Hello, everyone!
Welcome to another blog post on the topic of marketing your visual novels. Today, we will be discussing a powerful strategy for boosting wishlists and sales on Steam.
As many of you may already know, having a large number of wishlists prior to launch can greatly increase your chances of appearing on Steam’s “Popular Upcoming” list, which in turn can lead to even more wishlists, and ultimately, more sales. But how do you go about achieving this?
Whether you’re a developer looking to achieve the 7000-10000 wishlists needed to appear on Steam’s “Popular Upcoming” list, or if you’re a developer with a released game searching for ways to increase sales, this strategy is definitely worth exploring.
And that is… get your game in Steam festivals and events!
What is a Steam Event?
Steam events are becoming increasingly popular, and can be seen almost as a digital equivalent of physical conventions or expos. While Steam does host a few of their own events, many of the events on Steam are organized and hosted by other game developers, publishers, or even communities.
These events are usually curated and centered around a specific theme, such as cozy games, narrative games, co-op games, horror games and lots more, or can be more broad like developers from certain regions… or even broader still, allowing any indie games to apply no matter the genre.
By featuring in these events, you will be present on the event page on Steam alongside any other activities the group hosting it have prepared.
Furthermore, if you’re fortunate enough, Steam may select the event you are participating in to feature on its front page, providing even greater exposure for your game to a vast audience.
What's the benefit of being in a Steam Event?
Participating in Steam events and festivals can be a valuable way to market your visual novel and boost sales. However, it’s important to note that not every event will lead to significant attention or success. There is no guarantee that an event will receive front page coverage on Steam, and it can be difficult to predict which events will be most effective.
Despite this, it’s worth considering submitting your game to multiple events and festivals. Even if only a small number of the events your game is featured in receive front page coverage on Steam, the effort put into submitting your game to these events will have already been worth it.
Here are some of the key benefits of including your game in Steam events:
1. Increased visibilty: Steam events provide a great opportunity to increase visibility for your visual novel. Being featured on the front page can bring substantial exposure, but even being placed alongside other similar games can draw the audience of those games to your own.
2. Increased sales: This goes alongside the above point – we have seen sales increase tenfold from being in good events.
3. Awards: Some events have prizes and awards, and those that don’t are still a good participation ‘badge’ to put in your awards section on Steam!
4. Exposure to new audience: Steam events allow you to showcase your game to a diverse audience and reach players who might not have discovered your game otherwise.
It’s also worth noting that there’s often good opportunities that come from Steam events that don’t necessarily get front page coverage. Increased chances of your game being found by reviewers, a chance to network, and just a plain chance to celebrate your achievements!
What kind of numbers can I expect?
The number of sales and wishlists you can expect from participating in Steam events can vary greatly depending on a number of factors. Whether it gets front page coverage, the placement of your game on the event’s sale page, the number of other developers participating in the event, and how well your game resonates with players who view the event page can all play a role in determining the success of your participation.
With that said, let’s jump into a few events that Two and a Half Studio games were featured in, and the numbers that came out of them.
Wing’s Interactive Women’s Day Sale 2022
We participated in the Wing’s Interactive Women’s Day sale with two of our games, The Divine Speaker and Amelie, in 2022. Go view the event page here.
At the time, Amelie was released and The Divine Speaker was still an upcoming title. This event lead to 5153 wishlists across both games, and 971 sales of Amelie.
Season of Pride 2022
We participated in the Season of Pride 2022 sale with all of our projects at the time (The Divine Speaker, Amelie, start;again, Dreambound, The Sun and the Moon). At the time, The Divine Speaker, Amelie and start; again were released.
This event lead to:
The Divine Speaker – 521 wishlists, 130 sales
Amelie – 1179 wishlists, 278 sales
start;again – 831 wishlists, 156 sales
Dreambound – 3829 wishlists
The Sun and the Moon – 901 wishlists
LudoNarraCon 2022 Sale Section
We participated in LudoNarraCon 2022 with Amelie – however, only in the sale section (the third tab!). While being on the front page would have resulted in much more attention, we still received 356 wishlists and 273 sales.
As you can see, Steam events can be incredibly lucrative both as a tool to gather wishlists and sales. Of course, we’ve also been in many events (including very expensive ones, and paid events won’t necessarily be better than free ones) that haven’t received front page featuring and have only lead to 80 wishlists, or 50 sales.
How to find and apply to Steam Events?
It’s sometimes difficult to keep track of all the events that are running – or even to find them in the first place! An event thats run one year may not run the next, and new events crop up all the time. However, I’ll give you a few pointers and places to find the events you’re looking for.
1. The ‘Worthy Festivals for Indie Games‘ spreadsheet, created by Artur Karpiński. This is a curated list of past and future events with comments about the price, if its been on the front page before, and the dates they run.
2. The HTMAG (How to Market Your Game) Discord. This point is related to above in that events discussed here end up in the spreadsheet, but you will also find events dropped into the upcoming events chat that do not feature on the spreadsheet.
3. The Game Conference Guide. You will have to dig through some unrelated events, but you may find some good ones to apply for here!
4. Follow developers/publishers/groups that run events on Twitter, and keep an eye out for posts opening applications!
By staying informed and utilizing these resources, you’ll be better equipped to find the Steam events and festivals that align with your game and increase your chances of success.
Quick tips
Lastly, lets close up the post with some quick tips to get the most out of your Steam event.
1. Research the event before applying, especially if it is a paid event, to make sure you what what you’re getting out of it.
2. Apply even if you think you won’t get in. Even if host is only accepting a few games, or you don’t think your game will be an exact fit, apply anyway!
3. Don’t limit yourself to applying for only one event. Apply for everything that comes up!
4. Broadcast! If the event will feature broadcasting, start broadcasting to your Steam page shortly before it starts. This will allow you to iron out any kinks, as well as start gathering viewers. The more viewers you have, the high up the broadcast list you will appear! You can also use services such as RoboStreamer to automate broadcasts to your steam page without having to 1) be live (you can replay old recorded videos!) or 2) keep your computer on the entire time broadcasting.
5. If your game is out, put it on sale during the event! Plan around the Steam sale cooldown to be able to participate in the events sale.
6. Have fun! Celebrate all that you’ve achieved, check out some other developers games, and take a screenshot when the event you’re in hits front page.
Two and a Half Studios is hosting it’s own yearly event called The Storyteller’s Festival, celebrating the best in visual novels, narrative games and interactive fiction as a whole. As of writing this, there’s still some time left to apply!
That’s all for now. I hope you found this useful, and we can’t wait to see where your game goes!