Hey there owners! As Blooming Business: Casino players, you’re probably indie game lovers and supporters. And we thank you for that! Buying indie games is the best way to help small studios, and make sure we continue making games you love. As indie studios, we don’t have a big marketing budget to make ourselves known, so most of it comes from players, which is why you are even more important to us. There are so many things that you can do to support your favourite indie games, other than buying them of course, and all of it for free!
Here’s a list of the best ways to support your fav indie games:
[h3]The most important of them all… Steam reviews, which we desperately need! [/h3]
Well, it’s all in the title. Steam reviews might very well be the best way to help an indie game/studio. (Well, apart from buying it, of course).
The more good reviews you get, the more likely players will try your game, Steam will push it on their pages and you'll gain visibility so that potential players find out about your game, because there are A LOT of games on Steam… A good review of a game you like goes a LONG WAY!
But here's the problem: as it is often the case for positive thoughts, there is a silent majority that doesn't think of commenting. We're always more likely to give feedback if we find a problem than if everything is fine…
And as for us, problems we did have when the game came out. It was our very 1st game and a learning experience for us, so we had some balancing, bugs and polishing issues on which players rightfully gave feedback. We worked hard on it, and are confident we now have a smoother running cosy game. We
patched the game 5 times in a short period, so our reviews have been a lot better since and we're very happy to see people enjoying the game and recognizing the work we did. But the old reviews are still clouding our overall positive reviews, which is where you can help! We will continue to work on all the feedback you shared with us and respond to your reviews. Stay tuned for more updates!
If you like our game, it would be an amazing help for us if you would leave a positive review. One small step for you, a giant leap for us into having a positive average on Steam and gaining some visibility. Of course, we're not telling you to lie, feel free to give us your honest feedback in any case, that's how we progress. We're also always available for any questions or suggestions you might have!
[h3]The power of wishlisting[/h3]
Indie studios keep asking for this one don’t they? Especially when the game isn’t out yet. Well it’s all about the algorithm yet again! Steam's algorithm pushes the games that already have a lot of wishlists, so for the algorithm to notice a game, it'll already need to have a certain amount of wishlists to gain visibility from the platform. Of course, buying a game is the best way to support it, but sometimes we don’t have the means to buy a game, and it’s perfectly ok. So if you think an indie game looks good, you can support it by wishlisting it, even if you can’t buy it yet or don’t intend to buy it at all, because it’ll help them being broadcasted by Steam. It’s a free and extremely efficient way to help studios!
[h3]Taking over Social Media![/h3]
Whether it’s liking, sharing, upvoting and most importantly commenting on our posts, it gives us visibility. Even if you have a small account, posts will be seen by your friends, who might want to share it too, and that's how it can get to many views. And well, you know it by now, algorithms love to push content that is already performing, so the more a post is shared, the more it might be seen by people who like similar things.
Of course you're not gonna share everything we post, but if you see a funny/interesting post, feel free to do so. It’s mostly a way for us to broadcast our content and get feedback, because we’re not AAA studios and can’t afford ad campaigns.
As for commenting… people will tell you that comments help your referencing scores, which is true, but most importantly: criticism helps us to know how to improve the game, and support boosts us to do a good job. Feel free to tell us everything you think: if it’s constructive criticism, it will help us know which features to work on, if it’s compliments,it will give us a nice confidence boost that will make us work even harder!
[h3]Join the discords[/h3]
Small studios or games often have discords to help us communicate with our communities. You can usually chat with other players, but also the devs, participate in playtests, and overall help shape the game and its community.
To be perfectly candid, discord communities help us make our games better. This is where players give us the most feedback (along with the steam community pages), and where they send us screenshots of their beautifully decorated casinos (which is something we love seing). But it’s also a good way to talk with other players and get help with potential problems you might have playing the game.
So if you’d like an occasion to talk to the devs and try out games before they’re out or even finished, join indie dev discords. It’s also usually very positive and helpful communities!
[h3]TL;DR[/h3]
The best way to help your favourite indie game studios… Well it’s buying the game. But there are also a lot of free ways to support us, whether it’s wishlisting, reshare/comment on social media, join the discords… But most importantly : leave positive reviews on steam.
Steam reviews help us being seen by more people who might buy the game and in their turn give good reviews. It’s all about communities and dialog. And we can’t help to hear your feedback!
