Blukulélé

17 Mar 2025

My Tiny Chess Roguelike has a Steam Page! ♟️💥 Wishlist Gambonanza and break the rules 💥♟️ store.steampowered.com/app/3509230/... #gamedev #indiegame

20h

Last week I made 2 games for the #nopasajam 📷 Protest Reporter Simulator where you cover a protest as a journalist (With @bastinusrex.bsky.social & @seemmac.bsky.social) 🖱Protest Clicker where you have to grow your protest and bring it to the whole world! It was so much fun!

youtu.beGamBOOnanza - TrailerYouTube video by FRO PWR

OMG! @craftymint6.bsky.social, FRO_PWR, Ben and @mediumkey.xyz just released an amazing 🎃Halloween🎃 mod for Gambo! New Gambits, special skins and incredible BOSS skins! I can't even imagine how much work went into this! The whole thing looks incredible! You're the best!

Blukulélé reposted

Minty

@craftymint6.bsky.social

A few modding friends (@mediumkey.xyz, FRO_PWR, and Ben) and I worked together to make a Halloween themed modpack for Gambonanza! Check it out if you've got the game on Steam, it's really silly. youtu.be/CIo3BmalAtA?...

1-BIT Knowledge-Vania #indiegame #gamedev

I thought Gambo was a Steam game... Turns out, I was accidentally making a mobile game too! Launching on Steam, iOS and Android has completely changed the way I think about releasing games. So here are some numbers, some surprises, and a few things I learned along the way!

Gambo happened to be a really good fit for mobile because of that ig. But now that I've seen what can happen when you make a game that works well across platforms, it's definitely something I'll pay much more attention to!

Maybe the next game I'll build will just be a Steam game tho. But maybe I'll build it so it can live wherever players want to play it ❤️ (The mobile port was made by @ateo.ch and yeah, they're the best and I can't recommend them enough!)

So that's probably the biggest lesson for me, I'm not saying every game needs to be on mobile but when a game lends itself to it, making the porting process easier is something I'll try to consider during development.

And I think some of that was already there in Gambo without me consciously thinking about it. I was working on mobile games before going full indie and I think that experience has probably already infused a lot of my design philosophy. Readability, simple controls, ...

Regarding the 🤑🤑🤑 aspect: The game released on May the 1st (~5 months away) It made : - 300k$ on mobile (Q2) - 788k$ on Steam (May, June only rn) (before taxes, and stuff ofc). That is a LOT of money. It honestly changed my life, I can't thank you enough for all of this!

And here's the funny part: I don't think there's even an advertising campaign running for Gambo on mobile right now. The only way I tried to bring Steam players over was literally just a popup in Gambo's Steam main menu telling them that the game was also available on mobile!

And Play Pass isn't just free exposure. It also provides an additional revenue stream based on player usage. So even players who aren't directly buying the game can still generate revenue. That's something I honestly hadn't really considered before releasing on mobile.

Gambo has made 12.5k$ in August on PlayPass We've had around 2.5k daily active users on PP for the time we've been out in August. In September, we'll have the entire month + the user surge with up to 5k active users (now back to 2.5k), so I expect September to be higher.

Total User Acquisition (Play Pass Users + People who bought the game) has peaked a bit later in September at over 6k/Day

Then there's Google Play Pass, which completely surprised me. I had more than 10,000 mobile players on the 1st week, and peaked on around 50k PP User ! (ignore the drop to 0, that's a chart fluke)

Here are the result of this discount: 🇫🇷 #1 paid app in France (cocorico!) 🇺🇸 #3 paid app in the US WHAT THE FUCK 😭😭😭 I still genuinely can't believe this happened. It really showed me how powerful a store promotion can be.

On the beginning of September we've had a huge surge in new players, up to 4k per day (User Acquisition)

Let's start with the obvious one: 🖥️ ~190k on Steam 🤖 ~125k on Android 🍎 ~75k on iOS That's roughly 390,000 units across the three platforms! Seeing mobile reach roughly the same order of magnitude as Steam is honestly something I never expected when I released Gambo!

I've also made a 50% Sale (invited by Google & with their marketing support) on Android from the 11th of September until the 24th of September and it was HUGE. Those discount are as important as Steam ones!

16 Sept

Gambo is currently the #3 paid app on the US Google Play Store!! I’m so happy right now, thank you so much everyone!! (Oh, and it is 50% off too 👀)

Gambonanza reached 300,000 sales in 3 months and I decided to dig into some of Steam's deeper stats for those who are interested! - Refund rate - Playtime - etc... I've received quite a few questions about my data, so let's go! 1/10

Ofc it doesn't mean much without context! A 13% refund rate might be perfectly fine for a roguelike and worrying for a 10-minute arcade game. Genre, price, audience, launch conditions... everything matters! So please don't use my numbers as a benchmark for your own game! 9/10

Anyway, that's what I found! I'm still not sure what all these numbers really mean, but I found them interesting enough to share 👀 If you're a fellow dev with similar data, I'd love to compare! 10/10

~10 minutes is also the duration of the tutorial, so maybe I should investigate more on this one? 🔑DCMK?-6Z338-JKY76🔑 (? => first letter of the 8/10 tweet) 7/10

The difference between average (4h10) and median (1h54) is also pretty funny. It basically tells me that there's a smaller group of players putting a LOT of time into Gambo. Probably the 10k+ discord community tbh, do not hesitate to join btw! 8/10

I don't know if that's actually "good" by industry standards, and I don't want to pretend it is. But for a silly little roguelike chess game that people can refund after 2 h seeing that almost 7/10 played for more than an hour makes me pretty happy. ❤️ 5/10

