My Steam Game Revenue Stats

https://donislawdev.com/my-first-indie-steam-game-revenue-first-month-in-early-access-yerba-mate-tycoon/

by donislawdev • 5 years ago

258 169 5 years ago

evo_9• 5 years ago

"In terms of cash, it was not worth it, if we count costs (without time) + taxes, then the “earnings” from those $632 will be lower than 0. I had lost the cash, the first month is mostly the “best” month of sales, so my next month’s sales will be worse and worse, maybe a few % of my first month. Someone might be curious why I’m still keeping early access, working on the game, to be honest, I don’t believe in some magic “boom” and millions of players, I’m just fixing bugs, adding new things because… People have paid for the game :-} I could drop it because Yerba Mate Tycoon generated cash loss (working more on it, generate bigger losses). But people paid for it, it got some players, so I will work on it :-} I know that some developers drop in that situations game, it’s a logical step from a business side, but it’s against my work ethic. I never promised huge things, but I have to finish what I started."

jay_kyburz2• 5 years ago

You can't really make a super niche game and expect it to sell well. Nobody knows what Yerba Mate is. Nobody is searching for Yerba Mate.

Also, the video is funny, but it really doesn't tell us anything about what you do. It doesn't show us the consequences of any of your decisions.

Anyhow, I wish the developer all the best. I hope sales to pick up and that they enjoyed making the game.

vincentpants• 5 years ago

I know what Yerba Mate is, I’m even drinking some now! I even managed to start a Yerba Mate scene at my old work. And considering how many dev stations have gourds among their vinyl toy collection makes me think there were a bunch of Canadian video game developers googling Yerba Mate at some point. I imagine this game can do well with a little bit of niche online community spelunking. We’re out there!

hn_throwaway_99• 5 years ago

Nobody knows what Yerba Mate is.

I think it may depend on your region. Obviously it is very well known in South America (I first became acquainted with it about 25 years ago after being friends with someone from South America who drank tereré, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terer%C3%A9, all the time), but now I see these, https://guayaki.com/our-product-family/, all over Whole Foods in Texas, so somebody must be drinking them here.

ehnto4• 5 years ago

He mentions knowing about regional popularity of Yerba Mate, I think he was fully content with making a niche game for specific areas.

leipert• 5 years ago

Mate is ridiculously popular in IT and hacker circles in Germany. Drinks (like a sparkling lemonade) based on it have been around since the 1920s.

animal531• 5 years ago

I agree with the poster. If he'd for example renamed it to Tea Tycoon and made it about tea blends then I'd imagine that he'd be doing at least 10x better.

pbhjpbhj2• 5 years ago

Isn't this the effect that the web does make work, super-niche things work globally that won't work locally. I've heard of it, Yerba mate, but I've never seen it mentioned anywhere offline (UK).

Tea Tycoon, I'd have to presume has been done? Otherwise, it sounds like something people would go for.

bemmu• 5 years ago

This type of niche game might actually be the exception where long-term sales are more than the initial sales. I would rather own this game than yet another clone of some overdone theme with similar sales up to this point.

Some reasons:

* If anyone were to search for such a game, this will be the top result by default, so there might be a trickle of sales over time that just doesn't stop.

* This game may trend on some relevant subreddit/twitter clique/forum and get later sales boosts from that.

* If you have a Yerba Mate blog or podcast, this is basically the only game you can even feature if you wanted to talk about something new.

My next step would be to make a spreadsheet of anything Yerba Mate -related that could possibly feature the game and contact them all.

Tarsul2• 5 years ago

As far as I know we users cannot see how many sales a game has from steam, so I very much appreciate the creator telling us. I often try to judge from the number of reviews if a game has made at least a few thousand bucks. This game here has 19 reviews with 420 sales, which means that 4,5% of all people have reviewed the game, which is more than I expected (I expected a ratio of about 1%). But this means that probably other games that have only a few dozen reviews have sold comparably (poorly).

