From 0 to 8 Daily Players: Finding Early Adopters for a Niche Browser Game
TL;DR: I found 8 daily active players by messaging old Inselkampf fans on Reddit directly, then refined onboarding with achievements and psychology tricks. Got 330 site visitors, 41 signups, and 8 completing the first achievement set. Still learning how to get feedback from players who actually want to play.
The problem
Building a remake of a 25-year-old browser game is a specific kind of lonely. There’s no huge audience waiting for Inselkampf. The original game shut down in 2014. The people who played it are scattered across the internet, probably not thinking about it anymore.
So the question becomes simple. Where do I find the 50 people on Earth who might care about this.
Finding the signal in old posts
I started with Google and Reddit. Searched for “Inselkampf” and read through the results. Found old Reddit threads, forum posts, Discord mentions. Then I looked at the people who’d posted about it. Which ones were still active on Reddit. Which ones had commented in the last few months.
Every day for two weeks, I sent direct messages to three or four of these people. Didn’t try to hard sell. Just said, “Hey, I noticed you loved Inselkampf back in the day. I’m rebuilding it as a browser game. You should try it.”
Some people ignored it. Some replied saying they were too busy. But some clicked the link.
That first batch brought about 10 visitors. Small, but good enough to watch.
What the first players did
I tracked everything. Build orders, marketplace trades, when they logged off. Some hit the tutorial and left. Some came back a few times. A couple are still playing now, two weeks in.
That data mattered because it wasn’t just ego. I could see where people got stuck. Where they spent time. What made them return.
The feedback problem
Then I did what every SaaS founder does. I reached out to them individually and asked for feedback.
Got almost nothing.
One person replied with a brief message. That’s it. Everyone else was silent.
I got frustrated at first. In SaaS, feedback is oxygen. If someone isn’t complaining, they’re not engaged enough to care. But with a game it’s different. Nobody needs a game. They want it or they don’t. And if they do want it, they don’t necessarily want to spend time writing you feedback.
I’m still learning this. I have players logging in multiple times a day for over two weeks who haven’t sent me a single message. Are they bored? Are they loving it? No idea.
Achievements and the stamp card trick
Around week two, I wanted to force myself to stop adding features and focus on onboarding instead. So I shipped achievements. First pass: 10 achievements spread across two groups.
Didn’t land. The existing players didn’t care. It wasn’t rewarding, it wasn’t in their face, and the list was too long to feel achievable.
Before I was going to do a bigger launch, I reworked it. Cut it to five achievements per group, four groups total. Enough to keep someone busy for 1-2 weeks of play.
Here’s the thing though. The first five achievements matter most. Looking at my data, anyone who completed that first set has a 70%+ chance of playing for another week.
Years ago I heard about a coffee shop trick. They give you a punch card and the first few punches are already filled in. You feel like you’ve already made progress. There’s a psychological pull to finish the card.
I pulled ideas from how Travian onboards new players. Travian knows how to keep people playing. The stamp card logic, the early wins, the sense of momentum. I worked some of those same patterns into Inselnova.
Frontend and iteration with AI
The original landing page was just sign-in and register. That was fine when I was DMing people directly. My message did the selling.
Once I knew I’d be posting the URL publicly, I had to make the frontend not embarrassing.
I spent time on it. Built a version, then opened three tabs. ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude. Pasted in the URL and asked each one to visit the site, understand what the game is, and review the onboarding flow and visual design.
Did this five times, applying feedback after each round. “Change the button color.” “The tutorial text is too wordy.” “Players won’t know what this means.”
You’ll notice something after the second round. The AI’s feedback repeats. Same suggestions, different phrasing. That’s your signal to stop iterating. Mental burnout is real. You need to draw a line and think, “That’s enough for the next experiment.”
Then I posted to three subreddits and Hacker News. Got another 20+ users.
The posts weren’t slick. But I don’t have time to write perfect marketing copy. I need to move, learn, and improve. These aren’t missed opportunities. I can post again in a month when I’ve made more progress.
The funnel
- 330 visitors to the landing page
- 41 created an account
- 8 completed the first five achievements
- 8 daily active users
My target is 20 DAU. The math is simple. 20 DAU at a 2.4% conversion to signup and 19% completion of the first achievement set means I need roughly 1,000 visitors.
1,000 visitors is… not that many. A decent post on Reddit. A few shares. A mention in the right Discord.
What I’d do differently
The direct messaging worked because the audience was small and genuine. But I could have been smarter about it. I should have saved usernames and timestamps of when people posted about Inselkampf, so I could have done a second wave a month later with new people.
I also spent too much time on visual polish early on. The landing page could have been rougher. I could have focused earlier on the achievement system and player retention data. The landing page is for bringing people in. The achievements keep them there.
One more thing. I didn’t have a follow-up plan. Someone signs up, plays for a day, disappears. I had no email list, no Discord, no way to bring them back. That’s next.
For other builders
If you’re building something niche, this is your path. Find the 50 people who care. Talk to them individually. Make something good enough that word spreads. Watch what they do. Iterate.
The funnel is the feedback. If everyone drops off at tutorial screen three, you don’t need surveys. You need to watch the replay. Fix tutorial screen three.
Scale comes later. Right now, the goal is simple. Make eight people play every single day. Then find what makes those eight people happy, and multiply it.
The one thing I still can’t figure out
How do you get honest feedback from players who are happy enough to keep playing but won’t talk to you. I’ve got people logging in multiple times a day, completing achievements, exploring the marketplace. Radio silence.
Is there a trick I’m missing. Have you built games before. What’s your experience with this.
Playing Inselnova. Visit the site.
Next post. Week 5-6: Scaling to 20 daily active users and what broke first.
