Enshrouded: Steam Next Fest October 2023

All right. So, apparently I'm live. Please uh leave a chat if you can uh see and hear me. I just want to make sure everything's looking good. I feel a little choppy on OBS. I don't know if that's true. Um now, one thing I did turn it on so that only subscribers can chat. But, it's no time limit. So, you just subscribe and you can chat. I'm just doing that cuz I'm trying to pump up the numbers. Let's get it. So, come on in. Hey, Sea of Survivors, welcome. You're the first chatter. There's no prize. I'm just I'm just saying welcome to you. All right. Uh good morning, Chris. Just kill it, buddy. All right. Sounds good. All right, I'm going to get right into it. So, here's what it is. It is Steam Next Fest. We're in the middle of it. And I'm just going to play some demos. Now, I'm starting with the first demo,

which is Enshrouded. It is number one in like every category. I remember it's number one in the most wish-listed, but it's the number one trending and the number one most played demo. I want to find out what's going on, and we're going to go through it. I'm going to actually play this. Um here's what the story is. I'm going to go for 1 hour. Starting the clock, 1 hour here. Now, at the 30-minute mark, I'm going to take a break, and we're going to go flip over to the Steam page and kind of look at the Enshrouded Steam page. I kind of want to get some context from playing the game, then look at the Steam page to see how the Steam page matches up with the gameplay. All right. So, we're going to look at it. Um great music, hard to hear me. Okay. Let's turn down the audio a bit. I know. It's uh sorry about that. Just getting the audio right. Thanks for the feedback. I love it. Oh, no.

Okay. Um, can anybody hear him? I I'm working on it. I'm working on it. Uh, let's see what happens here. All right, we're not going to everything down. I'm turning myself up. I'm like maxed out over here. Let me let me crank up the volume on my master uh audio controller 1 second. All right. I am literally I've got the the the input, the interface maxed out. I've got everything else cooking here. I think this game Okay, we got this. Um,

All right, so I hope that's better. Here's what I'm hoping is better. Good? Much better? Okay, crank at the audio. I'm sorry, I'm turning up. Everything is maxed. Game is minimized volume-wise. Let's stop with the AV talk. Let's talk about Enshrouded. Okay, a couple things I'd like to look at. I know this I'm This is not If you're looking for gamer tips, not gamer tips here. We're just going to look at it from a marketing perspective. And a couple things, good menu, kind of the smoky effervescent, you're kind of enshrouded in smoke. A couple things that are classic, got good call to action, wish list on Steam, join our Discord. There. I maybe play make them bigger. I mean, what are we here for? Um, couple other things, feedback. Let's click the feedback button just to see what happens. Um, you can't see it, but it popped up a web browser with just um a simple like fill out this form. Nothing too fancy, just a description, you could upload a file. So, that's always good. Always do that for your demos. Include a feedback

button. Just right there because demos are also kind of like a beta. Kind of like a beta. So, um let's take a look here. Let me um uh let me just make sure we got stuff still rolling. I'm always afraid that stream is going to just crash, so let me just get going here. Um the other thing is um let's look at uh demo hint. I don't know what says demo hint. It just pulls up this form. Now, a couple things. This is always that disclaimer dev saying, "It's not done yet. It's not done yet." I know. We all know. I I don't know how much this actually helps. Maybe it makes your team feel better. I I don't like this message, the it's still in development. I know it's stressful to put yourself out there. I don't like it. It makes I think it kind of makes you feel less secure about yourself. I don't know. I don't have any data on it, but my gut tells me, I don't know. I just I wish devs were more proud of themselves. I just feel like this is like saying, "Would you like to go out with me? But you don't have to cuz I'm kind of ugly. Don't I'm kind of ugly. Don't go out

with me, but please go out with me." That's what it kind of feels like to me, but I don't have any data. Maybe it makes people feel better. Um let's see. Support rich I do like this message. Hey, help us out here. I would put that message at the top. Um and then there this one's interesting. We're going to play in the move remove the demo on October 22nd. We'll look at the Steam page at the 30-minute mark, and we'll look at that, but I'm just kind of curious about that. I to each their own. I don't know what they're having. Maybe they're launching soon. Maybe that's what this is all about, but it's neat that they're actually telling you the countdown. I would actually I know dev's hard, but put a countdown clock. Says, "This demo goes away in 12 days" or something. You know, do the math of when October 22nd, and it just has a countdown clock like on the UI. That would be pretty cool, right? Um and then thank you. Enjoy. Please wish list. I do like the all bold call to action. Always end with a call to action. And then that's it. So let's go on. Enough chitter-chatter. Um let's just play it. Um Again, the I'm still Go out with me but I'm ugly. Again, they said it's in development. I know it's

hard, but I don't know. If you press F1 to report a bug. We're going to try as soon as we push play. Start with a character create. Um start right here with this. I'm going to I'm I don't really like to do character create. I do think it's kind of funny though, shorts. You could change your body, but what stays the same is shorts. Those jorts are staying the same. Um I'm going to just pick the I'm going to pick the guy that's most like me, this guy. If I age, this is this is me hoping how I'm going to age. I'm just going to get freaking ripped. I think once I really start to age, I'm just going to go straight on full ripped. Uh let the hair go out. Go kind of scary hobo look is kind of what I'm going for. I I like it the way it is. I'm just going to go for it like this. So, um I'm not going to I'm not going to spend the time. This really is just it's just me. This is this is really me. I'm going to just Good on them. Just just being able to represent me. Okay, so now part of this thing is um

Enshrouded is an open-world survival craft. There's no doubt in my mind why this game is number one on Steam uh for the next fest. It is hot. This is This is like the genre to beat is open-world survival craft, okay? And it's got co-op. Co-op is super hot, and I've noticed a lot of the games in Steam Next Fest are multiplayer. They have co-op elements. A lot of the most popular demos. And that tells me a lot of Steam shoppers are kind of seeing this as like a little mini festival where they like to bring their friends. And this is for all of you who are making multiplayer games, festivals can be a false positive a little bit. So if you go to like PAX and you set up a booth and you have a multiplayer game. People love to bring their friends cuz to them a games festival is like an arcade for them. They treat it like it's a free arcade. And so they'll play a lot of games that are multiplayer cuz they bring their friends and they play co-op games. And I know a lot of studios here like, "Oh, coming out of PAX it was so hot. Our

multiplayer game was played by everybody. There was a line. Everybody was gathered around. We are going to sell millions." And then when they launch, it doesn't sell as well. And that's because it's a false environment. PAX, the floor is a false environment in that people are there. They like multiplayer games. But couch co-op on Steam doesn't always work as well because you're not always with your friends, especially local co-op only, where you can't do remote play. Now, so that's why I have a feeling Steam Next Fest is kind of having that thing. I bet a lot of people are like, "Hey, let's all play these new games tonight. Everybody get on. We only have a a week to play these games. Let's do multiplayer right now." And I have a feeling that's kind of the f- thing that's going. Now this game's going to do well. I just have a feeling this game's going to do well. Um just based on the play times and all that kind of stuff. Uh it's The reason I'm bringing it up is this is multiplayer. And so that was kind of my springboard to say that a lot of the games that I'm seeing on the top demos are all multiplayer games. I'm just going to do private cuz I don't like to play with a bunch of people. I'm going to create a new one. I tried it out a little bit this game out just a little

