Sonderland Games is a self-funded indie game studio and publisher in Berlin with games on Steam, Xbox, Switch, iOS and Android. Their second game, Bella Wants Blood, was released this past July on Steam and was part of PlaytestCloud’s PC testing closed beta program.
From the first videos we saw, our team fell in love with the art style (so much so that it’s the featured playtest example on the home page of our website!). Cofounders Mathias Tournier, Mario Kaiser and Michael Champion were among the first to try our newest product update, and their feedback helped to shape the way future PlaytestCloud customers will playtest games for Steam.
Indie Games on Steam: Unique Challenges
In an interview with Mathias, he explained why Steam game launches are challenging for indie studios, and offers insight into how his team used the Player Insights Platform to improve the game experience for Bella Wants Blood.
“With Steam games, especially in our case where we're only three people, data-driven iteration is not very common. When you market a game on Steam, the launch is the launch. That's when you're going to see 60% of the lifetime revenue, in that first month, unless you’re a massive studio. So the first launch really counts.”
Sonderland’s first game, Landnama (pictured above), launched on Steam in July 2023 and received mixed reviews. “We had to iterate a lot based on the reviews, and as an indie my personal feeling is that, unless you’re making a significant amount of money with the game, it’s always better just to move on to the next game. If you’re not a live service game, the revenue opportunity has probably passed.”
The crucial role of early game feedback
The team knew they would approach their second game differently. Sonderland started gathering feedback very early on in the game development process for Bella Wants Blood by establishing a Discord server and building a community. “Discord and other communities tend to be mostly hardcore players, and their feedback can be really helpful for game mechanics and understanding expectations, but the feedback comes after they play (or not at all). You have to rely on what they remember to comment on.” Even with Steam playtests, the feedback was limited both in scope and content.
Surveys also posed a challenge, as Mathias says it’s often difficult to get community members to complete them. The team also ran focus groups in Berlin, as well as in-person playtests at game developer events. “Again, the challenge was the same—game developers, like the hardcore gamers, are all giving a very specific type of feedback. They’re more technical than family and friends, but they only represent a small minority of our ideal players.”
“It's not very easy to get access to unbiased opinions in the early days. It's people from your studio that are not directly in the team, or it's friends and family.” Mathias warns that even a community can be biased. “People that are very loyal tend to be more supportive, so you do get sometimes these people that are just like, ‘yeah, I love you, it’s great.’”
That was something we could help with: our player panel has every type of gamer from casual to hardcore (and even people who would never call themselves ‘gamers’). Studios can select specific audiences for their playtests to make sure the results they receive match the data of their actual players. Users can also attach surveys to their playtests or run them independently, and players are incentivized to complete them.
Player Insights and the Steam Refund Window
“When we started working with PlaytestCloud, we were already pretty close to the game’s release. A lot of things were already locked in.” The team had questions about the effectiveness of the onboarding, the pricing, and of course that holy grail for Steam games: would the game make it past the 2 hour returns window?
That first two hours of gameplay on Steam can be make-or-break for an Indie game, as players can request refunds within that time, so the playtest was designed to simulate that exact experience. Players would play Bella Wants Blood through the returns window and beyond, via a multi-session playtest totalling approximately 3-5 hours for each player.
The playtest targeted players with an affinity for tower defense or roguelike games, and more specifically PC gamers who enjoy Indie games.
As the results started to roll in from the Player Insights Platform™, Mathias and the team were equal parts excited and shocked by the difference in feedback from their typical methods. “Watching our players play and really enjoy the game, and validating that the onboarding we built works felt really good. The experience with PlaytestCloud has been really amazing.”
The team walked away from the playtests with insights they could put into work right away. “The main thing we learned was that the boss levels in our game were not as exciting as we thought. Players felt they were a little too similar to the rest of the game.”
Players had plenty of suggestions for improvement, and weren’t shy about giving detailed feedback. “There were a few quick fixes or adjustments we could add to the roadmap. But the feedback on the boss levels really motivated us to pivot a little bit and focus on improving that experience as much as possible before the release.”
Pricing was also something the team wanted to understand more. “We were a bit traumatized from the release of our other game last year, where we targeted a much higher price point and unfortunately probably over-promised a bit. So this time we really wanted to nail the pricing. Being able to ask people straight up: ‘Would you pay for this? What would you pay for this?’ really helped us understand our pricing better, and also gave us an added data point on their perceived value of the game.” According to the feedback, some players actually felt the game was priced too low, while others felt it was good value.
Lessons learned, and advice for others
Mathias says the results from their playtests were extremely helpful in planning their next set of iterations. “The feedback and insights from PlaytestCloud allowed us to completely streamline the experience and focus on what to prioritize for launch.”
He also had advice for other indie studios: “Playtest as early as you possibly can. As soon as you’ve set the foundation of what the game is going to be, it’s time to start testing. That way, it’s never too late to change something.”
On the flip side, Mathias warns that you don’t want to test too early. “When you yourself have doubts around the game play, it could be really discouraging. But as soon as you reach that point where you have a prototype you feel confident with, where the core mechanics are represented, that’s the perfect time to start testing.”
PlaytestCloud offers special pricing for indie studios. Learn more here.
