itch.io

Having the boss summoned with runes you find across The Overgrowth, and Aetherite locked behind beating it, gives the new dimension a proper purpose. Since Terraria and Minecraft comparisons are what people will bring in, I'd make the first line of your page about what is different, for example the boss gated progression into new armor. For the top of the page, a short GIF of a player using the Offhand torch while mining and then entering The Overgrowth would show off both the lighting work and the quality of life changes in a few seconds. Keep the water bugs out of that clip and list them as known issues further down.

The 18-card deck you prep before each run, combined with six elements and fifteen fusion combinations, is a really clear hook for a tower defense. For the opening line of your store page, I'd lead with the fusion idea in one sentence, something like placing two elemental towers and watching them merge into a new one, rather than with the island setting. A short looping GIF at the very top showing one fusion happening, from placing the second tower to the first wave hitting it, would let people get the game before they read anything. Then the deck-building and the 24 missions across three acts can sit just below as the reason to stay.

Reading your devlogs back to back, the Owen fix stood out: two out of three players leaving before Splash Hoops, then every player who met him taking it after the freeze was gone. Watching a first-time visitor's session like that is the kind of thing most of us skip. One free tip for the game page: since the browser version still needs a loading bar, put a 3-second looping GIF at the very top of the page of the mud washing off a toy, brush and foam, ending on the clean reveal. That's your most satisfying moment, and it shows people what they're waiting for before they hit Play.

The match mechanic is a great trade-off: light the room so you can see the pits, but every monster in there can now see you too. That's a genuinely scary decision for a 256x224 NES-style game. One tip for the post and project page: open with a 3-4 second GIF of exactly that moment, a dark room, the match flaring, a monster turning toward you, before any of the text. A new reader decides in a few seconds, and a short loop of the horror landing will sell the idea faster than the layer explanation, which can then sit just underneath.

Good luck getting to the $100 Direct fee. One thing worth prepping now so the Coming Soon page converts the day it goes live: your strongest hook is the loading-screen-free atmospheric entry, walking the cabin straight into landing on Aurelia. I'd open the short description with that one line rather than the feature list (axe harvesting, taming, quests), and put a 10-second GIF of the entry sequence at the very top of the About section. Early wishlists mostly come from people who get that moment in the first two seconds of scrolling.

Congrats on the demo. One thing I'd tweak on the Steam page: the short description opens with "Live the life of a footballer," which could be any career sim, and your real hook (you play every match yourself but never control the team) only shows up in sentence two. Maybe lead with it, something like "You're the player, not the manager: play every match yourself from your first contract at 16, with no say over tactics or subs. 775 clubs, 100+ hours, and every choice follows you off the pitch." Also, the About section is a pretty long wall of bullets before the first visual, so I'd put your best match GIF right at the very top.

The jelly motion looks like a fun detail. For a lightning character I'd keep it subtle when idle and let it get bouncier only when she's dragged or reacts, so it reads as personality and not as a physics demo. On your Steam page, the short description runs three sentences. Try leading with the hook, e.g. "Anime roguelite deckbuilder: build a 3-person team, then run your shop between investigations." Also, a looping GIF of this Live2D movement near the top of About This Game would be a strong first impression, since that's something most deckbuilders don't have.

Congrats on getting the page live! One thing I noticed on the Steam page: the Key Features list is fairly general ("Spirit Collection", "Environmental Investigation"), so a visitor can't quite picture a minute of play. A short looping GIF of the moment you actually collect a wandering spirit (lantern-lit graveyard or shrine) placed right under that heading would show the hook faster than text. The "First-Person Horror" and folklore angle is already clear in your short description, which is great. Good luck  with the wishlists!

Congrats on the demo, 11 days out is a fun window. Two small things I noticed on the Steam page while browsing: the English store name shows as "Become Blackhole 成为黑洞", so English search results and the capsule title carry the Chinese name too, worth checking if that's intended for the default language. And the release line there still says "November 2026" while you're announcing Nov 11 here; an exact date tends to help people deciding whether to wishlist now. Is the separate Steam demo going live before launch, or is itch the only place to try it for now?

One more quick note on Face Your Fate since you mentioned an October launch: the store page still shows "Coming soon" with no date and no demo, so the next few weeks of page changes matter a lot.

Two cheap wins before you set a date:

1. The About section is roughly 1,650 characters of plain text with zero GIFs or images. One reel-spin into combo GIF right under the first header usually does more than any copy edit.

2. If any of the first screenshots still show untranslated UI text, swap them for clean English captures before launch traffic hits.

