Dear Community,

You asked how you can help. Now the Outscape team needs your help urgently!

You probably know about our impending launch on Steam, if not you can read about it here. We need to ensure the Outscape launch is as successful as possible and the early weeks before and after launch are critical in deciding whether the game flops or takes off.

We’ve thought long and hard about how the community could help us into a position where we will launch successfully and narrowed it down to six highly impactful goals for you to drive. We think there are multiple ways of achieving these goals and we really need the community to get creative and drive these goals to make Outscape successful.

We will chart progress on these community goals and update those charts daily here. We will also do an additional weekly blog post with a bit of commentary on how things are going towards these goals too.

Once the community achieves any 5 of the 6 goals we’ll launch a 5th civilization to celebrate (which is about ready to go). They are called ‘The Snithereal’ and were requested by the community behind Ripchee and People’s Realm which we already launched for you (check out the images at the bottom of this post for a Snithereal sneak peek.). Note: If you are feeling especially nostalgic you can view the original list of proposals for Playable Civilizations here.

Here are the Six Community Goals which will make a massive difference to Outscape’s success:

Twitch Streams

Goal: Get 250 videos onto Twitch (from at least 30 different players).

Stretch Goal: Get 400 videos onto Twitch.

Why: Twitch drives a lot of awareness, many players look to twitch to see what type of game it is and many algorithms (outside of twitch) take into account popularity on twitch.

Ideas on How: While 250 videos may sound like a lot, divide that up by just a few 10’s of players and it’s actually pretty easy. Streaming to twitch is straightforward, we don’t necessarily need super long videos, but we do want to give a good impression of Outscape to new players.

Steam Followers

Goal: Get 1,000 followers on Steam ASAP.

Stretch Goal: Get 5,000 followers on Steam ASAP.

Why: Followers (along with Wishlisters) drive up Steam visibility which drives purchases. A decent number can get us listed on pages such as Steam Upcoming.

Ideas on How: We all have Steam accounts so we can start following (and get alliance members to do the same), but can the community find ways to encourage the millions of other Steam users to follow Outscape? It’s as simple as getting players to visit our Store page and click ‘Follow’ (below the screenshots):

Steam Wishlists

Goal: Get 1,000 people to add Outscape to their Wishlist ASAP.

Stretch Goal: Get 5,000 people to add Outscape to their Wishlist ASAP.

Why: Similar to the previous goal (Steam Followers) it gives us the best chance of appearing on pages like Steam Upcoming.

Ideas on How: Same ideas as previous goal – it’s as simple as getting players to visit our store page and click ‘Add to your wishlist’ (below the screenshots).

Steam Discussions

Goal: Get 100 meaningful discussion threads in our Steam Outscape Community each with at least 3 responses from 3 different players.

Stretch Goal: Same as above but 200 discussion threads

Why: Steam’s algorithms use this to decide on our visibility, but it also demonstrates a vibrant and active community which is worth being a part of for new players.

Ideas on How: You’re all pretty good at this already in our forums! But with some added focus we could Seed the steam discussions with meaningful and interesting content! Note: our existing forum works well, so we will continue to use that as the master source for steering game direction.

Steam Content

Note: Steam doesn’t allow uploads until Outscape has launched (on October 22nd).

Goal: Get at least 1,000 community uploads counting any of the following: Screenshots, Artwork, Broadcasts, Videos and Guides on our community page. At least 5 in each category and from at least 30 unique players in total. Details on how here

Stretch Goal: Same as above but 1,600 community uploads

Why: Steam’s algorithms use this, but it also demonstrates a vibrant and active community which is worth being a part of for new players.

Ideas on How: Encourage the community and new players to do this. Divvy up some of the work within your alliances. Tell our story to new players and explain how doing this helps everyone.

Steam User Reviews

Note: Steam doesn’t allow reviews until Outscape has launched (on October 22nd).

Goal: Achieve at least a ‘Mostly Positive’ User Rating on Steam (equivalent to 70% favorable reviews).

Stretch Goal: Achieve at least a ‘Very Positive’ User Rating.

Why: This will be the biggest determining factor of success once Outscape has launched.

Ideas on How: Only paying players can rate the game. However, the community plays a super important role in helping to onboard new players and ensure they are getting along ok in the game. Players tend to leave reviews early on, and we know that early game is Outscape’s weakest point right now. So help to manage expectations of new players and also tell new players what they have to look forward to, as well as offering hints and tips. Encourage positive reviews in your alliances and also ask players who seem to be enjoying the game to leave a positive review. Explain to them how this helps Indie’s to get investment into the game to build out all the exciting features we want. The most important part is to click the thumbs up when reviewing on our store page:

You can read more about how Steam’s ratings are calculated here.

So What Now?

Remember that we have a great active community and even more players who are following Outscape from the sidelines (remember that over 50k players signed up in Call to Arms and many of those joined Alpha at various stages) – if you, the community, come together, you can achieve this and make Outscape take off! Even before launch there are 4 impactful goals you can get started on right away! If everyone does a bit, it will happen!

And remember, after achieving any 5 of the 6 goals we’ll all celebrate by launching the 5th Civilization (snakes) which is about ready to ship!

Many many humble thanks to you, the Outscape community of supporters, for agreeing to help! This is a time for alliances and old rivals to unite together for a greater calling! Please do think about which goals you want to focus on and start making this happen ASAP!

– The Outscape Team

PS: Feel free to use the forum discussion for this post to start self-organising.

The Snithereal

Snithereal’s ships are not too far away from being ready

Once released the Snithereal (Snakes) would become the fith playable civ