Villainville has made its steam debut with our Coming Soon page, and started gathering wishlists at a tidy rate–something we’re delighted to see, but didn’t expect to happen until we got it into festivals and sent out our first streamer keys. And speaking of streamers, through nothing but organic word-of-mouth we have three lined up and eager to get their first look at Villainville and share it with their audience. Another big surprise that’s made our month!
While of course I adore the game, I credit for these successes to how well the splash art and capsule came together. It’s true I’m biased (and also a huge fan of our 2D artist) but to me it’s simply gorgeous!
If somehow the gray skies in our life won’t let up and the above piece of happy header art doesn’t move you, how about this? Can anyone resist a baby dragon playing with his favorite new jack-o-lantern friend?
Yeah, I didn’t think so. Crim thinks he’s the star of Villainvile, and some of our fans agree with him. Luckily cuteness is his super power so the islanders are generally persuaded that he has a heart of gold and that he means well…most of the time. Also, he’s just a baby.
The Villainville islanders all know these lines, as they remind each other of them regularly.
But, back to our Steam debut. I’ve created around a dozen small games–start to finish–and also worked closely doing narrative work in small teams as well as in a mid-size studio, but this was my first time getting a game Steam approved and I suddenly have immense respect for all the indies out there who do this regularly. It’s a process that is not for the faint of heart! However, there’s also nothing quite like the rush of seeing a gorgeous capsule come together–something we never would have worked so hard at if not for the Steam requirements.
Shout out to Chris Zukowski at How to Market A Game for much of our success in getting a quick and smooth Valve approval! A fellow dev tipped me off to him so I’m passing the recommendation along. Take Chris’s free course, work through the tasks he gives, join his discord, and enjoy avoiding the pitfalls many devs fall into. It truly is a game-changer!
With Villainville out there in the world, I’ll be regularly posting updates by way of informal dev logs. Barring a catastrophe, the first will go up within the next week. It will insights into how a developer team keeps the game moving forward while holding meetings in a hospital room.
Click bait? I hope so, but also quite true. If you want the sneak peek of how we pull off development despite life being life like, check out the Flaming Acorn Instagram post here. Note the pics from Villainville’s first post-Steam live outing at Game and Geek Expo!
Thanks for reading and stay wickedly wonderful!