Two months ago, I released a free video game on Steam, an open-world text-based RPG inspired by the 'choose your own adventure' books. It was an exciting and rewarding experience, I will share my experiences here.

The Secret of Darkwoods on Steam

Open-world illustrated text-based RPG. Inspired by classic role-playing video games and fantasy gamebooks, the secret of darkwoods is a free game, a non-linear standalone adventure with side quests in a vast world.

store.steampowered.com

I had a few building blocks to start with. I do programming, music, and I'm interested in procedural generation. I've played several 'choose your own adventure' books when I was a child. I also like to draw, but I'm pretty bad at it.

Last September, I made a prototype that I tested in the form of a video on 2 forums. I received positive feedback and decided to give it a shot. I spent about 7 months in my free time, I think I spent more than 500 hours on it in total.

I completely messed up at the beginning with my estimates. I thought it would be a small project that I could wrap up in a few weeks. I then set a deadline (and postponed it once!)

It has become a game of 800 unique pages (with procedural variations). It takes between 3 and 6 hours to complete it. I'll put usage statistics at the end of the thread. In terms of programming, it is "loops" and "if" statements.

Initially, it was a music project. Several tracks that I have made in recent years have been published as illustrations for RPG sessions. I thought it could be interesting to use them in a video game.

Eight composers have offered their tracks for free, following a call for participation. It was great to be able to discuss the music and I think they were pleased to see their music in a game.

For the illustrations, I used midjourney. When I started the project, it seemed like an opportunity to develop an illustrated game, but now the subject seems more complicated.

The game is unexpectedly successful among blind players, which is reassuring about the game's interest itself and the fact that the images were secondary. I thank the testers who have greatly helped me make the game accessible.

It was a rewarding experience on a social level, surprisingly: I met lots of people who contributed and my friends and family supported me or participated in developing the game. All in all, more than 50 contributors. Thanks to everyone!

This game was developed as a hobby, I wanted it to be free. I was told that this could represent an additional difficulty (examples: game poorly perceived, difficulty in generating engagement, Steam has no interest in promoting, etc.), but I'm not quite sure.

My initial goal was to have 30 people play for 20 minutes. In the end, there were more than 1500 people for an average time of 2 hours of play, which was totally unexpected. 270 people probably finished it, there are 15 people playing every day.

The alpha and beta tests significantly improved the quality of the game, I don't know if people were aware of it, I sometimes received emails of several pages from unknown people suggesting super relevant improvements.

I regret not planning to allow translations. Several people have offered to translate the game for free into many languages, but the game is not at all ready for that, it would take dozens of hours to prepare it.

That's it. I loved making this game, it took me a lot of time, it was full of emotions and now that it's over, it feels a bit weird. Don't hesitate if you have any questions or comments, I would be happy to discuss it!

Translated from my original tweet thread (in french): https://twitter.com/rap2h/status/1660952774966755329