All your points are valid, but I think the main reason is the medium. The same story (well maybe with less parallel plots
) done as a point'n'click adventure probably COULD have done much better (I don't know for sure of course). If you check around, how many other VISUAL NOVELS with dark themes are popular? and by popular I mean that got on Steam.
I can't think of any, if you exclude C.Love games, since I think anything she does would be popular anyway
While there are many RPG/adventures. I really think the problem is the kind of game in this case.
OtterFace wrote:
Maybe an RPG remake of both games? (dream on otter...)
Actually I thought about this a lot of times, and probably will do it since the kind of setting is perfect (well, if you like Deus Ex setting, dark future, implants, robots, etc). Of course, WHEN, I don't know, have "a few" games to finish first
OtterFace wrote:
Regardless of what happens with the likes of BH2, hiring a marketing expert might be a good investment for later games. Steam offers good exposure, but I always had a feeling WW games could do a lot better with more exposure. After all, this is how super-mediocre AAA games get by. In an indie setting, a person with a good social network skills and good business sense could do a lot to promote the games on the likes of Tumblr, Twitter, etc. with tons of promo material and generate hype, while the creative people can work undisturbed.
I had a marketing guy in the early stages, but honestly didn't help much. Speaking with other indies in general, there are so many games out every day, that even hiring a PR guy won't give me a big boost.
What would work is going to the conventions. But I really cannot go for personal reasons (and probably I wouldn't enjoy them much anyway).
I regularly update the social networks myself, and doesn't take me much time, and besides sometimes I like to break from working to post stuff in forums or blog, etc