Make the Game with Matt Hackett

📝 Show NotesBoy I sure do mention a lot of things in 42 minutes:Pixel Washer📙 How to Make a Video Game All By YourselfAcclaimAlessandro MaraniCharlie DeanGeoff BlairA free tip from Miyamoto: Make your first level lastSongs of SyxSequelitis - Mega Man Classic vs. Mega Man XHow to Market a GameIndie Game ClinicObsidian📈 The Steam Dev Cheat Sheet⏱ How long should your game be?How limitations set you free🕯 This Is All That Matters About Games MarketingTiled (open source map editor)🛑 Don't Stop PostingValadria Discord[Redacted] The Safehouse (article, Steam page)You were played out with music by Joshua Morse (new songs out!!)

Links and more: https://www.valadria.com/sprint-planning-complexity-and-marketing/🎬 Time Codes0:00 Intro0:23 Work schedules / time tracking / sprint planning4:28 Game architecture complexity8:50 Splitting time on indie game development / other stuff14:09 Marketing / promotion21:08 A challenge for you23:40 Ramble on34:06 Promoting games on social media37:20 Outro

Article: https://www.valadria.com/robby-bisschop-piratepr/🎬 TIMELINE0:00 Intro0:13 Marketing and PR35:37 How to get wishlists49:32 How long to market a game?59:17 Marketing beats1:07:05 Keyscammers1:25:40 Outro🏴‍☠️ Hire Robby: https://piratepr.com/📙 Buy my book: https://www.amazon.com/How-Make-Video-Game-Yourself/dp/1736576208/🐷 Washlist Pixel Washer: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2572060/Pixel_Washer/#gamedev #marketing #podcast

https://www.valadria.com/playtests-prototypes-permission-games/ Show Notes 📙 How to Make a Video Game All By Yourself (Gumroad, Itch, signed copies) Pixel Washer How to make a good Steam page Pixel Washer: 3-day devlog Lost Decade Games Steam Hardware & Software Survey Game Tester 💰 The Money Episode The illusion of skill: how to make a better game in less time Production Point Indie Game Sim Making an Indie Game About Indie Game Making How has web dev changed in the last decade? 💀 How to handle the death of a platform (for example: Twitter) Game Dev Comics by Matt Hackett @richtaur.bsky.social Making Big Indie Games (Gumroad, Itch) Join the Valadria Discord 60 minute video coaching/consulting Thanks for listening. Now it's time for you to go make the game!

https://www.valadria.com/the-best-thing-you-ever-made/ 0:00 Intro 0:23 What's the best thing you ever made? 3:28 You didn't miss the boat 5:11 Three hours is all you need 9:48 Breaking down hard problems 19:37 Outro 📙 https://www.amazon.com/How-Make-Video-Game-Yourself/dp/1736576208/ #gamedev #creative #podcast

We cover a lot in this episode! Look at all these links: Amazon wishlist (thanks!) 📙 How to Make a Video Game All By Yourself Game Marketing GOLD with Chris Zukowski Twitter: @richtaur Podcast: Make the Game 📺 YouTube: @Valadria RedLetterMedia SEA (space videos) Join the Valadria Discord YouTube: @richtaur Steam: Witchmore, Pixel Washer The Clark Tank! Game Maker's Toolkit 🔥 The Steam Dev Cheat Sheet Create Your Steam Page No Stacking | Make the Game Killed by Google (Google Graveyard) Fruit Ninja designer Luke Muscat talks going solo dev YouTube: Make the Game (playlist) TikTok: @richtaur Chef Reactions 📈 4 viral game hooks for game designers Game Dev Comics by Matt Hackett Lostcast (my old podcast) Kenney (public domain assets) r/Games - Indie Sunday (oops I said r/gaming) Game Dev Coaching/Consulting GDC (Game Developers Conference) 🥓 Bacon and Games Wonderland Engine (I meant downloadable engine; games run in the browser!) Building a Web Game in a Day 7 tips from 7 days of game dev for 7 Day Roguelike You were played out with Remember Me by Joshua Morse Coming soon: a GDC postmortem, pitch decks, and publishers. Thanks for listening!