bit just to um to make sure this game didn't have like a super boring tutorial, but the tutorial was pretty easy. So I just stopped after a few seconds. So we're going to look at um it loading up and we're going to play this game. So again, open-world survival craft is huge on Steam, okay? And what we do is we start with this pod, this thing. It very much looks like Cronenberg's The Fly. I just watched The Fly. I'm watching horror movies for the for Halloween. You're emerging out of this teleportation pod that looks a lot like The Fly's pod. And you just emerge totally jacked. So, I get If you can get some time in the pod, I totally would recommend it. And I kudos to the art team. I'm getting a very um I don't know, birth canal feel from this. I'm really I mean, it just is a great kind of symbol a symbol symbology of you emerging from the life-giving pod

that looks kind of like the birth of life, but you are just coming out fully jacked in like 50 years old. So, again, that's great on the art team for kind of having those visual metaphors. I always like to see that stuff. So, I'm emerging in this um smoky temple, totally enshrouded. Now, I think this is where the multiplayer thing is. You will all get birthed into the central area, I assume, if you were playing multiplayer, which I'm not. I'm just single player, but um birthed fully jacked. All right, so let's go always go to the light. That's always the the first thing for game design. Straight ahead, and and if you see a light, just head for it. That's That's basic level design. All right, coming in. Great particle effects. I'm just going to commune. Why Who wouldn't want to commune with a flame? Um you slumbered for too long, Flameborn. The realm of the uh uh uh uh uh uh And during flame calls to you, place uh unlimited text. I like this. Now, what

I'm really looking for is just to see how they onboard you. And one of the big things I want to see is um demos This is the number one question I always get is And I'm not a designer. I'm not a game designer. But people always ask, "How should I structure my demo?" And this is an open-world survival craft, which is a very tricky thing. You want to show the breadth of your game, but you also want to show only a limited taste, because you don't want to give away the the golden goose for free, okay? And this game is a golden goose, folks. This is a golden goose. Um and so, let's let's go for that. Let's see what's going on. I want to see where the barriers are. Where do they stop me? Okay? So, fully jacked hobo heading out. Okay. Um, beautiful world. I love the emerge I like how this isn't I don't know if this is the final game, but I I love how it just brings me right to the world. It's not like uh the Elder Scrolls games where you have to go through like a dungeon and kill like a hundred rats before you get out. They're just like out of the birth canal straight into the outer wilds. So, here we are. We can see

the vista horizon. And we're just going to commune. Oh, look, the little Somebody just lay just reading their books out there. Um, Okay. A passage from Balthazar. I'm not going to read it on stream because Come on, who wants to read about Balthazar right now? Uh, but it's there. I can go right past it. The lore dump is opt-in. I love that. We used to call that in the information design. I used to be a uh technical writer, progressive disclosure. If you want to dive in, go for it. A vast world awaits you. Duh, look at that vast world uh filled with secrets and peril, my two favorites. Press start to open your map and track your discoveries. Look at this. This is pretty good. Um, lot lot of lot of tutorial right here, but that's good. I I do think that this is just letting me play for the most part. Um, I got a journal. I barely I don't even have a shirt, but I have a journal. That's That's a true um hobo. So, I'm looking at this beautiful environment that I am just

going to explore. Um, there's the light down there. Always follow the light, so let's just go for it. Let's just do it. That was not correct. That was not what I was supposed to be doing. Really basic game design kind of led me straight off into the into the wild. They said, "Go off, explore the wild." I took it right from there. So, let's Let's see if I can respawn. I'm going to just hold the old A button here. It's responding. Back to the old cinder vault where you can get your cinders, uh you know, vault those cinders. Um so, I'm going to just kind of follow along with the game design that's telling me here, which is to go straight straight for the Oh, maybe I have to go straight over this. That's that's looking like a quite the drop. That's that's looking quite the drop. I mean, I'm jacked, but not so much. Veiled in mist. All right, I Folks, I think I have to go down this way. It's a little misty. It's a little

obscured. It's kind of taking a left turn here, but I have a feeling this is the way I'm supposed to go. So, um some scaffolding a little um a little table and chairs. This is such a pleasant place. Like, if I were to set up camp, be right here. Nice view. Eat a little dinner at the table. We're going to loot it. And a chest. I love just a good chest right up front. Torch. First item in every video game. Classic classic. And some bandages. Couldn't fashion himself a shirt, but bandages we got. All right. Hierarchy of needs. Bandages and torches over shirts. All right, let's keep going. Another Just loot everywhere. This is looking great. I love all this loot. Heading in this very I'm feeling very um feeling very Disneyland. Ooh, I just saw a Navi, my little sprite friend there. I'm feeling very um What would I say? Thunder Mountain Big Thunder Mountain vibes coming off of this, which I love. One of my favorite

rides in the world is Big Thunder Mountain, so it looks very Big Thunder Mountain. I hope there's This would be a good queue when you're lined up for there. So, let's continue on. Look at this. Use terraforming tools or explosives to forge a path through the rubble. I love it. Just go straight to the explosives. Exploding barrels, detonator range. Okay. So, what I like about this is and I don't know if this is the final game, but they're giving me all those great supplies right at front. They're not teasing it like going straight to explosives. I could see any other game I would have to like craft and find all this stuff like Minecraft when you play it. Like you don't get to the good stuff. You have to like forge like sticks for a while. They're just giving me bombs right away. So, um I am going to switch over to my bombs cuz if you're going to get check out these bombs here, I'm just going to do them here. Okay, do I throw them? Let's see. Throw them. Excellent great tool tips bringing me right in there. Whoa, this guy is just bomb-proof. Those are some abs like this guy's been working out in his birthing canal here. This guy is like

his abs can take it, but we're going right through this rubble and we uh-oh. Oh, okay. Oh, dang. I think I just blew up everything. But, I saw a bunch of 50s come out. I don't know what that is about, but I got a rusty sword. So, great. Um We have a skeleton which obviously means environmental storytelling and then you've got literal storytelling here. Um we're drinking to a note to the queen three babes on his arm or arm. Uh it seems a little Um okay, just a little sea shanty down there. Now, the environmental storytelling, let's look at the skeleton here. We got a guy surrounded by bottles barricaded in stone a bunch of casks. Uh I'm getting cask of Amontillado vibes here. So, great Poe reference right up front. I love a good literary reference here. Um I don't know who barricaded this guy in. Um I am Can I throw more bombs? I

kind of hobo stuck in here. Uh yeah, all right. There we go. All right, let's continue on. Those feet have got to be hurting by now. Um okay, let's see. Uh little little ladder. All right. Heading on down. Hope it's going good. Um, let's see. The goat Yes, the goat. I love looking at the goat. If you don't know, if you've ever going to Disneyland, head to the goat. Always look at the goat. It'll It'll change your life. There's pre-goat and post-goat. It's basically this goat and you do a 360 around this goat and if you just look at that goat it It's It is It'll change your life. All right, so um these guys are uh just creating creating a great little environment down here. I love this. I'm just going to head towards the light cuz video games tell you one thing, just follow the the spooky lights. And these are pretty spooky. Look at that crack. Um How many bombs I have I kind of had to bomb myself out of The

