5811 Year of Indie Game Dev in 1 Hour

Episode Summary

In episode 581 of 'Coffee with Butterscotch,' the brothers recap the full year-long journey of How Many Dudes. From a GMTK game jam entry to a bean burrito short that hit 900k views, blowing past 100k wishlists by January, and everything in between. They break down what actually moved the needle, what the numbers looked like along the way, and what the final push to July 30th looks like from the inside.

Support How Many Dudes!
Official Website: https://www.bscotch.net/games/how-many-dudes
Trailer Teaser: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgQM1SceEpI
Steam Wishlist: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3934270/How_Many_Dudes

00:00 Cold Open
00:19 Introduction and Welcome
02:02 Retrospective of 'How Many Dudes' development
04:21 Using game jams as market testing
08:24 Early marketing efforts and wish list milestones
12:08 Impact of YouTube Shorts and influencer videos
16:28 The role of signals and metrics in decision making
22:16 Store page strategy and launch preparations
27:15 Marketing levers and cross-promotion tactics
33:56 Demo release and early feedback
44:23 Post-launch growth and community engagement
50:12 Final preparations and launch day insights

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Submit questions at https://www.bscotch.net/podcast, disclose all of your secrets to podcast@bscotch.net, and send letters, gifts, and tasty treats to https://bit.ly/bscotchmailbox. 

We also built Ludokit, a tool for managing store pages, promo art, localization, achievements, credits, fonts, change logs, and more. Check it out at https://ludokit.com!

Finally, if you’d like to support the show and buy some coffee FOR Butterscotch, head over to https://moneygrab.bscotch.net.

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About "Coffee with Butterscotch"

Coffee with Butterscotch is the hilarity-filled official podcast of award-winning video game studio Butterscotch Shenanigans. Tune in every week to learn how video games are made and sold, our take on building a small company from scratch, and how to be an unstoppable problem-solving machine. Whether you're a tech entrepreneur working on your own startup, a person who loves playing or making video games, or just a person interested in learning about the games industry, we've got you covered. Butterscotch Shenanigans is an independent video game studio best known for its smash hit Crashlands. The podcast features founders Seth Coster (the games programmer), Adam Coster (the web programmer), Sam Coster (the artist), and other awesome people.

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donate • send care packages • buy our games

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Listener Questions

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  • 7
    Jumpylumpa Leapylow @smvoew asked

    Have you done a Butterscotch Shenanigans company picnic/laser tag/big "corporate" event? If so, what did you do and how did it go? If not, what WOULD you do if cost was not a concern?

  • 5
    ButterMilkLoveNugget @qd32kj asked

    What's a debugging story that highlights a particularly bizarre bug?

  • 2
    PureKnix @ref0kg asked

    With Levelhead's Marketing Department being in business for over half a decade now, what interesting insights do you have on how it works and is engaged with? What would Marketing Department 2.0 look like?

  • 1
    Jumpylumpa Leapylow @smvoew asked

    Have you ever experienced déjà vu? Do you have any memorable moments of a "glitch in the matrix"?

  • 1
    lekiy @0umgxq asked

    In your scientific opinions, what are the taxonomical kingdoms of Woanope?

  • 1
    giantmuskrat @yord0l asked

    Your podcast community is a dedicated bunch of folks!

    Can you give us a challenge that would be fun AND help the studio? Maybe something like 'tell 5 friends about the podcast' only more fun...

  • 1
    OliveComet @37zh0x asked

    Will Levelhead ever get an update? If so will it be small bug fixes or new elements in the level editor?

  • 1
    Jumpylumpa Leapylow @smvoew asked

    GREETINGS to Bscotch Bros and crew! Question for the podcast/YouTube wranglers. It's been asked before but I'm curious if this has changed: How do you come up with the intro blurb? What kinds of edits are most commonly needed for the podcast? How has the setup changed since moving to video? Did video kill the radio star? What snacks do you use to keep the brothers on camera and not getting distracted? Thanks for all you do! It sounds/looks amazing!!

  • 1
    EmatumbleJangowip @qggb45 asked

    Hello Sam! I've been a big fan of your art and I've been following since you started with inkscape, even done some of your tutorials. "How many dudes?" looks more vectorish than Crashlands 2, are you back to vector drawing with the mouse? Any tips for a new vector game art wannabe? I've been using Affinity and loved it so far. Thanks!

  • 1
    ReallywooCupacka @z24lbw asked

    12:08 YouTube Shorts and influencer videos

    Hey guys! Been loving the podcast these last few months after discovering it, and your discussions and advice really lined up well with where I’m at in my game development journey.

    I was curious about getting into the Shorts business as my game would work well for this style of content. However, I haven’t posted a lot on my channel, and worry if I’ll see results right away or it takes time for YouTube to get you into the algorithm. What are your thoughts? Thanks!

  • Jumpylumpa Leapylow @smvoew asked

    You name generator has made some fun-to-say names (pause to explain what that is for the new listeners). What are your favorites? Have you made any for yourselves that you did use or still do? Related but separate!! What are some nicknames you've had?

  • ButterMilkLoveNugget @qd32kj asked

    What do you think of King Terry and his programming skills like him manually coding his animations and do you think any of his work is applicable today in some sense?

  • challosis @fuwqnd asked

    Did you take inspiration from "zero player games" like MIKAN or Earklacks on YouTube, "games" that only exist as videos?

  • Echoslamma Noobaguy @m72kpe asked

    Have you heard of Aethus? It appears very similar to Crashlands. Also, you should totally arrange a bundle with it on Steam!