Links galore: https://www.valadria.com/seeing-things-steam-next-fest-greg-love/ 🎬 TIMELINE 0:00 Intro 4:14 Story Machine 11:50 Seeing Things 19:26 Steam Next Fest 36:30 Live streams 42:20 What's next? 45:59 Release after SNF? 49:39 Multiple demos 55:19 Outro 📙 SOLO DEV BOOK: https://www.amazon.com/How-Make-Video-Game-Yourself/dp/1736576208/ #gamedev #steam #podcast

Article: https://www.valadria.com/my-2-year-indie-postmortem/ 🎹 Music https://teknoaxe.com/Link_Code_3.php?q=879 https://stevenmelin.itch.io/lo-fi-atmospheres-music-pack https://teknoaxe.com/Link_Code_3.php?q=1601

Pixel Washer: http://www.pixelwasher.com/ 0:00 Intro 0:17 What's Pixel Washer? 1:44 Why's Pixel Washer? 5:22 What's cool about it? 7:11 State of the game 8:57 Outro #gamedev #devlog #solodev

4 main topics in this fun chat with Heart Beast (Ben Anderson): 📙 Ben's solo developer book Production Point 🛠 When to pivot projects? 🚒 GameMaker VS Godot 🎮 Ben's new game WASarD BOOKS! 🛠 Ben's book Production Point: https://courses.heartgamedev.com/p/my-downloadable-87616 📙 Matt's book How to Make a Video Game All By Yourself: https://www.amazon.com/How-Make-Video-Game-Yourself/dp/1736576208/ GAMES! 🪄 Ben's game WASarD: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1151870/WASarD/ 🐷 Matt's game Pixel Washer: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2572060/Pixel_Washer/ 🎬 TIMELINE 0:00 Intro 1:27 Main Project Syndrome 5:01 Production Point 15:17 WASarD 27:32 Do people like it? 33:20 When to quit 35:49 GameMaker VS Godot 46:28 Outro More info: https://www.valadria.com/heartbeast-main-project-syndrome/

Time for another game dev podcast! 🎙 You've been so kind & encouraging about last week's episode that I just had to keep talking. Let's do this. We're discussing: On loving & hating marketing Ignore the "Great Attractors" Failing to follow your own advice Your tools serving you VS getting in your way Thoughts on crowd-funding 🎸 Music Simple but Effective Phantom Anthem Wubs Wanderer Back at it I'm Just Going to Call it Dubstep 🫧 Play the Pixel Washer demo! Notice me burying the lead much? Yeah, I've got a new playable demo for you! Have a relaxing time power washing beautiful pixels in Pixel Washer! That's the pitch! It's just gorgeous 2D pixels that you need to clean. That's it. Some of you may remember Weekend game jam: Pixel Washer – yup, this is further development of that concept! It's early times. I'll probably completely redo how the power washing itself works, which is all the game is about, but do play the demo & let me know what you think in the Valadria Discord.

https://www.valadria.com/game-trailers-with-derek-lieu/ Does anybody read the text that I type into this box? I have no idea. Anyway here's a timecode dump from my notes, maybe this is helpful: 0:16: getting into game trailers 4:40: overflow work 5:15: charging not enough, less agency / more indie 5:15: undercharging 8:00: make fan trailers 11:00: where to post trailers / content 13:08: give advice about what you're doing 16:00: trailer categories 17:50 types of game trailers 20:42: trailer lengths 21:40: What gameplay to show? 24:56: Movie trailers 28:28: The magic of good editing 29:50: Kuleshov effect 31:03: Advanced game trailer problems 32:35: End slates 33:01: Logo Soup 33:33: Logos and branding 37:29: Spelunky 2 45:35: Game trailer courses 48:32: Anything identifiable from your game 49:56: Ice Cream Analogy 50:59: Outro Thanks for listening! Support this show by sharing, rating/writing review(s), and buying my book. I appreciate it. -Matt

Learn Steam game marketing from expert Chris Zukowski! Find resources & more: https://www.valadria.com/steam-game-marketing-with-chris-zukowski/ 0:00 Intro 0:15 Critical Steam dev marketing advice 1:51 Reliable Steam dev strategies 3:38 Translating your page 6:28 Interest-first dev 9:48 Outro