The Year In Review 2019

It’s the end of another year and we’re in a reflective mood, looking back on all the things we’ve been up to over the course of the year of our lord Cthulhu, twenty nineteen.

Can you believe we released five games this year!?!?

Achtung! Cthulhu Tactics slithered onto Switch

Way back in the mists of time - the end of January, to be precise - the Nintendo Switch version of our turn-based tactics game joined its counterparts on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC.

We were pretty pleased with how this portable version turned out and, honestly, it might just be the best way to play it. A nice ending to a project that absorbed a lot of our attention in 2018.

We set off on our journey to space, with Mars Horizon: Blast Off!

In February we ran a Kickstarter for our space-themed card game, Mars Horizon: Blast Off!

Very much its own separate thing from the Mars Horizon video game - more on that later - the card game is a lightweight and fun game to share with friends. We had a great time playtesting it in the studio and have been really pleased to see players enjoying it after we shipped in November.

Dark Future drove on home

In the making since 2014, in 2019 we delivered Dark Future to PC.

First there was the beta, then the full launch, plus a Developer’s Archive showing progress on the game, and the soundtrack. Then we dropped six updates to the main game that brought a brand new gang, achievement progress tracking, balance refinement, bug fixes, and a bunch of QOL items requested by players.

First available on Steam, then through Humble, and more recently over on GOG, Dark Future was also nominated for a TIGA Award.

We ported and published Megaquarium to consoles

We were honoured to be given the responsibility of porting one of our favourite tycoon management games from PC to consoles - the delightfully fishy Megaquarium from Twice Circled.

Currently our joint best critically received game, the team did a superb job of translating the keyboard and mouse inputs to a controller, and making sure everything ran nice and smooth for console gamers eager to dip their toes into running an aquarium.

We got way into the whole “fish are amazing” thing, as our visit to the National Marine Aquarium and the accompanying gallery of images attests. We also worked on partnerships with the Tropical Marine Center and Bristol Aquarium to create loads of fun videos to celebrate the release of the game.

There’s Death on the Cards with Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie - Death on the Cards, our second tabletop game of the year, was with our friends at Modiphius and based on the works of Agatha Christie.

It was at UK Games Expo, it was at Gen Con, it was at Spiel, and now it’s at your FLGS and all good book stores, just in time for a post-Christmas dinner game of accusing your loved ones of being ruthless killers.

It’s a playful social deduction game with your favourite characters from the author’s mighty library of works and we’re so excited to see what you make of it.

Thanks for taking part in the alpha!

Mars Horizon pre-flight checks

Our next big own-IP game - Mars Horizon - continued development through 2019 and everything is gearing up for take off in 2020.

We gave everyone the chance to try out our Alpha of the game, and over 1500 of you, from all over the world, signed up to tell us what you thought. It sounds like we’ve been heading in the right direction, and the detailed feedback provided has gone on to shape development - a thoughtful little tweak here, a greatly expanded feature there.

We also announced our partnership with the European Space Agency, which, honestly, was a bit of a dream come true.

We doubled down on podcasting

This year the podcast went from strength-to-strength, covering a diverse array of subjects, as we began to feel our feet for what you wanted us to talk about.

There was coverage of the Global Game Jam in Bristol, our visit to the ESA, a deep dive into Games Workshop’s cult classic Chainsaw Warrior, a series on car combat and the roots of Dark Future, a history of Cthulhu video games, and we even talked about games we never ended up making.

The Auroch Digital team took a trip to @bristolaquarium last week to celebrate the release of #Megaquarium. Thanks for having us, we had an awesome time - Simon the Pufferfish and Gloria the #Octopus were firm favourites. ❤️🐙🐡 pic.twitter.com/amZTQz2to4

— Auroch Digital (@AurochDigital) November 11, 2019

New people joined us

We were joined by Jem (Marketing and Community Manager), Charlie (Programmer), Joel (Programmer), Stefan (Programmer), Ruth (Admin Assistant), and Sam (QA and Designer) for our projects this year.

It’s been brilliant watching this talented bunch settle in on their various projects, and our team for 2020 is made up of some of the South West’s absolute finest.

And more!

We wrote about subscription services and how they’ll affect the games industry over on PC Games Insider, did a talk about digital discovery at PC Connects, spoke at Gamescom Congress about making humanity a multiplanetary species, and went on Modiphius Calling to chat Christie and Cthulhu.

