Dear friends of cats and bats! 🐈🦇
Five days ago, Catty & Batty launched on various consoles (Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One/SeriesX/S), and I wanted to share some results with you.
We still don't know the numbers from one platform, and I'm not allowed to share the exact numbers, but overall, we sold ~20 times more than the last 8 months combined on Steam.
It got shared by ID@Xbox on Twitter and Sony published the trailer on their YouTube channel, which got 20k views!
And even Shuhei Yoshida showed it in a screenshot by accident (right next to Quake). :D
Before launch I was wondering whether it would have a "halo effect" on Steam, and the answer is - yes, people were definitely checking the Steam store page, probably for reviews.
(It got released on October 13th! I don't know what caused the dent on October 12th, maybe a glitch in the matrix 😸)
As a result of this, the Steam version was wishlisted 24 times, and it led to an additional 5 sales, 2 soundtrack DLC sales, and even 1 sale on itch.io! ✨
And here's what I learned from watching several videos and streams:
* I should have added the color mode selection right at the beginning when you start the game for the first time. Seems like it was very easy to miss that there are different color modes available in the options menu (even though it was mentioned in presskits and in the store pages).
* I should have added an on-screen indicator that you can skip cutscenes (thankfully they are very short).
* A lot of people wanted more of a challenge, even though the target audience is casual players / couples / adults playing with kids. For example a dedicated challenge mode (fixed amount of boxes, or "time attack"), or harder versions in general of the existing levels.
* A lot of people wanted more content (which is actually a good thing!)
* The price of $4.99 was a good choice, considering the short playtime (1-2 hours).
* Many console players bought it for easy achievements / trophies!
* In general, the art style and especially the soundtrack were well received!
* Two funny coincidences: Some people thought it was connected to Undertale (Bratty and Catty), and a lot of people said the snail Burgundy was SpongeBob's Gary. :D (The eyes of the snail were actually inspired by monsters in Commander Keen.)
* There were a bunch of negative comments, but mostly from people who weren't my target audience anyways (i.e. "why does this game without AAA graphics exist on PS5").
And that's it! Thanks to everyone who bought it on consoles, and of course, thank you for playing!
Another project update should arrive within the next two weeks, hopefully!