The Truth About Devlogs

Are devlogs useful when trying to market your game? When should you start creating a devlog? What should you show in a devlog? What the heck is a vertical slice?

Also, what equipment do I use for videos...

Will be doing more of these QA videos and would love to hear from you! If you have a question about game development, solo development, Godot, life, anything...drop it down below in the comments to have it included in a future video.

Thanks for watching everyone!

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#gamedev #gamedevelopment #godot

[stayathomedev]

Have a question or topic you want talked about? Ask in the comments! Can be about gamedev or even non-gamedev stuff.

[scotmcpherson]

My opinion is you should start market when you have something to market. Nobody except other devs really cares about your underlying framework. They care about gameplay and content.

[OandCoGames]

Well said! We're in that boat - our Devlog #0 was 2 years after we started.

[blikpils]

Momentum and timing are crucial, early announcements get forgotten or set too high of expectations that might linger. wait until the vertical slice is good and roll the wave with that until release.

[ScruffyOwlGames]

I've started a yt devlog relatively early on - it's more about sharing my development experience and Godot tips than marketing at this point. I'm happy to have found a few subscribers and get some nice comments helping keep my motivation up. It's also a series of checkpoints for myself - summarizing what I've been doing and the direction things are going to take. And there's a lot to learn about making videos. Heck, just speaking into a mic clearly for 5 minutes is a skill. 10 more videos and I'll halfway know what I'm doing. When the game is ready, I will be, too :)

[hawkgamedev]

Really down to earth comments, this is why I love your channel and will stick with it for ever.

[SDGGames]

I feel like we often forget the value of learning when having these conversations. I've been doing videos/devlogs/tutorials for a couple of years, and I'm only now starting to understand what I'm doing on YouTube, or even Reddit. I've been told that I shouldn't share anything until the game is 3-6 months away from release so I don't lose momentum. But it seems naive to assume that I'll know how to make a splash when the time comes if I haven't tried and failed already. Marketing is a skill, like programming and art, and I feel like we need to be more willing to build the muscle early and often.

[MrFoxInc]

Bless you for bringing up the term "Vertical slice", that is exactly what indie devs have to focus on. It's an attainable goal and still has a really good chance to pique people's interest before you go on to work on the rest of the game. I think Pizza Tower started out in a similar fashion: The dev had an idea what he wanted to do and threw a vertical slice together that was very close to existing Wario games, featuring a lot of mechanics that didn't make it into the final product - but it was exactly what was necessary to get people's attention and keep working on it. And it certainly paid off.

Good video, I hope many people watch it!

[advancenine]

Dude... I know I've arrived when I see my thumbnail on your thumbnail. That was awesome. Love your take and your honest perspective. I clicked this wanting to disagree with you but then agreed with everything you said :P Well done.

[zentoa]

Thank you so much for answering my question :D.
I will get to work on a small prototype to share...

[MostafaNassar]

I am very happy you mentioned that a vertical slice can be 5min experience.. I can't stress how much pressure releasing a demo is. And having it in a bite size where you can manage it early on will improve all the subsequent work moving forward (finding game breaking bugs, UIX, adjusting mechanics... etc)

[augusto]

I appreciate this advice. Just now I am thinking about starting a game development devlog. I am willing to make an educational game and document the process while explaining the concepts for both the development of the game and the educational topics that I want to teach.

[contentatogames]

Taking this approach with my next project - once I have something to present, I'll be presenting it as devlogs. Will be starting early!

[Uhfgood]

I'm sort of going to take a different tack. So I'm not going to focus so much on the selling of the game, but rather the development of it. Kind of takes pressure off of trying to see if I can make a game that sells. I'm even thinking to go as far as giving it away for free when I"m done. I'm also still deciding whether I will try to keep it spoiler free, or just spill on everything. Leaning to the spill on everything so people can see what goes into the game from start to finish. Saw DoubleFine Adventure "documentary" and it didn't show you hardly anything. There's a small issue of it being maybe boring at first, because I'm going to start with a text adventure version, and gradually add images, animation, more full interactions. But I'm going to explore ways of making my devlog not seem so boring.

[realrek]

Oh yes, i just wait to have something to show before dropping devlog.
Road to vostok style :D

[sknoppsi]

I think it's wrong to talk about a game as early as possible. You should do it as late as possible like 2 month before release. And you should generate momentum that you release when you announce. The reason is you want to get onto the steam frontpage (new and trending). But Steam doesn't count wishlists that are 2 years old. They only count whishlists that are younger then 2 month. So you want to get 50k wishlists (or at least 7, 5k), but you want to get them in the 2 month before you release. This means you could create a channel on youtube and create a community and you use the reach of the channel for promotion 2 month before release, but don't adverdise it on the channel for years. You won'T get momentum when it comes to the release date. Another thing that might work is if you know another gamedev that already onws a channel and advertises your game for you.

[CatZoooGameDev]

Make a prototype and showcase it

Accept all feeds make a playable beta, release it for free or paid (Free beta? More players!)

Gather feedback from players, Improve your game & bugs and set a release date.

This is what I learnt.

[foldupgames]

Good thoughts. Game dev slows down as you move along and you don't have as much in the way of "cool new content" for a video.
I fixed an annoying bug. I rewrote a bunch of code so it's more efficient.
I procrastinated.
But I like your thought about a vertical slice.

[IdealIdleIncremental]

My devlog #0 was published 12 years after I started game development and 9 years after I started to make the game I showed in the devlog ;)

[Brootal]

Unless you already have a subscriber base, I wouldn't consider a devlog marketing. It should be more about making yourself accountable to progressing your project. If you commit making a devlog once a week or once a month, then you have to do something and be able to explain what you have been doing, have you actually done something? or just "researched" art styles for the last week.