Steam Next Fest? What's going to happen?

I can't uh I can't be spending tooo much time just gabbing like this I'm going to do a quick preview why I'm doing this so next Fest is coming up in October I think it's like in a couple days is like your Dropout date and all that kind of stuff I'm just going to go through they're changing nextfest big time and I want to talk about it so here's the way it's going to go this is what this meeting is now real quick uh to celebrate this uh 24 hours I'm going to Discount the the master class for uh 100 bucks off I'm going to I'm going to knock off a 100 bucks off of next off of my wish list class so click the offers tab or if you're watching this on YouTube go down to the comment section or the the description you click that coupon code it only lasts 24 hours so this time tomorrow it's 100 bucks off how to do the master class like how to do wish list and all that kind of stuff that's all it is I'm just doing it just to celebrate this uh nextfest stuff okay so I'm going to go real quick how the algorithm Works generally for steam okay generally steam is like um 5,000 wish lists get you access it's kind of like

this is how long high it takes to uh walk you know like that the rides you have to be this tall to get this ride um now the reason they do that is there's like this asset flip sludge that is right here and the reason the valve kind of does this 5,000 limit is to limit the sludge that gets through Steam so because acid flippers don't typically get 5,000 7,000 somewhere around there I don't know what it specifically is nobody knows it depends on your competition that's what if you say 7 ,000 you're safe if it's 5,000 that's risky it's it's it's basian it's not an exact number okay and that's to stop the sludge so that you rise out of that now this is generally how all the algorithms that steam likes that valve likes okay they love it when we'll give you a little bit so if you get the 7,000 you get popular upcoming if you do well in popular upcoming you typically will also get I mean everybody gets in the discovery queue and I'll talk about this and then if you do well there you probably going to get new and trending

and then you're going to just move up the algorithm okay that's how valve likes their algorithms they like this little thing where like we'll give you you prove it to us you give a little bit and if you do that we'll give you free taste and if people like that free taste we'll keep giving them more tastes of your game will distribute your game it's kind of like not exactly but it's kind of similar to the old uh you know the old Mortal Kombat you know like if you do well here you got to move up the tournament you know up here uh what would the top be the top is uh you get a retired age 31 make questionable purchases buy like a candy wall that's kind of how it works um okay and this is specifically this is very specific for the discovery queue um I've noticed when you launch your game you get free Discovery Cube traffic and the the charts very much look like this okay uh this is what the charts typically look like you basically get 6,000 free views on day one of the Discover queue every game that launches okay and what I found after studying this if you don't do too

well in that 6,000 valve kind of goes thanks for playing and they just start tapering your Discovery que traffic if your game hits and people are buying it and playing it a lot and recommending it to friends I've seen this discovery que double the traffic every time and I've seen games go 6,000 the first day 12,000 then 24 like they basically double the traffic every day now some games top out at 12 they might go two days and then Val is like H you kind of lost out and then they taper off your traffic after there this is a very classic like I say they give you a little bit if you do well they give you more and more and more a lot of algorithms on Steam and even like Tik Tok actually kind of worked this way okay that's how you just kind of have to understand this stuff okay now where where am I getting to with with just like you're like Chris this was this is the nextfest Q&A okay okay here it is this is what it is asset flip sludge this is how the steam nextfest before this the old steam nextfest algorithm worked it was like this there was the asset flip SL

and then middle class Indies were actually thrown into the sludge pile and to get into these there were two major widgets that everybody was trying to get into the trending games trending demos trending games and most wish listed that was the only way to get the premium visibility and to get into trending you basically had to have 20,000 wish lists in two weeks sometimes even it was like towards the end it was like like in the first two days before nextfest you had to get like 20,000 wish list and that's what got you into trending it was hard it was very hard and most wish listed it by the end of next the last nextfest it was like 150 minimum just to show up in most wish listed so was basically the bar was so high that the sludge level was like so high that nobody got visibility unless you were these top maybe like 10 to 15 games of nextfest It kind of sucked it sucked um but that you know it was like the basically You Must Be This Tall instead

of being 7,000 wish list for nextfest it was like 150,000 that's like the limit okay so what does this mean um this just isn't how steam likes to do things because what they found was what we would do the basic marketing strategy we had to do to get here is you you're making like that plasma you're firing every laser you had at a single point in time and a single point in space and hopefully create that plasma ball to get that 20,000 wish lists right here in those like one to two days before the start of nextfest it was it was not good not fun we had to do it because that's what the algorithms prioritized it wasn't wasn't fun okay so everything I'm going to talk about is theoretical I don't know if this is how it's going to be working I'm just reading between the lines I'm interpreting what the gods have told us and these gods are the valve employees they they just published this Q&A from August um they just published it a few days ago publicly on YouTube here it is

okay um go find it just search nextfest Q&A August 2024 you'll find it on YouTube Just F watch it it's it's mostly good A lot of the same questions that's the bad part it's the same questions over and over okay this is what they were saying I'm pulling out the good parts we are changing how next FES is organized the homepage will be a bit refresh refreshed improve the discovery process we have new ways of recommending games to players ta very cool okay here's here's this is the real quote these are the good quotes make it even as possible so that every game can have a chance to find its audience at nextfest and then once we start to get more data on which games people are interacting with we can use that to make smarter recommendations to help people come to nextfest okay this is the money money quote This is the real quote we are having as much of we are having as much of it as possible be random so that every game whether you've just put up your store Page and your demo and you have no wish list or or

