As a beginning developer, the idea that I could market anything I have created is utterly ludicrus to me. It's not that I have anything against marketing, but rather I don't feel comfortable marketing any of my projects.

They're all kinda crap, and I know it. Fun, sure, but not worth a penny in my opinion. That's probably my pride talking right there, but it's a feeling I can't quite get over.

So, I won't be taking on this November challenge. Maybe next time.

Mean time, I intend to take a break for coding as Nanowrimo has started up again, and I plan to take the challenge. I'm a huge fan of games with great stories, so I feel that this will be great practice.

Good luck to everyone taking on the November challenge, and make that sweet sweet lettuce.

So, I am making probably the most common game genre in the world……a shooter! But I am going to make the strangest, most OP weapons and enemies that can possibly pop in my head!
I am starting out by making a boss that I have been dreaming of making for months now…. The Swarm! I am not going to tell what The Swarm is, because it's going to be a surprise!
Ya, so I am just having fun, making a game! Good Luck!

Im working on it for more than year. But im really not sure if i will manage to pull it out on time. Game should be ready 23th november. But then it all depends on nintendo and their internal check (yeah game will be released on Nintendo Switch). So im not sure if i will make it :( But its scheduled! But there is high probability Steam version will make it for november release

Anyway at least i can show you some footage and screenshots… if I will not make it, i will pull out game from challenge.

screenshots:
https://imgur.com/a/l5Y44Wk

some aplha footage:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3N0Vv2RP5ig

btw game came out from Ludum Dare (in which it won gold medal for theme). Jam version is still available for free. check entry for links :)

I will be participating in the November Challenge. I'll continue development of my pixel art tool and hopefully get it released. :D

It's based on my old pixel art tool:

I've still got a lot of stuff to do to catch up to my old tool. Hopefully I'll get it to a good state in November though. The planned price is $4.99 (basically a cheaper Aseprite alternative). Since it's the pixel art tool I use, so it'll receive updates in the future.

The November Challenge is an event in which you release and market a game or game related product during the month of November with the goal of making $1. The goal is to use (and hopefully improve!) your release and marketing skills with the goal of making money off of something you made!

You can read more about how the November Challenge works here.

The November Challenge started on November 1st 7PM UTC.

Tips and Tricks

The Pricing

Make sure you price your product properly. Nobody wants to pay $1,000 for Flappy Bird and you wouldn't profit much if you were to sell Mario Kart for $0.01. There are tons of factors involved in pricing which you have to take into account. Usually I recommend going on the cheaper end since even if you aren't maximizing profits, you're getting your product into more hands. If you overprice your game, nobody will buy it and nobody will own it in the end. That's no fun of course. The only rule that I vaguely go by is, "$1 per an hour of solid gameplay". When I say "solid", I mean gameplay that isn't repetative or dull. This rule has to be broken though. Different genres need to be priced differently and this rule only works best on certain types of games. This rule also isn't applicable to non-game products.

The Product

If this is your first time attempting to sell something and your goal is to get sales, I recommend working to your strengths. If your main goal is to have fun, I recommend doing what you want and ignoring this part. In my case, I specialize in fast paced platformers with tight controls and pixel art. I made Super Potato Bruh with that in mind. It's a fast paced Super Meat Boy-like platformer with bullet hell elements and of course, pixel art. It also helps to design your game to look good in images/GIFs. In my case, I used the bullet hell element to make the game look great in GIFs and I used a pixel art style that's currently pretty popular to make the game look good in images.

The Marketing

This is the area I see a lot of people failing in. I'm not the best at it myself, but I've learned a few things. There are only a couple things that should apply to most people and products. Early on, you need make sure you have a social media presence. I use Twitter, but ideally you'd use other sites too. Post interesting stuff related to your project there. A release trailer is extremely important. Make sure the trailer covers all the best parts of your product that you can squeeze reasonably into ~90 seconds. People click away surprisingly fast, so every second matters. Polish the trailer as much as you can too since this is usually what most people use to decide if they want to buy your product. Super Potato Bruh's trailer wasn't the best since I'm an amateur, but the effort I put into it was definitely worth it. If you don't know what to edit with, I recommend HitFilm Express. It's pretty good for being free. By far the biggest mistake I see in a lot of people's marketing efforts is the complete lack of media on the product's store page. It's important to have images, a trailer, and (if applicable) GIFs to show off your product.

