jefequeso had this alternative things going that worked a little like pay as you want. Too lazy to find the thread now. I just hope the little extra I put on top actually made it to him.

That is a great option. Support a game and developer by having the option to pay more for the game, but letting the user decide how much more.

Good you see it that way. AS I see it, the game wouldn't really fit. Maybe of interactive digital novels became a little more accepted here (and marketed as such).
Having played your game I see it more as a piece of "new literature" than a "game". (Not a bad thing, but may put off people with different expectations).
Found:
http://jefequeso.itch.io/the-moon-sliver

Pay 2.99 or more. That's what i did.

Problem is - I payed more to support jefequeso because I liked his enthusiasm (and I' a developer myself). But I stil "bought a pig in a poke", since there's no big "reliable" name there.
On the other hand, if people just paid less and than had the option to raise their pay aferwards - not many people would do this. For a newcomer it's very difficult to make money.

Thank you. I am going over to read now.

First of all, take a deep, cleansing breath.

Secondly, Congratulations - you make a Momo proud! ;-)

Thirdly, remember this - you can make some of the people happy some of the time but you can never make all of the people happy all of the time - so throw away the idea that everyone will love your game, it just ain't gonna happen, right? Just keep on making art in a way that makes YOU happy because at the end of the day when you climb in bed to sleep at night and when you wake up in the morning fired up to make something new or work on a project, THIS is all that matters. "If you build it, they will come"....

On the subject of negative reviews; constructive criticism is a good thing while destructive criticism is not - learn to tell the difference and then take the constructive part as a way to make future projects better. None of us are perfect and the people who take the time to submit constructive criticism can truly help us be better at what we do - and mostly we don't even have to pay for that ;-p OTOH, commentary that isn't fruitful or helpful to making a better product in the future is just some guy jacking off, right? So yeah, ignore that crap ;-p

Finally, congrats again - I truly enjoy knowing gog members that are dedicated to making new games ;-D

Congrats on being Greenlit! I say go for it!

Awesome, jefe! You already know I shot you a yes vote, but it's pretty cool you made it through. Hope things continue to go up for ya!

You're scared? :)

OK, let's take the cognitive therapy approach where I'll play one of the many Steam users....


This is a piece of shit! This is outrageous that Steam allows this kind of garbage!!!! You're just another random indie fag who can just do pretentious walking simulator, you don't have any skills! You're a disgrace to the pc masterrace! Fuck you, it doesn't work on my computer, you mischievous thief! you're the cancer of videogames!!!!

If you didn't flinch reading this then you have nothing to worry about, you're prepared for the usual troll and whiners ;)

On forum management : don't delete the insulting threads immediately, delete them a few weeks later when the troll posters have forgotten your game (coz they're already insulting another game) so they can't play as victims and it shows that you accept "criticism" (*coughing*). Reply to people who have bugs or troubles running the game even if you don't know the answer ("I will look into fixing your problem ASAP and try releasing a patch to solve this issue. sorry for the inconvenience.")

BTW, it would be a good idea to put a sticky in the forum "Get the Moon Sliver OST on Bandcamp" by linking not directly to the OST but linking to your general bandcamp page (so you can also sell your other albums indirectly)

PS: today is my gaming day, I had The novelist in mind (3 hours long normally) but I'll do also a run of The Moon Sliver if you say it's only one hour, I hope I won't get stuck ;)

I just finished The Moon Sliver (I for some reason thought it was named The Moon Silver, D'oh!) and I'm quite impressed by it, honestly. I'm not just saying that because you're a GOGer or anything. I'm not sure that it took me a full hour but I didn't time myself.

The positives:
The Atmosphere. The late afternoon/night atmosphere (and of course the atmosphere below) was really well done. I admit to having goosebumps at a few places haha. The lighting combined and the music worked really well together. The writing that served exclusively to set the mood/atmosphere was quite effective.

Graphically it looks good and the direction is consistent. I played it on max settings at max resolution and had zero lag.

The Writing. Everything was well written and grammatically correct for the most part. The foreshadowing was well done as was the use of certain characters that have...name value. More importantly I enjoyed the story and was interested in learning more. Not only were the story parts well done but as mentioned above you managed to set a great mood and really elevated the atmosphere as well.

The music served it's purpose and there were a few tracks that I'd like to hear the full version(s) of.

The negatives:
The length is the biggest negative. I appreciate that you at least made the world believable (it being an island) and I admittedly don't know how you could've padded the length without it being obvious padding, but I managed to find at least (as far as I can tell) 95% of everything possible and took the time to read everything but I feel like I spent a lot less than an hour in-game, granted I'm a quick reader.

