toxicsquad_
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Extraordinary Devlog
🕑 Added 2024-04-29 22:02:25 +0000 UTC
Hello everyone!
We have decided to make this publication available to all members, both free and paid, to talk a bit more openly about the figures and forecasts of change we've had over the last few months. Normally, we don't talk from such an analytical - or personal - perspective, nor do we usually show our statistics, because we feel that they can often be misleading or generate unproductive comparisons. Each product and work group is different and has its own pace of growth. In that sense, we have never been concerned about being more or less than anyone else. We understand that we have strengths, such as our work ethic, and lesser strengths, such as our promotion.
The last year (2023), was quite hard both on a personal level (this time Athe is speaking), and on a developmental level. In many moments I thought that this would be the last year of our main project (Chronicles from 4.012) and this is due not to just one thing but to many that I will break down below, but before that, I want to leave a note of hope. After such a bad and difficult few months, it seems that the winds have changed and are blowing in our favour again. I don't want anyone to think that this is a farewell letter, because I assure you that this is not the case. But I would like to stop and break down my impressions now that the waters seem to have calmed down.
To talk about 2023 is to talk about social media. In recent times they have been a more convulsive place than usual for indie developers. Many of us have wondered where our projects could go if we didn't get the reach on the classic platforms (instagram and twitter/x) which is where most of our promotional efforts have been focused. Surely, you have noticed this in your feeds or even in the number of interactions of posts that used to be popular. Given this, we can only say that our users have mostly migrated back to Tumblr and that Tiktok is the only ecosystem that still seems fertile for small creators. This transit has been long and tedious as it is to start from scratch in any social network.
On the other hand, personal interactions dropped dramatically this year. We didn't receive comments, questions, or any kind of feed at the same level we were used to. Please don't take this as a complaint towards the users, we believe that this is precisely due to all of the above and not so much to the disinterest of our audience. But at that time and from our perspective, we started to perceive that our game could stop being interesting for people. This could be hard for us, but it was a reality for which you have to be prepared.
On the other hand, just before the release of episode 10.0 and 9.1 we lost our previous translator and we don't know if our communication was poor or the public felt helpless, but the reality is that we lost a lot of users who labelled our game as 'on hiatus' or 'abandoned'. Personally, there is one that I still remember that really annoyed me that alluded to us 'asking for money to continue'. Honestly, I don't think that in these four years we've tried to pick anyone's pocket and I don't think it's going to change in the future. It's not our mentality, it's not our ethic. We've taken on the work that Chronicles has put in for four years and beyond, because we love it, and that goes way beyond the financial cost.
In the 20 episodes we've released, all of our download averages were going up, that is, every patch we hit a small upward goal that told us we were growing. At times, that margin of growth was almost imperceptible and we barely exceeded the average by a few downloads, but by the time we reached 10.0 and 11.1, both averages dropped terribly. For the first time, we had lost users, we had lost downloads, we had nowhere to promote ourselves to slow the decline, and we had lost the support of the people we felt were our unconditional followers.
We weren't ready to announce that 11.3 might have become the closure of Chronicles, but I know that if this episode and its predecessor had continued the trend of the previous two, we might have had to announce it. Letting go of Chronicles would have been very hard for me and my partner, but I am open to listen and would have accepted what our audience would have wanted to tell me.
So what happened?
I suppose many of you are wondering what we didn't just turn the tide, but made the last two episodes our two best chapters and releases to date. I wish I had an answer, because that would be knowing what to do and how to deal with the problem in the future, but the truth is that I haven't the remotest idea. What Tiktok has given us is a small reinforcement, just to be able to improve the flow of new people during the patches. But, always from a limited perspective (we are far from going viral). A couple of blogs have helped during this time, as well as some of the Itch tags, but, in no way explains why, for example, our latest patch has received more hits in 4 days than 16 of our previous patches have received in months.
Working in networking or online business is sometimes like surfing a tide that you can't predict whether it's high or low. I feel a bit useless in this field, I think that's why I've always tried to convince people of what I do with hard work and results. Telling people, "Hey, look how committed I am. If you give me a chance I promise I'll show you what I can do". Far from being a letter of regret or self-pity, it is more a letter of thanks. That a large number of people have come into our lives just at this time has been a breath of fresh air for Chronicles but also for us. We don't know if this can help anyone but if you are really working on something out of passion, keep going, it will be a thorny road, but the gratification will be endless.
To say goodbye, Chronicles has a total of 10 episodes left and if we don't have an unforeseeable fall into hell... We believe we are in a position to guarantee that all of them will see the light of day. Not just because we're in a good place now (which is something that can go up or down) but because we could face future unforeseen events that we couldn't have faced a year ago. And that, in large part, is down to Patreon. Without your support we could not have created a small emergency fund that is the cushion on which we could refloat Chronicles in the future. Having said that, I say goodbye here, thanking you once again for your unconditional support and congratulating you on these small achievements that I feel are more ours as a community than mine.
