Your Game Has Wishlists. Now What? Creating Fans, Not Just Casual Players.
詳細
You've spent months or even years developing your game.
- You've refined the mechanics.
- You've improved the graphics.
- You've built a Steam page.
- You've gathered wishlists.
- You've attended events, conventions, and networking meetups.
Now it's time to launch!
But what happens next?
- How many of those wishlists will actually convert into players?
- How much revenue will your game generate?
- Will it cover your development costs?
- Will people still be talking about your game six months after release?
- Or will you find yourself starting over from scratch on your next project?
These are questions many indie developers eventually face, regardless of how talented they are.
In this workshop, we'll take an honest look at some of the biggest challenges facing indie developers today, including:
• Building before validating
• Marketing too late
• Growing wishlists without building a community
• Scope creep and endless development cycles
• Poor market positioning
• The realities of convention and event spending
• Why networking doesn't always translate into sales
• Why large wishlist numbers don't always convert into revenue
* Why players and fans are not the same thing
We'll also discuss an important reality that many creators are facing in 2026:
The market has changed.
Thousands of games are released every year. Discoverability is becoming increasingly difficult. Experienced developers who were once employed by major studios are entering the indie space. AI tools are lowering technical barriers and allowing more people than ever to create games, art, music, and content.
This is exciting for creators, but it also means that simply making a game is becoming less of a competitive advantage.
The question is no longer:
"How do I make a game?"
The question is becoming:
"Why should players care about my game instead of the thousands of other options available to them?"
We'll explore why many entertainment companies are shifting their focus away from individual products and toward franchises, universes, communities, and long-term audience development.
We'll also explore a question that many developers never really ask during their initial game development process:
What happens after players finish your game?
Many indie projects focus heavily on gameplay mechanics, graphics, and technical execution. While those things are important, they are often only the hook. The more important questions are:
- What keeps people interested afterward?
- What keeps them talking about your game?
- What keeps them coming back?
- What makes them become fans instead of simply players?
We'll discuss how memorable characters, worldbuilding, storytelling, community building, and transmedia thinking can help create deeper engagement and longer-term opportunities for your project.
This is not a marketing seminar.
This is not a "get rich quick" workshop.
It's a practical discussion based on real-world experiences, successes, mistakes, lessons learned, and observations from years of developing games, building original IPs, attending conventions, networking within the industry, publishing creative works, and watching both successful and unsuccessful projects unfold.
Whether you're preparing for your first launch or your fifth, you'll leave with new questions to ask, new ideas to consider, and a broader perspective on how to build something that lasts beyond release day.
### Who Should Attend?
• Indie Game Developers
• Designers
• Writers
• Artists
• Creative Entrepreneurs
• Anyone interested in building sustainable creative projects and communities
### Format
• 60-minute presentation
• 30-minute Q&A and discussion
### About the Speaker
Walter Ragland - A transmedia storyteller, narrative designer, educator, and creator of the WildFIRE Expanded Universe.
My work spans novels, comics, game concepts, animation projects, physical products, and long-term worldbuilding developed over several decades.
Through these projects and industry experiences, I've become increasingly interested in how creators can build meaningful worlds, memorable characters, and lasting communities around their work.
Admission: ¥1,000
Limited seats available.
Early registration recommended.
We'll take a short 10-minute intermission between sessions to give everyone a chance to grab a drink, stretch, refresh, and think about some of the ideas we've discussed before moving into Part 2 and the Q&A.
Payment Questions
PayPay and credit card payment options are available. If you're having trouble with payment or would prefer an alternative payment method, please contact me directly through Meetup and I'll do my best to help.
## Event Access
This workshop will be held online via Zoom.
The Zoom link and password will be sent directly to registered attendees after registration and payment.
Please check your Meetup messages before the event for access details.
Questions about the event? Feel free to contact me directly through Meetup.