I developed Teeth of Glass over around a month in April, when I really should have been working on Carnival or The Tragic Loss of M. Slazak, partly as an experiment and partly as a way of trying to cheer myself up... development can be a numbing process, even if it is enjoyable.
I wanted to see if I could gain some visibility with a more obviously 'horror' game, get some youtubers interested, and build up a base of players. I started with the idea of having a single room where the story occurs (which I partially kept to), mainly as a way of limiting the scope of the game so it didn't become something too large. With regards to the plot, I have been working on a story for many years (with a close friend) that I want to work on more in the future, and though the story itself will be long, it was very possible to release a snippet, a taster that would hopefully pique more interest than frustration.
The initial reception was good - after I released it on Itch.io, it soon surpassed the downloads of the Carnival and Slazak demos, and was picked up by Alphabetagamer and a few others for letsplays, which was great. It then drifted off, as I had expected it to, but I was satisfied with the result and the positive feedback. I moved back onto developing Carnival.
Around a week ago, I started to get a lot of email notifications about new followers on Itch.io. I thought they were just referencing earlier followers, but when I logged in I saw there was indeed a huge spike. I looked at views and downloads and they had soared up, moving far higher than after the initial release. I eventually found out why - it had been featured by Itch.io and was now on the front page. It had also moved up to the #1 horror game in New and Trending. I was over the moon. Then I started to get a lot of new letsplays, and even when the Summer Sale started and it was moved further down the front page, the views were still great. Then the real kicker - I was featured on two of my favourite YouTubers channels (MrKravin and ManlyBadassHero). And the feedback was still good! Where there were criticisms, they were usually around it being short, and part of an unfinished story... something that will change in the future.
It's still doing great, and though it will fade eventually, I am really happy with the reception, and hope that the people who enjoyed Teeth of Glass will stay with me as I go deeper into the story.
Thank you to everyone who has downloaded the game and fed back on it, I read everything and it all helps, whether you like my stuff or not xx
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