Cask of Amontillado. Otherwise, I'd be bombing that light. Um, let's continue on here. Let's head into the Oh my All right. Woo! Survived that one. All right, folks. All right, so um let's just continue on to this uh following the light. I am embedded in the light, so I'm just going to My goal Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa, that does not look good. Let me um let me get my old rusty sword. Look at that. Oh boy. Oh boy. Okay, attack is X. Yikes. All right. Hey, that was you know, for being born yesterday, I did pretty good. Torn cloth. Can I fashion a shirt? Let's see if I can craft a shirt. Still Still can't make shirt. All right. Um, looks I'm going to carry this sword cuz if game design has taught me anything, you never just put in one skeleton. R3 to lock on your foes. Now they tell me. Now they tell me this

stuff about the locking into the my foes. Um, I don't have an R3 button. I'm using an X, but we'll figure it out. All right, continuing on into this beautiful misty up. There they are. There There they are. Let's see if I can lock in. Okay, there's that. Lock in. Ah, there it is. Okay. All right. All right. All right. All right. Let's get you. Uh hm. Hm. Doing good. All right. Making me feel proud. All right, torn clothes, some gems. I I hope he's got pockets. Uh let's see here. Torn cloth, torn and tattered and all that do do do. Okay. Yes, I still Let's see if I can I'm really concerned about this guy's I mean, they're drafty. Let's see. Split stack. Okay, I am I'm still very concerned about this guy's clothing. Like he's going to get a sun If he's anything like me, he's going to get sunburned immediately when stepping outside. And I'm really role-playing as this guy cuz let's see. You get You have

a box, there's got to be stuff in there. Nope. Okay. So, let's continue on. Now, I do like um leading me right in. I got combat. I got a rusty sword. Um they're giving the goods right up front. And let's see, if you fall, you'll rise again at your last resurrection beacon. Good. Well, I already figured that one out. All right. Um Okay, it's just just a helpful glowing orb. Thank you, glowing orb. Um very nice garden element here. I like it. Um let's just continue across this misty path. Very beautiful. Very um And then just chasing down the wildlife. I love it whenever video game wildlife. It is always just so verdant. It's just like you step out and you just see everything. Like I step out and I have to wait hours just to see a bunny, and they're just right there. Okay. Harvest meat berries to replenish your health over time. It'll prepare you for the dangers ahead. All right. Well,

if there's one thing, always trust the floating text to just tell you what to eat and what not. Okay. I don't Oh, I see a health meter right up right there. So, I'm assuming I see a blue one and a and a white one. I think one's health, one's hunger. We'll see how it goes. And got some string. The old string bush. All right. So, again, all right. So, one thing I want to talk about is genre. Um and this is open-world survival craft. Best genre right now on Steam. Like Steam goes crazy for open-world survival craft, which is collect resources, do some battle. I'm going to build a base. I just know it. Now, this is one of the things that I think Steam shopper or Steam developers, developing a game for a Steam, I don't know. I feel like the indie community have kind of done a disservice to indies where they're just like mix genres, make the most original game you've ever have seen. And it's like,

this is the most popular game on Steam right now. And this is like classic open-world survival craft. Like by the numbers. Like you got inventory where I'm collecting stuff like strings and sticks and twigs and like combining them and I'm in in this open world. Like, there's nothing here. It's not like they're like, "Oh, it's it's a match-three mixed with open-world survival craft mixed with a dating sim. Boom boom boom, you're the most popular game." No, it's like this game is so similar to so many other games. It's not really that different. I'm I'm I'm getting off track when I'm getting on track with talking. Um follow the path. So, claim a spot for your base. Um and that's the thing is like, I don't know. I think indies get They actually do more harm when they get more creative. Now, I'm I know it sounds so lame, but I think you should tailor your risk to how risky the environment is. Like if you're if you're rich, you got a rich dad, you don't care about making

money, go for it. Go make open-world dating sim horror match three mixed with platformer mixed with I don't know what, a crossword puzzles. Make it. I don't Don't don't worry about it. But if you're a little risk averse, you're like, "God, I'm I'm on my own here. I don't have anything." I I think it's I'm back to the berries. Oh my god. Um Follow the light, Chris. Um that's where I'm like, "This This is is kind of the the way it What I find is really the games that do well are like popular genre following the tropes where you collect string and berries and stuff and you have a hunger meter plus a new new theming. And the theming here is really this kind of like I am stuck at the I don't I'm like one of those ants when they get to the end of the path. Um Um you know, it's like it's not that different. Like this game is it's like a new coat of paint. I'm There's lots of I'm not to diminish this game. This game is amazing. But what I mean is like from a genre standpoint, it is just hitting

the numbers like crazy. Okay, I think I'm on there. So, I must do some sort of summoning, craft my base, details in the journal. The funny thing is journals usually are in the past. Let's see. Let's see how to make my base. Claimus mod da da. Okay. Um The flame altar will make a spot for you in the base your base will let you craft and build shelter pra A promising site has been marked on your map. Reach the location, craft the flame altar, and place it to proceed. Okay, so I got to make myself a flame altar. Um okay. Altar activation capacity. I think I think this is a flame altar. It's a flame altar, but this is the flame. Context Words matter, folks. So, a flame altar. Level one flame altar. Okay. Ah, here we go. Flame altar. Stone. I need five stone. This is classic open-world survival craft. I bet the monsters are going to come out now that it's night time. I got to fight, but I also have to mine, so I got to find some stone. This is You see what I mean? It's like this game isn't that

different. It's not like a total reinvention of the genre. Like here's the thing, Steam shoppers don't really want that much different of a game. Uh, they want to know, okay, I got to get to my base, I got to find five rocks, and then I got to build something. I got to build my base from there. That's open-world survivalcraft. Um Really, I mean, let's see what's going on here. Uh, let's you tell me. I would build my base right here. I would just build my base right here if I was Uh-oh, long keep. Okay. Um All right, I'm I'm just following my my spirit guide here. She's just lighting all the torches for me. Really, I mean, you could knock off a lot if you just If you just build this. What am I looting? I'm just bushes. Bushes aren't helping me with the rocks. Like, do I really need to get five rocks? I could just kind of create a lean-to in this thing, but Um, let's see. What a nice little settlement. Okay, let's see here. I'm just going to Enshrouded. Hey, name of the game, right

there. I love it when they when they get the name of the game. I don't know if that's good or bad. I To be honest, I don't know. All right. Um, I don't know if it's good or bad that it's a Is that Is that an Enshrouded? Who are Who's the Enshrouded? Oh, ooh, ooh, ooh. Water is great source of vitality. Drink it to enhance your stamina and regenerate faster. Whoa. Hey, figured out a flip. All right. Um, doing it. Scoop some water. Oh, there it is. Scooping it. I got it. I got the water. Okay, I'm still looking for rocks. Let's see if I can find some rocks. Um Let's see. So, anyway, so that's what I'm saying is like the genre is is great and important. Um, and then um, just knowing the tropes goes far. I think it's too much where if if somebody were to come to this and they turn on they're like a rhythm game open-world survivalcraft, I just really want to just find a meadow, find five stones, and build my base. That's what I'm here for. You know, it's like that's what they want. And then when when Indies go too crazy with the genres, they're like,