Are you aiming for Next Fest or a straight launch? Happy to look at the new capsule or GIF when it's up.

Glad the wishlist link is fixed, and totally fair to ship the Steam page imperfect and iterate.

If you're polishing it next, two concrete gaps that usually cost wishlists on strategy games like yours:

1. Languages: Steam still English-only while itch already lists DE/FR/PL/ZH — even a one-line "Also available in …" in the short description builds trust for EU players you already support.

2. The 15-castle campaign from 1.6.0 still isn't on the Steam page — that "why wishlist now" hook belongs above the fold (capsule/trailer/short desc), not only on itch.

If you want a scored pass with ready-to-paste short-desc/tag lines before you rewrite, I use this free check: https://steam-page-auditor.vercel.app — full report is $5 with a 7-day refund. Or just ping here when the Steam page updates and I'll do a free before/after read.

7000+ browser plays in 10 days is a great signal, congrats. Since you already have a Steam page up, a couple of things I noticed comparing the two pages: your itch page lists German, French, Polish and Chinese, but the Steam page currently only shows English. The Steam description also doesn't mention the new 15-castle campaign from 1.6.0 yet, and that feels like the strongest "why wishlist now" hook you have. Small one: the "Wishlist on Steam" image on your itch page seems to point to a ?beta=1 version of the store URL, might be worth checking it lands on the normal store page. Are you seeing the browser players actually turn into Steam wishlists, or is that the gap you're trying to close?

Spending your own soul fragments as the currency is a really neat twist, it makes every build feel like a small sacrifice instead of just a cost. One thing I noticed on your project page: the screenshots are lovely, but they mostly show the settlement at rest, so I couldn't see the spend-souls-or-survive-the-night tension that the post describes. A shot of a night fight, or the moment you choose between building and awakening someone, might sell the core idea faster. Did you pick the soul-as-currency mechanic first, or did it grow out of the fire-centered settlement?

Thanks for the update! The "No rotation" note under the board in puzzle 1 does the job. It's small, but it's right where my eyes were when I tried to turn Tate last time.

I got through 5 and peeked at 6. Puzzle 4 (Out of the rain) is where it jumps for me. Up to 3 you can mostly nudge things into place, but here the shrubs force a long detour, and Yoko starts almost in position, which kept tempting me the wrong way. Puzzle 5 did something similar: one friend starts already ticked, but has to move away first. That was a fun surprise, though it confused me for a minute.

My favourite moment was the umbrella scene after 4. Tate sheltering Yoko was lovely.

Are you planning to bring Tate & Yoko to Steam, or keeping it on itch?

@pallavi_sahoo glad it helped, and 50 people playing a first prototype is a real signal. Since you're heading back to the drawing board, one thing worth doing before the rebuild: write the one-sentence pitch that covers both layers (solve the regenerating rooms, but the real game is escaping him) and then make the cover and the first GIF prove that one sentence. When you have a new cover or first-screenshot draft, drop it in this thread and tag me. I'll give you a free side-by-side read of old vs new.

@pallavi_sahoo picking up on what you said about the two-part loop: solve rooms whose locks regenerate, but the real goal is beating the psychopath, and the exit only opens after ~40 levels. That second half isn't on the cover or in the first lines of the page yet, which is probably why people above read it as "hotel room" or a one-off escape room.

A free rewrite you could test, no strings:

Cover tagline: "Every lock changes. He doesn't."

Page first line: "Escape rooms whose locks and clues regenerate every run, and survive 40 of them to face the man who built them."

Then one short GIF in the first slot: lock solved, door opens, something waiting in the corridor. That shows both halves in one loop.

One question so I don't guess wrong: how does the psychopath actually show up during a run (chasing you, watching, scripted story beats between rooms)? Tell me and I'll tighten that line and suggest an order for your first three screenshots.

Still curious whether the capsule/half-second fantasy test was useful for Face Your Fate — if you tried a new capsule or GIF, what changed on wishlist rate? If you want a scored pass on the live Steam page, free sample is here and I’m happy to read the output with you: https://steam-page-auditor.vercel.app

Quick follow-up on the impressions→click gap (still page-only).

After the earlier notes: the half-second capsule test is still the highest-leverage lever when click-through is under 1%. If you've since swapped capsule or the first GIF, the next pass I'd make is short-description first line + tags self-selection (are the right skippers filtering themselves out?).