There’s probably some stuff we’ve missed too, and of course there was the usual load of behind-the-scenes stuff that you might be reading about in our next one of these annual blog posts.

All in all though, it’s been a great year. We’ve worked on some fascinating projects, shipped games we’ve been hard at work on for a very long time, published other studio’s games, worked with publishers to publish our games - the works.

And we couldn’t have done any of this without you. A big high five from the whole team to everyone who has bought and played our games over 2019, and gave us useful feedback on our work. An extra special thank you to those that we’ve been chatting with us on our Discord server and keep us motivated for the stuff we’re working on now.

See you in 2020!

Auroch Digital hangs out with an octopus called Gloria

unicorn surgeonfish

Following the launch of Megaquarium, we wanted to demonstrate how effectively the game captures the challenges of running a public aquarium. Who better to ask than a real aquarist?

We’ve been working with Bristol Aquarium to produce a mini video series about the design, upkeep, and daily running of marine exhibits. If features assistant curator Mark Iwachiw, who speaks about his experiences caring for aquatic animals, and he even gets in some tips on how to build the best aquarium.

Right in the heart of the city, Bristol Aquarium has over 40 themed displays and thousands of amazing aquatic creatures, including: tropical sharks, rays, seahorses, puffer fish, piranhas, and an octopus. The aquarium displays both a mix of tropical fish from around the world and others that are native to the UK’s waters.

Big-belly seahorses and Jem

Our four-part mini video series starts by exploring what goes into making a great aquarium exhibit, taking into account the layout, tank decorations, and which animals to house together. Next we discuss the joys of looking after different animals, such as Porcupine Puffer Fish, Groupers, and how Reggie the Puffer Fish got his name. 

Another video in the series looks at how aquariums are designed and how games like Megaquarium can help to teach people about conservation. Lastly, there’s a video about the star of Bristol Aquarium - and one of the highlights of Megaquarium - Gloria the Great Pacific Octopus. She is a firm favourite of visitors as well as us here at Auroch Digital.

The Auroch Digital team took a trip to @bristolaquarium last week to celebrate the release of #Megaquarium. Thanks for having us, we had an awesome time - Simon the Pufferfish and Gloria the #Octopus were firm favourites. ❤️🐙🐡 pic.twitter.com/amZTQz2to4

— Auroch Digital (@AurochDigital) November 11, 2019

After we finished interviewing Mark and filming Bristol Aquarium, we brought everyone from our studio down to visit the aquarium in celebration of the launch of the game. We had a brilliant time spotting fish from Megaquarium in real life and Jem made sure everyone got to hear plenty of fish facts - whether they wanted to or not. We especially enjoyed seeing Gloria the octopus being fed and interacting with her handlers. It was absolutely incredible.

You can view our full video series on over on Facebook, and if you’re visiting Bristol make sure to drop by the aquarium to see Gloria!

Grab a copy of Megaquarium on your favourite platform to start making use of these great aquarium building tips.

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Enter our winter holidays giveaway and win a bumper Auroch Digital prize bundle!

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED - THANKS FOR ENTERING! Check out some of the answers in our Twitter Thread.

It’s nearly the holidays and you know what that means: it’s nearly time to curl up with a favourite blanket, a beloved pet, and a warm game to while away the hours those long dark nights.

But what game?

Tell us your top suggestion to enter our winter holiday giveaway below. Let us know your favourite game to play over the holidays: is there a video game you tend to replay this time of year, or a board game you break out when the nights get cold, or a family classic you always get roped into?

We’ve got a bumper prize bundle including download keys, board games, and load of great goodies. Here’s what you could win:

Physical

• Mars Horizon: Blast Off!

• Elections of US America Election: The Card Game + Expansion

• Achtung! Cthulhu: Dark Tales from the Secret War novel

• Achtung! Cthulhu: Commander’s Set

• Achtung! Cthulhu: Keeper’s Guide

• Achtung! Cthulhu: Allied Investigators Pack 2

• 40 Years of Ogre promotional item

Digital

• Megaquarium key (for either Xbox One, PlayStation 4, or Nintendo Switch)

• Dark Future: Blood Red States Steam key

• Chainsaw Warrior: Total Darkness Edition Steam key

• Ogre Steam key

Simply fill in the below form for your chance to win! We’ll be sharing some of the best answers on social so make sure to follow along. The deadline for entries is 18th December 2019 at 11pm BST. You can read the full terms and conditions here.

