Hello there!
It’s been a while since we wrote anything public from Pixelnest. 2 years ago I wrote an announcement that probably nobody read: the studio was back from its slumber, preparing the new game that would be CTHULOOT.
After that, we were deep into the production of the game, releasing, marketing, porting for 1.5 years. Now that all that is behind us, it seems that the time has come to start something new: a newsletter that will keep some people updated about our work, and also a place to share some stories or insights.
Let’s start with the basics. I’ll spare you the whole (small) history of the studio and focus on our latest release.
With the Headbang Club we teamed up to make a fun family-friendly arcade coop game, CTHULOOT! Think Overcooked x Zelda 2D dungeons, without combats.
It was released on April 14th 2025 on Steam and May 15th on Nintendo Switch. Check it out on your favorite platform!
One week before the Steam release, we shared publicly our marketing numbers, in a not very subtle attempt to draw some attention on the game.
We reached around 6k wishlists by our efforts combined with ads and (paid & free) events.
What we can clearly see:
Free events are the key. Use that spreadsheet to track them!
The Steam in-house events were not great (or downright bad like the co-op fest)
Paid events (MIX / Games Made in France) were very expensive but not useless, you really pay for each new wishlist
Then, something cool happened. And no, that post didn’t go viral, unfortunately!
The game was released on Monday: we were all the previous week-end in the Popular incoming section!
Stonks! On 1 week-end, we did 5k wishlist
And we were lucky to be selected and featured a whole week in the Lovecraftians days 2025 (thanks to Fulqrum Publishing!). They had a front page featuring for the event.
That’s 7k new wishlists on that release week period.
A month later, we’re still in the long tail of that curve, with ~25 new organic wishlists a day.
That release bump makes all other events so small.
And now the long-awaited number!
Since the initial release, we’ve sold:
811 units on Steam
92 units on Nintendo Switch
We have unfortunately a very, very high refund rate on Steam (15%). Most refunds messages are:
No online
No need to pay 4 copies
Not what they expected (lack of combat)
But, we have a low wishlist conversion rate, and that may be a good news. People are, of course, waiting for a good sale to pick up the game, so we’ll see how it goes in the coming year.
The full-price tail is not 0, so I realize we’re still at a better point than 80% of the other games on Steam.
We’re at only 20 reviews. The 10 first reviews were really hard to trigger, even with the help of our friends. The players seem to be really fed up with this system.
Now, the Nintendo Switch number is clearly very bad.
We did our best to get press coverage, but with the second console released in few days, we didn’t draw attention. Also, at the second the game was released, it was already buried deep in the Nintendo eShop among some soulless clones.
It’s a shame, I really think the game perfectly nails the spirit of the console: local multiplayer, coop, family friendly.
A Nintendo Switch 2 port - oh wait, I’d love that, but it’s not possible to get a developper access for now.
So we stick to the plan with Eddy and try to make the games we want to!
We were not expecting too much financially from that release, we prepared ourselves to that scenario and we both are doing contract work…
…and…
…we’ve started a new project. :)
Stay tuned! Subscribe to the newsletter ❤️