"Why isn't anyone want to play my game?" And it's like, I don't I don't know. And I know it seems so lame when I say this stuff. But it's like, I don't know. I just Here I am at Long Keep. Um I know it seems so lame when I say it, but I really think Indies kind of hurt themselves when they go crazy with the genres. Um I'm still just looking for rocks here. Um Um ooh, here's some fire. Interact with campfires to cook food, sit near them. Become rested. I was going to sit and cook. Just some meat for the eons this meat has just been hanging out here. This is like wall meat. Uh finally ready to use. My bones are sore. The wall of the file Uh a little shelter and some sleep should allow me to rest. Well, rested food is going to stairs. I hear the planning an expedition. Thankfully, I hit some precious little bit. Oh, that's somebody that's somebody else's journal. I'm just just stealing their meat and reading their their secret journals. Um oops. Okay. I I mean, I just need to find some rocks here. Um I'm trying I'm trying my best

to build my base here. But anyway, so that's why I say uh important thing to do is like what I'm doing here, which is play all the games in the genre and figure out what's the difference. Where do we excel? And um I haven't seen quite yet where it's going to be. I think there's this huge flame sort of side. Maybe they're just making it like 10 to 20% better for the um Oh, we got another dude here. Let's see. Let me get my sword out. I'm really not not rushing. Oh, you got a little bit more power here right there. Maybe he's full of rocks. Maybe he's full of rocks. Let's look. Torn cloth. I I could make a little lean-to out of this. But anyway, so that's what I'm looking for is what is exceeding the other games like V Rising or a Valheim. Um Oh, oh, oh, look at those rocks. Let's see what happened. Where's my inventory? Let's see. What is going on here?

Let's journal, world, skills. Okay, what how many rocks? I got I need two more. Okay. Um, just and then just some gymnastics. Um, let's see here. Standing on my pile of rocks. Let's look for some more rocks here. Some oop, there we Come on, rocks. Yes. Okay, I think I got it. Let me get some mushrooms here. Ooh, a staff. Good. Some good mushroom staff. I'm just going in and more rocks. Just going in. Getting some more mushrooms. Just giant mushrooms. Um But anyway, so just a reminder, stick with us cuz in 5 minutes I'm going to switch over to the Steam page and just kind of look to see now that I kind of have a concept of what it is. Um um, to kind of see how they're presenting on the Steam page to see what the messaging is about what's unique about this game. Um how they're pitching

it, what they're saying. So that's that's what we'll look at. We'll look at that in 5 minutes. I'll just put a little pause on this, switch over to the web browser, and we'll do a little uh Steam page analysis and maybe some marketing things. See see the history of the game, how long this game is out cuz I haven't heard of Enshrouded before until this. Um, so let me figure out how to craft. So let's do some crafting. I want to make my flame altar. Flame altar with my I I thought I got five stones. Okay. I thought I did. Sorry, folks. Can't get my stones together here. Um, let's see if I can find another one. Just Just taking red mushrooms, more red mushrooms. Let's go back to the stone quarry over here. What are you just just wildlife? You do not look very friendly. All right. Enshrouded. Oh, oh, oh, oh. Okay. All right. All right. All right. All right. Just just killing the wildlife. All right. Loot for some bones. All right.

Um Well, that looks menacing. I'm not quite ready for that. Um if anything, the deep dark tunnel probably is not there. So, I'm looking for more rocks. I did find some here, so I'm going to keep exploring here. Hope Let's see. Get some more that. And also, by the way, um while I'm doing that, um I haven't been I haven't been looking at the chat. I don't have enough monitors. I I guess I need more monitors. So, um with that, um what I'm going to be doing is um um uh I'm answering some questions, some thoughts that you have while we're watching the chat. So, stick around. Ask some questions in the chat. Don't ask them now because it's it's too much. It's too much reading. Um by the way, if you you can't chat, it's cuz you need to subscribe, and I'm trying to get the numbers up. I want to get to that 1,000. I'm pretty close, and I've never done any streaming like serious streaming. So, let's see if we can get up to 1,000. Something magic happens, unlocks in the algorithm for YouTube. I don't fully know. I think I'm like partnered or

petitioned or something with a P. Um I don't I don't know. It's fun to get the the the magic bobbles that that these algorithms give you. Look at Look at Did you see this pirouette? Um Oh, that berry thing. Uh rocks, rocks, rocks. I'm just hammering this Y thing trying to I just just nailing the trees here. Ooh, oh, yeah. Okay. Okay, so let me let me double-check. Make sure I got enough rocks here. Seven out of five. Let's do this. It's rock time. So, I'm going to make this altar. See what happens, and then goes from there. Now, one other thing, which I just noticed, 8-hour limit. I don't know yet what's going to happen. So, I've been talking about how there's some way that you have to limit these games. Tease enough, but not too much. Um get people excited, but don't give away your game. And maybe what they're doing is this 8-hour limit, which is

8 hours. That's That They're a proud of their game. And so, um let's build this flame altar. Flame altar. What? What? Resources, two out of five. Oh, maybe I have to make rock into stone? What? Okay, hang on. Sorry, I know you're probably screaming at me in the chat. Let's see, why Why? I thought I had enough. Hang on. Sorry, I'm I'm just trying to figure out my stuff here. Um let's see my Let me see my backpack, even though I don't see a backpack. Stone, times two. What? I swear I picked up all these stones. I guess it Maybe I picked up rocks? Okay. Man, I sw- I I thought I saw seven. Maybe it's like rocks turn into stone. So sorry, folks. I really thought I I was really hoping I could get you I feel like dad at Christmas. I just couldn't I couldn't deliver on the goods. I I just I couldn't find that action figure. I just couldn't find the stones. Okay, let

