GREETINGS FELLOW GAMERS
It’s been an interesting few months. I officially completed development of TDC:P1 and began the beta testing phase. With nearly 30 beta testers onboard I’ve received tons of helpful bug reports and feedback. I’m so grateful for all the awesome beta testers! You guys rock!
Originally I had the game slated for a Fall 2020 release, but with much hesitation and deliberation I’ve decided that just isn’t an option. I hate to postpone the release any further, but at this point I’ve come up with a list of reasons why it needs to be.
REASON 1: It’s just not ready.
The game still needs a few more coats of polish before I will feel comfortable releasing it. Although my testers have told me it’s pretty damn polished already for a game in its first round of testing there are still plenty of things that need tweaking, weather it be from a players perspective or my own, I just need to work on it a little longer.
REASON 2: The timing isn’t right.
They say timing is everything, and in the world of indie games truer words were never spoken. I’ve done a boatload of research on the subject to pinpoint the best time of the year to release an indie and all signs point to January/February. That’s right, the coldest, most dreadful months of the year are actually the best months for indies, some of the most successful indie games of all time were released during these months and here is why.
November/December is a terrible time to release an indie, and the reason is most of the highly anticipated AAA games come out during this time to capitalize on the holiday selling season. Nobody wants to compete with the hottest AAA games.
Another prominent reason is people have pretty much spent all their money by January, but may still be looking to play a new game. This is where indies thrive. As most indies are priced at $30 or less it only makes sense that they sell better during this time while AAA are priced at $60 plus.
The competition is light this time of year, I released my first game Barter Empire on Steam in February, 2015 and it did modestly well, selling nearly 1000 copies in the first 24 hours. So the early in the year notion is already proven for me.
REASON 3: It’s my birthday!
Okay, this wasn’t a deciding factor, but my birthday falls on the same day as the release. What better gift to myself than the launch of my game?
REASON 4: More hype.
Hype is an important factor to maximize the most sales. Look at Cyberpunk 2077, the game was first announced 7 years ago… 7 FREAKING YEARS AGO!!! You don’t get much more time than that to create hype, and it is arguably the most talked about game of the year. It’s been delayed several times and for good reason. Of course my game will never achieve that level of hype, but with more time I can focus on PR.
OFFICIAL LAUNCH DATE: January 22, 2021.
So there it is. A January 22, 2021 release may not make sense at first, but it does once it is broken down.
Thanks to everyone who has followed the progress so far and wishlisted the game. Now it’s time to get back to work.
Adam Gibson
Developer of The Detective Chapters: Part One
Wishlist on Steam