Future of the Game

SSL Steam might be hitting a wall in the future.

Let’s start with the statistics.

According to steamdb.info, the peak player count yesterday was 36. That means the most people playing the game at once on the day of the Early Access release was 36. That’s not a lot of people. Not at all.

Now, moving onto the Steam achievement stats, there’s a couple of achievements for XP that were obviously gotten through somebody exploiting the game. I’m going to make an assumption here and say only one person exploited the game for those achievements, as the % for both of those achievements was the same. The % of players that achieved that achievement was 0.8%. With some simple math, knowing 1 player makes up for ~0.8% of the entire playerbase, I can conclude that the game only sold about 125 copies on day 1. Steam takes a minimum of 30% of revenue, so Kyle probably made around $1,312.50 on the first day.

For a comparison, this obscure bare-bones platformer with a title that makes it impossible to find peaked at 62 players playing at once. That’s almost half of the entire SSL Steam playerbase.

That’s not good, not by a long shot. Especially for a multiplayer based game. Sure you can play out the missions, but that’s only going to entertain you for so long before you run out and have to turn to an empty multiplayer lobby. The missions alone aren’t worth anywhere close to $15.

So why was the first day such a flop? The game is solid, there’s no jarring issues except for the typical Early Access buggery. It can’t be a problem with the quality of the game.

I have some theories.

1. There's no marketing
It feels like absolutely nobody outside of the current SSL community has any idea this game even exists. Pretty much everybody ingame on Early Access release day was a member of the SSL2 community. Kyle needs to reach out to new audiences, it feels like he only advertised this game on current SSL websites.

2. It’s not unique
And as I’ve stated before, on the cover it’s not unique enough from all the other tank games out there for people to even give the game the time of day. An average consumer would just think “why not just play one of the dozens of free online tank games, rather than spending my $15 on this one?”. There needs to be a good selling point, to which SSL Steam doesn’t really have one.

3. It's too expensive
To a lot of people, $15 is quite a lot to put down for a tank game of the likes they’ve probably already played before. Even $10 could be a hard sell. The only people I can imagine putting down $15 for a turn based tank game are crazy people like us who’ve been loyal to the game for years. And even a good portion of the dedicated SSL2 community is turning their noses from the Steam version because of the price tag. It’s too high

So that’s my thoughts on the game as a product to sell. If you want to hear my opinion on the quality of the game as a game to play, here it is: I like it. It’s a good game. I just wish more people would play it.

 

You are so right in all points spec the third 1. ,Im not a idiot to pay for a simple tank game like this 15 and more dolars cos i hew 3d tank games online for free. Im a loyal ssl2 player but what is to much is rly to much!!!!
And this game on steam will be real disaster, cos ther wiil not be more then 100 players total online in this game.
Im rly soory for all ssl2 comunty cos this is what you get when you try to be gridy!
this game shud be free on steam, maybe 5 dolars max cost.
kyle shud stay whit this combo like ssl2 now FREE GAME but if you wanna some extra fitures buy tank coins or somthing else.

 

yeah 15 dollars is kind of iffy

as ive said, theres a whole lot of really good reputed games for that cost, especially on steam sales. like borderlands 2, bought that for 5 dollars

but 10 dollars, id probably consider it, if the reviews were good, and if there were at least 300+ players.

 

Bear in mind that this is kinda like beta testing for the steam version. The "official release" isn't until April. I imagine once the official version is released he'll put more into the advertising. There are some selling points to this game, but I agree that Kyle isn't really doing anything advertise them(something I hope he starts doing in april). Also, I feel like the price is a bit high, but I'm also getting a game with no extra purchases to be made in-game. If Kyle made the game cheaper, it would make him want to implement in-game purchases. Also he doesn't want to attract bunch of hackers before he's fixed the bugs in the game. (Talking to you, emilo )

Just puttin' it out there, but a great way to advertise would be for Kyle to put a link to SSL2 on the steam page so that people can get a feel for what SSL Steam might be like.

Bruh. Stahp. Sounds to me like you're worried that people will leave ssl2 and your name will be forgotten.

 

for the peeps that still play ssl2, is there any mention of ssl3 in the game

 

dude im not worried at all cos only betwen 50 and 100 ppl will yoin steam version for this huge mony .

Do you call me a hacker????

 

The game is said to be in beta for 3-4 months before official release (I am pretty sure anyway)

 

Completely agree, also its 15e not dollars ~16$ just a note.

 

Here is an idea, of you want more people to play it then we as a community should get the game out there and help to get more people. Like I will and do tell people about the game through face to face conversation and on the interwebs. It is not all on kyle to get the game out there, the players are just as important at publicizing the game if not more important

 

Like I said is it worth than other games that has the same cost. If this is 19.99 it better beat angry birds trilogY

it's says coming to steam April



Ik how to get this game going to worth what's it's worth


EDIT (some may be repeated by towel for emphasis)
1. Needs a Marketing Director
obviously....

2. Needs a team to do this game
If he does it shouldn't take that fast to create a game taking that he started when he announced ssl will be on steam. The more the better the game will be.

3. Needs to expand bigger
constricting this game as like pocket tanks or just the basics of ssl wont be worth much even with some new tweaks. Expand it to adding helicopters to the game. Instead of just controlling tanks you can control helicopters supporting your teammates and testing the opponent's ability of arcing.