How much time I got? Okay, we we are at time. Let me just see if I can find I see stones everywhere. Come on, I haven't found the magic stone. But anyway, um the part of the reason why I'll I'll just I'm going to see if I can find the stones real fast. I swear it said seven. All right. Um But part of the reason these games are one so popular and two are so good for Steam is, as you can see, there's not many resources here. It's In other words, like Yes, this world open world beautiful, but it's not like a linear progression game. It's not like, you know, a Metroidvania or something where you have to create so many characters. You can do a lot with just like some rocks. Like, I'm spending all this time like a half an hour just hunting around for rocks, and I'm enjoying it. I'm actually enjoying myself. I know I'm complaining about the stones, like how many stones I've got. But, just doing this, just like a bush with berries, provides hours of entertainment. Um and so whoa, whoa, whoa. Um so anyway, that's why these games are so popular. You can make so

much content. Oh, your brother's here. Um you can get so much content out of so little. So, I'm going to eat just a raw piece of meat that I found. Let's see here. Can I just eat this? And that's the fun of video games. All right, I'm going to take a quick 30-minute break. We're going to go look. I'm not going anywhere. I'm just switching over. This is video games. Um I'm going to go look at their Steam page, just to see how they're they're they're talking about it. Maybe they're like, "This the first open-world survival craft where you can pick up meat and die." Um which I know I probably should have cooked it, but it looked fully cooked. You got to admit, that looked like a fully cooked piece of meat. Um let me respawn, and then I'm going to save and quit. Um save. Well, I'll just switch over. So, uh just one moment here. Let me switch over. I'm going to have to um I'll be checking the chat. So, let me um let me go to Steamworks. I'm going to

I'm just opening up Steam. I'm going to go in Shrouded Steam. I'm going to look at their Steam page, and we're going to do this live. I'm going to switch over, and I'll I'll I'll start broadcasting that. Just so we can kind of kind of look at it. Um I'm going to start taking questions now, so leave your questions in the chat. And let's look at what their Steam page is doing here. Again, if you're just joining me, Enshrouded right now is the number one game on Steam Next Fest. Like, it is most played demo, most trending. So, in other words, like this game hit like a bomb and then it's going from there. So, what I'm going to do is I'm going to um share my screen. I'm going to hide um let's see. Let's go for this presentation. Hang on. Hang on. Hang on. Um I'm going to hide this. I'm going to go for um Enshrouded. And I'm going to hide this. Okay, so here we are on the Enshrouded Steam page. Now, they've got the live stream game going. Everybody always asks, "Should I live stream?" Yes, what else are you doing Steam Next Fest for? Why

not use every single inch that they give you. Take everything. Never just say like, "Well, you know what? They're giving me this free visibility. I'm not." They're going to They're doing it. Um one thing with the Enshrouded team, they've got great art. They're They're missing out on these side banners. There's these Just put those on there. They They just make your game look good. Um I would do them. Again, it's not hurting them. They're the number one game on Steam right now. Who cares? But, it just makes your game feel more expensive. It's one of those things. Um let's check the old um my old test here. Um just click your name. Let's click the name, see what happens. Let's see if they That's what percentage Who thinks they have actually set it up? Let's see. Let's see. I'm going to go I think they have. They're pretty reputable team. Let's see what happened. They did not. Everybody click your names right now. Go to your Steam page for your game. Click your name. See if it goes to this. This is the bad thing. This is just a list of

things. You're missing out on thousands of followers. The Enshrouded team, please fix it now. You are missing maybe thousands of followers. You're the number one game on Steam right now. You should go to your company page. And the company page allows the follow button, so they can follow you as a studio. So, every game you release will all of a sudden show that. Everybody right now, go to your game. Click your name. Does it go to this ugly-looking page or does it go to an actual developer page? It takes an extra like hour to set up. Just Google Steam Steamworks creator page, okay? You want to set it up. All right, other things they've done, they've put the actual demo now out. Steam used to say don't do this. I think Steam's kind of given up. Like, here's the number one game on their thing. Steam told us no more text on your your capsule, only your game name. No, if you look at the front page of Steam, the Steam Next Fest, everybody's doing it. So, Steam's not really caring. All right, let's see Let's look at their short description. What I'm looking for is what's their unique selling proposition and how hard do they hit their genre? All right, you

are Flameborn, last enter last ember of hope of a dying race. Awaken, survive the terror of corrupting fog and reclaim the lost beauty of your kingdom. Venture into the vast world, vanquish punishing bosses, build grand halls, and forge your path in this co-op survival action RPG uh for up to 16 players. I actually and then uh survivor basement I don't really like this short description. A couple things that I don't like. Again, who am I to say? They're doing top-notch, best-in-class game. They're doing fantastic. So, again, this stuff doesn't matter for them. It matters if you're like low ranks. What I don't like is they call it an action RPG. Really, the genre is open-world survival craft. I mean, they got they got it right in the tags. Their tags are actually great. Survival, base building, action RPG is okay. Maybe Okay, so maybe what they're doing is they're leaning more into the action RPG, but I would say that in my short

description. If that's where they're going, cuz I'm trying to see the unique selling proposition. And so far, other than the Flameborn, they do a sentence of lore, which I'm not a super fan of, but they did a pretty light touch. They're like, Flameborn, whatever, da ba ba ba They didn't they missed the genre, but this middle passage here, this middle section here, it says reclaim the lost beauty of your kingdom. That's like every kind of open world survival craft. Like V Rising is kind of that, but you're rebuilding your um manor house. I don't like it when you could swap in any game for that description. Really, I think what's kind of happening here is maybe, this is my hunch is they're leaning more into the RPG aspect of these open world survival crafts. If that is true, I would go all in on that. I'd say tired of open world survival crafts where you're just a mindless beast or something, like a mindless dude. We built in RPG elements more to it, cuz I did see one of the tabs on that journal screen was like this huge web of upgrades and stuff. That was awesome. I thought that was cool. Um let's see if

they play that up in here. And that's where I think they're going with the unique thing. Again, remember I said you stick to the main genre and then you add a little bit on there. I think that thing they're adding on, my hunch is they're adding the action RPG more, a little bit more combat, a little bit more upgrades, a little bit more customization of your character, like pretty deep character customization. Um so they've added this these non-screenshot screenshots, which are clearly not in-game, which I'm not a big fan of. That's cool. I love a good skull that's a rock, a rock that looks like a skull. That is so cool. Um just guy pondering. I just like this I just like the sweet moments. He's just like looking in the flame. Maybe he's writing a Is that a book? Is he writing a journal? That guy That guy totally has I write in my journal vibes. Like this guy definitely writes in his journal every day. Look at that. Look at that. This guy is MFA journal writer out in the forest. Like I just want to be like Thoreau. Like this guy is totally that guy. Good job on the screenshot thing. This totally looks like a guy that would sit