whether you've had a store Page up and you have a million wish list we are going to be treating those games the same initially initially on nextfest okay and then finally when players first come to nextfest the experience will be that nextfest is going to recommend them games based on the tags on those games and how they relate to other games that they've been playing they're also going to be section a section that are just randomized regardless of what they play I just was clipping the the audio verbs the verbal of these so I know it doesn't quite read right it's just because people speak different than they written okay there also going to be a section where they just randomize regardless of what they play okay as we get further into nextfest and we start to see more data about the random games they've started wishlisting them they stated playing the demos which are the ones that people are responding more positive to then those might be Amplified in some ways with nextest this is the magic words so this is the quote from that YouTube video I was just talking about okay everyone should get an equal start

over time we can learn which games people are more interested in and hopefully help Target those games a bit more specifically to players okay now I just taught you how steam valve likes their algorithms and this is my interpretation of what's going to happen Okay this is my interpretation let me show you okay so it's I think it's going to work similar to Discovery Q the way it works now on Discovery Q they're going to give everybody some free random traffic like everybody gets something like I found the free random traffic remember how I said everybody when you launch your game gets like 6,000 views from the discovery queue everybody does similar this is sounding similar I don't know if this is how it's going to work this all theoretical but knowing how the algorithm Works before what they like to knowing what it's going to what they just said I have a feeling they're GNA give everybody like 6,000 views I I'm just picking 6,000 some number I don't know what it is okay all right they're GNA give everybody and if you perform well in that first one day two day who knows how long they're going to do it if you perform well

here if they perform well you're going to move up and they're going to give you more visibility like the next couple remember how he said there's going to be a second day a second transition the second part once we see some data then we're going to prioritize I have a feeling there's going to be a flipping day somewhere flipping day somewhere on Steam nextfest all a sudden the algorithm's going to change there's going to be new widgets to pop up or something and we're going to take that first couple day performance and they're going be like oh all these games did very well with their 6,000 and we're going to promote them games more and the games were like U we gave them 6,000 and nobody played it people played it for five seconds and then they deleted the game forever and ever and then it's like those games aren't going to get the visibility so this I don't know if this is my theory based on ring between the lines and knowing how the existing algorithm works okay couple other things are going to get change no longer doing that live stream featuring thank God they I think they realized they're like developers do not want to be show people like on the front page of steam why did

we require that so they're pretty much burying that in the algorithm so don't worry about a live stream there's no special benefit it was such a hassle every time you had to say well what am I two when should we pick our streaming times when should we do this don't do that anymore no longer doing a fun live stream and I feel bad that some that they always like dress up in costumes and they're like welcome to next Fest they're not even going to do that anymore they're just like nope it's algorithms this is back to steam classic steam take the people out of the equation it's all about the algorithms so we're not doing any fun live streams which I always feel I like watching the live streams the that where valve like did some little jig or something I don't know um tra they said something about something called Trailer TV I don't know what it is they just said trailer TV I don't know what that is that tells me get a good trailer up and then they're going to randomized and themed widgets that's what they were talking about this is I think the free visibility they give to test you out so I'm about to do I'm going to transition to Q&A okay so pop your questions in the Q&A tab don't pop questions in the main chat I will not

read those just because it's too long pop in the QA but here's two questions don't ask these because I'm going to tell you the answer everybody always ask these two questions I'm going to give you the answers right now so you don't have to ask them okay here's the two questions should we drop out of nextfest and the it's always some variation of this they're like our trailer isn't quite ready we're not sure if our game's going to be ready we still have to get approvals we're not sure our code doesn't work if there's all this Heming and haing we're not sure we think when's the last day we can drop out cuz we're not we're not totally sure if we're if you have any doubt drop out just drop out okay um do it just drop it do you don't have to ask just drop out now just drop it out if you're coming in like you're on the line you might not make it just drop because remember my theory is the algorithm is going to be very um it's going to watch your first two days a lot

and if you underperform if you're if your demo is coming in hot that means you're going to have bugs that you're G to have bugs and it's not going to be play tested and like the boss is going to be too hard and the dialogue's going to be janky something's going to be awful and people get turned away in those first couple days where they're listening to you seeing the algorithm whether the people are playing and liking your game or not and if you underperform then you're next vest is going to go bad so if if you're having problems just drop out nextfest should not be the first time people play your demo it should not so what I'm saying is for everybody's asking like well should I do that should I yes drop out because you want to do a play test first a beta I'd even say and this is controversial I'd say launch your beta months in advance you want the people to you want to get feedback on that beta see if it's good or not and then once your beta is good then do next Fest next Fest should not be the first time you have contact

with the players it should not do not do that don't wait because this is the way the algorithm's doing they're gonna test you in that first couple days and if your game's never good the first time so you got to get that feix just don't don't even ask a question yes you should drop out if you're if you're even on the fence drop out okay wait there's more time you can there's there's more nextfest there's October February June there's plenty of nextfest coming up you you'll be much better all right how do we get featuring in the official nextfest trailer okay so there's this trailer it's like nextfest and then they're like we've got RPGs and then there's like a picture of a guy playing an RPG they clip a game that's an RPG and it's like some guy swinging a sword and they're like we got Platformers and then they just grab some platform that looks really good and they show the platform people are always so crazy about this like how do I pay who had valve do I contact to get into this trailer I got what do I do to get in the trailer how do I make sure my game gets it doesn't matter this trailer doesn't matter the the thing is there's this there's this thing where it's like I think it's now maybe that's the last

