I’m one of the developers of the game. I don’t want to break the site rules, so I read and reread them, and couldn’t find anything prohibiting a developer to post about a discount.
If I missed something, I apologize. Could someone point me to the relevant rule?
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https://www.steamgifts.com/about/guidelines
carefully read the section titled "Advertising"
in short, you can only post your game in Game Showcase or in the description of your giveaways (not necessarily of this game)
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Reading the section closely, I can see that I missed the phrase ”Below is a breakdown of when adverising is allowed.”
I stand corrected and will delete this post in half an hour (in which I’ll just make sure we all got it right).
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in half an hour (in which I’ll just make sure we all got it right)
Nice try. Always best to err on the side of your personal gain, right? /s
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Because if every dev would do this, the site will be spammed with threads like this.
If you want to advertise it, make some giveaways of the game.
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Next question from the noob: IS there a way to delete my post? Can someone help me? I realize I come off as annoying but what can you do, right?
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Click/tap on the green open button on the top right of the topic, and choose close topic. Though you can change the category from deals to game showcase too, if you pick the edit diacussion option.
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Advertising
Advertising is when you are promoting products or services you are associated with, or when you are posting content that is paid or sponsored. Directly naming or linking to an associated product or service will always be viewed as advertising. General references (e.g. referring to your "website", "YouTube channel", or "Steam group") may also be viewed as advertising when we believe their purpose is to bring attention to an associated product or service for publicity or sales.
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Bro literally registered just to promote own game! Not even say hi lmao.
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Doesn't look like you used any of your threads over a period of 9 years to say hi to anyone, so who are you to judge someone for not greeting but getting to the point? Isn't that what you did?
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Game successfully ignored on Steam. 10/10, would ignore again
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Dude op corrected his mistake, changed the section of the topic and he's new. I get it you woke up and had to hate on something, but reddit has plenty of content. You're 5 hours late to the thing and it had already been fixed by the time you opened this thread. This wasn't the flex you thought it was.
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The funny thing is that another user posted about your other game (Greymarsh) being on sale earlier, so you didn't really need to bend the rules and post the current deal yourself, maybe the same user, or another one, would have posted it again.
IMO it's weird that you put this one on sale when the previous one ended - if the sales were synchronised, more people could have gotten the games because of the -20% bundle. I know of other devs doing the same and I just end up never getting their games, because I'm always waiting for the bundle deal. If you created the bundle, why not make the best use of it?
Another thing that looks bad for deal-junkies like me is that 2x price hike a few months ago (for Greymarsh). I'm sure it was justified by game updates or whatever, it's just I don't feel the -75% is a real -75% because of that price change. Just fyi, I'm not saying you or anyone should care. ;-)
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The price doubling on Greymarsh that you mention… I realize it doesn’t look good. But it’s an exception (no other Nimavoha game has had a price change), the reason being to align the prices of the games in the bundle, and especially as Greymarsh is the bigger game, too.
But I realize you mentioned it not to get a lame explanation, but rather as information to me. Thanks! I’ll think through the starting price more with future releases. It’s difficult because too high a price risks fewer reviews.
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When a dev talks about how their game is on sale and where you can find it. Bad.
When a member posts about how a game is on sale, the percentage of the sale, where you can go to buy it on sale, and the exact regional price. Good.
Funny how that works, lol. Does it make any actual sense to draw a distinction? Not really. The argument that the forum would be over saturated with devs advertising their games seems overstated since members willingly do so on the regular anyway. But hey, we do enjoy being selectively outraged over stuff here, lol.
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If a member takes their time to post about the sale, it means they somewhat care for the game and thinks others might want to take a look. When you're a developer/publisher, that might not be your main focus.
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If you are a developer, you probably care about the game as well and might want people to take a look.
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That's why I used "might". But also a dev is not objective. If you're a mother of a toddler, I'm sure you're super proud of them and want to share your joy with the whole world, even if it looks like a turd and babbles like a drunk parrot. The world might, in that case, not share your enthusiasm.
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To be fair, gamers looking for deals aren't exactly objective or discriminating, so that isn't really an argument.
If a game is bad, who cares who the messenger is? The game is the same regardless of who is actually advertising it. In which case, a person shouldn't buy it. Except, we know a lot of gamers will in fact buy it regardless of the game's quality and whoever the messenger was.
And this site does have advertising. And a lot of the crap being advertised is exactly that. But the site makes some money off of those, I guess.
