I recently released my first original product: the 12-Word Cartographer – an analog procedure for drawing realistic-looking fictional maps1.
Three weeks after the release, I’d like to share some reflections from the experience
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What 12-Word Cartographer Is and How It Came to Be
Worldbuilding has been my hobby for as long as I can remember. Creating fictional worlds is a goal in itself for me and I gladly research all sorts of real-life topics to get them right. For years, my interest in worldbuilding fueled my exploration of various areas like climate, plate tectonics, history, speculative biology, linguistics, and others.
Even if I knew the processes required to create plausible worlds, however, I could rarely be bothered to actually use them. The complexity required is tedious and time-consuming, and family and work severely limit the time I can dedicate to creative endeavors. I needed a system I could employ quickly and effectively.
This thought has stayed at the back of my mind for the last year or so. The 12-Word Cartographer (henceforth: 12WC) is the first fruit it bore. It’s my attempt at picking some of the key elements of plate tectonics and simplifying them into a process anybody can understand and use in a matter of minutes.
Some other time, I will write about my design process and the science behind 12WC. Today, I’d like to take a look at the tool’s first three weeks: how it did and what I learned from it.
Your Product Getting Popular Is Like Heroin
I released 12WC three weeks ago, on September 5th as a “pay what you want” title. I shared it on a few Discord servers and other online groups I frequent. Over the next couple days, I got my first positive reviews, first paying customers. The product moved up in popularity.
As a new creator, I didn’t really believe in myself. I knew my procedure worked for me but I had no way to know whether it would work for anybody else or whether the way I explained it was any good. The growing popularity of 12WC was like the world telling me “What you created is good and valuable, good job!”
I couldn’t believe how addictive this feeling was. I was checking Itch’s analytics page multiple times per day, rejoicing over every new view, download, review, and purchase. Let me tell you this: I will never again scoff at streamers asking you to “like and subscribe” now that I know how they feel when somebody actually does.
Your Words Matter. A Lot.
One random day about a week after release, the popularity of 12WC exploded. That one day is responsible for about 25% of all visits and almost half of all paying customers so far. All of this thanks to these two comments:
Both David and Eric are accomplished creators whose work I value and admire. Their recommendation opened the metaphorical floodgates, pushing 12WC to 11th place on Itch’s top selling Physical Games for that one day2.
David and Eric have considerable followings but I noticed a similar (if more modest) effect after other people’s comments, as well. In fact, Itch’s analytics tells me that the comments section attracted way more people to my product than any other source.
What I’m trying to say is this: if you find an indie product you like, consider taking a minute to leave a comment. Not only will you make the creator’s day, you’ll make it easier for others to discover an awesome product they might otherwise miss. Not sure how it works on other platforms but on Itch, your words have power.
You know what? I think I need to take my own advice here and go thank a few wonderful creators. Let me do that right now. Until next time!
I had previously released some RPG translations on Itch but nothing of my own making.
Lest you get the wrong impression, I didn’t objectively make that much money from it. Tabletop RPGs, worldbuilding and related topics are very niche, especially once you go indie.