time they want you to drop out or confirm that you're going to be there and you'll get notified that your game is going to be clipped in the trailer like they're going to grab a segment of your game and they want to make sure that your game's actually an next Fest listen folks this trailer doesn't matter yes valve is gonna say hey are you're sure you're going to be in this festiv because we're going to clip your trailer it doesn't matter if you're in the trailer this trailer does no visibility for you it's just a random collection even in the Q&A that I showed they were like well we have to advertise something for next Fest and we can't just show our Talking Heads so we're going to show some exciting gameplay but this trailer never gives you this official valve trailer people care way too much about this trailer and they they Bend themselves over backwards they're like well we didn't get in the trailer should we drop out a next vest so we can get into the trailer next year it doesn't matter the trailer just gives you like zero visibility people way too much mental energy on this trailer just foret just pretend the trailer doesn't even exist please don't make any strategic decisions whether you got into the trailer or not or if you did get into it

don't expect all this stuff to happen it will not happen the trailer doesn't matter so don't ask any questions about the trailer I promise the trailer does not matter the official nextfest trailer doesn't matter okay don't worry about it it doesn't matter it doesn't help you in any way okay so here's generally before I get to the Q&A so pop your questions in the Q&A tab except for those two questions whether you should drop out a nextfest yes and whether what you should do to get into the official trailer it doesn't matter as long as your questions are those two pop them into the Q&A Tab and then tag okay so here's my general advice for next Fest not knowing exactly how it's going to work I'm just I'm overanalyzing and interpreting what's going on I would say tag tag tag your game make sure it's perfect your tags are perfect and you can take my how to make a steam page class all about tags um you because they said we are going to use your tag to show your game

to people who really like that thing so make sure you're targeting your audience with those tags perfectly because that really matters make sure your demo like in other words refresh your tags like I would say like two weeks before make sure your demo is fun and doesn't turn players away that that's basically I know that's obvious should be obvious but again not this should not be the first contact with players during next you should have played tested done demos done festivals way before this make sure trailer assets are very good because there's something called Trailer TV and like I said they're looking at your performance in those first couple of days of nextfest and they're going to make the rest of nextfest really change based off of this um maybe do a little advertising you don't have to do that thing where you try and get 20,000 wish list the day before I don't think that's going to matter as much but I still think it's important that you contact streamers try and get your streamers to know about you before nextfest because they sometimes will make their decisions way before nextfest about which games they're going to play during nextfest um 10 days prior there's a thing called

press preview yes do it before I said remember how I said you want to shock the system with that plasma beam i' would say don't do the Press preview because you want your game to debut and you want to do it within those two weeks and you want to do it all that stuff don't worry about that anymore I don't think that I think they saw that people the optimal strategy was not to do press preview because it took away from that plasma laser beam thing um do the Press preview I I think it is good to do the test press preview looping stream that live stream thing do it if you want to but I don't think it matters I don't think it matters anymore there's no benefit there's no visibility benefit nothing like that so don't I don't think you need to do it anymore okay separate demo page versus demo main page I don't know because these are the two ways you can do it now you can create your own page or you think I kind of I think it's a little extra to put that thing I don't think it's as good to have two pages I don't know I'm still waiting on data but my gut tells me just put your demo on your

main page because valve said in the Q&A they said they're going to pull most of their assets like when they pull screenshots they pull the trailer the micro trailer they're pulling it off your main page not your demo page and I think it's going to be too confusing I have a feeling there's gonna be some bug or some problem where somebody's going to get linked to their demo page but not their M it's good too confusing I say keep it simple don't do a demo page put your button on the main page but don't freak out if you got the demo page I know somebody's gonna ask well Chris I did the demo page should I pull it down no just stop just stop freaking out don't freak out if You' got the demo page separate keep it up don't change things keep it calm but if you're wondering should I create a separate page or this and you haven't done it yet I'd say demo button on main page but don't freak out if you did it the other way please in general stop freaking out okay okay I think that's it so I'm going to pop over and do the questions um let's go to question mode um here we

go let's do this oh and don't forget for 24 hours I'm discounting my course for $100 click the Buy $100 not to 200 discounting buy 100 bucks click on the um offers tab and you'll see it or if you're watching on YouTube go to the button down below okay let's do this okay all right all right um should we link to the demo okay uh what's the best strategy for demos right now I think I answered that I think I don't know but for steam nextfest I think you should just put the demo button on your main page don't have a separate page I just think that it's going to confuse things next question where is a discount link for the wish list course um it should be in offers there's a tab button over there it's called offers click it and it should you should see that button there that if if you can't do it for some reason you

just enter in coupon code what was it the coupon code was sorry I hope I'm still here I hope I'm still here um the uh coupon code is um OCT event I think it's like I'll link to it you have 24 hours look at the YouTube channel I I'll post it in the Discord okay all right um um the next thing um let's keep going through these q&as um let's see here just making sure just making sure I didn't drop out hopefully you're still here yes I am still here I opened a tab and it killed my thing oh my God and I clicked back I tried to open the tab to see what the the page was what the URL coupon code was and by clicking the link I took me away from this page webinars are terrible but anyway click the offers tab

