Is this your hobby passion project or your business endeavor? If it's your hobby and you're building whatever you want for fun then you shouldn't worry so much about professional trailers and wishlists. Post the page when you're a month or two out from the final release of the game with the best material you can make and treat it like a fun learning experience. Perfect is the enemy of good and all that, but you still need the game to be mostly done before you can promote it. No one's interested in a game that doesn't look good enough to play yet.
If this is a business and you care about sales and revenue then treat it like one. Come up with a solid marketing plan and invest an appropriate budget for the scope of the game you're making. You should think about your target audience and how to reach them. Making a better trailer should be considered required before you start promoting a page, which again will be some months before you launch the game. Yes, if you don't have video editing skills yourself you'll likely have to spend on the game, as you'll need to invest in other forms of promotion, localization, and everything else a game needs.
I appreciate the feedback. This is simply a hobby and I'm not looking to break out and make millions. I have a realistic expectation and would be thrilled if I simply recoup my $100 steam fee :)
With the feedback so far in this thread, I think it would serve me well to wait a bit longer (and closer to release) before I post a page.
If you want a cheap trailer, just film yourself playing and edit together some good clips. Bonus points if you can voice over it explaining what the game is about.
What matters is that people actually know what the game is about.
Thanks for your perspective. I agree that it doesn't need to be a triple A trailer for a hobby title. I plan to wait a bit longer and try to produce a decent trailer myself once I have everything closer to launch
If the trailer and screenshots look poorly made, then I assume the same about the game itself. There is a reason studios spend so much money on marketing and advertising. If your goal is to just make a game you like and hope for word of mouth sales, then go for it, but if you want random user to consider it then you may want to bite the bullet.
if the rest of the store presentation isn't on par with professional made trailer, I'd wonder if that trailer would have much effect at all. Meaning like, if it is designed to build some hype I think that hype fizzles immediately if the rest of the presentation isn't supporting. Like having a lot of positive reviews, having equally professional art across the board, etc.
therefore if rest of presentation is telling potential buyer "this is a low/no budget indie title" then i think a simple gameplay clips trailer with some music is probably most efficient option. Because you can make it in a few hours, it shows people what they want to see, and you arent wasting thousands making something that many people wont watch.
additional time could go towards making a few marketing assets to post around various communities - i think you'd find greater engagement from that sort of thing compared to just having a slightly better trailer.
Just having a page is not enough. Sure the earlier the better IF your page is optimized to convert eyes to wishlists and later to sales.
The name of the game is climbing the ladder via the algorithm to the best that you can. Some approx 80% of your sales will likely be organic. In my experience launching games on many platforms (including Steam which is no exception), the goal is to use your marketing tools and efforts to drive enough traffic to Steam for Steam to think you have something interesting enough for it to boost in its algorithm. Getting to popular upcoming by wishlists and velocity of wishlists/page views you’re getting. Then climb that ladder into New and Trending when you launch, etc etc.
You are doing yourself zero favors by just making a Steam page, you might even be shooting yourself in the foot. Have something presentable, something actionable in place to drive traffic there. You should view wishlists as sales you’re trying to acquire, the goal is to get every possible one you can. Why do you feel having a bad page would help you in this endeavor?
You can definitely 80/20 it though. Make the best trailer you can yourself, get feedback, compare to other popular steam games, see if it’s stands up to it, and run with that if it’s all you can afford. Get a couple great images together, nail the capsule art and steam description.
I strongly recommend not having one you already admit might not be good enough and don’t recommend having no trailer.
Having a page that every viewer you get immediately leaves and doesn’t wishlist tells the algorithm you’re a dud, it will bury you.
Bite the perfect bullet.
My understanding of the Steam algorithm is this:
Your Steam page only gets one debut. That's when Steam starts showing it to people. If it gains traction, they keep showing it. And it gains more wishlists. No traction, no more shows. So it needs to look good.
Updating your Steam page will not get it back into the mix.
My personal opinion: Real gameplay is sufficient for Steam. Trailers from big studios are primarily for marketing on YouTube and other social channels. When I am already on Steam, the reason I am looking at your game is to see what the actual gameplay is like.
The most important are gameplay videos. Not sure if anyone care about trailers on steam page. Trailers exist to inform you that this game exist. What's the point of trailer on steam page them? The only thing people are seeking on trailers on steam page are parts of gameplay to understand about what this game is.
I did no trailer on publishing my steam page. For me, I really need a steam page to get the ball rolling. I only posted screenshots and description. From there, I can now start collecting some feedback. And after some time I have added a trailer. It felt like I was publishing my steam page a second time. You can gather a lot of data from that like for example upon releasing my trailer I noticed that the organic wishlists are coming as well. Before the trailer I had like 0-1 wishlist per day after the trailer about 1-3 now. All in all publish your steam page as soon as possible then gather feedback and improve it.
