Hey guys, 

Connor Thorpe here - Producer & Game Designer of Avarice. It's been a while! I wanted to share the story of how Avarice came to be, and how we saw the success that we did. I've written a blog post below, feel free to read it. If you prefer video format, I've also linked a video at the bottom of the post telling the tale of Avarice. Thank you!

Have you ever dreamed of turning a school project into a viral sensation? Well, that's exactly what I did, alongside my friends, with our walking simulator horror game, Avarice. (Thanks to you <3)

It all started at Uni when my co-students and I were asked to form groups, in order to create a game project for a game design class, and a marketing class. We asked to have the classes combined, to work on a single game and market that game instead. We knew there was a risk we would get rejected to do so, but we got the green light which would prove critical for our game’s success.

We were tasked with creating a “Walking Simulator” game, and marketing it as we go. We decided to create a horror game inspired by the popular P.T. demo due to its popularity and demand for a replacement. We spent countless nights working on the game and developed a strong marketing plan including every action we would perform before release. We would often stay up until 4 am to get our work done for the day.

We spent about 12 weeks working on the game, and despite the challenges, we persevered and released the game on itch.io, giving it away for free. To our surprise, the game quickly became the number one most popular horror game on the platform for weeks straight. We even caught the attention of popular YouTuber Jacksepticeye, who played the game on his channel, bringing even more eyes to our student project.

Our success didn't stop there. Avarice now has almost 3 million views on YouTube and has been covered by various press outlets. The game's success even led to an invitation to speak about our project at Norway's biggest gaming expo, which we accepted!

My story is a testament to the power of hard work and determination. With the right mindset and a little bit of luck, you can turn your passion project into a viral sensation, no matter your scope and experience. But, as my team and I learned, it takes more than just hard work to achieve success. It takes a combination of creativity, grit, and a strong understanding of your target audience, as well as a willingness to take risks.

One of the most important lessons learned from the development of Avarice is the effectiveness of combining different skill sets to achieve a common goal. My team and I combined our game design and marketing skills to not only create a good game but a game that would resonate with its audience.

Another key factor in the success of Avarice was our willingness to take risks and an understanding of our target audience and their platforms. By giving the game away for free, we took a chance on the audience and the platform, and it paid off in a big way. We also achieved our goal of having an immensely popular horror game YouTubers play the game, completely organically with no marketing budget.

Finally, my story demonstrates that you don’t have to be the best at something to make great things happen. At the time we were still just students, learning as we went. Don’t be scared to put your work out there. Developing a game is a challenging and often long process, but with determination and a willingness to put in the work, anything is possible. I hope our journey is a testament to this and serves as an inspiration for others in our position.

I made a video covering this topic, check it out if you want to learn more: https://youtu.be/3X2pQhgwT1Y