there's an offer tab click it but you'll get it there otherwise check the YouTube I'm going to upload immediately after this there'll be a coupon code in the YouTube video okay I'm still here still here okay um would you translate the page to other language to help with nextfest yes you should always translate in fact I would recommend nowadays you should debut your steam page with translations that's way you should get those translations in highly recommend it I have a 1 wish 1,000 wish list my game will be on next Fest and it'll be ready for release on November any advice I'm making the overcook type farming game yep try it see how it does I really I like these changes that I'm theorizing valve is doing because if your game is good you're getting an even shot so everybody's going to be like I I think what's G to happen everybody in nextfest is going to get the same default amount of traffic like they're just provided by Valve they're all going to get everybody's going to get some amount of traffic and

then they see how that traffic responds so even if you're going in with 1,000 wish lists that's not bad assuming your game is good like in other words assuming it's playable so I think it's good if you're launching I think you should do it I think you should still do nextfest especially if you're launching in November releasing your game you did it perfectly right before launch hopefully you can get over 1,000 wish list I hope you can get 5,000 wish lists during nextfest so you get the 7,000 so you can launch into November with 7000 ,000 when did does the new algorithm start with nextfest starting now well I mean Technic this is the first one they're just kind of previewing it because this will be the next one so technically it starts you're going to get a developer preview where you get to see the preview page I'm excited to see what happens because if you have a game of nextfest they'll open up the page to you like 10 days early and say Here's your page that's when it's going to happen this new algorithm Starts Now Mike said is it bad to have a demo released prior to nextfest I may have screwed up but I don't want to release

bump from nextfest I think you're fine I actually think if you launched your demo before nextfest I don't think that's a problem I actually recommend it because hopefully you've gotten the data you've sound like oh my God and you should have Telemetry in there like oh people are dropping after that first puzzle oh I must have made the puzzle too hard or maybe I forgot to add that extra tool tip to help them solve the puzzle oh I got to fix that and then you fix it and now your demo flows better because you're you don't want to go into next not knowing how players are going to respond to it to the demo you got to optimize your demo to be fun our promotional efforts leading up to next Fest less valuable I was previously planning on a new trailer potentially release a release date a week before the Fest it sounds like this is isn't going to help during the next Fest I I don't know I would still carry on with your plans um I I I still think it's good to get your game into the Zeitgeist it's awesome like you should still do that promotion because um streamers will play your game I still think I mean getting a

streamer to play your game at any point is awesome if you can get on their radar ahead of time I still think you should do some promotion leading into nextfest I just don't think it's as critical as it used to be because it was getting insane like we would have to get try and get like 20 to 30,000 wish lists in a very short period of time and we had to time it perfectly and I never knew what the timing was it was stupid before it was stupid hopefully it's not as bad I still think you should do all your promotion I think it's a great idea launch your trailer with a new release date I think that's still a smart thing to do I just think that it's not going to be as effective as it was before but it's also going to be much more egalitarian now so I think we're good okay all right um what do you suggest embargo wise for press preview on Steam nextfest um I wouldn't do any embargos just say hey our big promotions on Steam nextfest we're launching it and and the from what I've heard the Press actually they like the Embargo just because they they want

to know when do they need when should they publish your thing you don't have to be all crazy like sign this NDA to see it you don't even talk about our game you're just saying hey we're we're timing everything to nextfest we'd love it if your coverage hit at this time but you're not embargoed from it so don't embargo just tell them hey we really like all the Press coverage coming into it because a lot of journalists will write 10 best demos of nextfest and then they'll publish it like three days earlier or a day of best demos to play at nextfest that's what you want and that's what the Press preview is built for so I'm I'm afraid if you put too many embargos and stuff like that people the presid like I look I I I'm not a lawyer I don't know what's with this embargo I'm just gonna skip I'm not I'm not even going to put the game on my top 10 list because I don't know if I'm going to get sued by this crazy developer that's telling me all these embargos so just be friendly with the press and say hey uh we're we're doing this for nextfest we hope that we can get an article before nextfest that's don't worry about embargos folks

nobody's going to steal your game okay um what makes a successful demo there's a talk search Zukowski demo I think it's on YouTube I I did a whole talk about demos it has to be fun your median play time should be 30 to 45 minutes at least median play time not average that's why you should put your demo out way before next best to get that median Play Time up should be fun that's the most important thing and it has to be a good game that's what makes a successful demo also you need to put your wish list button in four places on the main menu on the pause menu on the quit button screen when I say I'm going to quit and when you beat the demo like you get to the end of the content like you beat the last boss in the demo and just say thanks for playing the full game's unlocking soon here's the button to wish list and then when you click that button it opens the use the Steamworks API to open the game browser don't open a web page because you don't know if they're logged in but if it's in the in Steam browser thing it will automatically open

the right thing okay from prome how long should a demo for an incremental idle game be this one I don't know play a bunch of look for idle games that have demos and play them and see if they're good and see what it is um I think my thought is for incremental games the content should be limited my gut says maybe like two hours Max and then when they end it it says like here's what you're missing by not doing the full game you don't want them to be tired of incr game you want them to feel like ah it's just getting good so that's what I would imagine um what should and shouldn't be included um the ending shouldn't be included what should be included is a button to wish list the game that's what you should do what are the kpis to track and when on where on the steam back end on the steam back end there's something that says median play time I can't remember where it is in Steamworks it's like in I think it's on the product tab you click the product Tab and you can look at it look at median play time and everybody's like well my average is good average doesn't matter