The thing is, I don't actually care, but making the distinction based solely off of who the messenger is, is pretty silly. And the outrage over it doubly so.
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I think it is, because the dev has a financial interest in promoting his game, other than a "normal" user who finds a good deal on a store.
Imagine, you are looking for a good and affordable car and a friend of yours recommends you a car. If you buy that car, your friend doesn't earn money with his recommendation. That's like here if some user recommends a game or points out a good offer.
If you are looking for a car, and you see an abvertisement on your local newspaper and you buy this car, the advertisement has reached its goal - the car manufacturer made money with it.
But I agree with you, that it wouldn't flood this page, neither the first, nor the latter.
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It is true that there is less financial incentive for a normal user advertising something, assuming they aren't friends to, related to, or even the parent of the dev. Which they sometimes are. There is at least one such thread in the forum right now. But also, where the dev certainly has a more informed but also biased perspective about the game they produced, a casual user can and will lead you astray with bad recommendations, unintentional though it may be. There's no real perfect solution there. In both circumstances a consumer should do at least the very basics of due diligence before buying something.
But I also think of this a different way. We're not talking about EA or Ubi or Rockstar or whatever. We're talking about Indie devs who legitimately could use some help bringing attention to their games. And generally speaking, a dev who takes the time to do so probably believes in their game. Which is a leg up on the majority of devs and games that make their way onto Steam these days. But there could be a category specifically for that, so people inclined to blacklist devs for daring to talk about their game(s) need not be bothered by it.
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You're right, they could be related, friends and so on - but you can't prove it as easy as being the dev of a game.
Sure, the dev has a more informed perspective - but on the other hand he also knows about the weak points of the game - which he wouldn't tell you in most cases. A normal user will more likely do that - not always indeed.
So, a potential buyer should inform himself as best as he can - in every case, so that isn't a point for either side.
And you are also right in this case - we are talking about indie devs. The problem is: Where does it start to forbid these promotions? Basically they are all devs (or publishers), and the rule applies to every dev. At least in its actual form.
Yes, there should be a category, but doesn't we have such a category, the Showcase? Correct me if I'm wrong, but as far as I know, a dev can present his game there.
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They can, tmk, show it here in the Showcase section. I'd guess there is still a distinction as far as what they're allowed to say about their game though.
There does currently seem to be an imbalance in how showcasing deals is handled, that could be addressed (but probably won't, lol).
Anyway, it's an interesting topic IMO, and one that could stand to be discussed and potentially revised a bit from a TOS standpoint.
I think the thing that stands out most to me in this thread is how a dev mentions their game and asks questions about the forum, and people freak out. It's wild to be that intractable and unforgiving, lol.
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It would be great if a solution would be found. Especially for indie devs. They deserve more attention. Let's keep our fingers crossed.
True, I don't understand it either why someone freaks out because of it. It could be mentioned that it is against the rules, and that's all. Sure, his questions can be answered, too. :)
Or, at least, start a constructive discussion about the topic.
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Welcome to Reddi.... Steamgifts OP! Mistake happened, you owned up for it and changed the thread to the right category, good job. I can recommend you maybe try and use a group that requires users to play the game and give some copies of it there, or maybe try to make a thread to look for people interested in playing it and doing a wishlisted giveaway for them or something. Either way it's a decent discount, I'm not big on text adventures but maybe I'll get it eventually, for now I added it to my wishlist.
PS: Ignore the people debating something you already fixed and the morality of a dev linking to a 75% off sale for a $1.49 game in the wrong category for their first post ever. It could've been free and they'd still complain that dev is promoting and the price of eggs is too damn high or something.
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I have to say: this level of engagement and discussion is new to me, having occasionally posted mostly on Reddit before. Someone mentioned my game Greymarsh this Sunday, and it got like 50 wishlists on Steam. Steamgifts is a lively place.for sure! I'll definititely arrange a giveaway as some recommended.
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https://store.steampowered.com/app/2929130/Bloodwood_Dungeon/
Hi everyone! I seem to have gotten a bad start here, breaking the self-promo rule by posting under Deals (as you an see in the comments). Anyway, Bloodwood Dungeon is a text-based game in the vein of the old gamebooks from the eighties. Would love some feedback on the look and feel of the game. I'm committed to regular updates, coming out every few months. The game in its present form is very different from how it looked originally.
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