For the future of this studio


Hi everyone.

I'll be honest and real for a moment.

For the past few months, since Itch banned us from the ranking pages of tags and searches, things have not gone well in our studio.

We lost almost 90% of our traffic and revenue, which really affected our finances and our ability to properly compensate our team members, which resulted in a lot of them leaving and joining other studios, or starting their own. They're all talented and I don't want to promise them something I can't guarantee, especially with the state of things with Itch io.

Now, we're still working on our games.

Despite the lack of considerable manpower and skill required, we're still working on our games.

However, we're burnt out.

I'm burnt out.

We've released a few updates since the shadowban and they received some decent success, but not quite good and honestly very far from the response we were getting before the shadowban.

This is really not helping us, especially since working on them for months without any end-game reward is making us all very upset.

Anyway, the point of this post and poll is to ask you guys what you think of our situation and how we'll move forward.

Whatever you guys decide we'll deeply consider and we would appreciate it.

Cheers,

~SG


https://forms.gle/VLQiDdnSZMtAjbUeA

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Comments

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(1 edit)

무료는 마지막까지 못가는데 좀 그 뒤는  지루할뿐 이네요 아쉽네요

(1 edit) (+9)

I played most of your games, also bought most of them. I think You need to focuse more on each concept. Don create the 4th Locker clone. Try to improve the existing one. Right now Lovecraftian locker 1 has still many bugs and 2 has no real end goel. But both are still good games. So Maybe add to them, polish them, maybe sell a DLC that contains new chapter or more interaction options.  If you do "in game" purchases you also might find a way around the itch io payment issue. Also it is better to do smalle items/DLCs than big ones. I rather buy 5 2$ extensions than 1 10$ one.

Besides that, get some rest. The fans you got are not leaving if you and your team take a break.

(+1)

Do what you need to do for you. I'll be good with whatever decision you go with. But definitely get some rest.

(+6)

There are a few things worth considering:

1st: Given that Itch seems to be tolerant of adult material, determine what it is that got you in their crosshairs to begin with. Simply changing gears won't necessarily stop you from being delisted again.

2nd: If able I strongly recommend taking a break to both unwind from the crunch and the stress.

3rd:  Consider other content options.

4th: Consider spreading your tendrils to other platforms.

Obviously none of these are a guarantee of success and I'm sure you have already considered some or all of them. But these are in case you have not.

I do know that North America focused credit card services are going after adult content providers. I imagine it won't be long before Paypal follows suit on being unwilling to work with adult content. So where able I'd also recommend looking at alternative payment options.

Don't know what steams model is like but they seem the most stable. At least as far as a western audience is concerned.

(+1)

Maybe move to another game platform and/or make a non adult game that will show up on searches so you can monetize that. You clearly have the talent to make fun engaging game content. Does it all have to be adults only?

the being adult games isnt what is effecting it, its somehting else

Itch does not mind Adult games on the platform, its likely something else.

(+4)

Well taking a bit of a break could go a long way to helping in the long run, if your getting burnt out than forcing yourself to keep working on the game may have adverse effects on both the game and, more importantly, your health.

It could also give Itch some time to cool down and figure their own stuff out but I wouldn't put too much stock in that idea, none of these content websites seem to ever figure their algorithms out.

(+2)

Sad to hear that, I've been a big fan of the Lovecraft Locker games. I hope yall can turn things around.

(+1)

Welcome to the games world also wtf did you get a ban for anyway

Probably for "problematic" characters

(+3)

Actually, we were banned for "manipulating the algorithm".

(+2)

The hell?!  This ain't youtube

We can do that how do I do that 🤔😮‍💨

(1 edit) (+4)

I think by releasing many games with identical names, so when you click on one, the algorithm will suggest others (guessing)

(+3)

I mean that's fair but names are difficult in the industry but that's not a reason to ban someone

(+1)(-1)

Hey I appreciate it thank you for letting me know I'm not no game developer I'm just trying to be a YouTuber but then again thanks

(+1)

It's an ecchi game how in the hell is that Manipulating the algorithm

Did you get more detail on what was done exactly ?

(my guess would be "having a really high rating from a decent amount of people at every release", which may be sketchy depending on how it was done)

I wish you the best.