As an aside, me personally, I don't like early access games; I'd rather wait till the game is finished. I'm probably not the only one thinking like that. So I find it difficult to guess how different the sales projectory would be if it didn't have the "early access" status, but with any luck the creator will tell us once he has released V1.0 :)

jonshariat2• 5 years ago

When I wrote my book, they did an early access thing at it was terrible. I was still understanding where to take my book and iterate and I was getting people telling me it sucked. Uh ya, its not finished at all yet, just v1!

Not a fan. I mean I get Betas and access to things say a month or so before launch. But not during active development.

Hammershaft• 5 years ago

I mean, a book is a predefined narrative that you experience once sequentially! Much less suited to open iterative development than a game.

bavell2• 5 years ago

Why did you agree to try early access with a book? It only really makes sense for games... and sometimes not even then...

DrJokepu• 5 years ago

If it’s a game I’m excited about, I sometimes buy the early access to support the developers pre-release and only play it once it’s done.

paulryanrogers2• 5 years ago

I'm afraid of doing this since so many games never leave early access, or even improve significantly after first appearing

chills• 5 years ago

Steamdb[1] gives some info on concurrent players, but only estimates for owners. Looks like they estimate number of reviewers between 5-15%.

[1] https://steamdb.info/app/1404560/graphs/

codetrotter• 5 years ago

5-15% is in line with for example anecdotally observed view count vs votes on videos on YouTube.

So based on that I am not surprised that video games on Steam can be expected to have a similar number of reviews relative to number of owners.

Typically I expect a video on YouTube to have about 10% votes and about 1% comments.

Do all reviews on Steam need to include text or can simple thumbs up/down be given without any text? Haven't used Steam in a while so I don't remember.

Karliss• 5 years ago

Steamdb uses 1.5-5% not 5-15%.

hesdeadjim• 5 years ago

I forget where I read it, but you usually won’t be too far off the mark if you multiply review count by 100. This won’t tell you revenue of course, but it gives you an idea.

My game sold about 20k units on Steam and has 165 reviews, so there’s one anecdotal point of data.

Nition• 5 years ago

My game has sold 7,210 units and has 99 reviews as another data point. So 72 units per review.

phnofive• 5 years ago

I think you're probably right past a certain threshold of time or sales, but this one has thirty reviews.

flaque• 5 years ago

There's an interesting GDC talk about this for folks who are curious: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WycVOCbeKqQ

donislawdev21• 5 years ago

GDC talks are great, tons of interesting information.

cinntaile• 5 years ago

Why do you want to make an iOS/Android version when the game isn't very popular right now? You mention the competition will be a lot higher so why do you think it will be worth it?

donislawdev21• 5 years ago

Just interested in it, I can gain this way experiences in releasing paid game on Android/IOS. From other side t's a lot harder (crowd market), for other there are not many paid tycoons, real tycoons games + a lot of players asked about mobile version.

hsbauauvhabzb• 5 years ago

Don’t downplay the value to you in fixing bugs, customer support etc. you’ll be better equipped when you release a title that is successful.

imtringued• 5 years ago

It's also easy to burn bridges by canceling early access games. The vast majority of people should stay away from early access games by default because of the risk that the game remains unfinished.

paulryanrogers2• 5 years ago

Perhaps there is a better name for what these projects are: "experimental" or "exploratory" access. Something that doesn't so strongly imply their will be a later or finished state.

shagie• 5 years ago

I've got a few "early access" games where the developer lost interest or disappeared. Most infamously Starbase DF-9, but I've got a handful of other games in my library.

Now, I'll wishlist them rather than impulse buy them and then reconsider it when it comes out of early access.

donislawdev21• 5 years ago

I got a respect to players cash :-} I know

thrdbndndn3• 5 years ago

the first month of Steam early access (15.06 to 15.07 June/July)

This is very confusing

yreg• 5 years ago

How is it confusing? 15th of June to 15th of July.