The puzzle(s) being tied to the story. I correctly guessed the answer to a lock and wasn't able to open it. However after finding the one story bit (seriously one bit haha) I had missed I was able to go back and unlock the lock. It's not a huge deal though, just something that personally annoys me in games (although I understand why they're like that).

All in all I would recommend this to anybody that enjoys "artsy walking simulators" (the genre really needs a name) or even atmospheric horror games. However if I'm being honest, and I really don't mean to hurt your feelings nor devalue the amount of effort you put into the game and understanding that I really did enjoy it, I would have trouble justifying spending more than $5 on it unless it came with the OST. It's not really replayable and it's quite short. Sure it IS a great experience but it's also quite short and it doesn't seem to have any replay value. However you've created some interesting lore, perhaps this could be the first episode of a series?

Once again, congrats on getting Greenlit and here's hoping this is the start of something big!

also try to get it out as fast as possible (maybe too late now) so you can benefit from the Christmas sale.... As far as I know people buy everything then if it has a small discount and is below 3€ ;D

OK, game just finished (what a way to start a sunday morning ^o^)

So far, I liked the game. Unlike Neverending Nightmares wihch I felt was too long and had some draggy moments (and it only lasts only 2-3 hours), the length of Moon Sliver is just fine as it plays like a short novel. I really enjoyed the falling night and the changes of weather, that was some good design idea to increase the atmosphere. The art in general is coder's art obviously (but hey, I can even recognize the Unity type of terrain in Wasteland 2 ^o^) but as the player is more focused on the story and the atmosphere that's fine, that's not the main point and at least, the minimalistic aspect serves the story good.

Now, some suggestions for a patch:

- the hatch code : I missed the hidden paper note and lost a lot of time searching it :) But that's not bothersome, the trouble is that the code is maybe too easy to crack before the player gets the note (like the poster above), so maybe you could change or add some type of device trick which will make the hatch unlockable only after getting the clue. Also, when the code is correctly put, a sound effect (like a creaking metal door) would be good to tell the player it's unlocked.

- the maze ^o^ : as all the walls share the same texture, it can be difficult to navigate, obviously that's the intent but it could irritate some impatient player who aren't good at orientation :) So for example, at some intersections you could put some signs on the wall like "control room"/"stock of wood" with an arrow. Technically, make a small vertical transparent plane, place it just against the wall (the wall coordinate being x=0.0 and the plane being x=0.001 for example so it doesn't obstruct player's movement) and put the texture of the sign on it. That would make this part of the game a little bit smoother.

- The very end : when "the end" text screen is reached, I tought I would be brought to the menu but that didn't happen. I like the saying "people are not dumb but do as they would be". So after 2-3 seconds, maybe you could trigger a pop-up on the screen "Thank you for playing this game. Hit [esc] to get back to the menu" so they don't quit doing alt-f4 or enrage because they long forgot there was ever a menu :)

**** SPOILERS *****
I'm not sure but are we supposed to see something/someone when we turnback after reaching the book at the end? I blinked at this moment and poof, it was already the credits ^o^
**** END OF SPOILERS ****

Well, I got nothin' apart from a heartfelt "congrats!" and a few pairs of fingers I'll be keeping crossed.
Good luck, have fun, watch the booze!

Actually, you do still need to go through Greenlight. That's why Nyu Media keep submitting their games to GL.

OP, congrats. I got the game on IndieGameStand and voted for it at that time.

congrats jefequeso , as a long time steam user these are the following advise i can give you on making your game sit well with steam customers.

1) Do not bother about reviews and stuff just complete your game good with no game killing bugs make sure that the game runs fine with what requirement you specified , people on steam are more happy to buy a game that works and is complete. But do listen to what people say on your steam game forum rather than outside and see if its possible to apply them.

2) Since your game is on steam you will want to try and implement as many steamworks feature as possible for your game . Many customers will look at what steamworks features your game has and will purely buy at sales etc based on it.
For a single player game these all are looked at
- achievements
- steam cloud for saves
- steam trading cards

if you are able to support the other os like mac or linux that's a bonus as well

3) Do not fire back at hard remarks and any provocations over the game . This is the first game the peace and harmony you establish will determine the fate of the game in the future or the series.

4) Do not ever engage in drm battles or show preference openly to other platforms right for the first game. Your game is on steam, work with it there now.

I personally look forward to purchasing a game made by a fellow gog when possible

All the best mate.