Their Second Game Did Worse, Now What?

This is a conversation with Julian Colbus from DigiTales Interactive, the creators of Lacuna and Between Horizons. We talk about regrets from their last game, how to succeed with story based games and how to make it as an indie game developer. Links to my Guest ➤ Lacua on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1364100/Lacuna__A_SciFi_Noir_Adventure/ ➤ Between Horizons on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1921980/Between_Horizons__A_SciFi_Detective_Adventure/ ➤ The Great Sassanelli on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2195490/The_Great_Sassanelli__An_Interactive_Novel/ ➤ Unburied Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1911240994/unburied?lang=de ➤ DigiTales Interactive (More Links): https://digitales.games/ Listen to the podcast on the go (Spotify, Apple Podcasts, etc.): ➤ https://tyrollerjonas.podbean.com/ 0:00 - Intro 1:01 - Building Without Marketability in Mind 2:04 - Making “Detective” Readable at a Glance 3:33 - The Market Shift: 2021 vs 2024 4:24 - 3D vs 2D: Cost, Detail, and Personality 6:20 - Modernizing Point-and-Click 7:57 - Growing Team and Scope (and Losing Creative Control) 12:23 - Elegance Over Features 14:24 - Lessons from Cheap Horror Hits: Nail the Hook, Skip the Fluff 15:11 - The Essence of Detective Games 17:38 - Solution Inputs That Resist Guessing 20:33 - “Choices Matter” 24:16 - Semi-Open World Detectives: Combinatorial Explosion 26:46 - What Makes a Good Story in Games 28:00 - Selling Story Games via Setting; Be Oddly Specific 34:05 - Design by Committee vs Strong Vision 36:57 - Studio History and Team Scaling 39:49 - Becoming a Publisher 41:26 - New Business Plan: Smaller, Cheaper, More Frequent Releases 42:18 - Stepping into Survival Horror (and Why) 43:30 - Survival Horror’s Proven Formula and Feel 45:20 - Disempowerment and the Illusion of Scarcity 49:45 - Next Detective Game 52:09 - The Second-Game Slump: Causes and Fixes 56:45 - Don’t Make Direct Sequels as an Indie (Most of the Time) 01:00:50 - Steam Cross-Promotion: “From the Creators of…”, Bundles, Discounts 01:03:59 - Writing Better Dialogue 01:10:27 - Make the Story the Gameplay 01:14:57 - Hidden Mysteries and Multiple Active Cases 01:17:53 - Open-Ended Inputs vs Bespoke Reactions 01:21:48 - Dialogue System: Custom Tool, Booleans, and Logs 01:29:40 - Make It Obvious: Premise, Key Art, and Core Loop at a Glance 01:31:44 - Descriptive Trailers and Demos That Filter Buyers 01:36:45 - Screenshot Best Practices 01:39:22 - Design for Trailer Moments 01:41:36 - Budgets and Team Sizes: Why Mid-Size Struggles 01:44:53 - Indie Math: Real Costs and Platform Cuts 01:49:29 - Scope Discipline: Focus Saves Money and Quality 01:50:25 - Team Composition: Be Selective 01:52:31 - Work with Equals or Better; Pragmatic Dev Beats Over-Engineering 01:55:42 - Know What’s Possible (and Where AI Helps) 01:59:21 - Marketing in the For-You Era: Authenticity and Hooks 02:06:09 - Creator Outreach That Works (and Tools to Do It) 02:11:30 - Wrap-Up and Plugs: The Great Sassanelli, Socials, Unburied My game "Thronefall": ➤ Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2239150/Thronefall/ ➤ Discord: https://discord.gg/gVYctptyg8 ➤ Nintendo Switch: https://www.nintendo.com/en-gb/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/Thronefall-2669627.html#Overview My game "Will You Snail": ➤ Play Will You Snail on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1115050/Will_You_Snail/ ➤ Join the Will You Snail Discord: https://discord.gg/G3mRDrK For the game developers among you: ➤ Join our creative game dev community on Discord: https://discord.gg/Ye6zzfQ

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