One important decision to make related to the marketing is your choice of marketplace. You could just sell your product on your website, but generally it's better to put your game on more marketplaces for a better shot at people seeing your product. I recommend itch.io because it's free and you can set your pay cut. It's really easy to make your store page look nice there too. Game Jolt may also be worth a shot. It's pretty similar to itch.io. Steam is a great platform if you think the initial $100 fee is worth it. They provide a decent amount of publicity and lots of users prefer to play a game on Steam (I don't know about non-game products.) rather than running it as a stand-alone application. I released Super Potato Bruh on Steam recently and it hasn't sold too well on Steam, but the Steam release provided a good excuse for another marketing push. While it didn't sell that well on Steam, the marketing push resulted in a lot of sales on the itch.io page. In some cases, it may be a good idea to do what I did and split the releases. I'm not entirely sure what determines whether it's a good idea or not.

If you just have a store page, trailer, and a small social media following, you won't do too well. This is where what I call the "marketing push" comes in. This is where you do various things to get people to see your product. It's important to be creative. The most basic method is to post about your product on various websites (don't spam it though). I think that one majorly overlooked place is Reddit. It more than doubled my earnings for Super Potato Bruh. You can post about your product to the relevant communities. Since you're posting it in specific communities, the people from those communities are going to be interested in it if you choose the right ones. For Super Potato Bruh, I posted in r/python, r/pygame, r/pixelart, and r/linux_gaming. The people from r/python, r/pygame, and r/linux_gaming loved that I included the source code for my game on itch.io. (My second marketing push was mostly successful on reddit, which is why most of the profits ended up coming from itch.io instead of Steam.) It's also important to send out your product to journalists, YouTubers, streamers, and reviewers. I skipped this step (which I regret doing) so I don't know much about how it works. If your social media presence is good, I recommend running a giveaway for your product there.

Marketing is something that requires practice, so it's important to see every project as an opportunity to try out different things. Keep the scope of the project in mind though. I wouldn't go as far as sending copies of a game jam game to journalists.

Good luck in the November Challenge!

Hello Alakajammers!

I've finished polishing up the game and released the spooktacular game for FREE on itch.io checkout the game trailer and give it a quick play, what score can you manage? I've got a 2440! Can you?

If anyone has the patience to try, does the authorization with your itch.io account work? (no need to donate unless you really wish to, doing so gives a thank-you sign)

I have been working on and off on turning my award-winning AKJ 2 entry, Misty Isles, into a full-fledged mobile release. The idea is to make it about the journey of Odysseus, following the story of the Odyssey but making the characters a bit more colourful.

It still needs a fair amount of work: more levels, character art, dialogue, sound, music, and some more mechanics to keep it interesting. But it should all be doable in a month if I put my mind to it, and approach it game jam style: "don't think, just do it".

Oh, if anyone has a good idea for a title ("Misty Isles" is a bit boring), please let me know!

I'm pumped for the Alakajam! this Febuary! This time, I am going to be prepared! I'm going to make a library for Unity to help me code faster, i'll have a stable idea for each of the top 10 themes, and I'll try to rank it as Solo. I might even team with someone! =-)
Good luck in advance!

It's official: the results for the 4th Alakajam! are out!

You can find the results here:

Solo winners | Team winners

Kudos, high fives and back slaps to everyone who participated, in whatever way(s) you chose to. We hope you had a blast!

Now, we've got a teeny tiny little survey which you can fill in—just some feedback on how things are running, whether you'd like to get involved, and asking your opinion on some important future decisions.

OK, what's next?

November Challenge: November 2018
What's a November Challenge? Good question! Ever wondered what happens after you've made a game? @DaFluffyPotato will host this event taking us through marketing & releasing a game to the outside world, and maybe even making a profit :o

Behind the Scenes

Many thanks to the awesome @Tipyx for hosting this jam, and his little minions for helping out with maintenance and streaming. Also many thanks to those of you who jammed, played, streamed and/or speedran(runned?), as well as you, the community, for making this what it is.

We hope to see you soon! :)

I loved this jam, and hoping to work hard to get time off to do more in the future! Not only is this community really supportive but people put their heart and soul into most of these games - if not all.

Thanks for the awesome time! And hope to see you guys at the next jam! Can't wait to see the results. I think I know who is first place - but I'll keep that a Greek'fall' hush hush.