USA News Hub

Hooray! Today! Today is the big day, the launch of Quaxum’s Steam page!

So, first off, this post is an announcement and celebration of that but more important, this article will focus on the long journey to takes to get here. I want this article to be informative and provide some insight on things to do and not to do when building up to the Steam page. I want this article to be helpful and to, in my opinion, clear up some information that floats around the inter-webs about the Steam page.

With that, here is the Steam page for Quaxum!: Store.steampowered.com

Check it out and of course wishlist! Thank you far in advance!

Now, onto the main purpose and focus of the article.

Steam. The behemoth of the gaming world. And even more important, the massive platform to launch and display your game. It is the goal and dream of almost every developer to get on Steam. It is a necessary platform for every gamer out there if they want success (whatever success maybe to you) and visibility.

But, when you are developer there is a lot of information that floats around on when to launch the page and what to include on it. And, a bigger issue, what state should your game be in when you do launch.

Well, I want to answer in my view on those issues.

First, let us tackle the root of the issue. What state should your game be in? Well, for my game I knew I needed a near final look and feel of the game. You want your Steam page to be the pristine display of your game. It is like displaying your product on store shelves, your fist impressions will be a huge indicator of people’s interests. So it needs to look and feel good. So do not be putting up prototypes or inferior looking version of your games. This page needs to be a good representative of your game and it’s vision.

The Steam page is the first stop and look for the player, so make it good.

The perceived lower effort quality of game you display, the worse people are going to respond. (Rocket Science!) But seriously, people do put out the worse version of their game and some advice does shoehorn you into putting up the game’s page as fast as possible.

Don’t worry about speed so much, worry about quality. But don’t be a tortoise either, it needs to be a mix of quality and speed. You don’t want to be taking 5 years to just get to your Steam page. There always need to be a balance between reasonable development times and shipping games. Take just the right amount of time for your resources to develop the game and market it. If this is more than just a little hobby, the you need to focus on building a portfolio of good games that make players remember your name. If you take 5 years between games, chances are people will forget you.

A portfolio lends credibility. And forcing yourself to releasing good games makes you a better developer. You learn the skills and speed necessary to start and complete projects in time efficient pace. Which is a huge part of project management.

And game development is a massive project with many parts and departments to it, regardless of your studio size. And for me, I have decided to have dev cycle of 6 months for a game, basically 2 game releases a year. To build this portfolio so I can have a good backlog of games for every type of player.

After being the Network Operation Manger for the NSA, I took and utilized those project management skills and experience into my own game. And it has made a huge difference to have a plan, to have goals, milestones, and structure to what I am doing. I am efficient and I don’t dwell too long on any one thing. I knock a task out and move onto the next. I have a task list that I treat like a ticket que and I prioritize what needs to be done and how important that task is.

This helps create quality.

(Pictured: Quality Screengrabs of the game – With polish and a good aesthetic)

And quality is what will impress and imprint on your player’s minds and hearts positively. And the inverse is true for perceived worse quality.

When I first started working on Quaxum, I did a lot of research on what and when for the Steam page. And I knew just from my own thinking that Quaxum had to be very far along for the Steam page to launch. With it being an arcade game and 2D pixel, there would be a high bar to clear to make it look good, stand out, and show off what makes it different from other arcade shooters.

(Pictured: Visually different Arcade Shooter Graphics And Style)

And thankfully I waited until I was nearing the end as I had just recently came up with visually displaying the defense shield with the green bar. Before this, it was just the two red emitters on the sides that flashed a green pulse when you killed and enemy and red when they attacked your shield. And the UI had a plus and minus signed that also flashed. But to me, it was unappealing visually and I never noticed either plus or minus through my hours of developing and playing the game.

(Pictured Above: Plus and Minus in the UI, the old version)

So, not too long ago I realized I needed the beam to emit between the emitters and it needed to be visually stunning. So I went about and toyed around with the beam mechanic. It was pretty similar to how I created the plus and minus signs.

I created a 32 X 32 beam sprite. Added as a child object to the invisible line that had already was detecting the enemies hitting it, and coded a solution that turned on and emitted the beam and shut off after the animation was finished.

Within 30 minutes it was implemented and worked great.

(Above: Planetary Defense Shield With Beam Emitter, New version of GUI with Enemy stats replacing the Plus and Minus)

And that’s where I truly realized flash and presentation really adds to the experience, and I got addicted to adding that flash and flare. It was amazing to see how the main parts of my game where greatly enhanced just by adding flare. And that is reminder that games are visual, and we as developers to need to make sure the visual experience is engaging and high quality for the player. Which is hard because you need to get the basics of the game done, but you don’t want to leave all of the flare work for the end either.