because somebody could have left their screen open and just been streaming your game all night and then that throws off your averages it's median I know the median number is less and it hurts your feelings to look at the median but it is the most important one you want it to be and look at my bench Parks page how Market a game.com benchmarks and I talked about benchmarks for demos we did some research by looking at tons of demos and what the final launch how much money they made compared to how much how what their play time was turns out 25 minutes or more for median play time is ideal because if it's less than 25 minutes there was a huge population that was like and they just Clos the game and left the other thing is you should be adding your own Telemetry don't just trust steams because steams is a little heavy-handed like in other words it's like a rolling average so if you fix your game it you're getting averaged in with your previous times it's best if you track your own data you can hook up Google analytics into your game or I think Unity if you're using Unity has its own analytics package you could F you could also set up events to fire

like um track did they how what percentage of people beat the first level how many people got through the second puzzle how many people beat the boss how many people got to the end screen and you can see where people are dropping off that's not in the steam back end you should add that it's Telemetry you should definitely be finding out where players are dropping out of your game all right I have a lot of wishless but how can I ride the way with my community be on top of steam nextfest we don't know no this is all going to be new if you have a lot of wish list congratulations your game is probably fun and attractive um my theory is that steam's going to test that they're gonna give a few six view visits like they do with the don't don't don't now people are gonna forget I said 6,000 I was just doing that because that's typically what they give you for for the U Discovery Key when you launch your game I don't know the number nobody knows who knows we're going to find out but they're going to give you some block of traffic and then they're going to see what what you do with that traffic so I don't think you

can do too much they did say they did say there is going to be a um they're still going to keep the most wishlisted most played demos trending games tab but it's going to be deprioritized it's going to be buried deep in there and I don't think it's going to affect as much I think you should just rally rally Community if you haven't launched your demo yet um launch your demo well in other words like if you haven't launched the demo yet under the new system launch it and then you can fire that button you can push that button that says notify wish listers I would do it like 24 hours in advance so even if you publish your demo push the announce your game to your followers so everyone who wish listed gets an email it says demo is life I do it 24 hours before steam nextfest I always think it's good go rolling into steam nextfest with a lot of velocity not because everybody else that is at the top of the charts had been rolling for the next the 24 hours if you do it the moment NEX starts there's so much chaos and it's like going from a a Haled stop versus a rolling start you know

it's not like like it's the difference between like NASCAR where they're already moving and then they start the race versus like um Mario Kart where you're stopping you start at a stop and then you go you want to be the rolling start and so that's why I say like 24 48 Hours push that button that says notify wish listers okay what is good timing for release after it doesn't I don't know I wrote a Blog search my blog for when should I launch my game most of the time I think people study this too much it is not the the day and hour and month that you launch is not as important as Indies think Indies overanalyze that it is not as important as the genre that you're making Indies always like breeze right over the decision to make a game they're like I'm gonna make this game H we're making this game but then when it comes to like launching the game they're like all of a sudden super analytical people are not spending enough time deciding what game to make and spending way too long deciding what day hour month whenever to launch your game it doesn't matter as much as you want a

lot of people think here's the next question that I get a lot um okay I just got a lot of velocity from nextfest I'm going to launch right after to capture that visability I'm the smartest Indie nope everybody had that idea and so I did some analysis last nextfest look for my blog so I think it's called should I launch after nextfest turns out every Indie has that idea and it's a very busy time the two weeks following nextfest and every's like I'm just going to launch right after nextfest to beat the crowd no the whole crowd is there the crowd is already there so just search my blog um for launch day you'll probably find a bunch of them and it'll tell you some analysis I've done it doesn't matter it's like just just pick a time when there aren't as many games like there and there are a lot of games right after nextfest so don't do it right after nextfest it's a busy time um do you recommend doing live stream during nextfest even though we don't have dedicated spots you can if you want to I don't think it's going to give you any any extra traffic but I don't know I

always say Here's my thought if steam makes something use it why not and setting a live stream it's so easy it's for most people it's the the biggest issue is they don't want to be on camera they're just like do I really have to live stream yes steam's giving you free traffic for this thing free visibility some way even if it's reduced might as well use it but it's no longer Mass necessary so many Indies we're just so it kind it's it's kind of funny but it's kind of sad how scared Indies are of live streaming you shouldn't be that scared I mean it's kind of funny in the fact that it's like I don't know it's that personality type that's what makes me I think it's F of funny it's the personality type of like don't even look at me don't don't don't I don't want to be on live stream just don't even look at me it's not bad folks it's not too bad just get out there and do it but it's not going to give you it's not make a break it used to be make a break because you not make a break but it's like used to be reserved to time and then you got most of your visibility during xest

during those two things it was such a stupid program that they had before to like schedule it and it was always exploited it was somebody always figured out some hack so I'm glad that they got rid of that but still do it why not just just do it people always like steam's not earning their 30% and then steam's like okay well use this streaming feature like do I really need to use that it's like yeah they gave it to you they taking your 30% might as well use every tool they built for you so do it but don't freak if you're really if you're really scared you're like please I don't even want to exist don't even look at me don't just don't look at me then don't if you're really paranoid about being hearing your voice or something don't worry about it you don't have to do it come on it's free all right we're making a game with a very Niche audience 3D cute sakaan puzzle game and sitting at a good 500 wish list do you think the algorithm might give us the same chance as it was before is that a common problem with game small audience yes um it's going to be the same problem um so

