A store page needs screenshots. At least five, ideally more. That sounded like the easiest item on the whole marketing list. Grab a few nice frames, upload, done by lunch.
It took most of three days, and I'm not fully happy with where we landed.
The first problem is that a screenshot is the least forgiving way anyone will ever see our work. When you play the demo, everything is moving. Your eye is busy and the rough bits blur past. A still frame just sits there and lets you stare at the one texture we never finished. We captured a couple of hundred and threw away almost all of them, mostly for things nobody would notice in motion.
The second problem is one we signed up for ourselves. We decided months ago to hold the visual polish until there's money behind it, and I still think that was the right call. But this was the first time that decision was going to meet strangers. The build in those frames is the "good enough for now" version, and "for now" means nothing to someone scrolling a storefront. They'll assume that's the game. There isn't a little footnote that says
it'll look better, promise.
We did talk, briefly, about doing a quick paint-over just for the screenshots. We dropped the idea within about ten minutes. Partly because it's exactly the polish we promised ourselves we wouldn't start. Mostly because a store image that looks better than the thing you actually get is a small lie, and I'd rather not open our relationship with players on one.
So we changed the question from "which frames look best" to "which frames are honest and still make you curious." That helped a lot. The strongest candidates were never the prettiest ones. They were the ones where you can tell something is about to happen, where you'd want to see the next second. Framing did far more work than fidelity.
And then the final cut is five images, and each one has to hint at the thing without giving away the stuff we're still keeping quiet. Every frame got the same test from all of us: what does a stranger learn from this, and are we fine with them learning it? A few really nice shots failed that test and are sitting in a folder, waiting.
The lesson, which I apparently needed to learn again: showing is a craft of its own, separate from making. We've spent a year getting decent at the second one. We're about a week into the first.
— Thiago, who has now looked at the same five pictures for longer than is healthy
Posted by Thiago Moreira · September 24, 2026
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