How Deep Pixel Melancholy Gained 10,000 Wishlist Additions in Just Six Weeks — A Case Study

The Deep Pixel Melancholy team has shared a detailed, step-by-step account of how they grew their wishlist numbers on Steam.

Maksim Senkin

Hello, my name is Maksim Senkin, and I'm the writer for Deep Pixel Melancholy—a visual novel about a "Groundhog Day" scenario in a dystopian setting. We're developing it with artist Dmitry Bogolyubov, and together we founded the studio ok/no.

Within forty days of its announcement, the game garnered 10,000 wishlists on Steam. The result exceeded all our expectations, and we want to share how we achieved this. We're new to the indie scene, having gained all our knowledge from public sources, and so far haven't spent money on promotion.

Before we begin, it's worth mentioning our advantage. Dima manages a popular Instagram* and Telegram channel. Thanks to these, we reached a large audience at launch, giving the game a powerful start, and subsequent marketing efforts significantly amplified our success.

This is how our journey looked.

Step One: Made a Plan

In April 2025, we had a partially finished demo and aimed to participate in the June Next Fest to gather as much feedback as possible. Back then, we knew little about Steam from a developer's perspective and just wanted to make a bold entrance.

About six weeks before the announcement, I created a Google Sheet where I:

outlined the overall strategy: what we wanted to achieve, our minimum/maximum plans, and key benchmarks for wishlists and sales, sourced from initial articles we found;
compiled references of games similar to ours with varying degrees of success: focusing on how their pages were set up and what caught attention in their trailers;
gathered data from SteamDB on these games: follower trends, price changes, and key dates;
described tasks for the coming months in detail: who was responsible for what, how to execute them, and the deadlines.

The game's announcement and subsequent demo release were like an avalanche during a storm: too many unexpected problems came from all sides. The plan we prepared in advance served as shelter, saving us from disaster. All the time invested in researching articles, watching guides, and studying Valve's instructions paid off. You could say the game's promotion began with our self-education, and without organized knowledge, we wouldn't have been able to set concrete tasks.

Step Two: Styled the Steam Page

We registered developer accounts and created the game's page. The teaser turned out to be the most challenging part of the setup. From the references we gathered, we had an idea of what we wanted to do, but visual novels aren't the most dynamic genre.

Here's what creative decisions we made:

made the teaser short (51 seconds);
used text to set up the game's premise;
showcased "gameplay" from one of the mini-games;
focused on atmospheric sound and music (our friends from the Gameowdio studio helped with this, as well as the rest of the game's sounds);
and, at the end of the video, thematically played into a call to wishlist the game.

Then we uploaded it to YouTube in two versions: in Russian and English.

The teaser didn't bring wishlists by itself but was perfect for converting into GIFs and useful for festival submissions. Some bloggers adapted it into reels—and there you go, they quickly took off (examples: one and two). So, unexpectedly, the teaser wasn't about aesthetics and introducing the game, but became one of the sources for marketing content.

The work took about two weeks. We tried something new, made necessary mistakes, and didn't spend much time on it. For a first attempt, the result seems decent. We compensated for the lack of content by creatively incorporating the setting's theme (time loop), allowing us to repetitively and justifiably show the same shots. Our main mistake was beginning the video sequence with a black screen and the studio logo instead of showcasing action.

The rest of the setup was easier: we followed Valve's guidelines, drew inspiration from references, and simply tried to make it visually appealing. For the main image (capsule/header), we inserted key art with a prominent game title and emphasis on those iconic buildings. We translated the page into twelve languages, besides English.

Step Three: Created a Press Kit

Assembling a press kit is easy and invaluable. I attached it to all emails, included it in contest and festival applications, sent it to Telegram bots, and regularly referenced it myself.

There are plenty of examples available online, including on publisher websites, and most are pretty similar. I made versions in Russian and English, which include:

a press release with a brief plot description, key features of the game listed, a few words about the developers, and useful links;
a folder with studio and game logos;
a folder with key art, screenshots, and GIFs;
a folder with two versions of the teaser (with and without text) as files.

Step Four: Built a Contact Base

This is a never-ending task. We searched for streamers, bloggers, influencers, community admins, news portal editors—anyone we could reach out to and showcase our game.

Some of the contacts I gathered by simply asking friends who they watch and read. I watched Let's Plays and streams of reference games and saved the authors' contacts. Gradually, the list expanded to include festivals, websites, and Western influencers.

At some point, I got caught up in the excitement: never having done marketing before, and suddenly there was so much new at once. Organizing everything was interesting, and it helped me enjoy what was a long and pretty tedious task.

By the time of the announcement, about 60 contacts were amassed in the Google Sheet. Not as many as I would've liked, but time was pressing, and more had to be gathered on the fly. The announcement was approaching.

Step Five: Announced the Game

We chose a day without major holidays and news events—Tuesday, May 13. We sent the game page for moderation in advance and, once it passed on the second try, published it on Monday. We wanted to check the setup with friends and make sure everything worked.

On the day of the announcement, we posted in our social networks and asked friends to spread the word. I went through the contact list, sending messages via DMs, Telegram bots, and emails.

Wishlist peaks during the announcement, demo release, and Steam Next Fest

We hit our wishlist peak on the day after the announcement (761 wishlists). Many Telegram channels posted about the game (examples: one, two, three, four, five, six). I reached out to most of these channels, but some (including two of the largest) noticed and wrote about us on their own. Apparently, word of mouth worked from the community. In just the first two days, the game accumulated over 1,000 wishlists. By the end of the second week, it reached 3,000.

