Managing Player Expectations: A Critical Lesson in Game Marketing

In the series of "topics I never even considered prior to seriously working on planning for a commercial game launch," one of the biggest surprises has been managing player expectations. I touched on this in Finding the Hook: Lessons from Echoes of Myth, but a particularly tricky aspect is choosing the right emphasis in marketing—ensuring that player expectations align with the actual game experience to avoid negative backlash.

I've personally refunded plenty of Steam games after realizing they felt very different from what I expected—despite watching reviews beforehand. Why does this happen? And more importantly, how can I, as a developer, prevent players from having a similar reaction to Echoes of Myth?

The Expectation Gap and Its Consequences

Many factors contribute to refunds and negative reviews, but one of the biggest is misaligned expectations—what players assume about a game based on its name, visuals, trailers, descriptions, and tags. This is further shaped by their subjective prior experiences with similar-looking games.

As both a gamer and a developer, I have my own views on genre conventions, and while I’m confident that my understanding of RPGs, roguelites, etc., aligns with most players on core mechanics, there are inevitably some areas where my interpretation differs from others’ expectations. Add in design pivots along the way, and it’s easy to lose sight of the forest for the trees when communicating what the game actually is.

Two Key Pivots in Player Expectation Management

1. The “Soulslike” Problem

From the very beginning, Echoes of Myth has had strong Soulslike influences—especially in combat mechanics and limited healing. However, player feedback quickly revealed an issue:

When players see "Soulslike," they don’t just expect combat mechanics—they also associate the term with interconnected, hand-designed levels, possibly some Metroidvania elements, and an overall bespoke exploration experience. Since Echoes of Myth doesn’t deliver on those aspects, advertising it as a Soulslike—even with “influenced by” qualifiers—creates misleading expectations. This would likely result in disappointment, negative reviews, and refunds from players expecting a more traditional Soulslike structure.

2. The Diablo Visual Misalignment

A second realization came from watching players try out a demo at an IGDA event. While the game had already moved towards deliberate, slower-paced combat, some players were expecting fast-paced, click-heavy ARPG gameplay—and they quickly became frustrated.

The issue? Visual cues and mechanics that unintentionally signaled “Diablo-like” gameplay. The game’s UI at the time had mana and health orbs heavily reminiscent of Diablo, along with randomized itemization, leveling, and talent trees—all reinforcing an expectation of fast, fluid ARPG combat rather than the more deliberate action the game actually offers. If those players had paid for the game, they likely would have landed in the “negative review + refund” category.

Adjusting the Messaging

These realizations made it clear that marketing language, visuals, and Steam tags need careful curation to attract the right audience and set accurate expectations.

  • The Diablo influences are now mostly gone after shifting fully into roguelite territory.
  • The Soulslike tag will be removed from Steam in the next update round—though I may still reference it in combat descriptions to provide some framing for players.
  • The combat needs to be described in a way that properly grounds expectations—without misleading players into thinking it’s something it’s not.

I’m sure there are more lessons to learn at a more detailed level, but at least now I understand how critical expectation management is when choosing marketing keywords and descriptions. Getting this right will be key to helping the right target audience find and enjoy Echoes of Myth when it launches.

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