in the forest and read a journal. I love that guy. Um okay, and then a cool helmet, and then just staring down this I mean these are cool screenshots. Like they're cool images, they're not cool screenshots. Oh, this? Like a nice yucca. This Somebody's been Somebody's been studying this This actually looks like a real yucca. This actually It's a yuc- It's an agave. It's not a yucca. Um definitely looks like an agave. And then you got this kind of a hedgehog-looking cactus. I love Cactuses I love a cactus. Um But anyway, so then you've got this desert temple, which looks sweet. But none of these actually look like screenshots. Like you saw all that stuff? It's always a guy in the front, camera behind. These are not screenshots. These are mock-up screenshots. These aren't real screenshots. So, I don't like it, but again, it's on the hunt on their Steam page. And then a guy Another guy just looking at the fire, just chilling. I like how just Sometimes it's just the sweeter moments that you need to emphasize. And this guy, I can't tell if he's like, "Time to destroy this

village." or "Time to build it." I can't tell, but they got their hammer in. If you're doing a crafting game, you always have to work your hammer in there somehow, and they did it. I would've put it up front. The thing that I think is lacking Again, beautiful vistas. They're basically saying, "We are the most beautiful open-world survival craft." And they really are beautiful. This game's beautiful, and they're playing up those images. And that's kind of where a lot of the race is. If you're like trying to make uh a standout, one of the ways you do it is just become the most beautiful version of it. You take a game that's been made, and this is This is for people making games, too. If you see a genre that's taking off, but the games that are in the front are kind of like not the prettiest of game, you just up the graphics quality If you have a good artist. So, look for games that are hot, that are kind of ugly, and then just up them. Now, I'm not saying that um the open-world survival crafts are ugly. I'm just saying like the previous ones. I'm just saying this game has beautiful graphics, and they've just made it to a new level, okay? So, you Oh, here's some UI. This is actual text, but it's kind

of not that interesting. I think the Cool bombs. That's cool. You're showing action. This actually looks like a real screenshot, even though they turned off the UI. Don't not sure what's going on here. Not sure what's going on there. Those are the screenshots. I'm missing UI. I think that web graphic where they had the the like tech tree um maybe it was the RPG skill set. I think that's a unique selling proposition and I would I would pop that in. I'm going to switch over to the chat real quick. I've been neglecting the chat. I love you all. It's just I like to just go through I I I don't like streams where the host is constantly saying, "Oh, let's let's stream." I'm going to go to this. So, let's take a look at some quotes um some some questions. Um let's see here. Let's see what some people are saying. Um 30-minute break but fine. You need to gather stones. I see that. Um I'm going to spend a weekend on this game for sure. You have to stick to some players like familiarity. Yep. Uh

Oh, look. We got the Enshrouded folks in here. Welcome Enshrouded folks. Sorry. Um let's see. Um I would I would have greeted you earlier. So, Enshrouded huge congrats Enshrouded. Yeah, you're doing great. Um let's look. I don't see any questions. Those are screenshots touched up a little bit as captured from within the game. Yeah, I I hear what you're saying, but yes, they're in-game, but the reason I don't like them is they don't show how I actually play the game. Like in other words, they're screenshots that are um like the camera was always behind me. When I run um this one kind of is there, but the the when I was running when I was my buff self, I was kind of behind and it was it was back there. So, it doesn't look like actual gameplay. Like it looks like I stopped, I swung the camera around, and then I did an angle. That's That's what I'm not a fan of. But again, you all are doing awesome. So, let's get going here. Um let me kind of look at a couple other things uh that

I love. Um so, one thing I always check is to see um the events, to see how much how much you're communicating with your community, and I'm seeing a lot all the way back May. Great. Um I'm seeing that survival action RPG, so I'm really seeing this as a unique selling proposition. I would play this up. I think it's great. Um Portal Knights, you the A lot of people always ask me, "Should I mention my past games?" I think it's a great idea. I think you should. And let's check another thing uh from the maker of Portal Knights. Let's check something. I want to see what you're doing here. I want to I'm trying always to deduce why games are at the top of the charts. So, let's look at Portal Knights. Let me see what you did. Sorry, I'm typing sideways. Um And let's go to Portal Knights. Um so, this is the previous game. Came out 15,000 reviews. Fantastic hit. Notice uh

they've gotten grim dark. Like, this is a very cute You've got a game with a bee on the front. That's adorable. They've gotten dark, which is an excellent move for Steam. Steam really loves that stuff. And so, by the bloodline. Um let's see. Let's look at your news. Um Let me just check something. I'm just checking something. Still haven't set up your name. Okay. The reason you set up your name is you've got so many reviews here. You have a huge fan base here. You can take that fan base and move them. So, if you'd been building followers for your company from Portal Knights, every game you release, the second you release, everybody gets an email. Even if they've never wish listed. Even if they never went to the Shro- Enshrouded page, everybody who played Portal Knights will get an email that says, "A new game from the developer Keen Games has released." And so, I would get go through all your games, set up your creator page for all of these. It's just It's like free wish list for every follower you get. The other reason you do it is let's see if you've got it. Um sorry, I'm I'm taking

a detour here, but Keen Are you Keen Software House? Is that you? Because when you let's look. Are you Keen Software House? Are you the same ones? I don't know. I don't know if there's something else here, but there's another Keen. See, the whole thing the re- the other reason you create your um See, Keen Games versus Keen Software House. The whole reason you set this up, you set up your name is so that you show up in search. Not that many people search your company name, but it's just another reason to do it. Um but anyway, um one thing that I would expect is um I would expect because Enshrouded is your hot one right now, I would I would fire all my guns at Enshrouded, so I'd put a a a more like I'd put a a a link to that one and I'd create a news event on this that says, "Hey, if you like" I mean, these games I know this one's cute and Enshrouded is very dark, but I would create a a cross promo where it's just a an event that doesn't do huge, but you say uh Enshrouded is our next game and we got a new demo. And it just you've

got so many followers for this game that it just it just works. Like it just you're going to get some push over it. Not that you need it. You're at the top of Steam works, but might as well because your demo's only out until October 22nd, so you want to get as many people in love with the game or not. Um Enshrouded folks, the the whoever's uh on on the chat, um uh go behind the scenes. Why are you um just mention why you're doing October 22nd ending of the demo. I I think it's totally legitimate to do. I was just kind of curious the thought process, so if you want to leave a a comment in the chat. Um the other thing I'm going to do here is I'm going to look up SteamDB for um I'm going to do some more lap typing. Let me grab my lap board here. So, I'm going to do some more um SteamDB research here. I want to look at Enshrouded. I mean, this is honestly the first time I heard heard him in Shrouded. So, I'm just going to pull up Steam DB. Just one second, folks. Um

I'm going to pull up Shrouded. I just want to What I'm looking at is how they did it. Um what their history looks like. Um so, I'm going to pull this up real quick. Now, if you're new to I don't know who who else is here, but if you're new to this and um I I run how to market a game.com. How to market a game.com, which is a site that talks about marketing games and and the process behind it and and the modern tricks, the tricks that are fresh off, you know, Steam. The best way to market your game. How to market a game.com. I've got a newsletter. Sign up for the newsletter. How to market a game.com/free. You get a free book that lists all the mistakes like not linking to your developer page, so you get those things. So, that's one of the mistakes. If you want to find out 60 mistakes that you're probably making, go get that book. Um well, why don't I do it while I'm talking about it right now. So, watch this. How to market a game.com/free. Badum. And this is it. Get a free book. You get this book. It's got 60 mistakes.