Don’t forget to keep an eye on your inbox as we’ll be emailing the winner on December 19th.

Good luck!

Subscribe

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Favourite game to play during the winter holidays: *

Which country do you live in? *

An interview with Tomas Rawlings, Design Director at Auroch Digital - The making of Agatha Christie - Death on the Cards

Agatha Christie’s Death On The Cards is a social deduction game based on the characters and themes of the author. It was recently created by Bos taurus Diceworks (with support from Auroch Digital) and published by Modiphius. It has reviewed well in the Metro too! Auroch Digital’s own Tomas Rawlings is the Design Director for Bos taurus Diceworks. The game was created through working closely with Agatha Christie Limited (ACL). The success of Death On The Cards is a great example of the experience Tomas has working with partner IPs that he brings to Auroch Digital.

Below is an interview with Tomas by ACL which goes into more detail about the creation of the game and the partnership:

Dr. Tomas Rawlings is Design Director at the indie games studio Auroch Digital & physical games company Bos Taurus Diceworks. He is an experienced, award winning games designer who has created games from original titles to well-loved IP. He is a well known speaker and consultant on games and gaming who has also worked with major organisations such as the Wellcome Trust, the Royal Society, UK Parliament and the BBC. He can be found on Twitter here and there is more about him here.

Tell us first of all a bit about who you are and what you do, and the relationship between Bos Taurus Diceworks and Modiphius?
I’m a games designer, so ended up pitching to Agatha Christie Ltd along with my colleagues the idea of a card game based on her works. We got the basic outline working quite quickly and then brought it down to the London office to try out - and happy to say the staff there loved it. So much so that we had to print off another test copy for them! Once we’d got the game, the next step was to partner with a publisher to help turn it from prototype into the real thing, then get it into the hands of players; Modiphius was a great fit for this project as they understood the vision for the project and also had a strong track record of making amazing games from other IPs, so soon the three organisations were partnered to create together!

What inspired you to take on Agatha Christie?
First I think it is interesting to understand the boardgame space is undergoing quite a renaissance at the moment. We’re seeing a huge and growing demand for board and card games combined with a flourish of ideas and new titles that means it is a really exciting and creative space at the moment - perfect for the deep well of works that Agatha Christie created. Plus I think there’s an interesting social push for things that remove the screen and sit you around the table with friends and family for a shared experience - which is also a perfect setting for murder and intrigue!

So I knew all this when approaching the initial design of the game, and I started by reading a bunch of her novels and short stories. This was not the first time I’d read her works, but it was the first time that reading was ‘work’; It’s a tough living, but somebody's gotta do it ;)

I started with The Mysterious Affair at Styles then moved on to The Murder of Roger Ackroyd and then devoured the collection of shorts, The Hound of Death. Then on to more general research and in my head an outline of a possible game started to emerge...

How did you approach the project? What did you look at first?
What I was reminded of is the core idea that within many of her stories everyone is guilty, just not of murder - in the narrative this keeps you guessing as to who did it. It also made the perfect setting for a social deduction game - where every player would be guilty, but only one of them is guilty of murder. The task of the players then becomes to unmask the murderer in their midst, while the aim of the murderer is to deflect suspicion until they can escape.

Having got a basic structure, from a game design point of view we then need to add the risk/reward mechanics that power the player choices - the idea here was that each player starts with three ‘secrets’ - things they don’t want to reveal, housed on face-down cards - that give an incentive to thread secrecy throughout the game. One of those face-down cards has the secret declaration, “You are the murderer!” So the reward is the revealing of another player’s secret cards, allowing the steady deduction to unmask the murderer, while the risk is having your own guilty secrets aired in public. The next game design task is to create a series of mechanics that protect or expose these cards, that interlock with one another so that there are plenty of opportunities for strategy, intrigue and pure luck to influence play.

What were the challenges of the project? And what did you love?
When you’re working with somebody else’s IP (something I’ve had the privilege of doing a lot as a games designer) you’re always aware that what you’ve been entrusted with is somebody else’s ‘baby’ - they have birthed it, nurtured it and make it into something special enough to have that fanbase. You need to do right by their creation. What was so great about this project was how strongly the team at Agatha Christie Ltd helped me to understand where this project could go, which is important because in this game I needed space to have fun with it and let the players have fun too, while we are surrounded by a serious topic - death. They were great at helping me explore where we could take it, and I feel strongly that the final game has that right balance of respect for Agatha Christie’s work combined with a bit of tongue-in-cheek, murder, tactics, strategy, luck, back-stabbing, lying, guilt and deception; all the ingredients you need for fun night in with your family and friends.

