From a hybridcasual hit to an indie PC title: The story of My Little Universe

Dmitrii Bobrov is a publishing manager at SayGames.

Today, My Little Universe by developer Estoty and publisher SayGames launches on PlayStation and Xbox. The game will now be available across major platforms, marking its debut on these consoles after earlier releases on mobile, PC, and Nintendo Switch.

SayGames has decided to share its strategy for successfully launching the game on PC and Nintendo platforms after garnering results such as 91% positive reviews on Steam.

The release story is divided into two parts. In this one, SayGames publishing manager Dmitrii Bobrov shares insights into the publishing efforts made for Steam and Nintendo. The second part will discuss the specific features that helped developers from Estoty win over desktop players and overcome the technical challenges they encountered during porting.

Initial steps

My Little Universe is an action-adventure game where players find themselves stranded on a barren moon with only their tools. The game challenges players to explore nine mythical worlds and over 65 dungeons, gather resources, fight enemies, and upgrade their gear as they work to restore these worlds to their former glory.

The developers at Estoty approached us with a proposal to port My Little Universe to consoles and Steam. While we had ventured into this territory before with Johnny Trigger and Johnny Trigger: Sniper, those releases were handled by another company. This time, we decided to manage everything in-house: communicating with platforms, coordinating development, and promoting the game – essentially everything an indie publisher typically handles.

This task fell on my shoulders. Estoty was the first studio we ever signed a contract with as a publisher. Having long trusted their product decisions, we left all creative choices to them and focused on preparing for the release. The plan was outlined as follows:

1. Create pages on all platforms where we plan to publish the game.

2. Release a demo version to attract attention, preferably with fanfare.

3. Gather the maximum possible number of wishlists on Steam.

4. Release the game.

5. ??? PROFIT.
   

In March, I created a Steam page and provided the developers with access to tools and necessary resources. The beginning was set; everything else remained.

Overcoming marketing challenges

Desktop game marketing differs significantly from mobile game marketing. There isn’t as much transparency as with user acquisition campaigns for mobile games, where traffic can simply be driven to gameplay videos. Instead, we needed to send out press releases, participate in events, and engage influencers – efforts that required the support of a PR agency.

When porting mobile games to PC and consoles, you must overcome scepticism from the press and players and sometimes outright criticism. It was, therefore, critical to work with an agency experienced in handling these challenges.

Gathering wishlists and building momentum

Steam Next Fest in June provided an ideal opportunity to showcase the game. Three months were left until the festival. I planned to release the demo two weeks beforehand – this would allow us to gauge player sentiment and fix any shortcomings in advance.

Three months to port a mobile game to desktop, adapt it, fill it with content, and make it competitive alongside other releases was ambitious – but we succeeded.

The developers at Estoty not only met the deadline but went above and beyond by creating a new planet specifically for the demo. I expected 30 minutes of gameplay, but our final demo version offered two hours of content. Some games were completed faster! To this day, I’m not sure how they managed it.

An exciting milestone: our demo version was released during Steam Next Fest. Players loved it, and a prominent content creator, Blitz, with an audience of more than 4 million, recorded a dedicated video about the demo. This significantly boosted interest.

We used both paid and free promotional channels. One of our biggest gambles was participating in the OTK Game Expo, hosted by Asmongold. Its significance in the indie gaming world cannot be understated.

The festival ran on American time, so we waited late at night to see how the game would be presented. A one-minute trailer played without links or QR codes to Steam, introduced simply with the phrase “And here’s My Little Universe.” Nonetheless, this exposure earned us several thousand wishlists almost instantly.

In parallel, our PR’s efforts led to coverage in mainstream publications, further bolstering awareness.

Leveraging the power of community

My Little Universe has a vibrant Discord community of 140,000 members. When the demo was released, these fans were the first to try it. Some even installed Steam for the first time just to play the demo!

In 2023, Steam’s demo pages did not yet support comments, so we couldn’t gauge player sentiment directly. To gather feedback, Estoty created a dedicated topic in their Discord community where players could leave reviews. This engagement allowed us to identify and address issues before the official release.

Throughout this period, the community manager and I organised announcements across Facebook, Reddit, and Instagram. For example, we announced the game would be coming to consoles and shared updates about DLC.

Cross-promotion played a significant role: we offered in-game currency in the mobile version of MLU to players who added the game to their Steam wishlist. This strategy resulted in a substantial increase in wishlists.

Preparing for release

The next major milestone after the demo was the full release of the game on Steam and Nintendo platforms.