Sign up now. If you haven't done it, just go hit that subscribe button. It'll do it. Okay, so let's go back over to Steam DB. Every week I publish a blog post about little tricks that you can do to to maximize your Steam page. So, let's look at your charts. Um so, this is Steam DB. I don't have no affiliation with this. It's just a really good tracking site. I think it's mainly made by like extreme CSGO followers. So, what I'm looking at is I see there's a little bit of an uptick. We'll talk about the uptick in a second. So, September 30th, you had 54,000 followers. By my estimate, it's about 550 550,000 wishlists. If in Shrouded, if your boss will let you do it, maybe mention in the chat how many of wishlists you actually have, but it's a lot more. What I'm looking at is that's how many wishlists you have way before Steam Next Fest, which is hot hot. I don't know why I didn't know this. I should You're like probably one of the top five most wishlisted games on Steam right now. So, this game was coming in hot anyway. And then it looks like your marketing

team did the right thing, which is kick in and do a nice marketing campaign. See how you can see the uh What do they call it? It's not the asymptote, it's the the increase the delta. All of a sudden kind of take off about 2 weeks before. Probably ran some ads, probably did some marketing research or um market outreach where you you showed your demo to some streamers, probably some stuff like that. But you see it tick up about 2 weeks before. So, you had 50 Let's just say 55 thousand. And then uh about the start of Steam Next Fest, you had 61,000. So, uh we're looking at 55 I'm terrible at at on the side So, about 90,000 wishlists leading into Steam Next Fest that 2-week period, which we think we don't know for sure, we think Steam samples that sort of stuff. Um if you have questions, be sure to subscribe to my channel and then leave a question in the chat. Um so, we'll do that. Let's see here.

Don't end the demo on the dot. Okay, so I'm going to look at some chat. Cannot say. So, um Enshrouded, is it Welcome to the to the chat. Glad to have you here. This is my love This is like like a live live episode here. So, we've got the Enshrouded team in here. They cannot say the number of wishlists, but what we typically do is we multiply either by nine or 10 the follower count to get there. So, I'm estimating they're about 550,000 wishlists leading into Steam Next Fest, which is hot. Um Enshrouded folks, now when you're really popular, says Valve themselves suggested you don't end the demo on the dot uh at the end of Next Fest. Another extra week felt good. That's why um if you look at on their page, they said demo ends October 22nd. Um even Valve is saying don't end your demo at Next Fest. So, folks, that is insider knowledge that we are sharing with you. So, like the inside when you get really big, you can just like email certain people at Valve and like, "Hey, we're thinking of

doing this." And Valve will be like, "Don't do that. We look at the numbers. No, don't do that." I'm giving you this for free. And Shrouded just said that Valve told you don't end your demo right away. End it a couple weeks. I did do some analysis where I I compared games that um ended soon after Next Fest and people who just kept it up forever. And it looks like there there was a slight improvement of wish list if you ended it a week or two after Steam Next Fest. It wasn't very significant. It wasn't very huge. It's counter to what I actually feel. Like, I feel like just keep it up because here's the reason. Streamers can't play all these demos in time of the Next Fest. There's just too many games. They're games they like, they wish list, and they're like, "I'll get to it soon." And then they're going to play it, okay? And that's what's happening here is you want to keep it to catch those laggards. And then remember, if somebody plays Let's say they play your game in a week, they're going to play to all their fans, and their fans are going to be like, "That looks great." Oh, the demo's down. So, not even just a week, go 2 weeks. I'd even go further, but it all depends on what your what your um your strategy is. And

this is really What I like to say is marketing is very strategic. It's not a social. I think a lot of developers are afraid of marketing cuz it seems so social. Like, I got to be on social media. I got to Most developers are not very social, but marketing is actually more strategic than it is social. And that's one of the things that I always like to teach at howtomarketagame.com. So, um if you have any questions, or um we can just more read more what Inshrouded folks are saying. Um we can just do that, but uh they're German, apparently, according to the Inshrouded thing. Uh sorry, I didn't catch your question. Can somebody type it out if I haven't heard it? Um All right. Um let's see here. Matt Hackett, welcome. I see some folks in there. Um Uh Michael Nolan, hey hey, welcome Michael Nolan. My old friend. Good old Michael Nolan, good to see you. Um Let's see here.

Um I'm just looking at some of the stuff. Yeah, uh no questions. Like if you all have any questions, go ahead and reach out. Um we'll see. Um otherwise, maybe what I'll do is I'll go back. So, it looks like uh here's my my read on Enshrouded. Popular developer had a couple popular hit games, just been working Steam, rising, rising, rising. Um launched Enshrouded like uh what was it? I didn't actually look uh on SteamDB. Let me let me pull it up on SteamDB. Let's see when you all started. I I didn't pull it when the Steam page went live. live. Let's see when your Steam page went live. Let me just pull that up. Uh they went live May 4th. So, they've been out for about what is that? 6 months? Almost 6 months? 5 months, 6 months, great. Keep your Steam page up for a long time. So, I can see by this huge curve early in the phase, probably a big YouTube uh blast or the great trailer, activating their existing community.

Hopefully, you have a mailing list. Doing all that to get that initial spike. And then that activates Steam. So, when you get big enough, you can generate your own gravity. And so, that gravity increases over time. So, you see how they just have a nice steady increase without doing much. And then that huge inflection I'd I'd be interested if you can, Enshrouded folks, what happened July 13th? Was it some Steam Next or some uh Summer E3 stuff that you did? But look at this big bump right here. That is significant, especially at the velocity that they're going. That's a huge impact. So, something happened July 15th, okay? Boom. Um and then increase there, and then you did the campaign for Steam Next Fest, which is really smart. About that kind of 2-week period, we don't know for sure, but something magic happened there. Um so, that's what it looks like. Classic long-run campaign. I think this is the launch of demo. Enshrouded, did you do any betas? Was that a beta? Was this July thing a beta that you ran? Cuz you're getting Your demo is really strong. It feels like you've been out

there for a while doing doing stuff. Um But anyway, let's see here. I'm just looking at this. Sorry just to turn this into talking to the Enshrouded folks, but let's see what's going on here. Um going to ch- time frame uh real time Let's see here. Um Let's see. I'm just trying to find some stuff. I just want to see I really I just want to talk very tight-lipped about the budget and figures. So, cannot elaborate. Um we're lucky to be making a wildly popular and very niche game. Very niche? I don't think this is niche. Here's the other thing, folks. A lot of people think that they have to go more um uh like happy and you know, like soft and casual. I think you are hitting a genre that is very hot on Steam. It is open-world survival craft. That is the number one. That is not niche. You are hitting the most valuable genre, and it's hardcore. Um I can run around without a shirt for a very long time if I want to. All that