puzzle games steam just doesn't like puzzle games I mean I know it seems like they do but for the most part they don't so what they're going to do is and streamers also don't like playing puzzle games that's unfortunately that's the nature of it um so what's going to happen is you're going to get those 6,000 views no streamers are going to play it and a bunch of people are gonna be like oh it's a puzzle game unfortunately I mean I I kind of like puzzle games but it's just not the audience match but you could do well who knows but that's what's going to happen and that's why I just I recommend people against making puzzle games just because the steam audience just doesn't like puzzled games they just don't that's the unfortunate truth I'm sorry it's not what you want to hear but that's kind of that's kind of what we're facing okay um but I I wish you I say that but I wish you the best I wish everybody the best but I just I I want to be honest with people I just I'm just telling you like how it is don't shoot me I'm just the messenger okay but please share your data and here's another thing I didn't

put a slide up for this I'm really curious how this transitioned because I feel like there's going to be a couple days where they're giving everybody free visibility they're looking at the data and then it's like a butterfly it's going to go into its cocoon and then steam nextfest is going to change maybe I'm really curious and I'm going to study this what happens the two the first couple days how much traffic you're getting and then after the transition to this new promotion period what it's going to look like I'm really curious what the numbers are looking like and what you need so please everybody share your data I'm going to have a special channel on the Discord how tomarket a game.com where people can share their data all right I have uh 20 minutes I'm going try and get through all these questions these are fantastic questions thank you so much for asking them okay we are making a game with a very we did that one is there still a press section of steam nextfest and if so should we do anything special for the Press pet yes um valve still said yes we're doing press and the whole reason by the way I figured this out based on the thing the whole reason

they have that thing where it's like you can upload your demo and then you have two weeks to press notify wish listers of our demo the whole reason there's that weird twoe delay is because of the press preview because they're like we're going to allow you to put up the demo but it'll be secret just so the Press can kind of Secret In quotes press can do it so that you can notify your wish listers before next Fest see that's why that's the whole reason they did the two we lag period that you're allowed to push the notify wish listers is because of the press preview so they really do believe in the Press preview um yes they're still having it yes you should participate there's a thing where it's like I think you can opt into press preview or not you should definitely opt in press preview everybody should it's again it's one of those free things where people are like Val doesn't give us enough for our 30% that we're giving them and they're like well here's this thing it's called press preview and then NES are like well should I even do this thing why did I have to do it for this it's like well this is part of the 30% that you're paying for you might as well use it you're paying for it you might as well use this press thing use it now a lot of people then say well like oh well

I can't I my game's not ready we're not ready for press preview we're still uploading up to the minute I don't know I don't know if our demo is going to be ready for press preview then what's my answer then pull out an next Fest you are not ready you're not ready for next Fest then pull out and do it the next one which is uh what February so do the February you want to go in to next F feeling confident don't wait until the last minute if you're not ready for the Press preview which is 10 days prior to nextfest then don't do nextfest okay you want to be ready for this stuff all right what kinds of data looks to see if demo did well time played reviews it's probably going to be some combination of concurrent users and median play time that's my theory and also uh just yeah it's probably those two that's what they always it's kind of look at so look at your median play time and do your play test that's why I say it's very important to add those analytics that match to find out uh where are people dropping off build in

analytics into your games folks so you can analyze hey when do people quit my game and then fix it so people don't quit your demos before is there a way we can track the average play time for the demo in the specific custom time like average playtime and next vest you cannot that's why I say incorporate your own analytics so that you can analyze just those blocks period of time the the T the the free tools that valve gives you by default are good it's good that everybody gets that but it's very very clue in other words you don't get that fine detail you have to do it so you get your work ahead of you you you've got your work ahead of you do it add those analytics steam analytics um just um you know there's like Google analytics and unity analytics if you're using it um should you join nextfest if you don't have a demo is that even possible it is not possible you should do nextfest when you have a demo and you have tested it is there an ADV Vantage to have an actual live stream on steam or is it

just better to have a pre-recorded live stream looped it doesn't matter but I would just Loop it nobody cares if it's live just Loop it Loop it um any advice for finding beta testers the only method seems to be making a trailer on a Reddit post but then that's already technically announcing the game well you want to announce your game the sequence is and if you take my master class which is on discount for $100 $100 off offers tab find it there is we we teach you the order of things and the Order of Things is you announce your game you Market it you mark it towards a demo a beta you do that then you go um then you launch the demo then you do nextfest then you launch your game that's basically it uh we tell you how to do all those steps but what you do is you give it to streamers you give your stream your your beta your demo code to streamers say hey we're doing a demo can you play it and if they like your game they will play it if they don't like your game they will not play it so if they like your game

they'll play and they say hey this game's accepting beta entries sign up for the beta your game beta and that's what they'll do and then that's how you get people to play your beta all right assuming all Indie Games will use next fest's Vis visibility boost to release in the next few weeks following the event meaning lots of games releasing at the same time how long should we wait until the release after next you use uh steam DB go to steam DB click it and look at the calendar of dates and look for don't worry if it's a AAA game that's launching don't even freak out if you see a AAA game is launching the same time as yours the most important thing is how many games is this certain date got 10 people signed up to launch their game or does it have like two people pick the day that has two people even if it's two AAA games I'd much rather here's your question if I were given the choice this day number a day number a day a has two AAA games launching on the same day or this day B has 15 indie