When choosing a release date, analysts – and, ideally, astrologers – should be consulted. Competition can crush a game’s chances of finding its audience. For example, the unexpected release of Hades 2 really frustrated indie developers, as they suddenly had to compete with the sequel to a cult roguelike.

We wanted to avoid such a fate, so we carefully selected the date with our PR agency. Our goal was to remain in Steam’s “New and Trending” section as long as possible to attract as many users as we could. The agency pinpointed a window free from major festivals, seasonal sales, or blockbuster releases. Initially, we aimed for September 7, but this plan was postponed due to Nintendo’s stricter policies.

Nintendo’s policy is much more rigid than that of Steam. For example, a demo can only be published after the main game build passes certification, which takes two weeks. Only after this final approval can the game’s page, complete with content, trailers, and descriptions in multiple languages, be submitted for another two weeks of review.

In total, the process took a month of checks and approvals. We realised releasing by early September was unfeasible. Additionally, EA Sports FC24 was slated for release at the end of September, and its hype could have overshadowed our game entirely.

We rescheduled for October 5. Even this date posed a challenge, as we needed a playable build ready by early September to avoid delays from additional revisions. Regardless, once the date was set, we had no choice but to meet it.

Of course, there’s always the option of a “day one patch” – a solution unpopular with players but highly effective. By uploading the main build without some features or localisations, you can pass certification more quickly. The remaining elements are then added with the first patches. This approach helped us save crucial time.

However, this didn’t change the main challenge: Estoty’s developers still had just three months to finalise the game builds.

They made it.

Transforming a mobile game into a desktop hit

From prior experience, I knew the biggest challenge for mobile games on other platforms: they’re often not well-received. If players even suspect it’s a mobile project, they won’t buy it, add it to their wishlist, or will leave negative comments. After all, people don’t buy a PlayStation 5 with 4K graphics to play what feels like a mobile game.

Estoty faced the difficult task of transforming My Little Universe into a cozy indie project suited for desktop players rather than a hybrid casual simulator.

Let me outline the major changes to illustrate the scale of work:

• Features that felt overly mobile were removed.

• Graphics were improved.

• Grinding mechanics were reduced.

• Ads were eliminated, and all ad-related rewards were redistributed across the planets.

• A local co-op mode for up to four players was added. Full online co-op was deferred due to its complexity and our lack of experience.

• Booster cards were introduced.

• Fishing was added – because why not?

It seemed the team had thought of everything. However, shortly after release, an emergency patch was needed. Players were frustrated that dying in the game resulted in the loss of all booster cards. While this seemed logical to us (not everything should come easy), the players vehemently disagreed.

We quickly revised the feature so that only one card was lost upon death. While some people enjoy the challenge of Dark Souls, a casual game must remain casual to the end.

Release results

The release date turned out to be perfect for Steam results. We timed it so that the excitement surrounding FC24 had died down, and no major releases followed ours. This allowed us to secure a spot on Steam’s New Releases page, briefly overlapping with FC24.

Until the very end, it was hard to predict how the market would respond. The results were astonishing. The game received 97% positive reviews on Steam. In terms of sales, different forecasting models suggest that about 20% of wishlists convert to purchases. Our conversion rate far exceeded expectations.

Post-launch efforts focused on influencers. Among those proposed by the agency, we collaborated with Blitz, Ctop, CozyGames, and other bloggers. On average, their videos garnered 250,000 views each.

Additionally, I utilised the keymailer.co service – you can never have too many influencers.

Key takeaways

Our role as the publisher was to ensure as many people as possible knew about the game. However, we wouldn’t have achieved such success without the dedication of Estoty’s developers and the enthusiastic engagement of our fans.

If asked what contributed to the release’s success, I would highlight a few key factors:

1. Community development: Build or strengthen your community. Without it, gathering wishlists and feedback becomes much harder, making it more difficult to refine the product and resonate with the audience.

2. Developer enthusiasm: Successfully adapting a product for other platforms requires resilience and a strong spirit.

3. Willingness to experiment: Attracting an audience often involves trying everything that comes to mind. We gave away soundtrack keys through IGN Plus, offered bloggers secret character skin keys, experimented with trailer voiceovers, and raffled custom Nintendo Switches and Steam Decks.

We also entered various competitions and won the Best Game Design award at the Dev.Play festival for developers. Additionally, we applied for BAFTA Games Awards. While we didn’t win, over 500 jury members played our game – and perhaps some even completed it.

Looking ahead

My Little Universe is already available on PlayStation and Xbox. While it’s impossible to predict if we’ll replicate the Steam release’s success, we’ve done everything possible to prepare.