Athe (toxic Squad). ☠️
🚧🚧🚧🚧🚧🚧🚧🚧🚧🚧🚧🚧🚧🚧🚧🚧🚧🚧🚧
¡Hola a todos!
Hemos decidido hacer esta publicación para todos los miembros, tanto gratuitos como de pagos, para hablaros un poco más abiertamente sobre las cifras y las previsiones de cambio que hemos tenido en los últimos meses. Normalmente, no hablamos desde una perspectiva tan analítica -ni personal-, ni solemos mostrar nuestras estadísticas, porque sentimos, que muchas veces pueden ser engañosas o generar comparaciones improductivas. Cada producto y grupo de trabajo es diferente y tiene su propio ritmo de crecimiento. En ese sentido, nunca nos ha preocupado ser más o menos que nadie. Entendemos que tenemos puntos fuertes como nuestra ética de trabajo y otros no tanto, como nuestra promoción.
El último año (2023), fue bastante duro tanto a nivel personal (quién os habla esta vez es Athe), como a nivel de desarrollo. En muchos momentos pensé que éste sería el último año de nuestro proyecto principal (Chronicles from 4.012) y esto se debe no a una sola cosa sino a muchas que a continuación paso a desglosar, pero antes de ello, quiero dejar una nota de esperanza. Pues después de unos meses tan malos y difíciles, parece que los vientos han cambiado y vuelven a soplar a nuestro favor. No quiero que nadie piense que esta es una carta de despedida, porque os aseguro que no es el caso. Pero me interesa detenerme a desglosar mis impresiones ahora que las aguas parecen más calmadas.
Hablar de 2023, es hablar de las redes sociales. En estos últimos tiempos han sido un lugar más convulso de lo normal para los desarrolladores indies. Muchos de nosotros nos hemos preguntado a dónde podían ir nuestros proyectos si no conseguíamos el alcance en las plataformas clásicas (instagram y twitter/x) que es donde se habían centrado casi todos nuestros esfuerzos de promoción. Seguramente, os habéis dado cuenta de esto en vuestros feeds o incluso en el número de interacciones de publicaciones que antes solían ser populares. Ante esto, solo podemos decir que nuestros usuarios han migrado mayoritariamente de vuelta a Tumblr y que Tiktok está siendo el único ecosistema que aún parece fértil para los pequeños creadores. Este tránsito ha sido largo y tedioso como lo es empezar de cero en cualquier red social.
Por otro lado, las interacciones personales bajaron durante este año de una forma espectacular. No recibíamos comentarios, preguntas, ni ningún tipo de feed al mismo nivel que estábamos acostumbradas. Por favor, no lo toméis como una queja hacia los usuarios, creemos que esto se debe precisamente, a todo lo anteriormente mencionado y no tanto al desinterés de nuestro público. Pero en ese tiempo y desde nuestra perspectiva, empezamos a percibir que nuestro juego podía dejar de ser interesante para la gente. Esto podía ser duro para nosotras, pero era una realidad para la que tienes que estar preparada.
Por otra parte, justo antes del lanzamiento del episodio 10.0 y del 9.1 perdimos nuestra anterior traductora y no sabemos si nuestra comunicación fue deficiente o el público se sintió desamparado, pero la realidad es que perdimos muchos usuarios que etiquetaron nuestro juego como ‘en hiatus’ o ‘abandonado’. Personalmente, hay uno que aún recuerdo que me molestó mucho que hacía alusión a que ‘pedíamos dinero para continuar’. Honestamente, no creo que en estos cuatro años hayamos pretendido buscar el bolsillo de nadie y no creo que vaya a cambiar en el futuro. No es nuestra mentalidad, ni nuestra ética. Hemos asumido el trabajo que supone Chronicles durante 4 años y los que aún le quedan, porque lo amamos, eso va mucho más allá del coste económico.
En los 20 episodios que hemos lanzado, todas nuestras medias de descargas iban al alza, es decir, cada parche se alcanzaba una pequeña meta ascendente que nos indicaba que estábamos creciendo. A veces, ese margen de crecimiento era casi imperceptible y apenas superamos la media por unas pocas descargas, pero al llegar al 10.0 y al 11.1, ambas medias decrecieron terriblemente. Por primera vez, habíamos perdido usuarios, descargas, no teníamos ningún sitio en el que promocionarnos para reducir la caída y habíamos perdido el apoyo de las personas que sentíamos como incondicionales.
No estábamos preparadas para anunciar que el 11.3 podía haberse convertido en el cierre de Chronicles, pero sé, que si este episodio y su predecesor habrían mantenido la tendencia de los dos anteriores, es posible que sí habríamos tenido que anunciarlo. Soltar Chronicles habría sido muy duro para mí y mi compañera, pero estoy abierta a escuchar y habría aceptado lo que nuestro público me habría querido decir.