Andrew_nenakhov3• 5 years ago

People in some countries are accustomed to using a very weird mm/dd date format, probably that's the case here?

smolder• 5 years ago

It's the euro DD before MM style of date writing.

lacksconfidence• 5 years ago

Sure, but I think it's more that it seems incredibly rare to write month/day without year in strictly numbers. In almost all cases i would write 15 Jun/15 Jul. I can't think of anytime i would intentionally write 15.06/15.07. We all know this is a global world. We all know conventions vary. We should aim to make things intuitive, not make people guess which convention 06.07 is using.

thrdbndndn3• 5 years ago

Oh, if the author just wrote DD.MM it's fine. I just don't understand why he wrote "June/July" afterwards.

donislawdev21• 5 years ago

It's Day/Month Day/Month I'm from Poland (Europe)

donislawdev21• 5 years ago

Sorry, it's standard in Europe, that's why I used it: 15th of June to 15th of July.

thrdbndndn3• 5 years ago

I meant the part to have the month twice.

techrat• 5 years ago

The game is far, far too much of a niche style game for it to even be all that popular, IMHO. I'm not quite sure what the Dev here expected to happen. It's also Early Access and it's fair to say that unless a game has broad appeal (which shop simulators don't) and hype (definitely not in this case), people tend to stay away from Early Access games from unknown developers with insubstantial catalogs. I know I do, been burned enough times.

I'm not saying 'feel bad', here... more along the lines of 'lower your expectations'. Unless you have a big publishing house backing you, marketing money being spent, your first title isn't going to be profitable... and that's before you consider the type of game it is.

ManBlanket• 5 years ago

He could yet get another bump in sales from a 1.0 release, but you're right the stars are just not aligned to make Yerba Mate Tycoon an indie smash. This was not necessarily a story of loss though. Taking a project all the way to release is a feat, and his attitude toward finishing the game, not to mention supporting it after release is commendable. All this seems like it helps position the developer to solicit publishers for future projects, convince others to work with him, and even help sway potential buyers of future projects. Not to mention it's a critical learning experience, feedback like yours is very helpful. All things considered pretty successful for a first game. This dude definitely has the potential to turn a profit in the future.

tekromancr• 5 years ago

Tenth game, according to the post

wly_cdgr2• 5 years ago

Where do you get the idea that they had high expectations? The whole article is like "I knew this game wouldn't sell, but hey, at least it did better than my first ten games". This person is a grinder and may very possibly achieve moderate success or better if they keep it up. Their trajectory is def normal for successful indie game devs, anyway. You just never hear about the dozen plus games Soderstrom made/released before Hotline Miami or Thorson made/released before Celeste, etc. Because...well, because they failed

This article does serve as yet another good reminder though that platforms are where the money is and that making content is no way to make a living. Make your fuck you money first, THEN make content using the skills you developed along the way. You'll have something to make content about, too, having been out and about in the world to make your nut

blueblimp• 5 years ago

You just never hear about the dozen plus games Soderstrom made/released before Hotline Miami or Thorson made/released before Celeste, etc.

Thorson isn't a good example here, because Celeste was only their 2nd commercial game, and their 1st was Towerfall, which was successful.

brundolf• 5 years ago

Before the game launch, I knew that game will be a failure. I was expecting most sales from Latin America (low price), my all previous mobile games were a failure, wishlist number was low + in the first month of early access (outside of Steam) I sold 0 games copies. So, there were no success indicators. I got no problem with it, everything is running according to my plan, If my whole life is a failure, then a “failure” is something normal, it won’t affect me :-}

I'd say their expectations were pretty low, and despite that they've got a wonderfully positive attitude about the whole thing. Maybe don't be so quick to rain on that.

ehnto4• 5 years ago

This is a massive personal success for any indie-dev, and the fact that he keeps pushing makes me fairly certain he'll eventually make it to a profitability with a title eventually.

robertlagrant• 5 years ago

Annoyingly, the dev time travelled back and incorporated all that into their original article. I think they did it just to make your advice look pointless.

donislawdev21• 5 years ago

My all previous games (mobile + web+ were failure.