4. CLANS
This may be the most supporting feature to ssl but it has to have a reason why anyone should join not just joining clan for nothing which did affect one member of Tasty Tanks to leave. Add an automated system to control clan challenges and operations. Completing them will award u clan xp which unlocks unique awards for in game like X2 xp earned or colored rims

5. Virtual World
That's right, virtual world. No not like battlefield or call of duty but make the map bigger, better. Extend the left and the right side of the map. The bigger it is the more modes it can support like capture the flag, one in a chamber.

6. Different fights.
Only ground battles, LAME. Add some areas to it like space, air, underground. Different scenarios of the battle. Combine air and ground battles.

But all this doesnt have to be included. Ssl could be unique as it is already is. Just to add some spice to the game to make it more long lasting.

 

Ill just say one thing... wait until the official realease and see

 

Since my post was super negative I guess I’ll say some more positive things about how things are going.

One really good thing is that the few people who are playing the game now are the few people who would be able to put hours and hours into the game. That means that although we might’ve peaked at 36 on day 1, that number isn’t going to fall too fast like many other games. Hopefully this means that the number of players will be easier to grow than to decline.

And yes, this is Early Access too. Maybe the goal here is to have a smaller player base during this beta period to keep the game fresh for those who discover it during release. This likely would work because the only people who are going to discover this game in its current state are the ones who really care about the game, making them the best to beta test. It might be an open beta on the cover, but its obscurity is what makes it “closed” to the few that care.

And for the price tag, there is a game on Steam called “Planetary Annihilation”. When that game was released to Early Access over a year ago, it had a whooping price tag of $90. People complained, but once it was fully released, it was marked down to the reasonable price of $60 instead. Hopefully that’s a similar situation for SSL, as a lot of games will have an increased price during Early Access so it’s just the people who really care about the game who will buy it during that time, making them the perfect game testers. I’m no marketer, but I think the ideal price to sell SSL at for full release would be $7.99.

And for how unique the game is? The game really is unique. The problem about what sets it apart from other 2D tank games is how on the cover it seems just like any other, so many potential buyers would dismiss it. The best solution to this would simply be in the marketing. Really push why this game is better than the rest, and people will buy it. Not at as crazy a price as $15 though.

Not necessarily true. Making the game cheaper would sell more copies, meaning a lower price would actually make him more money. The upgrades in SSL2 being ridiculously overpriced doesn't justify the high price point of the current game as an "all-in-one" pack. It's a new game being sold to a new audience.

 

lol

anything but f2p

maybe pay for things like miscs or accessories that are just visual are fine

 

Like having a guest account?

 

Well the game isn't that bad. Marketing seems like something to invest time in, but its hard to market a buggy game that hasn't been tested yet. What is more important is that I don't think this was a flop at all. The first people he told about the early access was us, and he just announced it on greenlight today so I just think not a lot of people knew about it because we were looking at April.

 

the majority of the small p2w games instantly die in the dust anyway. the problem is just popularity, its not like every person on steam knows about the game. i have like 90 people on my steam list and like 5 know about ssl on steam. they all came from the forums

but yeah, i do agree 15 is too much, for the ones that actually do see the game

 

Here's the thing with the market situation. What he's doing is actually a very smart thing to do and can be quite beneficial to ShellShock Live.

By keeping it to a small audience (The Forum, who is very dedicated to SSL) they can help him discover bugs so he can crush them out of the game, and give him time to develop the game at the same time.

If he threw the game out in the open the way it is now, it wouldn't get anywhere. The game would look somewhat decent, but buggy and incomplete. This would rack up negative reviews very quickly. Trust me, as a Steam user when a game has low reviews, it makes me not really want to play it. So by doing this, he can keep it to an audience, who is already dedicated and understands and while having time to make it look better; so it's a much more decent looking game when it's ready to be released out in to the world.

Now I know this is what Kyle is doing, because I talked to ********** and told him, that he should let Kyle know he should update the SSL2 News Feed. Shortly after Kyle responded that he's waiting for the game to be more developed before releasing it to the public.

 

Awesumeness Popcorn.
3 for 2.00 or 1.00 each. One size only.

Who wants to buy popcorn?! Only a dollar a bag!

Hot and fresh buttery popcorn!

 

Can I get it for free *puppy eyes

 

50 cents then for u.

 

That's probably why he told us the day it came out and told the rest of the people a day later so that all the initial very noticable problems could get fixed and we wouldn't criticize as hard for it. Now he announced it to everybody so I think we'll get more ppl now.

 

I disagree with the marketing thing. Why would anyone advertise an early access game? 36 people are enough to report bugs and glitches.

Also, even if it caught people's attention, I'm pretty sure they'd play SSL2 instead of an unfinished $15 game.

1. Ok
2. Ok
3. No! No no no no no no!!! This game was never meant to be a World War 3 simulation game. It's a tank game, it's fine as it is.
4. I think we should just remove the entire idea of clans for now until the game begins to become popular.
5. It's fine as it is. Also, how on earth would you be able to implement a capture-the-flag mode in this game??
6. As I said in 3, we don't need to make a major major major change to the game that it's not SSL anymore. What's the difference between underground and surface? Space and air?

 

different style of shooting i mean the reason why people stopped playing ssl2 cuz u just be a tank all day long shooting other players in a tank. tell me why does cod n battlefield is a success in multiplayer besides being the best fps