Hello!

I would like to start by saying thank you to everyone that has downloaded and played the game! It has been a blast watching all the different YouTube videos and reading all the comments and kind words. I've gotten some great feedback and gained a lot of new followers. I can't believe the game made it to the top of the popular page and has even earned some money! The game is starting to slowly drop, but I'm hoping it will spike again with the help of more YouTube videos.

I want to write this to help others. Maybe this can help you get your game on the popular page! I really hope it does!

Well let's break things down and talk about how the game has been performing. I have included an image of the stats.

AFTER 17 DAYS (a little over 2 weeks):
Total Gross Revenue: $27
Views: 4,312
Downloads: 988
7d Impressions: 150k
CTR: 0.54%
Itch Followers Gained: 23
Patreon Supporters Gained: 0

I am very impressed with these stats, but looking at these numbers, I do see some improvements I could make.

REVENUE:
I honestly was not expecting the game to earn any money at all. This was a pleasant surprise. I did not make this game with the goal of earning money. I simply wanted to just make something others would enjoy. So how did it earn money? My only guess is that I set my suggested price for the game at just $1. Maybe this had something to do with it?
With 6 people paying for the game so far, that means around 0.6% of players are paying. Three of those payments were for $1. One was for $2. Two of the payments were for $11! Thank you so much to these 6 very generous people. I will be using this money to purchase assets to make more games!

With these stats, my goal will be to have 1% of players donate. I might try to set my suggested price to $2 for the next game to see how that affects purchase stats.

My Advice: Keep yours suggested price low. If people like your game, they will pay what they feel the game is worth.

VIEWS/DOWNLOADS:
With 4,312 views and 988 downloads, it looks like 23% of people that view the game download it. I made sure my game had a trailer, an interesting description, and a bit of curiosity. I didn't want to tell players exactly what they were getting into and left them wondering what I meant by a "2nd person" game. I personally feel this curiosity is what helped push people to download the game. Many people start their videos discussing the "2nd person" tag line and trying to understand what it means.
I was sure to leave out a description of how to play the game.  Things like this should be in the game! Have a solid tutorial and make sure your controls are intuitive.

My Advice: Make sure your page spikes curiosity. Do not include controls or "how to play" in your game's description! Controls and how to play should be presented to the player in game during game play. No one wants to read a wall of text to learn how to play. Lastly, make sure you have a short and interesting trailer for your game that people can quickly view.

IMPRESSIONS/CTR:
If you do not know, CTR stands for click through rate. That's how many people saw my game's thumbnail in the list of games and actually clicked on it. This number started out VERY strong, above 1.5%. However, as soon as the game reached the popular page, it started to drastically drop. I think this is expected and didn't worry me too much. I actually saw a nice spike in views.
So why were people clicking on my game? Why were they not clicking on it? I have a few guesses. Similar to what I think pushed people to download, I feel the tagline "2nd person" really spiked curiosity. People wanted to know what that meant. I sure my art work could have been much more sinister looking and more terrifying. I'm not much of an artist, but I feel like the thumbnail could improve a lot.
One thing I've noticed that my game was missing was a GIF of gameplay when you hovered over the thumbnail. I feel like this would be a huge help! I plan to learn how to do this. However, I do have a YouTube video of the trailer for the game that shows when you hover over the icon and I believe this helped a lot.

My Advice: Make sure you have a game trailer! Figure out how to make a GIF play when people hover over your game's thumbnail. Use a catchy tagline that grabs people's attention and makes them ask a question. That question can be answered by clicking on your game.

OTHER IMPORTANT ADVICE:
Write dev logs! It's a great way to share with the community and expose your game as well. People are interested in what you want to say about your game and your inspirations.
Most of the traffic to my game comes from YouTube. Be sure to support the YouTubers that make videos of your game! Subscribe to them and support their work by liking and commenting on their videos. Maybe you can even message these YouTubers later once you have a new game available. Make friends and do your best to support everyone that supports you.

Thanks for reading! I hope this helps! I'm interested to see if I can use what I've learned to get another game on to the popular page.

- Brad