Tips for Releasing a Game for Sale on Steam

I read this article today on how to market a game this year. At first I thought it was about making the game. But no. We are talking about selling it on Steam. A lot of the advice was new to me and counterintuitive.

For starters, you should price your game higher. One would think that would scare away buyers. But you do this to plan for large percentage sales in the future that might lure a lot of buyers. You also should not release your game on itch.io. Also seems counterintuitive. But hey. Got to listen to the pros.

You are gong to have to spend some money. Professional art for the cover and for in-game graphics are a must. Man. I guess novice pixelart does not go far in the professional game market. All right. Step 1: build game. Step 2: market game.

Learn From Harvard

I have heard about universities offering free online classes. It seems Harvard is doing this as well. You can audit some of their classes for no cost. The most interesting one I have found is "Introduction to Game Development". It allegedly gets you coding in C# and Lua. You will use frameworks such as Unity and LOVE 2D.

I have not taken the course yet. But I bet it is probably pretty good if it is a Harvard course. Too bad I can't actually enroll in the class and say I went to Harvard. They do offer some sort of certification if you cough up $199 for it. I wonder if there is any way I could talk my employer into footing that bill. Probably not.