System Crash CCG

Comments

  • What is the delay between someone buying the game, and you knowing about it?
  • Not exactly sure. But it seems to update every 15-30 minutes or so.
  • Oh, wow, I was thinking days or weeks.
  • Primary sales report updates once a day it looks like, but you have a near-realtime count of purchases and active players.
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    Whew. The update I've been grinding on for the last 3 weeks is finally live!

    Summon your courage and load your guns, Runners! Halloween is here, and with it comes...The Night Terrors!

    The latest update to System Crash introduces a challenging new mini-campaign, free for anyone who owns the game!

    - Unlock the Night Terrors story campaign by completing Neon Noir.
    - 3 spooky new cards to add to your deck.
    - 10 new missions to challenge veteran players.
    - Halloween cards now have a chance to drop in the main campaign as mission rewards.

    Happy Halloween, Runners!
  • Higher rez versions of the art I did for the new cards. It was fun, but tiring.

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    Thanked by 1mattbenic
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    Hey hey, Make Games!

    Has it been 2 years already? How time flies when you build a house and have a baby. ;)

    Anyway, I've just dropped some new DLC for System Crash - Underworld.

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    Blurb:

    "Underworld introduces an exciting new story campaign and a powerful new card set focused on turning your Archive (discard pile) into a potent resource.

    From Agents and Support cards that gain strength the more you discard, to Events that let you bring cards from your Archive back into play, Underworld adds a range of exciting new options to deck building.

    The Underworld set is powered by a unique risk-reward dynamic. Underworld cards can generate huge burst damage, but you'll need to burn your own deck to fuel your combos. Played well, you can sweep your opposition off the board. Played poorly, you burn down your own deck and leave yourself weakened and exposed.

    Features:

    - An exciting new story campaign.

    - 30 New missions.

    - 20 New cards to collect.

    - New card mechanics that allow you to burn your own deck for power."

    (And featuring art by our own @kidult and another SA artist, Cloued MeakLin, who I'm not sure visits this board.)

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  • Well, THAT'S a nice surprise to wake up to in the morning!!

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    Thanked by 2Tuism mattbenic
  • Sharing the data point, because I'm always interested in these things. With the caveat that it is just a single data point, everyone's experience may be different and you should be careful not to assume anything. A different game, a different time, or a different youtuber with a different audience, things might have been different.

    I released the expansion, Underworld, on Monday last week, with little PR fanfare. I'd burned hard to get it out before the Halloween sale, because there's a series of sales (and then deadzones between them, sales wise) at this time of year that lead through into the next year. It was basically a choice of releasing before Halloween or in the new year, for me.

    I got it done in time, but just barely. Sales were...ok. Not amazing, but enough that I thought "ok, in the long term this might make a profit, or at least not be a huge loss." I hadn't done much PR, mainly because I'm shit at it and, being so pressured to get it done in time for the deadline, I'd focused all my attention on just getting development done. I wouldn't recommend that approach, but it is what it is. I'm trying to get better at that for next time, or maybe hire someone who is better at it to manage that side.

    So sales were just okish, and slowing down by the end of the week. Then this youtuber did a video out of nowhere (I hadn't contacted him). And it was a shot in the arm to my sales, both of the base game and expansion.

    By Monday, both base game and expansion sales are approximately 2.5x what they were last Thursday. So, that's great. I'm now much happier with the outcome of releasing Underworld, I've had the best month's sales of the base game since the release month of that base game, and a LOT of new players are playing the game. Which is pretty awesome for a 2 year old game. :)

    Would that have been the case if I'd already done a decent job of PR though? Maybe, maybe not, I dunno.

    And I can't offer much in the way of lessons learned on how to get that kind of youtuber attention. Other than, every time you release an attractive update it's another chance for someone with a big audience to notice (this youtuber seems to have done this video because of the DLC release), so long term support of your games can really pay off!

    And old games can still have legs, even in this crowded marketplace.
  • This weekend was a double whammy of good news for me, as I checked my speadsheet and, after 2 years and 3 months, System Crash is officially in the black! As in, starting to make a profit!

    It has been a long, hard road, filled with struggle, sacrifice and self-doubt. But finally, more than 6 years after I left my job and set out to make this thing, I have done it.

    I have made a commercially successful video game. :)

    This is just the beginning. Onward and upward!
  • Congratulations! That's epic news!

    Just out of interest, I want to clarify the timeline, Splattercat's video came out a week after your update when the game had come off discount etc. And you've seen better sales since (with I assume is a less spiky sales bump than a Steam sale usually achieves)

    I'm really curious about updates and their effect on a games' ecosystem. I feel like updates are a form of marketing in themselves, but a less direct form than trailers etc. I think spending time/resources on updates has better longer term results than spending time/resources on traditional marketing (to a point obviously).

    I also expect that the surge in enthusiasm for single player card-based games recently means that visibility for System Crash may convert better to sales now than two years ago.

    Any chance you're considering another CCG for a future project?
    Thanked by 1critic
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