How did you approach interpreting the iconic characters of Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple?
Within the game there was the perfect gameplay mechanic for them; players have secrets and we need ways to expose them. Thus came the idea of ‘clue cards’; when cards of the same character are collected together, they can be played to expose a random player’s secrets. This gave the game its core mechanic and also the perfect means to incorporate the myriad of amazing characters. Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple can be played as a group of three clues, more powerful than most other clue sets that operate in pairs. Other characters, for example Harley Quin’s clue cards can be used as wildcards to fill in a missing card. Overall I was really pleased how well the different characters adapted into the gameplay - almost like they were designed for that purpose!

Do you have any advice for other partners working on developing/interpreting Christie’s characters?
Go back to the source! For me reading (and in some cases re-reading) her works gave me so many ideas and inspirations that the issue was more how to edit them all down into what I needed as there were so many! As we approach the 100th anniversary of the publication of The Mysterious Affair at Styles, reading the text gives you a sense of story and character that still feels fresh and interesting a century later. Nothing beats going back to the source in my opinion.

Who is the target audience?
The target audience is anyone who can understand how to play. It is a game about murder, so of course it is not for small children, but anyone who understands the themes of the game and can gather a group of friends and family around them - this is for you! I also feel it is the perfect Christmas or birthday gift for that family member who loves crime fiction, but you’re not sure what to get them as they devour so many books. This is the out-ofthe-box gift I think they’ll love and best of all - you get to enjoy it with them too!

What do you hope for from the game?
Two things would make this a success for me; one is that it gathers friends and family around the table and they have fun. There’s so much bad news in the world, if we’re helping to make some fun and connection, then that is a positive. Two is that some people who play it move on from the game to reading some of Agatha Christie’s works. That the game is a gateway to the larger world of her works. That would be a win too.

Agatha Christie's Death on the Cards is available from Waterstones, Barnes & Noble, your local gaming stores and Amazon order now from the Modiphius store.

Dark Future: Blood Red States is now on GOG.COM!

It’s been a busy few weeks for us at Auroch Digital - hot off the back of our Megaquarium release we’ve had more wonderful aquarium visits, and we also just had a new update release for Dark Future: Blood Red States.

We now have even more exciting news, Dark Future: Blood Red States is now on GOG.COM!

We’re celebrating by giving you a 25% discount for launch week! Head on over to our new store page to pick it up your lovely DRM free copy of the game!

More Dark Future goodness!

Want to know more behind the scenes from Dark Future: Blood Red states? Listen to our podcast as we take you through the ins-and-outs of making a video game with episodes on the Dark Future board game, how we made Dark Future, an interview with James Swallow, and the History of Car Combat.

Or check out The Science Behind Dark Future: Blood Red States below to understand the science and reasoning that went into making the game. Drs. Richard Bowater and Helen James of UEA, helped to keep the ideas and content in the game grounded within the realm of scientific possibility, find out how:

Auroch Digital visits the National Marine Aquarium (NMA)

Jem, Mike, and Citron the Lemon Shark.

Jem and Mike teamed up with The National Marine Aquarium (NMA) for a Megaquairum launch event last Thursday and it was awesome!

Our team showed the game to the public, got to learn all about the animals featured in the game and even got to do a livestream with a lemon shark - his name is Citron and he is lovely!

The NMA is the UK’s largest aquarium and is run by the Ocean Conservation Trust – a global ocean conservation organisation focused on protecting and restoring our world’s oceans. At the aquarium they care for 400 different species of marine animal which totals around 4,000 animals. The animals are grouped into different zones including Plymouth Sound, British coasts, Atlantic Ocean and Blue Planet.

The original creator of Megaquarium, Tim Wicksteed, visited the NMA in Plymouth to research the game. He was inspired by the huge scale of the 2.5 million litre Atlantic Ocean Exhibit. Many of the large marine animals from this tank such as the Eagle Rays, Green Turtle and Lemon Sharks, made their way into the final game. The Atlantic Ocean Exhibit is the largest tank in the UK, and was also where Mike and Jem hung out to showcase the game.

Behind the scenes on our underwater Livestream

Jem and Mike livestreamed Megaquairum in front of the enourmous Atlantic Ocean tank after the aquarium closed. This was hosted over on Mixer, the livestream was featured on the front page of Mixer as well as on the Xbox dashboard.

