Squeaky Wheel started off 2019 on very shaky ground. The Steam algorithm change of 2018 had severely impacted our sales, leading to sales figures of less than 65% compared to earlier in 2018. This predicament lasted into early 2019. We had little choice but to soldier on, updating the game on our regular monthly schedule and hoping that things would turn around eventually.
Another Algorithm Change, Steam Labs, Deep Dive
On September 2019, Steam released another algorithm update that seemed to be more beneficial to us, (though it must be noted that it negatively impacted other devs). They also started reminding players to leave a review for games they'd played, and our review scores are now comfortably at 75%.
On top of that, Steam also added the Steam Labs and Deep Dive discoverability tools in order to help players find games that they may not have known before. All of these things helped to bring our monthly sales figures closer to what they were in early 2018.
Climbing Out of the Dreaded Mixed Reviews Valley
Steam clings to the party line that Reviews don’t matter to sales, but anecdotally every developer is terrified of falling into the dreaded “Mixed Reviews” category, when your game reaches 69% in average reviews or lower. Our consistent updates improved the game and we slowly clawed our way back up to 70% and beyond.
Steam also quietly added a feature where they ask players to review/change their review after having played the game for a certain amount of time. I don’t know exactly how it works, but ever since they made the change, the number of reviews for Academia has increased appreciably, and luckily for us most people have left good reviews. As of this writing, we’re sitting at a comfortable 75% positive reviews.
Publishing Ruinarch
Our cashflow had stabilized enough that during the third quarter of the year we made the announcement that we were publishing am evil overlord simulator game called Ruinarch (Wishlist NOW!). I wrote more about why we made that decision here, and even shared our contract details in this blog post.
The Maccima team is working on Ruinarch full steam (here’s their latest update) and we’re hoping to launch by mid 2020.
New Team Member and Collaborator
Early in the year, we hired Marica Uchida to help me handle the nitty gritty stuff related to running a business. This allowed me a lot of freedom to focus both on improving processes in the team as well as exploring business opportunities, like the Ruinarch Publishing deal. Without Marica I would probably have lost my mind many times this year, so her additional was very well timed.
While we were at our favorite local game conference, ESGS, we met a lot of cool people, but most notable Jin, who is working on a game called Lawmage Academy. When I noticed that the Lawmage Academy Twitter account had twice the number of Academia, I know that A) we needed help with social media and B) I had found the right person for the job. So we contracted him to help us manage our social media on a freelance basis, and we’re excited to see how that turns out!
Slowly Working Our Way to The Finish Line
Most of 2019 was kind of a boring grind to be honest. We spent the time with our shoulders to the grindstone, slowly working on and improving Academia : School Simulator in the game that we all know it be. All of this work will hopefully come into fruition in 2020, as we’re actively working towards a version 1 release of the game.
Thanks to the team for continuously pouring their heart and soul into the game, the players for playing, giving feedback and bug reports, and everyone else that has supported us this year. 2020 is shaping up to be an exciting year!
Thanks for reading, and hope you found this interesting! If you want to support us, you can buy Academia: School Simulator or Political Animals, or wishlist Ruinarch.