Impressions Performance Report

Originally published March 1st, 2020

Let's see how Impressions performed in its first month.

Check out Impressions on Steam and itch.io.

Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1220330/Impressions/

itch.io: https://prof-smash.itch.io/impressions

I've had quite the February, to say the least. Impressions was released, and there's been a myriad of other things that have happened to me personally. I won't get into any of it, but just know that February has been a bit of a rollercoaster. Throughout the month since the game's release I've occasionally wondered what the performance report will look like for the game. How many people added Impressions to their library? How many played it? How's the reception? I thought it'd be interesting to have a look, share some raw numbers with you, and give my personal opinion on what it all means.

From the start, I should say that I think Impressions has done well. In terms of the number of units in people's libraries and critical reception it's performed about as expected, which is great! To be more exact, there's been over 1,100 individual downloads for the game, most of them coming from Steam. Now, people adding it to their libraries does not necessarily translate to number of players, but it's a good indication of how many people are at least interested in the game. I don't know how many of those who downloaded the game from Itch.io have actually played the game, but I can give you Steam numbers which is in the 200s. This is the number of unique users, by the way. 

Of all the stats for Impressions, the number of people who have actually played the game is the one that I do wish was a little higher. If over 1,000 people are at least adding it to their libraries, I don't think it's unreasonable to expect a decent number of those people actually playing the game. But, don't think I'm disappointed in these numbers either. I'm happy that people are playing at all! Hopefully we'll see the desired number in time, but for now this is still a good start. Without getting into too much detail, it's certainly a better start than War Ender's, though I chalk that up to War Ender being my first game and I was still learning how to get the game in people's hands. I know being free is helping Impressions a lot, but I like to believe that the game's premise is enticing to a lot of people as well.

Critical reception has been overall positive, which I'm obviously going to be very happy about. As far as I'm aware there were no reviews from any games press. Instead, every review I've seen has been a user review. On Steam specifically there's currently four user reviews. That may not seem like very many, and...well, it isn't. But that's okay! As more people play we'll see more reviews. Even this small sampling gives me a good idea of what players think of the game. It's been really cool to see what people have thought about it, even if they weren't crazy about what was offered. Impressions, perhaps more than anything, was a writing test for me – as in, how engaging of a story could I craft? Most seem to think the game was written well overall which has given me confidence to tell good stories in my future games. On top of that, those who did have more to criticize about it have shown me areas where I could improve in the writing department. 

So what's the takeaway here? For me, there's a couple things. To start, I can now see there's a clear interest in what I do, especially if it's a more unique experience. This might sound obvious, but sometimes it's good to see what people are looking for. And for my money people want something unique, perhaps even surprising. In the case of Impressions, the hook was the story. I'm not typically a story focused indie dev, so I'll have to try to blend interesting storytelling with compelling gameplay loops. Usually I have an idea for game mechanics and build a story around it, but Impressions was a case of having a story and making a game out of it. I doubt my game making habits will change as a result of Impressions and its reception, but it's giving me some food for thought when it comes to how to approach the story and gameplay balance.

These are the major things I’ve taken away from Impressions’ first month. Admittedly it’s a bit vague and “rambly” but hopefully it makes some sense. In summary, I have some things to think about with future projects thanks to this information. I’ll also have a better idea of what people might be looking for in a game from here on out, which in turn will help me out when deciding what games to make. On the whole, the game is a success. Thanks to everyone who has downloaded the game, played it, and/or reviewed it! You are incredible!

Until next time!

-Lance T.

Check out Impressions on Steam and itch.io.

Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1220330/Impressions/

itch.io: https://prof-smash.itch.io/impressions