(Above, the controller mapping screen. Visually interesting and feels like an experience as part of the game)

So, I have developed a philosophy where I alternate between a dding game and then working on some flare. And it depends on what I am working on but it generally goes make a few small code implementations, or a large one, then work on adding the flash and glamour to some parts of the game. And it really depends on my mood and what seems fun to do at the moment. Because there are lots of work to be done and some of it harder or more boring than others. You have to keep yourself engaged and excited so you don’t burn out and you look forward to the dev process every day.

Back to the beam. Once I had it done and installed, I saw how it was visually stunning and it then became what I believe to be the signature look of the game. No other shooter or arcade game functions or looks like that. Which is important to stand out and be memorable in general and on Steam. And a visual and or game mechanic gimmick is key to standing out and making changes in the genre you are working in.

(Pictured: Planetary Defense Shield Chests, Health Meter, Item Frame. Examples of visual stand outs)

Now, that I had the big visual differentiator, I could focus on making the rest of the game ready for Steam. And that is what I have been doing until yesterday!

Yesterday I reached the point where I launched the Steam page for Quaxum! But there was a lot of work on that page I did before I hit that publish button.

Firs, I really worked on the visuals for the description. I created a bunch of style images that graphically showed what I was writing in text. This makes the game page interesting and pops while also generating enough information for the player to understand the game. Too many pages seem so bare and void of any visual creativity. Which is a turn off for a lot of players. Your Steam page is the box on the shelf at the store. It is what draws the player to even look at your game and eventually what aids in them buying. So I took it serious and added visual flair with funny text and jokes that really shows the passion and creativity that has gone into the game.

(Pictured: Steam Description Graphics)

You have to understand, players for the most part can tell when you. the developer, have put little effort into something. And that Steam page is the first look at the quality of your output. If it isn’t a good impression it can lead to players walking away. We all know that you do judge the novel by it’s cover because we are visual creatures. And we make decisions based off feelings we receive visually and in our other senses. So we as developers have to understand that and produce games and content that feed into that.

Once I had the visuals for the page itself, I went on created the capsule (cover) art and the other library assets you need to do for Steam. Which is a lot more than you might think. Basically there are a bunch of different sizes and areas of the store you need art for. And this is where you need to make decisions! Are you mainly sticking with one piece of art that you are re purposing for each asset, or are you creating new art for each? You can see examples of both throughout Steam. And it really boils down to how you want to represent the game and what you want your players to identify and associate with your game. Now, a word of advice, don’t deviate too far from your style as you do need to keep the branding close to the other art so players are not confused and think they are separate games.

For me I stayed pretty much with one piece of art, except for one of the capsules that displays in the Other Games Like This section in Steam as I wanted it to stand out when in that position.

So I went about creating this art. I went through many iterations for the cover. At first I went with this:

A good representation of the game. But I felt it lacked something. Maybe depth or color contrast. I shared it with a few others for feedback. I went back into the lab and designed a new one, this time with a lot more color contrast and I outlined the logo so it would pop. This one here:

And I fell in love with it. It looked beautiful, unique, and professional. So for now, this is the cover capsule.

I then went on and created the trailer and screenshots. And I recommend to have both of those. Trailers will grab the attention and showcase your game better than screenshots. And players will gravitate towards games that they can experience.

For the trailer, I took a game session of me playing through my game (with my dev cheats so I can skip around and create scenarios I want) and then put that footage into Davinchi Resolve. From there I scrubbed through and cut out clips of the best moments, cut it together, added text, transitions, and music. And tada! First ever trailer!

[embedded content]

Same process for the screenshots. I loaded the game up in Unity, played out a scenario I wanted and took a shot of it. I cleaned it up in Krita and tada! Screenshots!

(Above: Examples Of Screenshots)

I made sure to showcase the variable environments of the game in both the screenshots and trailer. You want your player to see all different aspects of your game so they can see it’s not just one scene the whole game, but a lush experience.

Now, once you are this point and hit that publish button, it goes to review with Steam themselves. Whew. Big day! Once it is approved then you go in and hit that wonderful coming soon button on your partner page.

And then….

It is live! For the world to see and experience. Good or bad, it is live!

And that brings us back to Quaxuma and it’s page. I still have work to do with it. Just in the few short weeks the game has already changed drastically from where the trailer and screenshots. Not in the way that game has changed, just so much has been added and improved. So I will be constantly updating as Quaxum grows and evolves. Which is what you will do too.

Games are an ever evolving software, artistic expression especially during the dev process. Don’t be afraid to release your page even if it will change. You need to get your game out there to generate interest and to get feedback.

Thanks for reading! Check out Quaxum on Steam! Wishlist! I appreciate it!

Store.steampowered.com

And YouTube:

[embedded content]

Quaxum: A New Age With Color And Mayhem!