Hello developers! This is my first post here on the forum, so please bear with any issues or mistakes in this post.
I have been trying to advertise and promote my first game that was recently released called Diplomatic Defense. It’s a tower defense style game that involves historic leaders and time periods along with places around the globe.
For my advertising methods, I have tried sponsored ads and promotion on various social media platforms. I have received a small amount of visits, but the main problem is that most players leave after a minute or two.
I have tried various methods from so many posts to retain engagement and ease new players into the game such as a tutorial system and improving first impressions by making maps and thumbnails more vibrant. Rounds are available to play solo, so having no one else playing should not affect gameplay.
Personally, I think the game has good quality in builds, UI design, thumbnails, gameplay, and is well optimized (the only main pitfall is that gameplay is not that much different from a typical tower defense game). However, I might be blinded by my own bias, and I would be absolutely grateful if you try out the game for yourself and provide any feedback. Any criticism will allow me to improve!
Initial Thoughts
First of I want to say the ui looks great it matches the style of the game, however, the builds and bright colours don’t match the style/theme of the ui in my opinion. I really liked how everything was accessible and you didn’t have to walk far to places. The game in its own way is unqiue from other tower defense games. I also liked the fact that there was a tutorial, sadly it stopped working after selecting someone to enlist, therefor after, I was unable to figure out how to continue with the game.
Bugs/Issues
The Tutorial breaks
Too Many Bright and confusing colours at the start that don’t match the ui
Lack of direction in the game(what are you supposed to do)
Final Comments
Overall the game was great, and different in its own way, and once you fix the bug with the tutorial and add more direction to the game, I think it will have some success.
The game is confusing. Unfortunately in this day and age, unless your game has had marketing and hype pre-release, your game will go nowhere if the game is not immediately graspable by a 5 year old.
People want to play the game, and they want to immediately be entertained; they have hundreds of other games to chose from, you need to make a reason for them to chose yours.
Thanks for letting me know about the bug! It should be fixed now. As for the bright map, the game is supposed to take place in the future and the map resembles a sort of cyberpunk, neon city. I’ll try and make sure players know about that theme so the map fits better. Finally, the tutorial is supposed to guide you with the direction of the game as you go through it, but unfortunately it broke. Thanks for your feedback!
Like any tower defense game, players need to prepare for the main gameplay by buying stuff, equipping, etc., so it’s difficult to quickly engage and entertain new players immediately. I have implemented a tutorial system to try and keep players more immersed until they get to the main gameplay. I cannot think of another way to properly entertain players until they start a round. If you have a suggestion let me know. Thanks for your feedback!
In a way, I can see what you are talking about. In that case, the colors will fit more with the historical maps that the gameplay takes place in. I could create a separate vibrant color scheme for the lobby itself.
The reason for low engagement could be that you aren’t attracting enough players who would be interested in a game like that. First impressions are everything. The name does little to suggest what its about, and anyone searching for such a game is unlikely to use “diplomatic” as a search term. The thumbnails don’t suggest very much either. Adding a little more text, like perhaps the names of the characters and maps it shows could push people from viewing the game page to actually pressing join. The game description is perfect though - very tidy, explains the game’s lore and the key objectives. TL;DR, some minor modifications to the game thumbnails, and maybe name if possible could help your situation
I very much agree with adding text to the thumbnails to be more descriptive; I think it’s a really good idea and I will add it in the future. For the title, Diplomatic suggests the involvement of leaders throughout the time. However, I created the title a very long time ago back when the idea for this game was in its infancy, and your points highlight its weakness in being at a higher vocabulary level for most kids in Roblox, undermining the game’s discoverability. I think a change is due, but the issue is replacing the logo and branding across so many social media platforms, not just Roblox. Thank you very much for your feedback and complementing the description (it took many iterations for me to be at least satisfied with it!)