Just a supporter of indineras games so I thought id give my feedback. Pretty unfair to infer anything further.
I personally saw you the way you describe yourself.
If you must know my deep dark evil secrets: im just an achievement whore, and well you can't earn any if you buy the games on the site here.
Good that most of my games have them then.
That's a interesting theory. But ultimately that's all it is.
It's not a theory. I've got insider figures of course.
Exactly where on the page (in this case your referring to the very bottom with the default steam layout) affects game sales is a pretty out there concept imo.
The section I'm talking is "Popular New Releases" and it's not very difficult to see it (it's the main tab a bit below the carousel on the homepage). This section "picks" games not based on actual income but other things instead, unlike all their "best-selling" charts. Steam has
NEVER placed a single game of mine there although it's a section that can easily turn far more sales for a given title. Additionally, Steam placed games that were selling less than some of mine there, sometimes for very obscure reasons, sometimes for stupid things like massive free key activations or planted reviews obtained from said free keys.
The "popular new release" section I, and everyone I know, finds very useless.
My insider figures establish it can easily change the sales of a game during the time it's showing up there.
Because it scrolls insanely fast and is filled with cruft I have no interst in.
It doesn't scroll at all. It's just a selection of 10 games at a given time. Also (possibly more importantly), you do not seem to realize that calling a game "popular" has a HUGE effect on how players see it. It's not only about the additional exposure, but also the influence created by labeling a game "popular", in other words, worth purchasing safely.
So I never even look at it.
But what about the million other players? After all, if you're one of my "supporters", yes you probably don't care for it, because you are not as easily influenced as most (otherwise you would be a supporter of the other "popular" games instead). That doesn't rule out the tons of people who ARE easily influenced and who therefore are bound to overlook my games, even though they sell perfectly fine and often better on equal ground.
And I'm a huge user of steam, have hundreds of games and tons of friends on there, other big supporters of it like totalbiscuit also had lengthy videos on why that section was so useless. They improved it a lot lately, but for me, and im sure most players - its just not super relevant.
Well you guys don't have the stats and figures we devs have, do you? It is established any game thrown on there sees its sales skyrocket.
Bottom line is good games will sell, players will find them.
With hard work you can fill up partially the gap caused by the "popular releases" section, but nothing more.
A game never fully recovers from missing a position there.
There's tons of ways these days and people who enjoy old school rpgs will find eventually find your games and they will get more popular.
They will find the "popular new" ones first and mine MAYBE only after they have tried these. I'm sure you see why this is not a very enviable situation for me. Additionally, with the power of influence (undeniable on human beings), they will be more likely to like a game that they know is in "popular releases", than one that is not. It's a double penalty.
For all these reasons, it takes a strong mind to find and support my games on Steam.
I wouldn't worry about algorithms and minute details and just focus on what youve been doing best for years - making great rpgs.
Well, I do.
I can't change their algo, can I? But I don't want to hear it's fair (!) or favorable to my games (!!!!!!) when it's the complete contrary.
The vast majority of players will see what's on the front page. Exactly whats right up in there face the moment they open steam, thats what to will bring in players the fastest. And here's how it looks for me:
https://i.imgur.com/N6xOrH7.jpg
The carousel is nowhere near as potent as the "new popular releases" section. Plus, it's indeed dynamic. So you see games of mine because you've bought games of mine. But people who buy the "new popular releases" instead (ie most people on Steam, based on sales figures) will never see a single game of mine in there either.
Trust me, if they get rid of that "popular" section that is creating gaps between games, I'll happily add the rest of my games, as I like to see what happens on fair ground. And also because I do like Steam and I think it has many great features, but until it happens, it has become less of a priority regarding my games.
Seeing them soft-released
all the time (ie released but visible only in subpages of a website) is not very interesting for me and doesn't make me feel very valued. In that regard, I preferred the old Steam which didn't have that section, but I understand they had too many releases to continue like that.