From the blog

"Before the game launch, I knew that game will be a failure. I was expecting most sales from Latin America (low price), my all previous mobile games were a failure, wishlist number was low + in the first month of early access (outside of Steam) I sold 0 games copies. So, there were no success indicators. I got no problem with it, everything is running according to my plan, If my whole life is a failure, then a “failure” is something normal, it won’t affect me :-}"

bogwog• 5 years ago

At launch, I was selling my game for $3.5 (10% discount), then the price went back to the full price of $4.

Why would you launch with a discount?

avereveard• 5 years ago

It has become customary for early access titles to have an early bird discount

jmd422• 5 years ago

Drive day 1 sales, increasing your chance of getting featured as a "hot new release", increasing visibility and trying to ride the recommendation algorithm.

WhiteNoiz3• 5 years ago

Sadly Steam encourages everyone to do this - if you don't get high enough in the rankings at launch you basically won't make any money, plus everyone on Steam is super accustomed to getting everything at a discount.

donislawdev21• 5 years ago

Special price for first EA (early access) customers. Steam recommend 10% discount.

pengaru2• 5 years ago

The market is far too crowded to rely entirely on the steam store for your exposure.

I'd like to know what the numbers are like for indie devs with their own twitch channel who constantly stream the development process, establishing a fan base throughout the year(s) of development before releasing on steam.

pjmlp• 5 years ago

The market has always been too crowded, unless we are talking about the early Atari 2600 days.

Being a game dev is akin to music, acting, whatever arts related.

It will cost blood, sweets and tears, full of ups and downs, and only an handful will manage to keep going at it their whole life.

Just like other arts, it doesn't mean people just give up, rather be aware it isn't just because they like playing on their games console every single day, that they will make it on the industry.

jmd422• 5 years ago

Getting visibility within Steam itself is still probably the most effective way of increasing sales numbers - generally being featured/recommended within the platform is profoundly more effective than more organic marketing efforts (unless you really go viral on social media, for example).

Discoverability and viewership numbers for game dev streamers on Twitch are really poor. Of course it can have value as a marketing initiative, but you can also grind that for months / years without seeing a significant effect on sales - the return on time investment is probably not great. Whereas getting onto the front page of Steam (as part of some seasonal event, for example) can do more for you in a single day than months/years of streaming or social media.

pengaru2• 5 years ago

I wasn't clear enough in my comment; it's to crowded to just toss your game on the Steam store and expect it to magically generate worthwhile sales.

You're entirely correct about being featured/recommended, and there are ways to game the platform at your release to amplify these effects.

But my basic point stands; you can't just toss a game on Steam and expect good results.

Between the low barrier to entry on the store ($100) and engines like unity/gamemaker enabling basically anyone to have something to toss on the store, it's overflowing with shovelware. How many reskinned game engine tutorials alone are out there for sale as games? It's a complete mess.

cableshaft3• 5 years ago

I'm actually very curious about this too.

I've been tempted to start streaming the development of my game on Twitch, but it's somewhat unnatural for me to do so (tried it a couple of times so far, been putting off doing it again for like four months now) ...but it also seems like one of the only ways to build an audience for your games ahead of time nowadays.

juanuys• 5 years ago

An alternative: make a short devlog video. Talk about the things you delivered that week, plus a few seconds worth of new demo/gameplay.

willcipriano• 5 years ago

Features:
New update = new bugs
Poor graphic and sounds

I have to say the first two "features" aren't doing you any favors.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1404560/Yerba_Mate_Tycoon...

istorical• 5 years ago

It's a joke. Not sure if that's immediately obvious to you (it's Hacker News).

throwuxiytayq• 5 years ago

Still, as a potential customer, I don't find it very encouraging. You don't see jokes like these for products that don't have bugs or do have decent graphics. Not a very good idea to draw attention to your shortcomings, even if they're expected.

donislawdev21• 5 years ago

I'm honest person :-} Irony/Joke is a strong weapon in marketing.

cdmoyer• 5 years ago

Honestly, those make me want to buy it. Refreshing honest. I don't think the market here is people that'll be put off by that.

atum47• 5 years ago

Congratulations on commercializing the game. Are you a one person operation? I know how hard can it be to develop, publish, deal with game stores... This is a great deal that you were able to launch and sell. Kudos

donislawdev21• 5 years ago

22-year-old solo developer from Poland :-} One-man team.

dzonga• 5 years ago

one thing, to applaud the author is they have the right attitude. when launching internet products, don't expect them to make money. that liberates you from all sort of problems and stress.

gcampos• 5 years ago

I don’t think the problem is that the game is a niche game, there are ways to break even with niche games and just copying what everyone else is doing is not exactly a receipt for success.

