted, and it can sell for the rest of his life, so the effort will pay off in some way, just maybe not as much as it could have at a different price point.

It will be very interesting to see what the sales numbers look like regardless. Let us know once the game is live on Steam.

It's worth noting that Steams algorithm isn't THAT simple - the initial reviews, views, purchases, etc all impact VISIBILITY on the platform. 

If he puts it out at $30 and people buy it but review it poorly saying its not worth the cost, it'll be buried forever regardless of any future discounts. 

[zxdplay | 149]

2 hours ago, a3quit4s said:

I’m not sure what you have planned marketing wise, but this game is not going to sell itself the way you think it will. Don’t get me wrong I hope it does but, personally, I think your on your way to wasting all that time porting the game. 

It wasn't a waste of time. In fact, the PC version should have been developed long ago. It's just that I never found the time to plan it properly, and that's why it has been delayed until now. The main purpose behind creating this game was not solely for the next game; the primary objective was to give those who truly wanted to play Star Keeper the opportunity to do so. The physical version of the NES game is being sold at inflated prices, making it unaffordable for many people. I understand that you value the experience of playing on the actual NES console, but not everyone shares the same perspective. Some people simply want to be able to play the game, and having a PC version is better than not having one at all.

As for sales, I am completely okay if the sales are low. I am not lacking money in my life. Of course, if the game becomes a huge success, I would be even happier. I could use the earnings to do more things, like creating Star Keeper 2

[a3quit4s | 4,093]

58 minutes ago, zxdplay said:

It wasn't a waste of time. In fact, the PC version should have been developed long ago. It's just that I never found the time to plan it properly, and that's why it has been delayed until now. The main purpose behind creating this game was not solely for the next game; the primary objective was to give those who truly wanted to play Star Keeper the opportunity to do so. The physical version of the NES game is being sold at inflated prices, making it unaffordable for many people. I understand that you value the experience of playing on the actual NES console, but not everyone shares the same perspective. Some people simply want to be able to play the game, and having a PC version is better than not having one at all.

As for sales, I am completely okay if the sales are low. I am not lacking money in my life. Of course, if the game becomes a huge success, I would be even happier. I could use the earnings to do more things, like creating Star Keeper 2

I am definitely not challenging your reasons for doing this because this is your game. Everyone here will offer you advice and it’s ultimately up to you to do what you wish. With that said I have a couple issues with your logic which could just be a language barrier. One; if the primary goal is to get it into the hands of anyone who wants it, why charge $30? Why not take the advice and make it cheaper? Why not give it away for free? The other thing is, in the community you’re in the majority value having a physical version and don’t even trust digital downloads and would prefer to play on original hardware. I don’t speak for everyone obviously but I’ve been hanging around awhile and that is the general sentiment around here for better or worse. 
 

Either way I’m glad Star Keeper is out in the wild and I wish you luck as always. Remember I’m the idiot who set the price of Star Keeper up to what $1,500

[spacepup | 2,404]

To be fair, he did say he would take the comments about pricing into consideration and hasn't really stated what he will price the game at after that.

Also, I believe there are some hardware / technical difficulties with re-releasing it on cartridge, if I recall correctly.  I'm sure it could be done of course, but could be a bit more challenging.

Maybe a lot of people here prefer physical, but there are also other people who would be perfectly fine with a digital release - I may pick it up on steam just to try it out, depending on the price. 

At the end of the day though, anything that gets a game into more people's hands to enjoy, is always a good thing in my book.  Whether that is physical, digital, whatever - anything that removes barriers to entry (and this game previously had the biggest barrier of just about any game) is a very good thing.

[zxdplay | 149]

4 minutes ago, a3quit4s said:

Why not take the advice and make it cheaper?

I did accept everyone's suggestions and crossed out the sentence about the $30 price in my original statement. Furthermore, I updated the post and provided additional information to explain that I have accepted everyone's suggestions and will reprice it. Didn't you see it?

[a3quit4s | 4,093]

1 minute ago, zxdplay said:

I did accept everyone's suggestions and crossed out the sentence about the $30 price in my original statement. Furthermore, I updated the post and provided additional information to explain that I have accepted everyone's suggestions and will reprice it. Didn't you see it?

I had not, glad to hear though. Good luck!

[zxdplay | 149]

The price will definitely be much lower than $30, but it hasn't been finalized yet! Initially, it was set at $30 because I wasn't familiar with the market for digital game versions on Steam.

[RetroX85 | 64]

@zxdplayAny plans when you'll have it on Steam ? 

[zxdplay | 149]

1 minute ago, RetroX85 said:

Any plans when you'll have it on Steam ? 

It's hard to say for sure. I've been waiting for news from Steamworks these past few days. I have already submitted the required documents to register a Steamworks account, but I have been facing issues throughout the registration process. I have been communicating with Steam customer support, but it hasn't been going smoothly. It might take a few more days. Additionally, even after officially becoming a Steam developer, I will need to study how to use the Steamworks SDK, which will also take some time.
 

[John Riggs | 11]

Ferris just clued me into this. 

Sounds fun! Though talking about homebrews and indie projects don't get near as many clicks, there are a few who are really into it and I'm always happy to spread the love. 

Still, there's gotta be a way to reverse engineer the original rom and change the mapper so it'll work on traditional mappers or something.

[zxdplay | 149]

1 hour ago, John Riggs said:

Ferris just clued me into this. 

Sounds fun! Though talking about homebrews and indie projects don't get near as many clicks, there are a few who are really into it and I'm always happy to spread the love. 

Still, there's gotta be a way to reverse engineer the original rom and change the mapper so it'll work on traditional mappers or something.

Welcome, I have sent you a private message. Please take a look

[zxdplay | 149]

@John Riggs It's already late here, and it's 2 AM. I should get some sleep. 
Sir, I sincerely hope that you can help us.

[Gloves | 11,761]

3 hours ago, zxdplay said:

I did accept everyone's suggestions and crossed out the sentence about the $30 price in my original statement. Furthermore, I updated the post and provided additional information to explain that I have accepted everyone's suggestions and will reprice it. Didn't you see it?

People don't tend to re-read the original post after their first time doing so, fyi. It's good that you update it, but making a quick post to say "please see my updates on the first post" or similar helps point people in the right direction. 

[zxdplay | 149]

5 minutes ago, Gloves said:

People don't tend to re-read the original post after their first time doing so, fyi. It's good that you update it, but making a quick post to say "please see my updates on the first post" or similar helps point people in the right direction. 

I made a new post explaining

[zxdplay | 149]

there