🗝️ Bosskey Newsletter 33 - Butt Knight, Towers , BlueSky for Indie Game Devs
# 🗝️ Bosskey Newsletter #3 Things: 1 🎮 Game news, 1 🔎 Interesting Find, 1 📱Social Post. Written by a Part Time Indie Game Dev
Hi There Gamers and Devs,
3 Things I read this week, the holidays is almost here. I can’t beleive I did 33 Newsletters for Bosskey.
#3 Things :
🎮Game news: Butt Knight A NSFW Shooter Game
📱 Social Post: Towers Aghasba by Dreamlit Games x Studio Ghibli Hand Painted Textures
🔎Interesting Finds: Bluesky and Indie Devs
Lets Go!
🎮 Game News
Butt Knight NSFW
A Retro H Game with Shooter by Goblin Stew, not sure why it pop up in my YouTube feed but what I like is the retro game feel reminds me of the old SNK game shooters. Except its a NSFW game.
Game play involves saving various princesses as you progress through the level you get a reward at the end of it.
Gameplay video:
Developers Describe it like this:
The Kingdom and its land falls into ruin as Demons and Monsters begin the attack without warning. With the land now in shambles and maidenless... The ButtKnight must emerge from his humble retirement to set things straight and bring peace again!
Wishlist on>
Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2772820/ButtKnight/
📱Social Post
Towers of Aghasba with Studio Ghibli Hand Painted Textures
Been following this game for a long time and now there is more behind the scenes of this game and it’s released in early access on 20 Nov 2024.
The game creators have collaborated with Studio Ghibli to create various textures for the game scenery employing traditional watercolor art styles used in anime backgrounds. Does not look easy but this gives games a more human an authentic feel.
Game is in early access on steam, released on 20 Nov.
Links:
Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2178070/Towers_of_Aghasba/
https://www.pcgamer.com/towers-is-a-survival-game-with-big-monsters-and-bigger-ambitions/
Official Website: https://www.dreamlit.games/
🔎 Interesting Finds
BlueSky Social Indie Game Dev Marketing Opportunity?
I recently been hanging out on BkueSky (Follow Me here) after seeing many leave X / Twitter (I still call it that) and there have been a few other Devs, like Hironobu Sakaguchi who moved and an indie hacker I followed Justin Jackson who made the move, removing his old twitter account, staking their positions there.
Is it time for a change?
My Thoughts on Bluesky:
I have been on bluesky since last year through and invite but stopped using it for a while due to low engagement and activity, however after the elections I see there is and uptick in engagement after just posting casually and retweeting things people I find on Game Dev, which is rather niche over there but growing, and now it’s real people following me rather than some Twitter Bot.
The one thing new about bluesky is you can customize your feed and see who you want to see, through lists and starter packs. This helps keep the main feed algorithm free unless you choose to have a discover feed.
Bluesky for now, has some better engagement than Facebook Threads, Instagram or X. There is growth despite being smaller than the big socials.
There is an indie game dev community over there and I believe eventually there will be an audience for gaming.
Of course I am cautious with social media now, with their bait and switch (Meta Facebook Boosts) not sure if bluesky will go the ad route or subscription to keep them afloat. For now I am going to enjoy posting and reading other devs accounts there.
There is a business case here based on the Game Developer article, I do think if you are starting out do give Bluesky a try before the rest of the other Big Brands follow suit.
“The business case is building too. Aster Wright pinged us to let us know indie developer/publisher Finji is setting up social account for games on the platform, because it's already seeing growth and engagement and connecting with players. Starter packs and custom feeds are also helping them find a non-professional audience and be found by others. Polygon Treehouse creative director Alex Kanaris-Sotiriou seconded this, saying he's already seeing better engagement from posts on Bluesky about the studio's upcoming game Mythwrecked than on other platforms. Riot Games social media manager Eric Aaberg said he's "testing the waters" for seeing if Valorant's esports fandom will gather in the platform.
https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/what-are-game-developers-getting-out-of-bluesky-
Towers of Aghasba's connection with Ghibli explains a bit about that game's characteristic art. I hope they get the gameplay issues sorted - it has a lot of potential.
As for the Twitter/Bluesky debate, what I find interesting is how some are treating it as a zero-sum decision, that you can't be on both platforms at the same time.