In my opinion these is what OP could have done differently:

- The game lacks (an obvious) unique hook. Just replacing coffee with mate is not enough of a hook for me, and I was raised in a family that drinks Chimarrão.

- $5 is too cheap for a niche game.

I think would help a lot if you check the Jeff Vogel advices on creating and marketing niche games. He has a lot insight on creating games that only a tiny amount of people want

fouc2• 5 years ago

Incredible progress he's making. Ten "failures" that he's learned tons from. He's going to be hugely successful if he keeps this up!

AussieWog933• 5 years ago

Sarcasm?

adenozine• 5 years ago

Can't speak for parent commenter, but there is a nugget of supreme wisdom in the remark nonetheless. Gamedev is notoriously punishing and mentally grueling. Pushing through these roadblock moments CAN lead to huge runaway successes if the market timing is right.

I'm in a field in no way orthogonal to gaming, but I can attest myself that pushing though the moments I -wanted- to quit the most, were the moments that yielded the most amount of advantage to me. I knew I could go further, work harder, learn to be smarter, because I knew that I had persevered where most others would've called it quits.

Hopefully that's what they mean.

zomglings• 5 years ago

He's 22, has a great attitude and work ethic, and has shown remarkable resourcefulness in releasing this game as a commercial offering (presumably running the operation by himself).

Doesn't sound like sarcasm to me. This kid is going places.

Quarrelsome5• 5 years ago

no way, this dev sounds AMAZING. Even if they don't work out what works at this rate they're bound to stumble upon it because they just keep going. It's really impressive.

squeaky-clean2• 5 years ago

I think the only sarcasm is around the world "failures". No one creates a super successful creative-work their first time, or usually even their first dozen times. You have to keep at it until you master it, and then also get a bit lucky.

donislawdev21• 5 years ago

Thanks :-}

z3t4• 5 years ago

In this day and age having over 400 actually paying customers is a lot! Even having 400 free users would be a lot. Now the question is - do they play the game ? Any number above 1% is good, so if there are 4 players spending a lot of time - it's a good sign. If possible ask them what they think is good about it, then update the marketing material to showcase what is good about the game.

georgeecollins2• 5 years ago

I agree. And actually shipping a game that anyone will pay for puts you in very rare territory. The world is full of game designer wannabes.

Karsteski• 5 years ago

Why are they wannabes? I don't understand why you would insult people who are trying to put out a product but failing.

deepfriedbits• 5 years ago

I appreciate your positive reply. We could all honestly use more of that.

donislawdev21• 5 years ago

Thanks :-} A lot more than 1% is playing :-}

bschwindHN• 5 years ago

400 sales is quite a lot actually! Going in with low expectations and achieving that number, honestly I would be proud.

WhompingWindows• 5 years ago

You might be able to go to those users who do like it, add features they want in DLCs and such. Could be a fun endeavor for a side-gig over time.

10x-dev• 5 years ago

My sincere congratulations to you on actually publishing your game and having players.

donislawdev21• 5 years ago

Thank you a lot :-}

nazrulmum10• 5 years ago

You can buy Yerba Mate Tycoon

sillysaurusx• 5 years ago

I threw $5 your way because I wanted to support you. That said, some feedback:

1. The price is too high. I'm sorry, I know this sounds cheap at $5. But you're competing with the entire world of iOS games. For free, I can get endless kinds of games like this, but with in game purchases. Some of those, like Cardinal Quest 2, are actually amazing and the ingame purchases don't get in the way at all.