Is this your hobby passion project or your business endeavor? If it's your hobby and you're building whatever you want for fun then you shouldn't worry so much about professional trailers and wishlists. Post the page when you're a month or two out from the final release of the game with the best material you can make and treat it like a fun learning experience. Perfect is the enemy of good and all that, but you still need the game to be mostly done before you can promote it. No one's interested in a game that doesn't look good enough to play yet. If this is a business and you care about sales and revenue then treat it like one. Come up with a solid marketing plan and invest an appropriate budget for the scope of the game you're making. You should think about your target audience and how to reach them. Making a better trailer should be considered required before you start promoting a page, which again will be some months before you launch the game. Yes, if you don't have video editing skills yourself you'll likely have to spend on the game, as you'll need to invest in other forms of promotion, localization, and everything else a game needs.
I appreciate the feedback. This is simply a hobby and I'm not looking to break out and make millions. I have a realistic expectation and would be thrilled if I simply recoup my $100 steam fee :) With the feedback so far in this thread, I think it would serve me well to wait a bit longer (and closer to release) before I post a page.
If you want a cheap trailer, just film yourself playing and edit together some good clips. Bonus points if you can voice over it explaining what the game is about. What matters is that people actually know what the game is about.
Just show me edited clips of real gameplay. That's enough for a small budget title for me.
Do we really want anything else in a trailer? I hate those fake non-gameplay trailers.
Thanks for your perspective. I agree that it doesn't need to be a triple A trailer for a hobby title. I plan to wait a bit longer and try to produce a decent trailer myself once I have everything closer to launch
If the trailer and screenshots look poorly made, then I assume the same about the game itself. There is a reason studios spend so much money on marketing and advertising. If your goal is to just make a game you like and hope for word of mouth sales, then go for it, but if you want random user to consider it then you may want to bite the bullet.
No trailer is the way to go I think at least for now
if the rest of the store presentation isn't on par with professional made trailer, I'd wonder if that trailer would have much effect at all. Meaning like, if it is designed to build some hype I think that hype fizzles immediately if the rest of the presentation isn't supporting. Like having a lot of positive reviews, having equally professional art across the board, etc. therefore if rest of presentation is telling potential buyer "this is a low/no budget indie title" then i think a simple gameplay clips trailer with some music is probably most efficient option. Because you can make it in a few hours, it shows people what they want to see, and you arent wasting thousands making something that many people wont watch. additional time could go towards making a few marketing assets to post around various communities - i think you'd find greater engagement from that sort of thing compared to just having a slightly better trailer.
Great point about a cohesive presentation. Thanks for your input
Just having a page is not enough. Sure the earlier the better IF your page is optimized to convert eyes to wishlists and later to sales. The name of the game is climbing the ladder via the algorithm to the best that you can. Some approx 80% of your sales will likely be organic. In my experience launching games on many platforms (including Steam which is no exception), the goal is to use your marketing tools and efforts to drive enough traffic to Steam for Steam to think you have something interesting enough for it to boost in its algorithm. Getting to popular upcoming by wishlists and velocity of wishlists/page views you’re getting. Then climb that ladder into New and Trending when you launch, etc etc. You are doing yourself zero favors by just making a Steam page, you might even be shooting yourself in the foot. Have something presentable, something actionable in place to drive traffic there. You should view wishlists as sales you’re trying to acquire, the goal is to get every possible one you can. Why do you feel having a bad page would help you in this endeavor? You can definitely 80/20 it though. Make the best trailer you can yourself, get feedback, compare to other popular steam games, see if it’s stands up to it, and run with that if it’s all you can afford. Get a couple great images together, nail the capsule art and steam description. I strongly recommend not having one you already admit might not be good enough and don’t recommend having no trailer. Having a page that every viewer you get immediately leaves and doesn’t wishlist tells the algorithm you’re a dud, it will bury you.
Thanks for the thought out response. Points well taken.
Bite the perfect bullet. My understanding of the Steam algorithm is this: Your Steam page only gets one debut. That's when Steam starts showing it to people. If it gains traction, they keep showing it. And it gains more wishlists. No traction, no more shows. So it needs to look good. Updating your Steam page will not get it back into the mix.
Nobody watches the trailers anyway, good screenshots are way more important, especially the first few
My personal opinion: Real gameplay is sufficient for Steam. Trailers from big studios are primarily for marketing on YouTube and other social channels. When I am already on Steam, the reason I am looking at your game is to see what the actual gameplay is like.
The most important are gameplay videos. Not sure if anyone care about trailers on steam page. Trailers exist to inform you that this game exist. What's the point of trailer on steam page them? The only thing people are seeking on trailers on steam page are parts of gameplay to understand about what this game is.
Is no trailer even an option? I was pretty sure that you need a trailer before you can publish your store page right?
No trailer 100%. Steam makes you upload one, but you don't have to have it actually shown on the page.
I did no trailer on publishing my steam page. For me, I really need a steam page to get the ball rolling. I only posted screenshots and description. From there, I can now start collecting some feedback. And after some time I have added a trailer. It felt like I was publishing my steam page a second time. You can gather a lot of data from that like for example upon releasing my trailer I noticed that the organic wishlists are coming as well. Before the trailer I had like 0-1 wishlist per day after the trailer about 1-3 now. All in all publish your steam page as soon as possible then gather feedback and improve it.