Right from the start, it naturally happened that Telegram became our main promotional platform. One successful reel on Instagram* also garnered significant attention but remained a one-time hit. Throughout, I kept sending letters and knocking on doors. Many didn't reply back then, motivating me to seek new contacts.

Step Six: Started Writing About the Game on Reddit

Alongside previous steps, I managed a new account on Reddit and started building local karma. I'd never used this platform before, but I grew to like it. After the announcement, I began posting about the game, proceeding cautiously initially to avoid getting banned for self-promotion.

Jumping ahead, the most successful post with 1k+ upvotes came recently, but even before that, I noted small successes after each publication. Thanks to UTM links, we saw that conversion to wishlists from Reddit was best in our case, although Instagram generated more visits.

Step Seven: Finalized the Demo

It was important for us to release a demo before Next Fest to gather initial feedback and fix bugs. We managed to do that. The first version was released about one and a half weeks before the festival, and in the interim we managed to implement a patch. A reminder, we’re working on a visual novel. Perfecting a more complex game would definitely require more time and iterations.

On the demo's release day, we again posted on our social media and asked friends to help spread the word. Through the developer's portal, we sent emails to all those who had wishlisted the game. I reached out again to Telegram channels that had already posted about us, and some made posts again—this time about the demo.

Simultaneously, I began reaching out to streamers and Let's Players. I didn't use mass mailings and personalized each email. That took considerable time but, in my opinion, resulted in more effective engagement: most authors responded, although some needed a reminder or a change in communication channel.

Most emails began with greetings, a brief game description, and a few words about the developers. I then tried to highlight how our novel could interest the specific author and proposed they try the demo. I always attached links to Steam, the press kit, and included a small image of the key art.

Traffic before Next Fest

Country distribution before Next Fest

This was the moment when there was a huge spike in attention to the page. We released the demo on Friday, May 30. Over the weekend, more than 2,000 people installed it, and 500+ launched it. The first Let's Plays and streams began emerging (mostly from authors who discovered the game themselves), and Deep Pixel Melancholy reached the 5,000 wishlists milestone.

Step Eight: Participated in Steam Next Fest

By June, we already knew that participating in Next Fest close to the release date was more advantageous (for us, this is winter 2025-2026). This was mentioned in many marketing articles, and the general principle seemed simple: the more wishlists a game has at the start, the more it will accumulate by the end of Next Fest.

Nevertheless, we retained our June application because we still wanted to gather more feedback. The importance of this outweighed other benefits, and to be honest, we just wanted to make a mark.

Player activity dynamics in demo

And we got what we wanted! During Next Fest, the number of streams and Let's Plays about the game skyrocketed—we watched them all. Over a week, more than 3,000 people installed the demo and more than 1,500 played it. We saw hundreds of opinions on the plot, music, and visuals. The game gained 3,715 wishlists from the initial 6,006, which means it grew by 60%.

With the new insights, the traffic analytics page now looked like this:

Next Fest provided four times as much visibility over one week than the game had received in the previous month, but page visits dropped significantly. We don't know if this is standard or an issue, but we share our data for completeness.

Step Nine: Finalizing the Game

Throughout the journey, we celebrated the results, especially considering the niche nature of visual novels. An overwhelming majority of players received the game positively. We were confident we were heading in the right direction and felt incredibly inspired by the support. This helped us determine what else should be in the game and how the story should conclude. The end of development became tangible.

Soon after Next Fest, activity logically began to wane, but the game reached the coveted 10,000 wishlists milestone—exactly forty days later. We've addressed all newsworthy events, but I continue reaching out to new contacts, and I'm also submitting Deep Pixel Melancholy to various festivals.

The marketing work never stops, and with this approach, I'm sure we'll attract more attention to the game, leading to the eagerly awaited tenth step—release.

Conclusions

Over several months around the announcement, it felt like a whole life had passed. As I mentioned at the beginning, the results significantly surpassed expectations, so we've decided to share our experiences with the community. Hopefully, our insights will be useful to someone.

It's important to build a community. A loyal audience will support at launch, provide valuable feedback, and the more people involved, the higher the chance to kickstart word-of-mouth marketing.
Don't skimp on preparation and gathering references—it helps create a great plan.
A plan is crucial. It saves you from mistakes, protects your nerves, and during stressful moments, it allows you to just follow instructions.
Put effort into the page design and make it appealing. Due to high competition, even small details require attention to capture players' interest.
Start a teaser/trailer with action. No black screens; the video should be engaging, and logos are better shown at the end.
A press kit simplifies life for everyone.
Gather a marketing contact base in advance and continually expand it.
Reddit remains a great place to generate wishlists, even with strict moderation.
During key events (announcement, demo release, Next Fest, major newsworthy occasions, release), focus all resources on promoting the game and reach out everywhere, even if the chances seem slim. Better to try and face rejection than miss an opportunity.
An individual approach to content creators provides better feedback and makes interactions more pleasant.
Release a demo in advance, before major events like Next Fest. It helps catch bugs and improve the build before a new audience tries the game.
Submit to all suitable festivals, as they draw attention to the game even without news hooks.

***

That's it, thanks for reading to the end! If you’d like to know more about the development of Deep Pixel Melancholy, I often share details on my Telegram, feel free to join and message me if you have any questions. You can also follow general news on the project's channel. And of course, if you enjoyed the game, add it to your wishlist and indulge in nostalgia!

* — belongs to Meta, recognized as an extremist organization in Russia, and its activities are prohibited in the country.