I think if you priced it at $2 you might get more revenue in the long run.

2. I don't know what the hell a Yerba Mate is. It does say in the description that it's some kind of coffee, but I honestly had to force myself to buy this. I'd rather buy a coffee than a game about coffee.

I feel guilty saying these things, because I don't know if my feelings here are representative or not. Maybe a lot of people feel that $5 is the right price point and that a game about coffee management is compelling. Either way, I want to support gamedevs, so I might try playing this just for kicks.

Strom• 5 years ago

But you're competing with the entire world of iOS games.

I am not convinced these are overlapping markets. The Venn diagram probably looks pretty close to two independent circles. I play games on Steam and also own an iPhone. I never play anything on my phone, because it's a completely different experience. I think PC games and iOS games are both games in the same way as PC games and hide&seek are both games. That is to say we use the same term for them, but they're not at all the same in regards to what I'm looking for.

It's not just me either. This line of separation exists in my whole social circle as far as I can tell. None of my PC gaming buddies play mobile games and everyone I know that plays mobile games don't play PC games.

oefrha• 5 years ago

As someone who has made a fair bit more in donations than OP just from building community tools for a reasonably popular mobile game (still peanuts compared to the time poured in though), I probably have a bit more anecdata to draw from.

In my experience, a not insignificant percentage of avid players of said mobile game active on Discord are also players of PC/console titles. These players may not represent the mobile game market at large, but they are overwhelmingly moderate to big spenders compared to the F2P crowd out there, so I’d say they are a good representation of a slice of the more valuable market segment. So, yes, there’s an overlap, and I imagine “Yerba Mate Tycoon”’s addressable PC market would be even more likely to play a comparable mobile game than the average AAA action/shooter/etc. market.

donislawdev21• 5 years ago

My game is PC game, when I will release on IOS/Android the price will be lower on that markets.

On PC $5 is good price, not too low (like $1 or $2), not too high like $20-$30. Feedback from players mostly say, that the game price should be higher.

minimize• 5 years ago

Not sure if it has been mentioned yet, but I think the main reason why this title failed is the title. Most people probably never heard of "yerba mate", so to them, the title sounds like some kind of weird mating simulator.

You can verify this by comparing the sales by country to the number of searches for the term "yerba mate" by country: https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=yerba%20mate The distributions are very similar.

donislawdev21• 5 years ago

Niche genre :-} I know that the game will fail (before release), it's not problem for me :-}

DaveSapien5• 5 years ago

These numbers are actually promising. 400 sales in early access for a 'niche' game would open the door for a few publishers out there. And as it stands this game has momentum behind it, NOT an easy thing to accomplish.

And further more, the steam page has quite a few problems that are easily fixed and would drives sales in a positive direction. Add some streamer outreach to the mix and this could do well enough to fund their next game. Just perhaps not well enough to satisfy the developers ambitions. Yet.

I would love to have this momentum on my own (very) niche game. Its is also on early access, interesting premise, zero marketing budget, and so on. Its numbers are nowhere near as promising as Yerba Mate Tycoon. Its a rare thing to click with an audience and YMT has done so.

To the Developer, keep going. Keep that mindset of honouring your customers its rare in games and of value to the gamers. Spend more time on you store page and promoting, and release it. It will be worth it.

zone4112• 5 years ago

Use the opportunity and link us to your game. I don't think anybody will mind.

DaveSapien5• 5 years ago

Thanks, I don't want to seem like I'm shilling with any of my comments. This is Kanso, a relaxing game that invites the player to slowdown and find a moment of Zen:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1454650/Kanso/

donislawdev21• 5 years ago

Thanks :-}

nix23• 5 years ago

It's an early access game, like many...i never buy a EA game, too many disappointment's.

donislawdev21• 5 years ago

Yep, agree

hnarn• 5 years ago

I believe pricing is one of the most important decisions any business can make, and $5 does not make any sense to me.

You're probably betting that this is a niche game that likely will take you more time than its worth in sales: in that case, you need to increase the price as much as you can without it looking absurd in comparison to triple A titles, so maybe $30 or so.