If useful, I run a $5 one-shot AI Steam/itch-style page audit with scored fixes + rewrite drafts: https://steam-page-auditor.vercel.app — free sample on the homepage, 7-day refund. Totally optional; happy to keep giving free page notes either way.

Congrats on getting the demo out. I only looked at the Steam page, not the demo itself, so this is page-only feedback. Three things I noticed, aimed at turning demo players into wishlists:

1. The short description never mentions the free demo, and the Scream Fest note sits well below the fold. Put "Free demo available" near the top.

2. The trailer and early screenshots are very dark and similar (cards on a wooden table). Lead with a readable shot of an item or perk card effect so the hook shows in a thumbnail.

3. The capsule's grey title lettering over a dark eye symbol gets lost at small sizes, and the genre line lists RPG and Strategy, which may confuse horror card fans.

Good luck with the launch.

Hi Jones, I haven't played the demo, so this is purely from your Steam page. The capsule is the strongest part: the chunky "HIDE AND FREAK" lettering stays readable at small size, and the 1:03 trailer opens straight on gameplay.

Three things I noticed:

1) Tags: "Early Access" leads, then "Jump Scare" and "Horror", but the game reads goofy and social. Early Access already has its own banner, so I'd push Party Game, Multiplayer and Hide and Seek (or Asymmetric) higher so friend-group searchers find you.

2) Short description: "a goofy online ghost hunt" is a good opener, but the easy-to-explain hook (up to 16 players, join by room code) comes last. Moving it earlier answers "can my friend group play this?" faster.

3) Demo: you have one on itch, but the Steam page doesn't show a demo. A Steam demo button is a low-friction route to wishlists and helps with Next Fest.

Good luck with the Q4 launch!

Hey! Nice timing on the web build. I'm more of a store-page nerd than a twin-stick expert, so here's feedback from that angle, page-only:

1. You already have a playable demo here, but the Steam page doesn't offer one. With an April 2027 date, getting the demo onto Steam soon means wishlists from people who play it, and a Steam demo is what lets you join a Next Fest (February would fit your date), which is usually the biggest wishlist spike a small game gets before launch.

2. The short description says "twin-stick shooter", but the About section reads like a survivors-style run: swarms that grow, a boss every five minutes, six depth zones. That loop is the thing people search for right now, so I'd say it in the first line ("survive a deep-sea trench that gets deadlier every minute") and make sure your tags match whichever genre is really true.

3. Local co-op is buried mid-paragraph. Co-op shooters get picked by friends looking for something to play together, so I'd put it in the short description and on one screenshot or the trailer's first seconds.

The headlight mechanic (bonus damage to whatever you light up) is a great hook, by the way. A GIF of the light sweeping onto a big creature would sell the mood faster than any text.

Played the first two puzzles in browser on desktop.

What landed: the tall/wide asymmetry is instantly readable once a piece moves — I didn’t need the blurb to “get” the joke of the characters. Puzzle 1’s goal (“long side on the enclosure edge”) clicked after one failed shove into a shrub; the fail state taught the rule faster than the text did for me.

What snagged: before that first fail, I briefly tried to rotate (habit from other block puzzles). A one-line “no rotate / no squeeze through shrubs” under the board on level 1 would save that dead second. Also on mobile-width the Japanese/English toggle sat a bit close to the move affordance for my thumb — not broken, just easy to glance-tap.

Didn’t finish all 10; stopping after a couple as you asked. Happy to poke a later level if you change the onboarding line.

Hey — I looked at Face Your Fate with a deckbuilder player's eyes, and I'm going to skip the short-description point others already made.

First change I'd make: the capsule / header still has to sell the fantasy in half a second on a browse grid. Right now the combat UI screenshot does a lot of work inside the page, but the first thing a stranger sees needs one clear verb ("play a card → fate chains → break the boss") more than a full HUD. If the capsule is mostly UI chrome, wishlist browsers bounce before they read About.

Second: pick one GIF (not another static shot) that shows a single chain reaction end-to-end — card chosen, Fate trigger, Break ticking. Deckbuilder people decide in that clip whether the pace is turn-based puzzle or real-time panic; screenshots alone leave that ambiguous.

Third: tags + genre line. Make sure "roguelike deckbuilder" (or your exact hybrid) is unmistakable next to the title so the right players self-select; 24 wishlists with no demo is often a discovery mismatch as much as a page-copy problem.

I haven't played a build — this is page-only. If you want a structured pass on the Steam page (capsule / short desc / tags scored with rewrite drafts), I run a $5 one-shot AI audit here: https://steam-page-auditor.vercel.app — free sample on the homepage, 7-day no-questions refund. Totally optional; happy to take another free pass after you swap the capsule or add that one GIF either way.

