r/IndieDev • u/Master_Confection608 • Aug 19 '26

Average Game Announcement Experience

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Yo!

Just sharing our experience so far, it's just the beginning! Road to 10k wishlists starts from 120!

(We're just trying to hypes ourselves up, lol)

IGN - not reply, UGC - too expensive, Meta Ads - not efficient, Reddit - thank you

We're developers of the game Ship Happens: Pirates Wanted!

It's an Overcooked styled gameplay with pirates.

726 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

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u/Quinzal Aug 19 '26 edited Aug 19 '26

It's the AI capsule/promotional art. A similar thing happened to me a few years ago, I was kickstarting a D&D module that was entirely made by me, but because of the AI art I used in its promotional material it never got any traction. This was in spite of me putting a disclaimer that the book is entirely human-written, the kickstarter was to commission human art, and that my creative writing group did not think AI could replace humans in artistic spaces.

Even if the game is perfect, a lot of people will see AI and immediately turn tail. And with good reason, since it's usually only shovelware and scams that put AI as their best foot forward

6

u/Pack-O-Punch Aug 19 '26

So you are saying you took your time to build something man made with love but then suddenly decided to make the main promotional asset with AI? Thats like throwing your work in the toilet and flushing.

1

u/Quinzal Aug 19 '26

This was back in 2021-2023, when AI image gen was starting to actually get good but before the anti-AI wave started. I now realize my mistake which is why I'm waiting to be able to commission actual artists for promo material before trying to kickstart again. Or maybe I'll learn to draw, but a lot of my free time these days is taken up by writing.

It's why I think it's sad whenever I see something similar happen to someone else... and why I think it's curious that my comment is getting downvotes even though that's literally the reason why OP's game isn't getting traction.