0$ Marketing, Steam Demos & Custom Game Engine

This is a conversation with the Australian game developer Tommy, co-creator of the tower defense game Gnomes. Thy made it in a custom Rust Engine with just 10 months of time and 0$ marketing budget. It looks like a game anyone could make, but is it? I was curious to learn more.

Links to my Guests

➤ Gnomes on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3133060/Gnomes/

➤ Sea of Survivors on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2347940/Sea_of_Survivors/

Listen to the podcast on the go (Spotify, Apple Podcasts, etc.):

➤ https://tyrollerjonas.podbean.com/

0:00 - Intro

2:29 - Prototyping, Timeline, Demo

6:11 - Next Fest, Early Marketing Wins

8:25 - Early Access and Launch Strategy

12:23 - Switching Teams, Going Solo, Moving to Godot

15:06 - 3D vs 2D: Marketing and Development

22:11 - Solo vs Team Trade-Offs, Is it Luck?

29:16 - Roles, Content Pipeline, Localization

35:05 - Core Loop: Moveable Towers, Guilds, Shop, Endless

38:49 - Game Design: Economy vs Defense

41:45 - Difficulty, Guild Matchups, Swamp Map, RNG, Power Fantasy

47:03 - UX-First Design: Minimal Tutorial, One-Hand UI, Juice, Pacing

52:59 - Constraints, Limits Shaping Design

56:05 - Marketing: Go Narrow/Deep, Reddit, Creators Timing

1:03:20 - Fulfilling Fantasies, Don’t Chase Trends

1:11:18 - Designing Doable but Deep

1:20:49 - Regrets and Post-Launch Changes

1:30:43 - Cheat Mode, Jank, and Nostalgia

1:31:59 - Copycats on Mobile: Kingshot

1:34:29 - Mobile vs Steam and Why Gnomes Isn’t on Mobile

1:39:27 - Life Changes, Workflow, and Team Plans

1:42:32 - Generalists, Triple Threat, and the Coming AI Era

1:48:44 - Nostalgia Sells; You Only Need the Crumbs

1:50:29 - Solo vs Team Itch; Don’t Engine-Shop

1:52:02 - Do You Have to Suffer for your Art?

1:54:20 - Godot Navmesh, Sunk Cost, State Machines

1:55:16 - Trailer-First, Vertical Slice, and Variable Scope

1:57:08 - Testing Appeal: Playtests vs Trailers and Honest Feedback

2:00:30 - Appeal-First vs Gameplay-First

2:04:47 - Build a Playtest Community; Observe Actions, Not Words

2:08:46 - 500 Testers, Steam Playtest vs Keys, Superfans

2:12:40 - First-Time Players Are Gold; Demos and the First 15 Minutes

2:17:40 - Treat Your Demo Like a Launch

2:18:36 - There is a Playbook and a Splash of Luck

2:20:07 - Outro

My game "Thronefall":

➤ Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2239150/Thronefall/

➤ Discord: https://discord.gg/gVYctptyg8

➤ Nintendo Switch: https://www.nintendo.com/en-gb/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/Thronefall-2669627.html#Overview

My game "Will You Snail":

➤ Play Will You Snail on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1115050/Will_You_Snail/

➤ Join the Will You Snail Discord: https://discord.gg/G3mRDrK

For the game developers among you:

➤ Join our creative game dev community on Discord: https://discord.gg/Ye6zzfQ