stuff is awesome. That is hardcore. That is perfect for Steam. I actually think it's more niche if you went casual. If you're like, "We're a happy-go-lucky, you know, no violence type of game where you craft a beautiful world." I think that's more niche than what you all did. Just to just to let you know you are. Um Yeah, so um Enshrouded, yeah, what I'd like to see I'm typing the answer. Bear with me. Checking dates. Yeah, just kind of curious what happened in July cuz something really hot happened right there. Um just a time check, we got about 5 more minutes. I like talking about the Enshrouded stuff. I'm so happy the Enshrouded folks are here. Um welcome. I don't know how you found me, but welcome. Um Uh just a just a kind of as we wrap up, I'm I'm kind of broadcasting some questions to the Enshrouded folks to find out how how they got to where they are. Um but while you're waiting, how to market a game.com/free I get the free book if you're new to this. I write I study the market. We look at what games are popular, how they're getting so big,

and then we'll hopefully get you to follow those same lessons here. Um for Steam Next Fest, I'm trying this thing every morning at this time I am going to be doing these live streams where I just talk about a different game. I'm going to pick a different game. I don't know which one yet. Um and we're going to look at it and then we're going to look at the Steam page, see how they're messaging it, what their history was, what their charts look like. I'm not going to always going to do the number one game. I just wanted to start with the number one game cuz why not? Uh we might do some sub cast ones, but really what I want to focus on are games that Steam players like. Um I find indies make too many games that are just not made for Steam, and they're like, "Why isn't my game selling?" And it's like, "Well, you're making the wrong type of game. I'm sorry." Um and so we're going to focus on games that are the type of game Steam likes, and Enshrouded is like the perfect Steam game. It's dark. It's like grungy. There's like a guy with lumps on his back attacking you, and you have to use a rusty sword, and you can do it without wearing a shirt and just be totally jacked. Um that is totally Steam's

alley. You can go into a dark, forbidding, grim, dark tunnel that's got like weird stuff, and it's dark and gritty. That is like perfect Steam. Um Portal, the their previous game, what was it? Portal Time, Portal Jam? That looks less like Steam. That looks more like Nintendo Switch, where it was like, I get to wear a bee costume and I get them like craft flowers. That looks less like Steam. This is Steam and Shrouded is the most Steam game that I've seen at the festival and it's at the top of the festival. So, that's what I'm trying to show all of you is really these are the type of games that do well on Steam. Um so, yes. Uh I'm just I'm checking the chat cuz we've got the developers behind Enshrouded here. Um talking about their game. So, let's see. Enshrouded. Um let's see. We actually didn't get to start for the beta. Oh, okay. Okay, so um Ah, look at this. Okay, so the the mystery we're trying to solve with the

Enshrouded folks is right here. See this little this little boop. Um Something This is a marketing beat. Something happened here and uh the folks in the chat from Enshrouded said, "I think the July date was when we opened our beta sign-ups." Betas are hot, folks. It's a marketing beat. It's a beat where you can just be like, "Hey, I want some more wishlists." Okay, let's throw a beta. So, what betas do are they improve your code, but they're also a marketing beat and that's what they did. Uh that that's what the the folks in chat from Enshrouded they think they did their beta here. Um we actually didn't go to the start of the beta for another 6 weeks. So, basically they announced the beta and this is perfect. Announce a month early and then just collect sign-ups. Um did you uh do a email sign-up? How did you get people registering for your beta? I'll just uh we'll talk about that uh Enshrouded folks if you can answer that. But, basically 6 weeks marketing campaign for their beta and so, you'll see this nice curve up for basically 6 weeks. This is about 6 weeks of length right there. That's one 6-week timescale maybe. Um collect those wishlists, collect

those beta sign-ups, and then do a big playtest. Um you run the beta and the beta improves your code. Your beta your demo like this Steam Next Fest should not be the debut of the code. This is like you should have done betas and playtests and feedback sessions way before. Do not drop your big code base right on Steam Next Fest. Um So, let's see here. 50 odd folks. Let's see here, what's going on here? Um I'm just trying to look at to see what else they're saying here. Uh somebody asked something that where the answer is 50 folks. Maybe that's company. How many people are in your company? Um let's guess. Um I'm just looking through some of the chat. Um but anyway, yeah, so um I don't want to go too much longer. I don't want to keep you back. You guys all have games to make. So, go back and make some games. Uh but so basically for Inshrouded, top

of the list going strong. Like your first game, this is why I always tell people think long-term. Your first game's not going to make it to the top. If you look at Steam Next Fest, all the games that are on that front page are usually from previous games. And one of the things that I noticed this Next Fest is a lot of the games are sequels. A lot of them are sequels. And so, it's not necessarily your first game that's going to get you there. It's like the second one or the third one. So, keep at it. And it's just a ladder that you start climbing. And basically the the audience of your first game, you pour them onto your second game, and then you get that game to market your next game and your next game. It's just up level. You cannot do this with your first game. Just internalize that. Don't be so heartbreaking if you're like, "This is my first game. This is the first time I've put up a demo, and I've got like a thousand wish list from Steam Next Fest." Which is good, but it's not what these folks are pulling in. They're probably pulling in like 20,000 a couple first couple days, and then like maybe like 40,000 wish list by the end of this Next Fest. That's what the top tier games, even more. I've even

seen like a couple hundred thousand for top tier games. I wouldn't be surprised if the Inshrouded folks get 100,000 wish list by the end of this week. Um so, I I that's it. Inshrouded folks, I'm going to cut this short, but feel free to reach out to me um [email protected]. If you if you are the Enshrouded folks and you want to talk about this stuff, um just email me. Um everybody else, come back at the same time tomorrow. I'm going to be doing another game. I don't know what game it is. Maybe I'll mention in the chat. I don't know. I'm just kind of like going through Steam Next Fest and all that kind of stuff. Um Yep, 50 It sounds like 50 developers behind Enshrouded. Again, open-world survival crafts are huge games that require huge companies. Uh do not make your first game an open-world survival craft unless you are a masochist. Um and you probably never finish your game by the time that the genre transitions to something else. Again, calibrate your expectations for your first game and what it takes to get to the top of Steam Next Fest. So, next uh

tomorrow probably be a smaller game. I I might still do one of the top 12 cuz there's 12 games ranked on the front pages of of Steam Next Fest. I'm monitoring to see if there's any change in position. I might go to another one. So, um let's just see it tomorrow. Uh good luck, everybody, and keep playing some demos. If you find one that's really neat and you're like, "Chris, what's going on here?" pop it into uh the Discord, howtomarketagame.com/discord. Um but for now, just hit the subscribe button. I'm trying to up the thing. I want to get to 1,000. That's like the first little magic carrot that YouTube gives you. So, um have a good day. Um Chat restricted for some reason. I don't know, YouTube. Come on, YouTube. Anyway, uh pop in anytime. Um uh love to hear from other developers, other games. Thank you so much, Enshrouded folks, for being on the stream, and we'll see you tomorrow. Talk to you all later.