games that are kind of medium siiz launching every single time without question I would launch during the day that only has two AAA games it's the number of games launching not the size of them that's very very important it's a hard concept Indies for somehow been trained oh you have a triaa games launching I can't launch that day oh no it is not that it is this the number of games because our main visibility driver in those early days is popular upcoming and new and trending and if you have lots of games launching that day they are going to clog up popular andc coming and new and trending so look for the number of games launching search my blog for um when should I launch my game or just Google search how Market a game.com when should I launch my game I've got at least two or three articles all about this topic read it there but that's General a thing assuming um let's see here is it worth waiting for nextfest if your game could be released well before it or should you suggest wait for nextfest to advertise the game and the main thing you want to do is you can't do next test after you

launch your game you cannot it has to be an only upcoming game so once you launch you're out of NE you can't do nextfest you want to do the last nextfest before you launch because that's when your game is the best you've had the best graphics You' had the most play testing to make sure players finish it oh and you have the most wish list going into it most visibility streamers probably played it before so that's great you want to go in the last nextfest before launch do you think that some genres will will be highlighted showcased more than coming next test no I have a feeling all games will do it and basically what steam's saying well here's technically so valve said we are going to tailor our recommendations on the steam next test page based on what the player plays so they look at the median play time of every genre tag and then they look at the median time of each player to see whether that player plays higher more of this tag than the median play time for all of steam and so if somebody plays more than the median they're like that player really loves open world

Survivalcraft because their median play time for the open world Survivalcraft is greater than all the other Tes so that is how steam analy divys out visibility and it sounds like they're going to use that recommendation system which is basically how the discovery queue works as well which is like personalized to what you play so but technically there's a lot of players who really really like deep strategic games so yes those games are going to get featured more because more players really like those types of games not as many players like puzzle games so there if you look across it not as many people are going to get shown puzzle games because the steam audience just doesn't like puzzle games as much it's just the way it is so um so yes I I think it's going to be evenly distributed but evenly distributed among players that have a preference if that makes sense do you think that some genres will be highlight um steam now lets us use a separate store page for the demo I don't know I think I've already answered this question if you haven't already I would just put the demo button on the existing page but if

you already created the demo separate page don't freak out don't pull it just let it ride stick with the plan just finish it out I don't know so don't change plans who knows nobody knows are there specificities for each different steamfest spring summer if so there's no difference there's basically no difference no difference just do the next one do the last one before you launch that's the most important thing would you recommend to launch a new addition of your demo at nextfest to increase visibility I think that's a good if you can do it I would launch a new demo so that players who've already played your demo are excited to play it again because I think that'll start influencing the algorithm so I do think if it's not too much work I think it makes sense to launch a new version of the demo as part of the next vest and advertise that whoa Antonio with a full shout how would you prepare for those 6,000 views you get for make a good game here's what I would do to prepare for that 6,000 free views

that you get make the best game you can because if your game is good those 6,000 views we'll engage with your game some more and then they'll play your game more if your game is not good they won't play anymore so make a good game don't make a bad game okay I'm serious about this you need to to do well on Steam and you make a good game so don't make a bad game all right Antonio you going to do it remember don't make a bad game it's that simple no bad games everybody no bad games out there only good games good that's what we got to do um what is the Press preview okay so uh the Press preview here's what the Press preview is uh the Press I don't know how you get notified become a pressed person without but they give out the special version of steam that if you're a pressed person you get access to it basically they turn on nextfest for 10 days before everybody else gets it and this is so that the Press has time to play demos on their lead I don't know what it's going to look like um but so the press and only games

that opt into press preview some games are like we're not ready for press we're not announcing our game during that so we're going to turn it off and press won't see those games only the games that opt in the Press preview when you sign up for nextest there's a check box somewhere that says like do you want to do the Press preview yes so the press these people that have been given special access to steam can see all these games and they will be able to preview them it's a great thing because the Press doesn't have enough time to play all these games and write about them and so the idea is the press preview is like they will have had 10 days to play a bunch of games and then write their article of like top 10 games of nextfest you should try out that's what the Press preview is so you should definitely opt into the Press preview now more than ever before before next test I was like don't doesn't worry now you should definitely do it and the reason I said n don't worry about it is because the Press I'll be honest folks the Press doesn't drive as much traffic as you think it does the only sites I do Gamespot um IGN and PC Gamer those are really the only sites oh lad Bible but they don't really do any stuff like that those are really the only press sites

that matter they're the only sites that really drive that much traffic and some Japanese sites they're the only sites that matter and so they don't drive that much maybe like 3,000 wish list if you get really good article which is great 3,000 was great but it's not like life-changing before it was more important to get that 20,000 wish list in a one two two day period that was more important before Steam nexist and when you did press preview you were Distributing that demo traffic over like a 10day period and then that you like diffused instead of shooting your lasers at one point you diffused your lasers over 10 days now that it doesn't matter hopefully that you don't have to do that crazy plasma laser thing now makes more sense yeah why not show put your demo up 10 days early get pressed to play it sure it helps okay um is it good to release your game next day after see I told you everybody always ask this question read the blog I've told you my answer about um uh when I think you should launch it again it doesn't matter as much people think search my blog for uh my analysis of

