My game, Dice’n Goblins has released. It’s a cute DRPG with Dice Combat. I would be very happy if you try it out!
How it started
I started playing with Godot I think around Mar 2022 with no prior experience with gamedev (a bit of RPG Maker in 2005, Lil Rythm game and minesweeper in Python). I wanted to make a VN.
Despite being a software programmer by trade, I found learning gamedev and Godot extremely difficult. The amount of domain specific information you need is astounding! Texture? Sprite? Albedo? What’s the difference?
I was seduced by the tree-like structure which is the part I love the most about Godot.
Instead of making a VN, I made a VN Parser. Never wrote that VN. Similarly, I have a lot of little prototype of everything laying around.
In 2023 I participate in a game jam about dungeon crawlers, a genre I like a lot. Just before it I make a small prototype, and I make a full game for the jam with friends. I’m proud of it, but I really made a obscure combat system, that almost nobody understood.
I have the idea of Dice’n Goblins around that time.
Rolling the dice
In June 2023, I leave my job, wanting to do some gamedev and consulting. Not the best timing, lay off waves were in full effect in Tech, IA obsession led to recruiters trying to get very insulting rates out of me.
I start working on Dice’n Goblins, and create some small prototypes. In August, I send it to friends. The game is really bad and so unplayable, I can’t get good feedback on the gameplay. I do not know how to prototype and get feedback.
I have 0 traction on twitter. I don’t have time to learn Youtube/Twitch game and video edition.
I travel for a couple of months. When I get back I want to give up but recruiters keep spitting on my face. I discuss with my partner and she supports me. I don’t have kids, light health bills, and some years of savings. In December it looks like this:
I work on a second demo and it’s better. I think it will be a 6h game. We open a Steam page in May 2024, pay money for the capsule.
Publisher involvement
We plan for a release in November 2024, with Next Fest in October. I kinda want to be done with it. However a publisher contact us. They didn’t provide funding, but it gave hope to the project. We hire a good lawyer and sign. We’re pretty happy, we’re getting a Translation. My girlfriend join me in the project (she owns half our company anyway 
).
October is demo release and to be honest, it’s not baked enough! We do not enter Next Fest. It was not great, with lots of technical issues. We put a form at the end of the demo and got a lot of feedback on what people liked or not. I have a lot of issue with Godot Shaders. We push the release plan to Mars.
We switch to bluesky and have more traction. It’s mostly gamedevs but people are nicer and I feel like I’m networking a bit.
I work A LOT. To finish the game. To update the demo. I don’t say that all those hours are useful, I spend a lot of time staring at the screen sometime or chatting in Discord, but during this I don’t play, read or exercise
Publisher out-volvment
In December, marketing is not doing very well, and we realize our game doesn’t fit publisher catalog. We walk out peacefully out of the deal and nothing bad happened.
We’re on our own, which is a bit of setback, but we use our knowledge of the market for some ads. I know you don’t like it too much, but I figured I need to be clean about it.
We spend around 1k€ and they work pretty well. Obviously twitter is not in question. I don’t recommend Google, unless you do console and you need to be wary, they will try to scam you about free credits. Reddit was decent, they connect you with humans salesman and the try to lower your spending and target other real humans, even though I am not sure there is many left on the platform.
For translation, we hired nice translators but also worked with our community. They’re awesome.
We get in February 2025 Steam Next Fest, it does well. Thanks to Women Day Sales and to Dice Dimension that takes place at the same time, we get a lot of visibility, allowing us to be amongst the most wished unreleased games on Steam. Which is actually, only step 1 of the battle. The difference between games that are amongst most wished is enormous.
Hanoder from Shatterfarms helps me getting a better trailer:
It’s cast now
We release on Friday 4. Thanks to our release date and being in the most wished, we are visible and gain some more wishlists. It’s now selling reasonably well, not crazy of course, but not nothing. We’ll see if it make a reasonable profit. Maybe if we sell it on the Switch ?
Now, it’s probably not worth it, monetary and by the amount of work I do. I would be much better off sending https request with python. But also, I don’t have to go to stand ups and have code reviews now which I thought were really dehumanization. I’m kinda happy.
It’s the first time I do anything artistic in a serious manner. And I still don’t consider myself an artist. I need to come to term with that . I’m kinda happy to have made it this far. Hopefully next game will be easier. I want to continue making them. Some people liked the game and said nice words and seriously, it made it a bit worth it you know. I know it sounds very cliché, but I felt seen a bit ?
