New! Android Release ->

YouTube Devlogs

By Abby Farhat - 1/17/2025

At the start of development, our team decided to try something new - YouTube devlogs! As a team with a dearth of money and a moderate amount of time, this was a nice way to generate interest while the game was still in progress.

So, did this work?

...Not initially. Our devlogs got very few views early on, and even after our Steam page was up, we saw very little conversion from viewers to wishlists - the holy metric of player acquisition

All that said, the wishlists were still very useful. As an exercise, they were a good way of practicing how to promote our game. As a morale booster, they helped us track our progress and growth as the game progressed. And as a cool piece of retrospective content, they are a fun window into how we made this thing.

Enjoy!

Devlog 1 - Intro

This is the earliest footage of the game available online. Lots of things were still getting figured out, and the missing outline shader AND day/night color palettes really make the game look different.

Devlog 2 - NPC System

In the spirit of trying new things, this devlog focusing much more specifically on one feature - the NPC system.

Fun fact - this explanation is almost entirely wrong! I (Abby) did a code review in preparation for this video, misunderstood the entire system, and then never bothered to check it with our engineers. How does it really work? The world may never know...

Devlog 3 - A Discord Christmas Special

At this point, the previous devlogs had basically flopped in terms of views, so I decided to go off script and just make a joke video for December. This was made almost entirely in one day with no script, unlike the previous videos which took up to 2 weeks of footage sourcing and recording.

Fun Fact!

This was by far the best performing devlog, but only after our game got popular.

I had actually hoped that this would happen. The first 2 devlogs are ok, but they fit very neatly into the YT devlog space. This one was intentionally made to be more viral, between the ambiguous title, thumbnail, and lack of narration.

...And That's It!

After December's devlog failed to get many views within the first month, I decided to shelve the devlog concept. We were further into development and needed all the extra hands we could get on actually making the game, so marketing could wait.

Nonetheless, I'm very happy we did these. Many players discovered these videos through our trailer (the highest viewed video on our channel), so it became a sort of reward for those really interested in the game's backstory.