You can catch up on the livestream here on Mixer or over on the Auroch Digital Facebook page. Keep an eye out for Citron the Lemon Shark swimming behind them, you can see him at 1 hour 12 minutes. They were also joined by large rays and a very curious barracuda.

Below are some more shots from our aquarium visit featuring some of our favourite fish in Megaquarium, such as the Spotted Boxfish, the Porcupine Pufferfish, the Copperband Bytterfly, and Longhorn Cowfish! You can also see the divers cleaning the tanks whilst keeping Citron the Lemon Shark at bay with a special rod.

We’d like to say a massive thank you to The National Marine Aquarium for this wonderful and unique opportunity to showcase our game and for letting us meet the animals and true inspirations behind Megaquarium. We’d recommend any fans of Megaquarium visiting them and meeting their wonderful animals. We’d also like to say a special thank you to Chris Priestman for helping us on the day!

Megaquarium is out now for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch! 🐠

It’s time to splash into Megaquarium for a fin-tastic time! Available right now! Click below to buy it now - choose your console:

Nintendo Switch

PlayStation 4

Xbox One

More Megaquarium Fun - Podcast, blog posts, reviews, videos

Read about the making of Megaquarium

Check out our post over on the Official PlayStation blog! We share behind the scenes info about the creation of the Whale Shark and look at how Tim wicksteed of Twiced Circled, the games creator, brought authenticity to the game through his research.

Megaquarium tank tips with Xbox Wire

How should you layout your aquarium? How do you stop your fish getting too stressed? What’s the best way to manage your staff? Get our top tank tips for beginners in our post on Xbox Wire.

Auroch Digital Podcast - A chat with Time Wicksteed 🎤

Check out our Megaquarium episode where we chat with the game's developer Tim Wicksteed! Hear about his motivations for making the game and how he made marine management fun.

Livestreaming with the fishes at The National Marine Aquarium (NMA)

Come chat to us as we play Megaquarium over on the Auroch Digital official Mixer account! We’ve got a launch day stream happening tonight at 4pm UK time til 6pm UK time!

And we’ve got an extra special livestream coming up next week. Join us for “Streaming with the fishes” as we stream Megaquarium from the largest aquarium in the UK - The National Marine Aquarium (NMA)! We will be streaming Megaquarium in front of a giant tank full of sharks, rays, and other amazing animals. Don’t miss out!

Date: 24th October
Time: 5pm BST - 6pm BST
Where: Auroch Digital's Mixer Channel

Learn more about the fish in Megaquarium

We’ve been working alongside the Tropical Marine Centre to create some educational videos about the fish in Megaquarium. Each of our videos feature the spectacular marine livestock of the the Tropical Marine Centre, supplying sustainable and ethically-sourced, healthy livestock to the aquarium hobby.

Follow our Facebook or Twitter to find out more about Puffer Fish, Lion fish, Longhorn Cowfish, and more wonderful underwater animals.

What subscription services will (and won't) mean for developers

There has been talk of subscription services, like Netflix and Spotify, for video games for years. Recently there has been more buzz around these services from Humble, Microsoft and Ubisoft amongst others. What will these kind of services mean for the future of games and those who make them and those who play them?

Our Design Director Dr. Tomas Rawlings has written a piece for PC Games Insider about how he thinks subscription services will affect developers.

Read it here!

Great news everyone - We're up for a TIGA award

We’ve had some great news this week as Dark Future: Blood Red States has been shortlisted for TIGA's Heritage Award!

We’re really excited to be up for the award alongside some other great titles - check out the the full shortlist for the awards. A lot of passion and hard work has gone into making Dark Future: Blood Red States so we’re excited to celebrate this.

TIGA awards

The TIGA awards, run by The Independent Game Developers' Association, are designed to recognise the achievements of studios, businesses, and universities across the games sector.

We’ve been shortlisted for The Heritage Award which recognises a game that reflects British creativity, subject matter, and heritage. Dark Future: Blood Red States is a great fit for this as it’s an adaptation of legendary British tabletop company Games Workshop’s 1988 cult classic Dark Future, the reboot being made by our friendly little British studio Auroch Digital.

Its narrative framing and visual design has inspirations within it from everything from the bleakly humourous British sci-fi comics of the ‘80s, to the BBC’s now defunct Ceefax service. You can find out more about this in our podcast with several episodes about the development and creation of Dark Future.

