I had the great fortune to have one of the developers I've covered in my Steam games with zero reviews series respond to an interview request. The numbered sections are the questions I asked and the following sentences are Nikolaj's responses.
1. What brought you to make a lander-style game? It looks like you're inspired by arcade games of the past. How do you end up choosing them?
I was! I am a big fan of retro games, and the simplistic style the games had in the past. Focus was more on gameplay than on bells and whistles :)
2. Thrustme Too has a pretty polished Steam page and you're still
active in taking feedback on it. What is your usual method of
garnering interest in your games?
I am terrible at marketing af hyping my games, but I usually try to do small bits on social media, but never to much attention though :)
3. Following up on that, it appears that marketing went poorly for
Thrustme Too, at least compared to your other games. What
happened?
I'm a lousy marketeer and I have no budget for better marketing
4. What did you learn from Thrustme Too's release that you have
used for your follow up games?
Marketing, marketing, marketing - You need to have a good idea and a good game. It has to appeal to an audience. And you need a little bit of luck and the right timing.
5. Your socials seem pretty quiet, in terms of posting. It's
pretty hard to find the time to get information about your game
out there, so to speak. Have you reached out to audiences that may
be interested in your games? If so, how did that go?
See above. Never been good at it.
6. You seem to have games come out close to each other when you do
release, and then have periods of relative quiet. Do you develop
games side by side, or more sequentially?
Sequentially only. And I only make games when I feel like it - I dont do this for a living, I do this as a hobby and to keep my brain sharp! I'm getting older, currently 56 years old.
7. How long does a game typically take for you to design and
develop?
Anything from 4 months to 4 years. Stardust Origins took 4 years to make.
8. As a developer with a "real day job," how do you balance your
need to make games and having time for the rest of the things in
your life?
I set aside a little bit of time every day for game development and I chop up all tasks in smaller bites, so that I know I will be able to finish something every day.
9. What inspired the name of your studio, PetSkull Games?
It came from an old gamer tag, from when I played Battlefield in the old days - And I like the ring to it :D
10. Your games don't have the typical bugs found in most solo
developer games. Do you have a system for getting play testing and
feedback?
I use Steam play testing feature and I test A LOT on my own as well. I have no rush to finish and release a game before it is "bug free" ;-)
11. Do you ever run into "imposter syndrome" as you get closer to
release?
No never. I've made games for fun and as a hobby since I was 12 years old - Started on the C64 and released 2 games in 1984. I know I can make games, and I enjoy it a lot.
12. Anything else you'd like to talk about with your development
process or games?
I'm working on my biggest title so far and I keep trying to not scope creep it, but it begs to be scope creeped. So who knows, maybe it'll take more than4 years this time. And no, I cant say anything about it yet - Would hate to see it made by someone else. I've tried 2 times previously to make this game, but failed. So maybe the third time is the charm ? ;-)
You have my permission to post the interview, I would love to hear it in the podcast :)
Kindly,
Nikolaj
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