Advice Concerning Promoting A Dark, Psychological Horror VN

[crimsonnight]

Hey guys,

I published my latest novel on Steam a couple of months ago (http://store.steampowered.com/app/570350), but have received very few sales, especially in comparison to my debut release (store.steampowered.com/app/363410), despite it being of a higher quality in all areas.
I have a feeling that it's due to the genre of the story? I suppose that a dark, psychological horror visual novel is a niche within a niche. I am still a decent way away from even making back the money I invested into creating it, which is a real shame as it means I can't justify investing more money/time into it at this point... I am also hesitant about continuing work on my current project. Of course I could be way off-base, but I feel like I have created a quality product that has nowhere near reached its potential in terms of sales/making a splash, but I'm really not sure how to get it there. I have posted about it on various forms of social media, as well as a few relevant subreddits. I have also contacted Sekai Project who seem interested, but have yet to get back to my last email. Is there anything you guys would recommend? Are there any other publishers I could approach for example? Any advice would be appreciated!

Thanks,

[Mammon]

From what I can tell, although I wouldn't know about the other social media promotion and the niche's, but maybe there are less people buying this one compared to the last because:
-A german title will be the only thing people will see before opening the game's page. There would be no reason for them to click to check out this german game(as far as they'd know) when they don't speak the language.
-The promo video of the new game is significantly less informative, and showing and the old-timey song to the 'dark psychological horror' labeled game may cause confusion. This doesn't look like Fallout or Bioshock, but a VN version like that might the kind of image they get from this combination.
-The second promo is you (with a soar throat) talking to the camera. Combined with the first video being not informative enough for a distinct impression that will convince people to play, such real life vlogging advertisement is not really appealing to many.
(-There's significantly less girls in bikini's in this project. I add it as a joke reason, but I fear that this might actually be the biggest deciding factor for a lot of people.)

Those are a few factors that I can see that might have an effect on your sales. Of course, the there might've been tons of other factors weighing in.

[trooper6]

I don't care about Girls in Bikinis. Too much fanservice will turn me off a game actually.
I speak German so I'm not turned off by German titles.
I like Dark, Psychological Horror.

I haven't bought your game.

Why might that be? First off, I had no idea your game existed. I tend to look here on LSF for visual novels and I didn't notice a thread on the game here. I just did a search and didn't find anything here either.
Next, you game never came up on any of my Steam curators lists..which are focused on story heavy games.

Because of this thread I checked out your page. It could be marketed better. You could use a better trailer for one.

Anyway, it seems to me the problem is marketing.

[crimsonnight]

From what I can tell, although I wouldn't know about the other social media promotion and the niche's, but maybe there are less people buying this one compared to the last because:
-A german title will be the only thing people will see before opening the game's page. There would be no reason for them to click to check out this german game(as far as they'd know) when they don't speak the language.
-The promo video of the new game is significantly less informative, and showing and the old-timey song to the 'dark psychological horror' labeled game may cause confusion. This doesn't look like Fallout or Bioshock, but a VN version like that might the kind of image they get from this combination.
-The second promo is you (with a soar throat) talking to the camera. Combined with the first video being not informative enough for a distinct impression that will convince people to play, such real life vlogging advertisement is not really appealing to many.
(-There's significantly less girls in bikini's in this project. I add it as a joke reason, but I fear that this might actually be the biggest deciding factor for a lot of people.)

Those are a few factors that I can see that might have an effect on your sales. Of course, the there might've been tons of other factors weighing in.

Thank you very much for taking the time to check everything out @Mammon. Don't worry, I acknowledge that marketing definitely isn't my forte.

-That's a good point, a total re-brand would be a very big task, but it's something I will seriously consider.
-I really didn't want to spoil the story with the trailer, I've pretty much shown as much as I can. I understand your point, but I'm not sure I can do much with this one.
-The reason I added that video is because a few people requested more information and a lets play - maybe I should cut out my intro?
-I do think this is the main reason - people (generalising) associate VNs with girls in bikini's, so I just need to find away to get my novel to the right people...