The Dark Future Needs You!

How can you get involved, I hear you ask? You can vote for Dark Future as Game of the Year! All the video games within the Games Category shortlists for The TIGA awards are automatically finalists for the Game of the Year.

You can head on over here to vote but make sure you do it before midnight on 18th October! It would mean a lot to us to get your vote as Dark Future has been a labour of love for everyone here at Auroch Digital. Once you’ve voted, please do share this and as other Sanctioned Ops to share too! Together the future’s not bright, it’s dark.

Keep your fingers crossed for us and pop on over to our lovely little Discord to chat all things gaming and Dark Future.

How to Wishlist games on Steam and why it’s important

We’ve written before about why reviewing games on Steam can help out your favourite game studios, and today we’re talking Steam Wishlists, and why they’re also important.

Are Steam Wishlists ACTUALLY important to developers?

In some instances yes, definitely, and in other instances we think so, yeah.

This sounds complicated...

Like most companies that own game distribution platforms, Valve isn’t open about how their store’s various chart algorithms work, or what they’re looking for when choosing to promote titles.

When you look at the games that perform well in the charts or are featured in the Update News pop up, they tend to be games that either has a fair bit of a following already, or are from well-known publishers and developers with a dedicated following or a large ad budget. It’s likely that these games have high Wishlist numbers, but we can’t know this for sure and we don’t know if Valve uses these in relation to either the charts or Update News features, so it’s a bit of a black box.

We’ve heard completely conflicting reports on how Valve interprets this data too.

Some developers we’ve spoken to have claimed that a Valve rep told them that 5000 is the number of Wishlists needed for a game to be taken seriously when it comes to featuring on Steam. Others told us that the person they know at Valve said it was closer to 10,000. Others have claimed it’s much more like 50,000.

We’ve also been told that Valve doesn’t care about Wishlist numbers at all. And others that it’s the only metric Valve uses. And we’ve been told that Wishlists are part of a mix of data Valve uses.

So are Wishlists important when it comes to Valve providing featuring? “We think so, yeah”, but honestly we can’t know for sure.

But you said that Wishlists were “definitely” important!

They’re really important to us as a studio.

While Valve doesn’t tell you what it does with Wishlist data, it definitely encourages developers to use this feature of Steam. To quote their documentation, using the Wishlist feature “gives you a sense of the level of interest by potential customers and a way of notifying interested customers when your game releases or goes on discount”.

These two elements - gauging the interest of our titles, and directly notifying people interested in our products - help us make decisions about our games.

For example: so long as you’ve verified your e-mail account with Steam, and that you’ve opted-in to receive e-mails, Valve will send you a message whenever a game on your Steam Wishlist launches, or leaves Early Access.

This helps us to get as many people buying our games at launch, which definitely has an impact on how high we climb up the “New and Trending” and “Top Selling” charts, which in turn helps reach more potential customers who happen to see the game in these sections during this period.

So we’ll make decisions about our marketing activities ahead of a launch that are based (partly) on how effective those activities are at increasing our Wishlist numbers on Steam, so we can make that launch splash as big as possible.

Should we do another season of the podcast? Should we put money into Facebook advertising? Should we give out alpha access to our game? If something increases Steam Wishlist numbers, then it’s a good indicator that we should do it.

Valve will also e-mail you if a game on your Wishlist is currently discounted, and again this is great for us because people who are price sensitive can pop a game of ours on their Wishlist, and keep track of its price until it reaches the point where they’re happy to jump onboard.

It helps with other areas of our business too. If we have a game with a lot of Wishlists, it might be a good indicator that there are a number of people who are interested in buying it, but aren’t yet convinced it’s worth the asking price. We can use this data to help decide if the solution is to add more content to the game to increase the value proposition, or to rethink how we communicate the game’s value, or to simply put the game on sale.

Alright, I’m convinced, how do I add a game to my Wishlist?

It’s really easy. 

First, make sure you’re logged into Steam, either here via a web browser, or via Steam’s mobile app, or the Steam desktop client.

Second, navigate to the game you’d like to add to your Wishlist (like our upcoming Mars Horizon), and click the “Add to your wishlist” button that’s just beneath the screenshots carousel.

Third, double-check your e-mail preferences to ensure you’re receiving the right e-mails from Valve.

If you ever need any more help with this, Steam has a great guide all about it, and if you have any questions for us specifically, pop on over to our lovely little Discord.

Thanks for reading!