Well, best of luck to you. I really enjoyed the demo, and I'm sure there's a bunch more fun to be had with the complete game.

If anyone wants to try the game, it looks like the demo may still be available here: http://www.runningwithrifles.com/m/running_with_rifles_demo_beta_0.99.9_install.exe

And then +1 the wishlist: http://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/running_with_rifles

Hey there!
Two things:

"Too niche..." - I think that is GOG's way to tell you they don't think it's worth it. It may be that it's actually a really good game, but a genre only a handful of people have interest in. Or it's actually too generic and won't stand out (shovelware). Or maybe the game is good, but lacks polish and production values. Or they simply think it sucks.
If you were a fashion designer and GOG a clothing boutique they would probably say "It great, but doesn't fit in our line-up", no matter what they really think of it.

Concerning a DRM-free release: What about itch.io or Humble? A polished and finished game might really stand out on itch.io, and Humble often has combined "Steam key and DRM-free download" offers, that's why I sometimes buy in these two stores.

"Too niche" is increasingly laughable. It tells the developer absolutely nothing about how to improve a game's appeal to a wider audience, when it might be a few simple things.

This is quite surprising as it is a spiritual successor to Cannon Fodder, which is on GOG (1 & 2).

If it is too niche, shouldn't they remove Cannon Fodder as well ?

I found it quite enjoyable. Its presence on GOG wouldn't shock me at all.

If there are french-speaking people interested in seeing how the game is, I made a video in french about it on my Youtube channel : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPZgyZem7JE

And in these three years, I never heard of this game once. Not in a review, not in an advertisement, not as a "let's get this game on GOG" post, not in a driveby post, not as someone's game recommendation. I'm not saying that to attack, but more a matter of simple advertising. Of the three gaming related discords I'm on, only one of them mentions it once.

The only channel I see on youtube that I'd even recognize is Paulsauresjr. And I gave up on the Mindcrack team years ago.

Simple as it may seem, think of how Minecraft, Terraria, Cave Story, or La-Mulana spread. None of them had an advertising team, yet they spread as wildlfire. Or perhaps PUBG, Counterstrike, and Team Fortress. Those were just mods for other games. And yet they also became as wildfire.

It doesn't appear to have been on any major review site. Over 3 years, and the wishlist entry only has a paltry 104 votes. The game has had plenty of time to garner attention, and yet nary a peep was heard.

In this case the "too niche" might actually apply. Steams says reviews are "very positive", screenshots and trailer look really good - and still it seems there are simply not many people interested in it. Sometimes it's hard to pin down what's the problem. I'm not into real time strategy/tactics much, so I'm not the target audience anyway.

Or Humble, like I wrote above, with a combined offer of Steam key and DRM-free download. Though the game would probably stand out on itch.io more.

(Part of the point I was trying to make, but also "let yourself be heard.")

Yes, every once in a while someone gets lucky. But there can only be so many hits and wildfires going about.

Ok, see you on Steam then.

You are totally right, our marketing could have definitely be better as even if we contacted tons of press (didn't help much anyway) and tons of Youtubers, the by far biggest impact was the word of mouth and of course simply by having the game on Steam. We sold something around 650k units which really isn't bad but could have certainly be better.
As for the Youtubers, either they asked for money to test the game or the game was just too hard for most of them and they lost motivation. I won't blame them but you won't be good at RWR in an hour, probably not even after 5 hours and as you are a grunt among tons of other AI soldiers, you might die a lot, which certainly doesn't help when you want to record some nice gameplay.
We implemented proper in-game tutorials (journal entries) that unlock while playing the campaign but this came too late, as the game has been out for quite a while already.

Wow, if that's not a typo.. I'm actually really impressed. Most indies could only dream of such numbers. And I mean top down tactical shooters *are* kinda niche in a way.. not in the way that should lead to being rejected from a game store (GOG's opaque curation is kinda nonsese), but I can see why it wouldn't have the mainstream appeal that the successful indies enjoy. That makes such numbers all that much more impressive.

it's not a typo, 200k units are from humble monthly though. And yes those are definitely good numbers. We also were lucky to release at a time where there wasn't 30.000 games on Steam yet which is just crazy and if you mess up the release visibility, your game will be buried and fail miserably. Nowadays I would be very worried to release a new game there without publisher...
Back in 2014 (early access) and 2015 (release) I barely knew anything about GoG apart that it was especially for "old games" but it seems that they entirely changed their philosophy now and are mainly about profit so ya we mainly missed the transition, as it might have been easier to get in a bit earlier.

Please make RWR on GOG happen!

Best regards

phil