Fellow Hunters,
It's been almost 2 weeks since the launch, and whilst there was a large interest, the game turned into a dumpster fire financially. Today I'd like to post about it in a post-mortem, which is common in the game industry. It's a way of looking back onto a game development process and analyze what went wrong or right. And how to improve upon it and how those who read this could prevent it happening to them.
The Data
The data doesn't lie. Ravenous Horde (including the 'Support The Developer' DLC) has made $203 in gross revenue in the past 2 weeks. You'd have to shave off returns, chargebacks, taxes, Steam's 30% cut etc. to get the profit number, which would not be that great. This is what I would consider the dumpster fire.
As of now, the review score is 53% positive, which means it's 'Mixed'. From what I've heard having a mixed review score is not the end of the world and it shouldn't impact sales/visits, but it does feel bad.
About 5.7k players have opened the game at least for a minute. And a little over 50k Steam users has added the game to their library! Those are great numbers. However the average playtime is about 30 minutes, that's not great, but could be influenced a lot by people who just download and open the game due to being curious. The game is free and the entry barrier is low.
At launch, the game had about 17k wishlists. Which is a great number to have! Many games don't get as many and I'm very happy Ravenous Horde amassed such a large amount.
What went wrong
There are a few things that went wrong, which led to this dumpster fire. These are bad decisions that were made by me, which should have had more thought to them. Let's go over the major things.
An impossible genre for the indie space
The genre of your game is about 90% of the marketing, and will impact your sales by that much too. Some genres do really well on Steam and some don't (Looking at the median). Ravenous Horde falls into the 'Multiplayer Only' genre. Or well it used to before release. The 'Multiplayer Only' genre is pretty much only reserved for really big companies who can get an absolute ton of players interested at once and can keep the numbers high enough for a long time.
Ravenous Horde had a lot of wishlists as mentioned in the data. But for being a free game with microtransactions it would've needed magnitudes more, 10x, 100x more.
A free game
When I decided to make this game (this is a game I wanted to make for a long time) it was envisioned as a PvP only game. Based on mods for various Call of Duty versions and other games that have 'infection'-like game modes modded in.
I figured, because you need a lot of players for a pure PvP game to exist, I could make the game free with microtransactions. You see that in other games too (look at Dota / Apex / Marvel Rivals). Not considering that other games usually have a few million ready for promoting the game to the audience. This is the worst decision that led to the dumpster fire.
No dark patterns
For those who don't know what dark patterns are, here's a good video: View game page
I should've included at least some in Ravenous Horde, using psychology tactics to increase sales. I didn't because ethical reasons. However, if you don't do it in your free game, you are still competing against other games who do use them, which is a losing strategy.
No flashy microtransactions
I didn't want to go all out on crazy microtransactions, because they dilute the immersion of the game so much. Take a look at any of the latest Call of Duty's. There are so many out-of-place character skins it makes the game feel and look stupid. But it does sell and bring in the revenue.
Weak servers on launch
This is partially the reason the game got many negative reviews at launch. And whilst the servers have been upgraded, the old reviews stay. I did test the servers with a lot more AI zombies than you'd normally see. But it wasn't enough, and then you'll have floating characters who are rubber-banding around.
What needed to be done
So with all the things listed that went wrong, what should I have done?
A paid game
Making it free was the worst decision as I mentioned before. It's such a different path to take from a paid game, and I was not prepared for it. Making a free game with microtransactions is much much harder to pull off.
A different genre
As mentioned before, some genres are just impossible for a small indie solo dev to break into. I should've stayed away from a 'Multiplayer Only' game. Ravenous Horde is very much balanced around playing solo, but not marketed as one. When you read about a 64-Player horde shooter you don't think of a singleplayer option. And seeing a 0/64 player lobby doesn't make it better either.
No PvP
The design around PvP only was a mistake, where the PvE element that was added after launch was a much better thing to build around from the start.
Ravenous Horde should've been a horde shooter, akin to Killing Floor / CoD zombies, but it could also be played with up to 64-Players in a purely PvE setting. The unique selling point of the game should've been playing with a ton of other people and not also being a zombie, which was the second selling point.
A Peer-to-peer structure
Currently Ravenous Horde uses dedicated servers, and on each server 64 vplayers can be present at the same time. This does not scale well if you get a huge influx of players. You then need to set up new servers and its just such a hassle.
With a peer-to-peer network structure players should've just hosted a lobby themselves (for up to 64 players) and then it would have been infinitely scalable.
The Future of Ravenous Horde (From Free to Paid)
Ok so the game made $203 revenue. Now what do I do with this game? There's still like 15k outstanding wishlists, people on the forums and reviews that really want the game to happen. But realistically, I cannot work on a game that has no future. This is my full-time job and I can't just work for free.
That's why there's one last pivot I'd like to try, now it might not do anything, but it can't be worse than this. The game is going from free to play to a paid model starting December 6th. If the game starts making a bit more revenue, I can justify working on it a bit more. I'm skeptical, but this is the last thing I can do.
On December 6th the following will happen:
The game will go from free to paid (about 10$)
Existing reviews will not count towards the review score, but will remain where they are on the review section. It will start over fresh basically.
All microtransactions will become free and available in-game through either achievements or some other gameplay related thing.
If you own the game (have it in your library) before this date, you will keep your game, you do not need to pay.
Prior to December 6th, there will be a performance and bug-fix patch. (aiming for this upcoming Friday the 21th)
And then a patch right before the 6th where the change to microtransaction items is being made.
I picked the 10$ price tag because it tells the user that the game is worth something and is not completely trash. And there's a few more things, but that's too much for this post.
Beyond Ravenous Horde
The failure of this game does not mean the end of Vector Interactive. There are plans for a new game and I'll take everything I've learned of this game with me.
Thank you to everyone who bought something, played the game, gave feedback / advice, left a review or helped in any way! I'll do better next time.
- Rinke
If you have any questions, remarks etc. feel free to post them here.