That read lands. The panic timer and the stacked spawn as intentional narrative, with you as a storyteller first, makes sense, and I won't argue them down. The satire and the helplessness are the point, not a bug I missed.

For people arriving cold from the store, the page still needs one signal that the chaos is intentional. A single line under the play button, or a GIF that shows the panic as the joke, would stop strangers from bouncing because they think the build is broken.

The transmedia and storytelling angle is interesting. No commitment from me, but I'd like to hear how you carry the storyteller across pieces.

The page promise lands in about five seconds, but it comes from the title and the giant red play button, not from the art. The title already says this is a cheap side-view artillery scrap, and that button is what would make me click instead of bounce. The cover is a busy comic collage, and the only clip stays frozen until I click it, so I never see a shot, a crater, or whose turn it is before I commit.

What would make me hesitate is that the cover never shows one clean frame of the fight. I can read chaos and a pile of speech bubbles, but not the mouse-aim loop. One still of the battlefield with an aim line, or a short looping clip of a single shot blowing a hole in the ground, would sell the genre faster than the joke copy under the button.

Once I did hit play, the first seconds are the pacing issue. Both squads are already stacked on top of each other, a big red arrow does not say what to do, and a five-second timer is already counting. I could not tell whether the mouse moves, aims, or fires before that clock mattered. A one-line prompt on the first turn, and a few seconds before the timer starts, would keep the joke tone without making the opening feel like I already missed my turn.

I opened the page cold and almost left on the first screen. Under the banner there is a large empty panel with only a Run tool button, so I never saw a sprite, a timeline, or an export before being asked to launch something or leave for the other site.

The writing then walks through music, tiles, capsules, and voxels before one finished example. The part that would have kept me is a single pass: draw a sprite, animate it, drop sound on a frame, and export. That sequence is in the paragraphs, but it is not the first thing the page shows.

The tool list is where a purchase stalled for me. Free, Owner, and Owner Beta sit on the names with no price and no line saying what Owner adds. Two of the Owner tools also say early access or a beta is already live. I could not tell what I would pay for versus what I can already use, so I would skip rather than guess.

For page layouts the thing that makes me bounce fastest is a hero that looks like a mood board instead of a readable moment from play—then a fold that still hasn’t answered “what do I do in the first minute?”

I’d try one layout pass where the top third is: capsule-quality key art + one-line fantasy, then immediately a 2–3 screenshot strip that shows verbs (move / choose / fail), and only after that the long lore or feature list. Crowded feature grids above the fold usually read as “brochure,” not “game I can picture myself in.”

A sub-1% click rate at that impression volume usually means the capsule is doing most of the filtering before anyone even reads the page.

What makes me skip in that split-second: genre not readable from the art alone, title that doesn’t telegraph the fantasy, or a thumbnail that looks like a UI mock instead of a moment from the game. On the page itself I bounce when the short description opens with systems/mechanics instead of the player fantasy, or when the first two screenshots don’t answer “what do I actually do?”

For a narrative adventure especially, I’d try rewriting the capsule/title so a stranger can name the genre and the hook without clicking—then check whether the short description’s first line matches that same promise.

Fresh page with no demo yet usually dies on “what am I actually playing in 3 seconds.”

I’d pressure-test:
1) Cover + title line — must read as the fantasy loop (build deck → run → die → unlock), not mood art alone.
2) First 3 screenshots — one board state mid-run, one reward/upgrade choice, one death/run-summary. Skip logo dumps.
3) Short description — verb-first (“Roguelike deckbuilder where you…”) before lore.

Happy to mark the top 3 risks on the live page in plain English if useful — no redesign pitch.

Views with zero sales usually means the page is doing homework for the buyer instead of selling the outcome.

Things I’d stress-test first on an asset/page like this:

1) Above-the-fold — first screen should answer “what do I get + who is it for” in one glance (cover + title + one concrete line). If the cover looks like a dump of icons instead of a use-case, people bounce after the view counts.

2) First 3 screenshots — show icons *in a real UI / game HUD*, not a grid alone. Proof of fit beats a catalog.

3) Price framing — $3 pack with 0 sales after 100 views often needs a sharper lead (“381 UI icons for cozy / pixel HUD”) and a free sample of 8–12 so the click isn’t cold.

Happy to call the top 3 risks on the live page in plain English if you want a second pass — no redesign pitch.