Interview bravada: how difficult it is to enter steam

Bravada

Xsolla has a conversation with a developer of bravada. Ivan Taranenko from the Ukrainian company interbellum talked about the difficulties of entering steam and greenlight, and the difficulties of cooperation between Ukrainian companies and Kickstarter.

 

Let's briefly introduce some of your studios. When do I decide to make a game?

When we were children (Ivan tarananko, Andrew michailenko, and Kirill michailento), we played many games and talked about different items and game elements in the game. Soon, we wanted to develop our own games.

 

 

First, we made some small desktop games, such as chess. Later we started to work in the gaming industry. At the beginning, we tried to make multiplayer players play the game: complex combat systems, 3D maps, upgrades, and other things. But we don't have enough experience to make such an ambitious game. We must start with something simple. So we decided to work full-time on this independent project. We don't have an office. Only a small computer room has two.

 

What kind of game is bravada? Where is the main inspiration for designing this game?

We fell in love with a good game-Battle of tiles. It has a magic turn-based combat system. You can easily operate your game in a fast and easy way. In fact, it has nothing but a game combat system. We have improved this idea, added an interesting story, and a cool mechanism to transform units.

 

Our protagonist is a young man who wants to be a great explorer. But there was a small problem. He didn't have a beard. His best friend, a good bat, is willing to solve the problem for him. So they started their interesting adventure. You will create a small team and select interesting roles. Your allies can change their professional abilities. The battle is a turn-based system, but they are so fast, thanks to our cool combat system.

 

Where can I get the cost of creating this project?

We put money in the game as our savings. In fact, we didn't spend much. We only need some money to pay for our general living expenses, Internet and electricity fees. Our team is very compact-only three people. Others help us and music. Many of our players are willing to help translate into different language versions.

We cannot put our project on Kickstarter. Because we are Ukrainian citizens, we need an American representative. Of course there are various agents and middlemen, but they are expensive. We cannot pay $1000 for those services. That's why we decided to collect money from the Community and use our own website. This is enough to pay taxes.

 

What is the engine used in this project?

 

 

We use unity. We already have some technologies. This is a very useful and powerful tool. It is an ideal solution for small independent games. We use blender to create 3D models and animations. This edited file is consistent with unity. It is unity that allows us to use tools at the beginning.

 

How did you put the game on steam?

Bravada is feasible on steam. We have started its Green Project. In the spring of 2013, we applied for a Green Project and received enough votes in the summer of 2014. In the same year, we got the best adventure/role-playing game in the Intel level up competition. Cool! It is not particularly easy. The Green Project is basically a filter that filters out vulnerable games. If you want to get through, you need to attract many people to your homepage. In fact, this is quite difficult. When the game accumulates popularity, the votes will reach the top 100. This is very important because it allows the steam administrator to notice who will eventually let the game enter the store. That's it. If they really like this game.

 

How does game localization work?

We have no money to ask translation agencies to work. We have actually translated it into English. Some people from Australia read our text and are willing to provide suggestions and help. Later, some people from the UK and the United States joined the project. The Ukrainian version of the game was created by a very good translation team named Alibaba Cloud. A girl from Italy also agreed to help us with our games. Of course, all these people help us for free.

 

How did your game market work?

In fact, the entire marketing process is brand new to us. Making a game is only half of the work. You really need to drive the game. We have prepared a huge list of reporters to interview them and put a large number of press releases on them. Every reporter has his or her own choice. We do not cooperate with any marketing agencies. After steam was opened, we received many emails from the media and letsplayers. Some players really want this game.

 

How does your game community work?

At the beginning, we didn't cooperate with the game community, which is obviously a big mistake. After starting our greenlight page, we started to chat with gamers, answer their questions, and modify their different errors. Players have many ideas, but it is really hard to satisfy everyone. That is why we try to answer questions as soon as possible and explain our position. People really like this communication community.

 

Are you going to promote your game on other platforms?

This is absolute! We are really optimistic about our prospects. We have started to install our game on Android and IOS. The release on steam was somewhat surprising, which is why we put the mobile version on hold. We work with publishers to promote our mobile games. It is too difficult to find a suitable partner.

 

Interview bravada: how difficult it is to enter steam