Thorny Times - tactical strategy-RPG

Dev diaries
#1

Greetings dear Defolders!
I would like to introduce you my game, which i am of course making on Defold. It’s a mix of strategy and RPG, as well as a mix of ancient games like Kings Bounty and Disciples. Basically, it’s my indie-answer to HoMM Olden Era :slight_smile:

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This game i make practically alone, 10…12 hours a day, without weekends. All this has been going on for over half a year now. Besides that, a few of my friends help me, recently my brother joined me - he does the design. However, probably 90% of all done on my shoulders, so it’s an interesting challenge, which could even be called solo-development with some stretch (after all, music and design are made by other people).

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The game is initially adapted for 4K resolution, so all graphics resources are huge, 16K*16K atlases are a common thing. However, Defold handles it without much trouble.

The game already has a page on Steam: Thorny Times on Steam
I will be very grateful to those who will add the game to the wishlist on Steam, because my fate depends on it! :slight_smile:

I will post updates here regarding unusual technical solutions that are used and planned in this project.
Thank you all for your attention, i will be happy to answer any questions.

22 Likes
#2

Instant wishlist! It looks great!

Releasing in Q1 2025 already? Will you participate in Next Fest?

2 Likes
#3

Yes, i’m going to try to go into early access before the end of February 2025.
But if i don’t make it, i’ll have the whole spring ahead of me. :slight_smile:
Not sure about Next Fest - i’m not up to speed on those festivals yet, not enough time to get distracted by it.

1 Like
#4

If you can push your release until March I recommend doing so. Next Fest is the single best chance for visibility an indie game has on Steam.

Next Fest happens three times a year (February, June, October). A game can only participate once (usually the Next Fest closest to release) and it must be before the game is released (Early Access counts as released, so once you are in Early Access you can no longer do Next Fest). It requires a demo on Steam. You will get a lot of wishlists from the Next Fest, plus the demo can generate a lot of YouTuber coverage (which is another very valuable source of wishlists).

With such a short amount of time before release you will have a hard time to reach the wishlists needed to appear on the “Popular Upcoming” list (minimum 5.5k, but can be 7k or more depending on the “quality” of wishlisting accounts). Getting on Popular Upcoming would be good because it will net you another 1-2k wishlists.

6 Likes
#5

Thank you so much for such detailed information!
In that case, i will try my best to participate in Next Fest!

2 Likes
#6

Wishlisted! It looks amazingly well-crafted, and I’m excited to see the gameplay. I’d love to hear more about your technical solutions. Wishing you success in advance!

ps: do you have social accounts for game which we can share?

2 Likes
#7

Alas, i don’t have time to do that at all! :frowning:
Once i make at least a gameplay video, then i can switch to social stuff a bit.

2 Likes
#8

Impressive work! I like how there’s a mini resurgence in HoMM games right now.

Lots of game systems to design and implement, and lots of high-res art to create — take care to not burn yourself out working long hours!

Be careful about Early Access. The Steam algorithm essentially treats it as a normal 1.0 release when it comes to promoting the game and doing their behind-the-scenes “should we show this game to users?” calculations. If you enter Early Access with too few wishlists (i.e. user interest) and a game that feels incomplete or janky, there’s a risk that it gets buried by the algorithm, and it’s very hard to come back from that.

An alternative to Early Access is to do a demo. It allows you to create a more polished slice of the game that you can get feedback on without getting negative reviews or getting punished by the Steam algorithm. For testing purposes, it may also be easier to make drastic changes to a demo than to a full game. You can also participate in festivals (not Steam Next Fest) with a demo, which is a great way to get exposure.

I took a look at “More Like This” at the bottom of your Steam page. If Thorny Times is most similar to HoMM-style games, you should probably set your game tags such that the games shown there are HoMM: Old Era, Songs of Conquest, Silence of the Siren etc. (basically, just copy their tags). Tags tell the Steam algorithm which games are similar, and based on that to which users your game should be shown.

6 Likes
#9

Thanks for the heads up!
Yeah, i’ll try to release a demo closer to the new year.

Wow, that’s a cool idea! I’ll do it now!

4 Likes
#10

I think a trailer can make a lot of difference on your Steam page.

#11

Yes, the trailer is the next step as i want to make it beautiful.