And there's another number I really like: 95% of players played for at least 10 minutes. Which means that only ~5% of players seemingly launched Gambo and immediately went: "Nope. What the hell is this." Honestly, I think I'll take it. 6/10

Gambo's lifetime wishlist conversion rate: 14.8% Steam says the average for other Game applications is around 15.3% after their first year of wishlisting. So despite all the weirdness of Gambo, apparently my wishlist conversion is... pretty normal (yaaaay!) 3/10

Now this one surprised me. Median playtime: 1h54 Out of 184,722 players measured by Steam: • 68% played for 1h+ • 48% played for 2h+ • 22% for 5h+ • 8% for 10h+ • 2% for 20h+ And the average is 4h10. IDK what to do with this last info, but here it is! 4/10

Let's start with the scary one: Refund rate:13% A rough rule of thumb I've heard is: 🟢 <10% = very good 🟡 10–15% = nothing to worry about 🔴 >15% = worth investigating Obviously, this varies A LOT depending on the game. (I would love to have your pov on this one tbh) 2/10

Did Gamescom actually boost my game's sales? 👀 Gambonanza is already 4 months old, so I was curious to see what would happen after spending a week at one of the biggest game events in the world! 1/9

That doesn't mean events aren't worth it. Quite the opposite! I just think you shouldn't go to an event expecting it to magically boost your sales or visibility. You should go because you want to meet people! 8/9

Seeing someone discover a mechanic I spent months working on! Talking to other devs and hearing the stories behind their games! And realizing there are so many cool people making games! That's what I'll take away from this event. Not the 3,747 sales (but thanks tho!) 🙏 9/9

I think it's easy to look at an event like Gamescom and think: I'm going there → more people will see my game → more people will buy it. 6/9

But I'm not sure it really works that way... An event can give you visibility, but visibility isn't the same thing as sales! Plus for an already-released game like Gambo, I think the effect can be even smaller! 🔑3KN4Y-H?MEL-Y6VZE🔑 (? = 1st letter of the 5/10 tweet) 7/9

So, more wishlist converted and more sales! Is that the proof of the magnificent ✨GAMESCOM EFFECT✨? 4/9

Yes… but probably not for the reason you think! During the whole event, Gambonanza was 35% off! (It was also part of the official Gamescom event on Steam, so that should definitely be taken into account too!) 5/9

📈 The sales Last week: 1,905 copies sold This week: 3,747 copies sold That's almost 2x more sales in one week! 2/9

❤️ The wishlists Last week: -784 wishlists This week: -1,801 wishlists Which might look terrible at first... But there's an important detail: most of those wishlists were converted into sales. And that's actually a good sign! 3/9

I had an absolute BLAST at Gamescom! Here are 5 games I played that made me go "SHUT UP AND TAKE MY WISHLIST"! Hopefully, you'll find your next wishlist game here too! 👇👇👇

💈The Midnight Barber by bsky.app/profile/omae... A rhythm + investigation game with an INCREDIBLE vibe! I'm not usually into narrative investigation games, but this one caught me off guard and I really enjoyed my time with it! Plus, the devs are adorable! ❤️ (demo available on steam!)

📬 Tom the Postgirl by bsky.app/profile/oops... Play as a postgirl delivering mail and uncovering the DEEPEST secrets of the people you're delivering to. It's funny, creepy, and has this amazing stalker vibe. I LOVED IT! DO YOU HEAR ME?? (Demo on steam!)

I had an absolute BLAST at Gamescom! Here are 5 games I played that made me go "SHUT UP AND TAKE MY WISHLIST"! Hopefully, you'll find your next wishlist game here too! 👇👇👇

🥊 Knuckle Paradise by bsky.app/profile/flyi... An ultra-juicy beat 'em up where you extend your combos with a chicken! Made by the creator of ScourgeBringer, this one definitely has the juice too! It's SO satisfying !!

🎨 Jordi & Oslo: The Lost Tail by bsky.app/profile/jord... A BEAUTIFUL hand-painted watercolor point'n'click adventure! Made by an amazing dev handling both the art, animation and code, alongside a composer and a sound designer. They were all lovely and incredibly talented!

I had an absolute BLAST at Gamescom! Here are 5 games I played that made me go "SHUT UP AND TAKE MY WISHLIST"! Hopefully, you'll find your next wishlist game here too! 👇👇👇

@strohhutdave.bsky.social

🐔 Matelotes by bsky.app/profile/lapo... Build a somehow functional crew and take to the sea! SUPER funny and charming, I loved it so much! Can't wait to play the full game! (demo available on steam btw)

Blukulélé reposted

StrohhutDave

30 Aug

Ich habe meine erste richtige Review geschrieben! Im Indiecafe, von @indiecafe.de, werde ich in Zukunft als Gast-Autor Reviews veröffentlichen. Bei meiner ersten Review habe ich mich für Gambonanza von @blukulelestudio.bsky.social entschieden, ein Schach-Roguelike www.indiecafe.de/2026/08/gamb...

indiecafe.deGambonanza – Wenn Schach auf Balatro trifft ♟️Review zu Gambonanza, was passiert wenn Schach ein Upgrade bekommt?

28 Aug

Gambo has a modding community now and it's honestly WILD and they're SUPER active! They've even made a CO-OP mode! I love seeing people take my silly little game and turn it into something completely their own!

24 Aug

😱Gambo Goes Gamescom😱 It's my first time doing an event this big, and honestly... I'm a little intimidated! If you're there, come say hi and play Gambo! I'd love to meet some of you and watch you break my game in person!