when you should launch your game after nextfest do you think it makes sense to get existing Community to play the demo again yes it should I I highly recommend it's easier to sell to somebody that's a former customer than it is to sell to a new customer so you should definitely do that okay there is no offer tab I don't know let me see oh oh shoot okay um yeah there's no offer tab when I when I lost the page went back I webinar software is always terrible okay so the offers tab went away apparently when I left and came back it blew away my offer tab um let me see if I can find it really fast let me let me I'm not going to leave this tab I'm GNA leave this tab let me put the offer tab still here I just have to do some desktop work just one second

that's not what I wanted to do let's see here it is this you want to use this coupon code octfest 24 so here's what what you do you go to O you go to my go to any how to Market a game.com progame marketing that's terrible um but basically what you do let me let me put this in big screen mode again okay so basically what you do let me just present this okay yeah so here's what you do all you do is you go to progame marketing.com pick the game pick the wish visibility and then add this coupon code without it's got an an

no no no octfest 24 if you use that coupon code you get 100 bucks off I'll also I'm gonna upload the YouTube video immediately after this call so we'll do that okay have five minutes left I'm gonna try and Hammer through as many questions as I can um okay about the review separate page the reviews I don't think it necessarily helps I don't know I still have I don't know data it's such a new thing I don't know I think for this just don't do the separate demo page I just just just my my thought is doing nextfest for a one hour horror game a good idea also is doing a beta for the same game a few months before a good idea just thinking it might ruin the overall experience narrative thanks yeah I do think a one-hour demo for a horror game is fantastic people love it one of the most famous demos on Earth is that PT demo that was on Playstation it was that horror game where you're walking through the hallways that was awesome the game never got made but it was like people still talk about

that demo horror games are fantastic for this thing you just end on a cliffhanger and that's the whole thing horror games are great about Cliffhangers like the monster screams in your face and then it screams and then it just pops up like that's the end of the demo wish list now and you're like call grab what happened and then the full game completes the story yes horror games are perfect for demos it's just you've got to craft it the right way remember folks we got to make a big a good game so don't make a bad demo make I'm being I'm being fous I'm joking but I don't think there's any problem with a short if the horror game is an hour make a 20 minute demo always do like at least like a third of your game for the demo like the the minimum if you have an hour game do a 20-minute demo or a 10-minute demo it it doesn't have to be long horror games work better in short format so do that is there an easy way to find streamers for a specific genre you just yeah you just look for the game that your game is more similar to and search on YouTube to see what streamers have played it and keep a list from that again this class tells

you how to do that how to find those streamers uh we recently see demo in Steam store that redirects us to the main game should we do this I don't know exactly what you're talking about I don't know specifically what you're talking about sorry are there cases where the looping stream page is still useful I'm in or uh in or out I think it's you might as well I just think just do it I don't think it causes that many problems I'm just ste's not going to give you anything extra for it so do it I say do it oh just do the looping just do the looping then your team doesn't have to manage it or anything just do looping um I have 18,000 wishes congrats but a bunch of them are really old doesn't matter old wish list don't matter um would you impact the presence of event no it does not matter um wish lists don't get old this is a common Trope that a lot of people think um search my blog for do wish list get old or something like that this is an old like Indie fear Indie ghost stories about old

wish list wish list don't get old I don't think they do um um let's see here um we got 35,000 wish list in four months congrats does this mean we might get a bigger push no I do congrats on that I do not think that that means you will get a bigger push because valve is saying we're going to give everybody the same amount what I do think though if you get 35,000 wishes in a short period of time that means your game is good you have a good game and it's exciting so I think you're going to do well in nextfest not because of the 35,000 wish list but because something about your game is good and fun and enjoyable so that's what I think you will I hopefully will have a good nextfest but that's the cause of it is because you have an interesting game apparently I was told by a Japanese Gamers that they wouldn't play a story-driven game that is not translated to Japanese in that case translating to steam page Japanese but not the game itself no it's not bad but I'd still do it and what steam will do is they'll automatically put a bar at the top that says warning this game is not translated to Japanese but you speak Japanese as you've told us the steam knows they

notify people and I think it's very common for Japanese players so I think they know um do demo units matter coming into nextfest as much as wish list I don't know we don't know so I don't know um My Demo has been downloaded by 5,000 players but only played by 500 and that's a 10 my friend I think you're looking at uh this is a don't look at conversion right don't worry about it don't worry about it a lot of this stuff and this is search my my blog for FAQs about nextfest this is another thing that everybody always asks about you will get a lot of demo downloads or they call them like licenses that means people have pinged the game there are Bots okay Bots go through Steam and they just ping every game and say I own this I own this I own this I own this demo and they just all they do is just they do this command that Flags the game as owned they don't download it they don't play it they just for whatever reason they just want to tag every game as in their library for

some I don't even know why Bots do it so don't look at that don't over analyze those numbers just look at median play time that's the important thing don't overanalyze data um and we'll talk about numbers when people start sharing that data see how many actual plays you have but look at the play number not the download number or claims I think the column passes okay I got there's a lot of questions here sorry I'm not going to be able to get through all of them um I got to go right at the end of the hour so I'm going to go for just a I gotta go last question we plan to release the day after next Fest good idea no don't look at my blog see everybody ask this question all right that's all I have time for sorry folks I gotta go I'm really sorry I couldn't answer everybody's questions but thank you so much offer is good for 24 hours look at the YouTube video that I'm upload to my channel just momentarily I'll post it in the YouTube I'll post it in the um Discord um but other than that good luck out there thank you so much that's the coupon code if you can figure out how to get to the page and do that sorry that offer button this way all right bye thank you so much for showing up I really appreciate all of you bye