Entonces, ¿qué sucedió?
Supongo que muchos os preguntaréis qué es lo que hicimos para, no solo cambiar la tendencia, sino convertir a los dos últimos episodios en nuestros dos mejores capítulos y lanzamientos hasta la fecha. Ojalá decir que tengo una respuesta, porque eso sería saber qué hacer y cómo atajar en el futuro el problema, pero, lo cierto, es que no tengo ni la más remota idea. Lo que Tiktok nos ha dado es un pequeño refuerzo, apenas para poder mejorar el flujo de gente nueva durante los parches. Pero, siempre desde una perspectiva limitada (estamos muy lejos de viralizarnos). Un par de blogs no han ayudado durante este tiempo, al igual que algunas de las etiquetas de Itch, pero, en ningún caso explica que, por ejemplo, nuestro último parche haya recibido más visitas en 4 días de lo que han recibido 16 de nuestros parches anteriores en meses.
Trabajar en las redes o en negocios en línea, a veces, es como estar surcando una marea que no puedes prever si está alta o está baja. Me siento un poco inútil en este campo, creo que por eso, siempre he intentado convencer de lo que hago con trabajo duro y resultados. Decirle a la gente, “Eh, mira qué comprometida soy. Si me das una oportunidad te prometo que te demostraré lo que puedo hacer”. Lejos de ser una carta de lamento o de autocompasión, es más una de agradecimiento. Que un gran número de personas hayan llegado a nuestras vidas justo en este momento, ha sido un balón de oxígeno para Chronicles pero también para nosotras. No sabemos si esto puede ayudar a alguien pero si de verdad estás trabajando en algo por pasión, continua, va a ser un camino lleno de espinas, pero la gratificación será infinita.
Para despedirnos, a Chronicles le quedan un total de 10 episodios y de no tener una imprevisible caída en los infiernos… Creemos que estamos en la posición de garantizar que todos ellos verán la luz. No solo porque ahora estemos en un buen momento (que eso es algo que puede subir o bajar) sino porque podríamos afrontar futuros imprevistos que no podíamos haber enfrentado hace un año. Y eso, en gran medida, es a Patreon. Sin vuestro apoyo no podríamos haber creado un pequeño fondo de emergencias que es el colchón sobre el que podríamos reflotar Chronicles en el futuro. Dicho lo dicho, me despido aquí agradeciéndoos nuevamente vuestro apoyo incondicional y felicitándonos por estos pequeños logros que los siento más nuestros como comunidad que míos propios.
Athe (toxic Squad). ☠️
Comments
Toxic Squad
I'm not going to lie to you, I shed a little tear when I read this incredible comment. We totally understand what it's like to be anxious and shy. Part of our promotion problems has a lot to do with the fact that both Sam and I are incredibly introverted. We would never force anyone out of their comfort zone for us, so feel free to participate (or not participate). Although we are considering closure or even a hiatus for Chronicles among other possibilities. We were not thinking of abandoning visual novels, we would have tried to redirect our projects with the thoughts we collected from the environment. And if one day you would like to get started in this world, do not doubt that we would be open to sharing some advice or trying to help you in any way we can. 🙌
Kaede Hatake
Don't really know how to start and put my thoughts into proper words, but I just have to write something here, just letting you know how much your project means to me 😀 I'm one of your patrons an biggest Chronicles of 4012 fans for almost 2 years now, as I just started getting really into visual novels and was just flashed by you work. Everything is so loveable: the characters conquered my heart instantly (yes, even Zihel 😂) also the dialogue, setting, story and your unique art-style. And even after reading a lot more VN's after that, yours is still one of my absolute favourites. Just always makes me emotional, warms my heart and puts a smile on my face 🥰 I can really feel how much passion you're putting into it, so I'm very happy to hear that you're able to keep going. I'm an artist myself and would love to co-work on a project like this or make one of my of my own someday, but I am quite shy and anxious most of the time, so that's very hard for me to put into practice. I also noticed there were not much comments lately - not even from me...But because of my problems I don't comment much sometimes - Even if I have (entirely positive) thoughts about every single post. So I wanted to say I'm sorry, because I really want you to know how much I love your work and want to support it. I was kinda sad that my spanish is not good, because I really wanted to help when you were looking for a new translator. I'm so glad you could solve that and everything worked out fine 😌 And I am so happy, that you have such a boost in interest and downloads at the moment and hope people will see what you're doing as I do and stay. The last episode was especially good and I'm so excited for what'll happen next! I will surely stay with you until you don't want to make games anymore someday. I also love Witch Tales and hope you will make even more games. Just know that with me you'll have a very loyal follower who'll always support you 🤗
