Apparently You're Supposed to Build an Audience Too

Studio Update: Apparently You're Supposed to Build an Audience Too

It's been an interesting ride since I rebuilt the SquigglyFrog Studios website to automatically publish updates to our social media accounts.

And I've discovered something.

Apparently, social media actually works.

Who knew?

Okay, obviously I knew. I've known for years that social media is important for getting your games in front of people.

The problem was never understanding that.

The problem was actually doing it, and with the Infinity Game Table, I didn't have too since each game got video ads on the dashboard and a dedicated release date shown to every.. single.. user.

One Post. One Button. Done.

I've never particularly enjoyed the process of posting the same update over and over again across a dozen different platforms.

Write something for the website.

Now go post it on Facebook.

Now X.

Now somewhere else.

Adjust the text because this platform has different limits.

Upload the image again.

Repeat.

And do it all again the next time I have something to say.

Honestly, I hated the tedium of it.

I want to write something once, hit a button, and get back to whatever I was working on.

So that's what I built.

Now, when I publish an update on the SquigglyFrog Studios website, the system automatically distributes it to X, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, Bluesky and Discord.

One post.

One Publish button.

Done.

And the interesting part?

It's actually making a difference.

We're getting more attention, more interaction, and even some actual discussions about what we're working on.

It's nice seeing people engage with the projects instead of feeling like I'm just building things in a little corner of the internet that nobody knows exists.

I probably should have been doing this consistently for years.

But apparently I decided to spend years making games first, and only now start working on building an audience for them.

I think I may have done this backward.

Wait... People Want Merchandise?

There's been another interesting side effect to becoming more active on social media.

I've started getting more emails asking about merchandise.

Stickers.

Pins.

Art cards.

Little promotional items and collectibles.

Honestly, I hadn't really given much thought to any of that.

I've always been focused on making the games, building the websites, maintaining the tools, and generally finding new ways to give myself more work.

Merchandise was never particularly high on the list.

Although, at one point I was seriously considering ordering a large neon SquigglyFrog Studios sign for the office wall.

That idea is still floating around.

The problem is that I don't actually have anywhere to put it without removing something else.

And I'm rather attached to the things already hanging on the walls.

But maybe some stickers wouldn't be a bad idea.

Or a few other small things.

Nothing elaborate, but it might be fun to have some actual SquigglyFrog merchandise available.

Food for thought.

Speaking of Distractions... VR Fishing

Completely unrelated side note.

I finally spent some time trying out VR fishing on the new Meta Quest 3.

And yeah...

I'm definitely going fishing again.

Both in VR and in real life.

There's something oddly satisfying about sitting there fishing in a virtual environment.

Of course, now it's also making me want to get out and do some actual fishing again.

Which is probably a good thing.

Not every hobby needs to involve staring at code or trying to figure out why something that worked perfectly five minutes ago has suddenly stopped working.

Maybe It's Time to Think Bigger

I've also been thinking quite a bit about where SquigglyFrog Studios goes from here.

For years, I've primarily developed games for relatively niche platforms.

The Infinity Game Table.

The WOWCube.

Specialized hardware with smaller audiences and very specific requirements.

And I've enjoyed that.

There's something fun about building games for unusual devices and figuring out how to make the most of what they can do.

But maybe it's time to start pushing those boundaries a little.

I've already been getting back into Android development with Threefold: The Last Stand.

And now I'm wondering whether it's time to start looking more seriously at platforms like Steam as well.

There's a much larger potential audience there.

There's also considerably more competition.

And that brings me to something I have very mixed feelings about.

I Want to Make Games, Not Chase Wishlists

Spend any amount of time following indie developers and you'll see a lot of discussion about Steam wishlists.

How many wishlists a game has.

How to get more wishlists.

How to optimize your store page.

How changing one screenshot or adjusting a description might squeeze out a few more conversions.

And then there's the inevitable:

"We just hit 10,000 wishlists!"

Which is great.

Seriously. Good for them.

I'm not saying those things don't matter, and I'm certainly not saying developers shouldn't promote their games.

But I have absolutely no desire to spend countless hours begging people to wishlist something or endlessly tweaking a store page to squeeze out one more potential customer.

I want to make games.

Good games.

Finished games.

Games that people actually enjoy playing.

I want the game itself to be the reason somebody wants to buy it.

Ideally, a good game should be able to sell itself once people discover it.

And yes, I understand that discovery is the hard part.

I'm not opposed to marketing, improving a store page, or making changes when something clearly isn't working.

I'm just not interested in turning every development decision into an exercise in maximizing wishlists.

Maybe that means I'll never have the kind of launch numbers some other developers manage.

Maybe it means my games will grow slowly through people discovering them, enjoying them, and telling somebody else.

I'm okay with that.

I'd rather spend my time making something worth playing than obsessing over whether the third screenshot on my store page should be moved into the second position.

Although, knowing me, I'll probably end up building an entire analytics dashboard for it anyway.

Because apparently that's different.

And While We're Talking About Steam...

Can I complain about something for a minute?

Of course I can.

It's my website.

Steam. Birthdate verification.

Seriously.

How many times do I have to tell Steam how old I am?

I've entered my birthdate at least 79 times now.

Seventy-nine.

I'm logged into my account.

Steam knows who I am.

I've had the account forever.

And yet, every time I want to look at certain games, there it is again.

Please enter your date of birth.

WHY?

Why is this not something that can be saved in my profile and automatically checked?

I'm not getting any younger between store pages!

And to make matters worse, scrolling all the way back into the 1970s takes approximately three business days.

Come on, Steam.

I'm old.

You've established that.

Can we move on now?

Meanwhile, Back in Threefold

On the actual game-development side of things, there have been a few more small updates to Threefold: The Last Stand.

Nothing particularly major this time.

I'm currently working on improving the battlefield scenery using some new assets.

The underlying gameplay is coming along nicely, but I want the environments to have more personality and visual appeal.

Better scenery should help make the different battlefields feel like actual places rather than just boards floating in space.

It's another step toward getting the overall look and feel where I want it.

Not much else is likely to happen on the development front today, though, except some VR dungeon crawls and fishing. I call that research. Yep.

Sometimes you need to spend a little time planning, looking at the bigger picture, and figuring out what comes next.

Apparently We're Building an Audience Now

So that's where things stand.

The social publishing system is working.

People are starting to notice.

We're getting discussions, emails, and even requests for merchandise I never really considered making.

I'm thinking about expanding beyond niche gaming hardware and potentially bringing future projects to much larger marketplaces.

Threefold continues to get a little more polish.

And I've discovered that virtual fishing is considerably more relaxing than debugging C++.

Not exactly a shocking revelation.

But the biggest takeaway from all of this is probably that making games is only part of building a game studio.

You also have to let people know those games exist.

I've spent years concentrating on the first part.

Now that I've finally made the second part considerably easier, maybe it's time to see where it can take us.

It's going to be a slow process.

But at least we're moving in the right direction.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some scenery to work on.

And possibly some fish to catch.