Hey! Just before I start I just want to say that this is an advanced question for people who have already released successful games before. I know I probably won’t get an answer but I thought it would be worth a try because it would help a TON for me and my developers! It might even help newer developers reading this topic!
First some background, I run Hexo Studio, I take on young scripters who don’t know how to release games and help them reach their dreams with me taking 50% of the cut for my help, we’ve been leveraging organic growth via fan-games and trend-games for a while to accrue about 30 million visits.
Our fan-game strategy, however, is not going to be valid for some of our newer projects, and obviously no one relies solely on ads to release games, so I have come up with a 4-phase release plan that leverages all the (very few) exposure vehicles roblox provides to us.
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My question is: How likely do you think this 4-phase plan written below will succeed? And do you have any ideas on how I can improve my approach?
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Phase 1: Rapid Development:
In this phase, we will rapidly develop the original, fully planned idea for the game using whatever workflow we see fit, we’ll also have friends and family try out the game for a little bit of feedback and pivoting. (google tasks, trello, etc)
Phase 2: Playtesting And Pivoting
As we come closer to finishing the tasks, we will do weekly game nights in the hexo studio server.
This will allow us to get key feedback and engagement insights. The game we’re working on right now is a party game in the same genre as Horrific Housing so game nights are a perfect format.
We have gameplay goals written out. Until we meet them, we will pivot the game’s gameplay and idea while we continue with regular game nights.
We’re making a party game in the same genre as Horrific Housing, a few gameplay goals we defined are:
- A fun and casual party game that people of all skill-levels can enjoy.
- Luck-based elements like random items so that it’s not all about skill.
- Very easy to learn how to play. No tutorials really needed.
- Lots of funny moments for both youtubers and players. (We don’t rely on YouTubers.)
- Players can oppose each other in a balanced way. (pushing, weapons, etc)
- Players will have to work together a lot of the time.
Phase 3: Lightly-Promoted Public Release
This will be the official game release! This phase will last about a week, the purpose will be to achieve four crucial things:
- Find the best possible thumbnail and icon. We will use A/B sponsor testing for the icon.
- Get feedback and see the general enjoyment from non-hexo fans who are more than willing to dislike a product they don’t like. Benchmark: 80% Like Ratio
- See how many robux we make per-visit. Benchmark: 1.2 Robux Per-Visit
- Organic growth. Benchmark: The game doesn’t die after sponsors are done.
The methodologies for improving these stats aren’t mentioned for the sake of keeping this post short.
If we get these (and other stats like average playtime) high enough, we should be able to grow the playercount to explosive heights without use of robux promotion and no need to enter phase 4.
We’ll probably only promote with 50K robux a day for a few days, as well as shout out the game to our fanbase. And from there rely on Organic Growth from a clickable thumbnail and great stats.
I noticed a lot of games like Rainbow Friends exploded in popularity with just organic growth and game-discovery.
Phase 4: Explosive Release (if necessary)
This phase is for a specific circumstance: If the game has high stats as benchmarked in phase 3 but is still unable to catch on, we may need to have a full, explosive release by spending a lot of money to get the ball rolling.
Usually on Roblox, I see that games don’t need a fully paid-for release to get the ball rolling, the most I have spent on the trio of Hexo Games at one time was about 100K robux on sponsors for NPC shrink ray, and that barely even helped.
However, if this proves to be false, and the game needs a bit more promotion to get the ball rolling fast, then I’m willing to look into methods of converting our saved Robux into players, either through ads, sponsorships, or another method. If it comes down to this, I’ll likely spend 500K robux or more on one-day’s worth of promotion.
If you are somehow successful AND had the time to read this (very rare lol), I’d love to know your thoughts on this plan and how I can improve it! 