· Build log
Smarter PlayScout, safer ComposerScout, and a night of SEO
Long one today, and honestly one of my favorite days so far.
PlayScout got smarter about similar games. When you add your game, it now ranks Steam's similar games by how closely their tags match yours, so a manager sim doesn't get matched with NBA 2K anymore. There's a dropdown of Steam games while you type, and pressing Enter adds the game instead of running the search. I also cut free searches to 3 a day, because people could grab a ton of free lists by spamming it. You still get the top 10 creators free on every search.
ComposerScout had a big day. New people came in from my DMs and Discord, including voice actors, which is exactly who I was hoping for. One of them asked a really good question about AI and people stealing samples, so I built protections the same day: protected previews, a Report stolen work button, a flag when the same file shows up on two accounts, and a promise that nothing you upload is ever used to train AI. Studios now also have to say how they use AI before they post a role, so you can decide before you reply. Profiles can mix crafts too, so a composer who also does sound design can show both, and you can invite friends and earn badges for it.
Writers and artists started asking to join, which I didn't expect at all. It's audio only for now, but there's a Tell us your craft signup so I can see who wants in next.
Then I spent the night learning SEO. I searched "music for my game" and ComposerScout was nowhere, so I built five new guide pages for exactly those searches, set up Google Search Console and Bing for both sites, and got IndexNow running so every new page tells Bing about itself. I wrote down everything I learned in a new Guides section here, along with what's working and what isn't in my marketing: maevyra.com/guides
Next up: request indexing for the rest of the pages over the next few days, and keep reaching out to devs before Next Fest on the 19th. Let's go.