If not much happens, you accept that there is no way any meaningful number of people will be interested in this game for the price of a steak dinner, so you go for the "penny crowd" instead: sell the game for $1 during a steam sale and get free attention from a >95% discount.

Ideally you can spend this in-between time fixing some bugs and just keeping the game "alive" so it doesn't look like a complete cash grab, but on the other hand you should never feel obligated to put your time into something that isn't, and likely never will, be paying you back.

user59944613• 5 years ago

If the game can reach something like the other simple Tycoon games, it can probably sell for around $20.

But definitely not in early access and definitely not until it reaches similar quality/content.

If one tries to make a money grab as you suggest, gamers will obliterate the game with bad reviews. A few bad reviews and the game is doomed forever.

arnaudsm• 5 years ago

I fell bad for all the awesome indie devs out there now that the market is saturated. I remember the early days of Steam and Android when low quality asset flips would make $10k easily.

New niches appear every year though, like the VR market that's desperate for content.

donislawdev21• 5 years ago

Adapt or Die :-} That's how it works, I just accept it.

Ostrogodsky• 5 years ago

Congrats! You are doing fantastic. Thousands of debbie downers here, pay absolutely no attention to them. Keep doing what you like, strengthen yourself physically and mentally and if you need to have a second job while you get your first break-away success so be it.

Just a small correction, "Yerba mate" is not the "coffee of south-america" Coffee is the coffee of south america,i.e. by far is a more popular drink. Mate is huge in Argentina/Uruguay and perhaps Paraguay , only regionally in Brazil and very niche everywhere else in the region. Coffee is as popular as it can be everywhere else in the world where the drink is liked.

raverbashing• 5 years ago

Your advice is on point

Yerba matte is also popular in Germany (as in, "Club-Mate") so maybe OP can try some advertising there ;)

WastingMyTime89• 5 years ago

The game sounds interesting and you seem to have great work ethics. You seem to have a marketing issue however. For a game, marketing is really important.

I'm not extremely knowledgeable in the indie game business but as you seem to have a positive track record, getting a publisher might help you.

flak48• 5 years ago

The synthesized speech in the video seems pretty realistic - does anyone know which software was used?

donislawdev21• 5 years ago

It's human speech, not software :-}

kimopertonau• 5 years ago

Coincidentally, just three months ago I began drinking yerba mate[0] which is the tea or infusion in this game Yerba Mate Tycoon. I found it better than coffee in the afternoon, since it provides a slower onset and more sustained energizing effect with essentially no crash. I believe it’s due to it containing other compounds such as L-theanine apart from caffeine. Popular brands are Taragüi[1] and Canarias, and can be prepared in a standard French press almost like tea. Some even drink it in teabags[2].

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mate_(drink)

[1] https://pampadirect.com/taragui-yerba-mate-classic-flavor-co...

[2] https://pampadirect.com/taragui-mate-cocido-ready-to-brew-ye...

DeathMetal3000• 5 years ago

Having a Polish developer create a game around a South American drink really shows the power of cross-cultural spread of the internet. Love it!

JoeDaDude2• 5 years ago

Dumb but honest question: If most sales were expected to be in Latin America, why wasn't the game localized in the Spanish language?

donislawdev21• 5 years ago

Good question, no budget for it, for localization I would pay $2000-$5000+ or even more. There are tons of words. If on launch I was selling the game (Argentina) for $0.5, like 30% of that goes to me, so $0.15. Then for the pay of localization I would need to sell 13k-60k copies in Argentina. No chances. 13k copies just for paying for localization or even more copies.

Even big indie games don't pay for localizations, it's not worth it, selling 13-60k copies in xx country is hard.

Right now, the game is translated in 70% to Spanish by community. I know indie games that earned millions of cash, but still, they rely on the community translations.

JoeDaDude2• 5 years ago

I'd like to continue this discussion. Can you please e-mail me at the address in my profile? Thanks!

My Steam Game Revenue Stats

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