When I'm researching #gamedev ideas I find user-defined tags kind of suck. So I use description search. Just describe the idea, in plain English, and immediately get relevant games. Keeps things simple. #indiegamedev #sologamedev

A day of crushing 🐛's with Concept Compass 🧭 our #gamedev tool for idea validation. Our search algorithm was returning some irrelevant results but after a long day and a lot of coffee, I think I've fixed it!

Week 7/10 of my #OutlierGames series for #WishlistWednesday and today we're talking about Lumines Arise by @enhance-experience.com - this synesthetic, music-driven arcade puzzle game looks incredible! #puzzle #indiegame #gamedev store.steampowered.com/app/2370000/...

Week 6/10 of my #OutlierGames series for #WishlistWednesday where I highlight the most unique upcoming games on Steam. Today pick I'm shouting out The Cabbage Effect by @ninjagarage.bsky.social - a blend of cartoon-pop-surrealistic visuals & brawling combat. Love it! shorturl.at/3ZohN

If I'm honest with myself, our search bar on @game-oracle.bsky.social was a bit rubbish. It was ugly & hard to use. So I was excited to put an end to that today with our shiny new design 🙌 it is now easier than ever to find games for your #gamedev market research #indiedev #solodev

It surprised me to find Deep Rock has a low saturation score 3.2/10 (not as many direct competitors). It seems like a bit of an underserved audience and perhaps an opportunity for #indiegamedev folk to innovate #gamedev #sologamedev

Today's #OutlierGames post was supposed to be about VILE: Exhumed by @dirtlord77.bsky.social but then I found out it had been banned from Steam 😢 suppressing art is not the answer. You can still support the project here: dreadxp.com/vile-is-bann...

Week 5/10 & halfway through my #OutlierGames series for #WishlistWednesday where I highlight the most unique upcoming games on Steam. Todays pick is The Holdouts by @ruckus-games.com - a wacky cooperative third-person shooter where anything can become a weapon store.steampowered.com/app/1851810/...

Just over a year ago today @jennie-burton.bsky.social and I started working on @game-oracle.bsky.social. Our ambition was to provide #gamedev folk with an alternative to imprecise tag-based market research & contribute a little towards alleviating the anxiety of #indiegamedev #sologamedev adventures

#indiegames like The Red Lantern seem to fit an underserved audience - survival & exploration in the wilderness but w/ deep narrative - studying 15 similar games players love emotional & engaging stories but don't want to feel like a spectator #gamedev #indiegamedev #sologamedev

We started Game Oracle with one central idea - how can we reduce anxiety around a game idea & give #indiegamedev a realistic view of the market b4 they commit to a project? On Monday we launch v3.4 w/ our new tool Concept Compass. This is a big milestone for us & I can't wait to share it.

What excites me most about the Steam Map on Game Oracle are these dark regions between games. To me this represents potential. The frontiers of #gamedev creativity that have yet to be explored. #indiegames #indiegamedev #sologamedev

Week 4/10 of my #outliergames series for #wishlistwednesday - let's talk about Rhyolite by @longloststudio.bsky.social grab your friends and go ghost hunting on a train in this action #indie #roguelite 👻🚂 store.steampowered.com/app/3195990/...

Just finished our last two product ideas which makes us feature complete - v3.4 coming soon 🚀 w/ new toys: - Concept Compass 🧭 all-in-one tool for evaluating a game concept using market data from our Steam map - Bundle Builder 🧺 find similar games & collect socials to help organise bundles #gamedev

PEAK is being called "friendslop". I used Data Explorer to study 1000 most similar games & to no surprise, in terms of sales the market here performs incredibly well. But on average these games are poorly rated (we use medians btw). I dunno, seems like a gamble making games like this. #gamedev

There is a big red blob on our Saturation Map which is #horror games but I was curious about this cluster to the left of it (red circle) - turns out its psychological horrors revolving around anomaly detection & looping reality. Example game being I'm on Observation Duty #gamedev #indiegames

OOP Patterns 😍 #gamedev #godot youtu.be/h21Lmg4o1Ks?...

Week 3/10 of my #outliergames series for #wishlistwednesday - let's talk about Age of the Deep by @willdavis.bsky.social & co. A looter RPG where you play as a mermaid 🧜‍♀️what more is there to say! store.steampowered.com/app/2997030/...

We made a Game Engine leaderboard (www.game-oracle.com/leaderboards...) - thanks @igdb.com for the data ❤️ - and ranking by SteamDB score is fascinating. Top 5: Telltale Tool, SCUMM, Visionaire, KiriKiri, KEX (caveat: not all games disclose their engine, so bare that in mind) #gamedev

Have you heard of the DreadOut series? 3rd person #horror game set in an Asian - Indonesian setting. Thing is, none of its direct competitors have managed to hit the same mark. Missed opportunity? 👀 #gamedev #sologamedev #indiegamedev

It's #wishlistwednesday & week 2 of my #outliergames series. Today we're talking about Trading Card Inspector by @daydreamgallerydev.bsky.social - in this unique twist on trading card games, you play as a quality control inspector, blending office sim, mystery, & dark humour

Interesting #gamedev market gap: shipping logistics simulator. Best performing game in this segment is probably TransOcean – The Shipping Company but there are not many other highlight rated titles despite reasonably player demand. #indiegamedev #sologamedev

