Hello.
I made a psychological horror game and it turned out pretty well but now I am unsure how to get players to actually play it.
As it is a horror game making its retention better means making it replayable which is pretty hard as once they finish the game there is nothing to do. I wanna add more endings but for now I at least want a way to get players.
I have had posted to social media a video for this game but as I have also noticed from the videos of the other games I have made, they aren t doing too well. I am not sure that just spamming more videos will do the trick.
First of all, the game is actually pretty good, from what I played in 5 minutes. If you were looking for critiques I would make the flashlight viewmodel a lot smaller. As for advertising your game, I would definitely stay away from Roblox sponsorships & advertisements. These used to be very reliable methods back in the day, but with the replacement of banner ads and changes to how they work in general, youāll find it basically impossible to get a return on your investment. The leaves us with one choice: Social Media. Iād say release short form videos with intriguing visual hooks consistently, and youād eventually get an influx of players, provided the gameplay holds up well.
Since Short Form videos rely completely on getting picked up by an algorithm, just keep uploading consistently and youāll get one that sticks.
You could do no-commentary small gameplay clips with the Title at the bottom of the screen, or maybe play with friends and have some funny reactions when something scary happens. Advertise something that would intrigue you to play your own game, and others will feel the same way.
Thatās a good way to think about it but apart from a general video or some: ālook what iā ve discoveredā idk what else to do.
I guess i could do āadding what the top comment says to my gameā but that means i have to get ppl to comment and rn i publish on multiple platorms. By doing that i would have to stick just to one.
The key is to build curiosity and mystery. You can do like spot whatās wrong in this room, can you find the ending, time lapse, showing off secret details or lore, reactions, etc. just keep on posting daily & slowly you can build your community. Also focus on uploading fun & unique content to attract viewers. Atleast 3 videos per day would be good.
3 videos per day is crazy. It takes me a while to make a video, as it takes a while to put all the captions. Also capcut on web is also pretty slow idk why.
You cant rely on social media alone to grow a community for your gameā¦ youāre going to have to use your own money and sponsor the gameā¦ makee sure you have a solid thumbnail and a solid icon thats enough to make the players want to see what your game is about, something as little as 5 dollars put towards ads can go a long way if you have a good enough thumbnail
I do rely on social media, though I know itās not something that will always work. Social media can actually end up gaining success, so you are right, it is not something to fully rely on, but itās okay to use it. I do agree with you in some points, as some games have became popular with no sponsoring.
Too many locked doors. The game is very 1-pathed, which is fine as games like The Mimic did it very well, but somehow it is also quite difficult to find the path. Usually you donāt want both of these to be present at the same time. Another issue is that the locked doors have a sense of anti-exploration. Even some of the rooms that donāt serve a purpose, would still contribute to a sense of exploration, and I think that is something this game could use.
Needs more hallway/envoirment diversity. This could be the wallpaper/lights turning red, or the ground being covered in water. This would help in making each area feel unique and interesting, but also helps people find their way by being able to identify key areas. I do believe that the envoirment diversity played a key part of what made The Mimic so memorable and interesting.
Needs a hotkey to remove UI from screen like the āg to unlocker cursorā and ājumpscare everyoneā.
The notes seemed too short. I get that most of the Roblox userbase is young, but I think having a bit more text and professional styled writing with some highlighted words (can be highlighted with blood and scratches), and possibly a symbol stickered on the note that represents the asylumās icon or whatever company is responible for the notes.
The starting room may actually have an issue where the prompt to break the bars is too difficult to trigger. I spent a while trying to figure out a way to use the bucket. While this late prompting was not a problem for me, I can imagine a lot of players being too confused too continue. Maybe it would also help to have the bucket be a different kind of tool that makes sense to use for breaking bars. I was mostly thinking about putting something inside the bucket, as you usually do.
I seem to have been softlocked in the starting room after dying. I had to reset my character to get rid of a bug that made my screen very dark.
Star aspects (the things I found to be significantly better than most games);
The visuals of this game are about as good as they can possibly be. This is top level stuff! Everything from the camera, atmosphere and UI. You could really pass this off as a mainsteam game by visuals alone.
The chase segment was surprisingly well done, and this was my favourite part of the game.
Things Iām unsure about;
Unlike the locked doors, I kind of liked the idea of the lockers being useless. It does fit the theme of the game, but I do wonder if the game comes off as āemptyā due to the lockers indicating that there is going to be action soon, and then there is no payoff. So it is kind of difficult to say if the lockers are a good idea. I lean towards them being good for the game.
This kind of game also has its limits as you mentioned yourself, due to its low replayability potential and simple mechanics. Modern Resident Evil is the best example of how to write and design these kind of games. You could remove the combat from RE7 and RE8, and they would still be great games. Analyzing what makes these games interesting can help you design chapter2 and future games.
I would recommend you make a fresh social media account for your game instead of making it on an account where you also posted your other games. I previously used to put all my games in the same account and would get stuck at 500 views max per video. Now that I made an account specifically for my game Iām getting more views.
I recommend starting on Tiktok, and then reupload all your videos on YouTube shorts. The first few videos you post on Tiktok should get at least 300+ views. After that you just need just need look at other Roblox Tiktok accounts and try to copy the format of their viral videos. Once you get your first viral video (about 10k+ views) your videos should start to get at minimum 1k views. From there just keep posting.
I have only played for like 5 minutes, But from what I have seen the visuals look amazing. My only issue is that itās extremely difficult for people to know how to progress. I donāt know if I have a skill issue but it genuinely took me like a minute to figure out that I had to break the bars, I think the leading contributor to that though is because of how sensitive the āpromptā for the bars are. I had to get in a really specific camera angle to even have it show for me. Maybe add like a manic drawing whenever there is thunder and make the room flash red with arrows to the bar. Just a thought.
(Actual clip of me trying to find a way out)
Also a bug, If you die somehow (or reset) at the start, you become softlocked. The cutscene plays again but you canāt jump out of the window
Im really happy that y all acually the visuals but that would ve been an easier fix than the other things y all meantioned. Iām gonna see what i can do.
