Min-Maxing Your Steam Launch

0:00 Intro 1:11 The 72-hour test: what the dataset shows 3:35 Conversion is king: Steam’s fair-shot test and early thresholds 6:56 Designing for conversion: page, trailer, and pricing 8:41 Launch discounts and price psychology (40% for two weeks) 10:35 The controversial post-launch price drop and “is it sleazy?” 13:38 Pricing pitfalls: overpricing kills and you can’t A/B test 15:39 Are prices trending down? Incremental economics 18:32 When deep discounts backfire on perception 20:16 Tags as targeting: choose the right seed audience 24:51 Appeal and instant connection vs “just make a good game” 25:37 Copy what works, add a twist (Cory’s approach) 28:47 Picking a war theme via asset packs—and the backlash 31:57 Mechanics and pacing by the numbers (Click & Conquer) 34:33 Foot-pedal playtesting and auto-edited feedback 37:54 Scaling with collaborations and purpose-built tools 44:58 Riding trend waves: incrementals, co-op, and shop sims 48:42 Co-op lineage (Lethal Company, etc.) and theme waves like trains 50:49 Plotting by tags and where the data comes from 52:27 Don’t be late: spot waves early (Gavin’s advice) 54:31 Trend-chasing vs passion; blending genres and risk 58:28 Building a 400-hour game: roles, hours, and timeline 1:00:37 Why short projects lower risk and speed learning 1:04:31 After the wave: adjacent bets and using reviews/AI 1:09:11 Find genres with volume but mixed reviews; “Professional min/maxer” 1:13:55 AI is already changing dev: agents as co-devs and toolbuilding 1:19:59 Agents that use computers and play games; the inequality gap 1:29:04 The upside: accessibility and the internet analogy 1:31:50 Hot take: game dev shifts business-first; why AAA struggles 1:35:07 A new model: many small AI-boosted teams (and acquisitions) 1:37:33 Jonas’s stance: avoid AI art, use AI for code/tools; playtesting bottleneck 1:41:19 AI as sounding board: design aid (color theory) and more 1:43:16 “Soulless” vs soul: min-maxing as a creative pursuit 1:44:15 Wrap-up