NEW GAME ANNOUNCEMENT! A Family Friendly, Physics-Fueled FPS Party Game! Over half a million task variations and over 500 unlockable cosmetics and emotes with NO Microtransactions! This is your New Favourite Friendslop! Play the Playtest on Steam Now! store.steampowered.com/app/2182680

What is this strange cluster hanging off to the side of our Steam Map? Horse Games 🐎 and they perform really well! Hats off to the #gamedev folk that have cracked emulating horse riding tho 😱 no easy feat I bet! #horsegames #gamedev #sologamedev #indiegamedev #indiegames

Today we added wishlist-to-download ratios to Game Oracle. We also released an analysis of these ratios on our YT 👉 youtu.be/BA-roTecK3Q?... #gamedev #sologamedev #indiedev #indiegamedev

Game Oracle update 🚀 #gamedev #sologamedev #indiegamedev

Today I'm adding wishlist-to-download conversion estimates to v3.4 of @game-oracle.bsky.social which will be coming soooooooooon 🙌🚀 What else can I crowbar into this release before I can accused of scope creep 👀

Today is the 1st the of my 10 week #outliergames series. Today we’re celebrating Frequency Sync by @virtexedge.design - a unique fast-paced musical geometric puzzle game 🎶🧩 #gamedev #sologamedev #indiegamedev #wishlistwednesday

Under served audiences that surprise me 👉 Airport Security Simulators 🛫 👮 . E.g Airport X-Ray Simulator (for a niche game it sold ~5k copies on Steam). Theres about 5 other games coming soon in this market segment. One to watch 👀 Wanna know more? Checkout www.game-oracle.com/research-too... #gamedev

I really enjoyed doing the outliers series on here over the summer. We've updated our model meaning a new outlier list, so I'm going to do another series. Maybe shorter posts this time, to keep it manageable, but I hope it helps #gamedev folk find some inspo www.game-oracle.com/leaderboards...

Labelling the latest iteration of our #gamedev map of the #steam marketplace so @jennie-burton.bsky.social can make some cool visuals!

🌈 RAINBOWS 🌈

So excited about this release 🙌 Game Oracle v3.3 is here! And we have more exciting stuff to come! #gamedev #indiegamedev #sologamedev #solodev #indiedev

Lets be honest, setting up a Steam store page can be a bloody nightmare! Especially knowing all the different image dimensions. Luckily @jennie-burton.bsky.social has put together a helpful guide for all the images needed 👉 www.game-oracle.com/blog/steam-s... #gamedev #indiegamedev #sologamedev

We just shipped v3.3 of @game-oracle.bsky.social - full devlog coming soon - but I just wanted to highlight one of the small features we just introduced for #gamedev #indiegamedev folk researching the market that I think is really interesting: filtering the market by AI Disclosures

It's #wishlistwednesday and we've just updated our Steam map & models, which means we have a brand new list of outliers! If you want to see some of the most unique #gamedev #indiegamedev projects coming soon ranked by wishlists check it out here 👉 game-oracle.com/leaderboards...

If you're a #gamedev #sologamedev #indiegamedev thinking about using paid ads, stop! Our resident marketing geek @jennie-burton.bsky.social at @game-oracle.bsky.social has written some great advice on how to avoid common mistakes 👉

What are some #godot #godotengine addons/assets that you just couldn't live without?

@jennie-burton.bsky.social, our digital marketing queen @game-oracle.bsky.social, wrote this piece early this year about the best time for #gamedev #sologamedev #indiegamedev to release, as we approach winter w/ more gamers online, I think it's worth a visit 👉

I've been very quiet on here of late because we're working hard on v3.3 of @game-oracle.bsky.social - we've got a new #steam map to power #gamedev insights boasting a 3pt increase in search accuracy + AI disclosure data, new market segment algorithm, & improved revenue estimates 🙌🚀

What we want to say to every #gamedev and #indiegamedev who wants to publish on Steam ⚔️ When you sign-up to our newsletter you'll never be alone, you can get insights from the Steam Map in your inbox every month and the next one goes out in one week! 🗺️ Sign-up here: buff.ly/jC75fyS

I'm a data scientist at Game Oracle that studies the indie game industry, what market segments would #indiegamedev like demystified?

Trying to build a community is haaaaaard #gamedev #sologamedev #indiegamedev #indiedev

What is your definition of a #indiegame? Genuinely, I am curious.

Someone pointed out that Benson Boone occasionally sounds like Eric Cartman and now I can't unhear it

This is a heatmap of #steam. Red = more games. Blue = fewer games. It's our way of simplifying how we measure market saturation and we think it can help discover under served audiences. If you're a #gamedev trying to validate an idea, you can start exploring for free today 👉 www.game-oracle.com

Did you know that PEAK actually sits in a saturated corner of the market? Similar games have come & gone like: - PeakPals - Surmount: A Mountain Climbing Adventure - Rogue Climber - A Difficult Game About Climbing - Peaks of Yore There is also ~30 immediate competitors coming soon #gamedev

Yesterday we shipped v3.2 of game-oracle.com our tool for helping #gamedev folk validate ideas & find underserved audiences 🙌 in this: - We introduce a free tier 🆓 - Launched a Discord server for members 📢 - Fixed login bugs (firebase is hard) - Fixed some UI bugs (CSS is also hard) Enjoy!

We've realised that our #steam map is rather abstract - it is a completely new way of conducting market research for #gamedev & is rather alien - so we've decided to introduce a free tier so you can try before you buy 👉 www.game-oracle.com