[crimsonnight]

I don't care about Girls in Bikinis. Too much fanservice will turn me off a game actually.
I speak German so I'm not turned off by German titles.
I like Dark, Psychological Horror.

I haven't bought your game.

Why might that be? First off, I had no idea your game existed. I tend to look here on LSF for visual novels and I didn't notice a thread on the game here. I just did a search and didn't find anything here either.
Next, you game never came up on any of my Steam curators lists..which are focused on story heavy games.

Because of this thread I checked out your page. It could be marketed better. You could use a better trailer for one.

Anyway, it seems to me the problem is marketing.

Thanks a lot for your feedback @trooper6, it's very helpful as someone from my target audience.

Oh wow, I had no idea I hadn't posted it on the forum, I was sure I did! I worked like a dog up to release so things were a bit of haze around release. I've created a thread for it now viewtopic.php?uid=15779&f=11&t=42553&start=0

That's really good advice in regards to Steam curators, do you know how the process works? I guess I'd reach out to certain people with review keys? Are there any curators you'd recommend I contact?

[gas]

Well, I HAVE something to tell you. Today is my birthday. My 40th birthday. Maybe you think I'm staging a party, like you will did. Or I'm out of context.
Not at all. I'm in my old house, looking at the door nervously.
I had a relationship with a cute but strange woman.
Everything's fine until I asked her where was our cat. She paled and with a whisper told me "don't ask me, don't ask me please" - strange rumors came from her kid room.
When I opened the door...

WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF DARKHUNGELTZUN
-15 hours of tense narration: you will cry, shout, hope for a relief
-Multiplatform: play it on mobile too (but don't play it alone...)
-Choose the path of the story! You'll be guilty of your own damnation. Can you find a path to the light?
-Setting preferences, infinite saves, play windowed or fullscreen. It's YOUR nightmare.
.Rich extra section: want you really revive what you've seen??

(explicit shots follow, then a blurred one)
Only the most brave will find the secret of that man. Can you sustain your own death... trice??
How can this old man pretend to be your son?

VISIT THIS SITE FOR HINTS, GOODS AND JOIN COMMUNITY:[link to the blog]

=================================
WHILE you promoted your story this way:
-A mysterious story about one common guy in an unknown journey to find an unnamed secret and something I can't tell, but hey, I put many adjectives! Believe the adjectives!
-Shot of a wall.
-Shot of a window.
-Shot of a BLACK wall.
-You talking
-Shot of a void grassfield
-A logo. That, if not reading the boring and totally undescriptive description, lead me to think about a fantasy game.

Everything shout to me: the game is about reading text in front of a wall, about something and someone I don't care so far, I'm the only one to play this, I'm talking with the boy next door, and why buy that when c'mon, there's that incredible new Stephen King book out!!

Marketing is the art to convey the strong points of a product. There's no cheating. You need to pay big dollars to cheating and sell bad products.
So
A: think of the strong points of your game and shout it out.
B: if you go see a Batman movie, you know EVERYTHING in advance, if not only the plot twists. Deliver more.
C: you're selling an experience. Think of what people want from horror. Get scared! So scare them a little already. A blank window is not scary.
D: if you think the game is good, do the master trick. Share it to review site, vloggers, create community. No one in 2017 want to play a game and perceive to being alone.
Can you believe me? It was the first time I reached Steam. Use Steam as the distribution site, but have people know of the game elsewhere. It's free .
E: don't praise people to buy your game. "Lowered the price to have people buy it" it's telling to me "this game sucks". Exit from a qualifying mindset. If the game is good, IS good. So convey more of this, not less. Enter the assertive mind. "Update! The gallery have a new 'Bloodshed' section (time to take you copy, timid mice)" - even if your sales are dramatic XD.
F: another trick: human element. Add somewhere an human element.
Think that now your selling page is like Facebook without photos. A cold mass of text. Terrible.
Add a mascot, or a character picture, even if not in the game. Human mind is somehow magnetized to humanoid figures. They feel curiosity and empathy.
That's why you see those silly dwarf or zombies in other games XD They "humanize" the product.

Hope this can help you, it helped me a lot with my books.