I am Overburdened [devlog]

[Spidi777]

Wishlist Release Calendar nr. 22:

[Spidi777]

Wishlist Release Calendar nr. 23:

[Spidi777]

Wishlist Release Calendar nr. 24:

[Spidi777]

Hello there!

In the big sprint towards publishing this game I forgot to update my devblog with a proper release announcement . I had to split myself in millions to actually finish the game and put it out there, but still, silly me how could I forget .

Takeaway: I have to prepare better for my next release, but I heard from other developers, that no time is actually "enough" .



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7H_zHxgYzz4

Released

Yes, I Am Overburdened was released at evening (by GMT) on the 2nd of November.
It can be bought on Steam and itch.io for 4.99$ and there is a launch-week 20% discount so get it while it's hot (currently at 3.99$ which may vary based on region)!



There is also a tiny extra for my previous customers, call it a "gesture" if you will. On Steam if you bought Operation KREEP before, there is a Magic Item Tech RETRO Bundle to "complete my games" and you get an extra 10% off for I Am Overburdened (sorry itch.io users, I haven't found a way there to bundle it like this).

First day

Now that I'm over the big rush for the release and over the first day, I can slowly ease into handling issues and working on updates, fixes and fine-tunings. The first batch of feedback is really positive and I got decent featuring from the press so far, which is awesome. People seem to understand and like the game, many even praise it and are really enthusiastic about its future . This is an awesome feeling!

The game is up to a slow start sales wise but it is too early to draw any kind of conclusions (it's only been a day). Of course I will do that in a few weeks in another blog entry. Fingers crossed .

Thank you!

Allow me to grab this opportunity to formally say thank you. Thank you for all who followed the development. Thank you for those who supported, helped and encouraged me along the way. Thank you for everyone who contributed, either with tips, suggestions, testing or critique. And thanks for everyone who already bought the game, I hope you all are having a great time !

I'm adding a new screenshot about the inn in the game (pun intended ), because in the last two weeks of development I changed it a bit (added even more stuff to the game ).



Thanks for reading, I'll be back with more stuff soon.
Take care!

[katastrophic88]

You had me at puns. Looking forward to checking this out!

[Spidi777]

Thanks katastrophic88 !
I hope the game will be to your liking .

[Rydon]

I have been lurking on this thread for a while, and grabbed a steam copy when it released. It is interesting to follow the thread and I like the game so far. I was also interested in following since I am making my own game currently. I would be interested to hear how you are doing your marketing for this, if any, and how you are currently gathering feedback/updating the game. Keep up the good work!

[Spidi777]

Hi Rydon!

Thanks for the kind words, for picking up the game and for the questions !
Here is my list about the bigger marketing steps I did so far:

• * Making a blog/vlog leading up to & after release (I consider this a form of marketing the product & it's development too), so the posts here as an example. This blog is synced to multiple forums & developer communities where I try to interact with people who may be interested in trying/testing/buying the game (e.g.: IndieDb).
  
• * Social media: My primary target was twitter (tweeting multiple times a week about the game, gifs, gifs, gifs!, updates, news etc...), because I sort-of know that "system", what works and what doesn't. Also tried reddit, 9gag, imgur, giphy and tumblr with varying success. I'm looking at focusing on facebook now and running some ads there (heard multiple times ads work with a high ROI there).
  
• * Youtube/Twitch/Mixer: I contacted and interacted through mailing, twitter and keymailer with a large number of youtubers & streamers who cover games, reaching out even before the release to ones who like and cover roguelikes. Again, I could say this went kind-of well as the game was featured in a dozen let's plays and streams on day 1 and much much more let's plays were uploaded since.
  
• * Press release: I sent out around a 100 and I'm continuing to do so as I discover some gaming sites and blogs covering indie/pc games. Again this was somewhat successful as some (even larger) sites wrote about the release or even a review about the game.

I'm gathering feedback on all the community forums I wrote before as an example, but the most important (and most active) being the Steam community discussions board. I try to answer as much tips, suggestions, comments, critique & reviews as I can and collect the valuable ones (by that I mean the ones which are reasonable and I have the resources to incorporate into the game) into my task management tool or into my TODO list if they are tiny changes. This also means, that I already watched hours of let's plays & streams to see play-throughs and to look for more feedback.

This is it so far.
Thanks again for the support !

[Spidi777]

Hello everyone!

I've just released the first major update to I Am Overburdened .
Now with version 1.1 it has full mouse support and a lot of new content !

Currently it is taking part in the winter sale with a 30% discount so you can get it for 3.49$ (may vary based on region).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7H_zHxgYzz4



You can buy it at Steam or at itch.io.



Thanks for taking the time to check it out.

I know I promised a full recap or a postmortem like entry which summarizes the development of the game and shows some sales numbers, but in the last one and a half months since release I've been super busy with support, updates, community management and with the most important task: deciding what to do next. During the holidays I will have some downtime hopefully and I will try to jump back into blog/vlog making .

Have a wonderful holiday and a happy new year.
Take care!

[noiseredux]

hey Spidi, I had a thought I wanted to mention to you. I know you develop in XNA. I was curious how difficult it would be to make an HTML5 version of the game? I bring this up because I know there's a whole section on Itch.io of HTML5 games that support Xbox controllers. What I'm getting at is that this would be a way to make an Xbox One "port" of the game, since HTML5 programs can be launched via the console's Edge browser. Food for thought?