Most developers announce a sequel by releasing a trailer, opening a Steam page and asking players to add another game to their wishlists.
Dokimon Quest developer Yanako RPGs added another step: give the first game away.
The retro monster-taming RPG is currently 100% free to keep on Steam until August 26 at 10 a.m. Pacific, meaning anyone who claims it during the promotion keeps it permanently. The game normally sells for $14.99. Dokimon Quest on Steam
The response has been enormous. GamesRadar reported that more than one million people had already claimed the game with roughly a day remaining in the promotion.
That would be notable for almost any indie game. It is particularly striking for one that, before the giveaway, had a relatively small active Steam audience.
And the timing couldn't be more interesting. Yanako RPGs recently revealed Dokimon Quest: II, a direct sequel that takes the monster-catching formula into Edo-period Japan.
Whether the giveaway was designed primarily as sequel marketing or simply as a way to get more people playing, it raises a useful question: is giving away your old game one of the smartest ways to create an audience for the next one?
Dokimon Quest Is Built for Pokémon Nostalgia
Released in November 2024, Dokimon Quest is unapologetically inspired by the Game Boy Color era of monster-taming RPGs.
Players explore the Xelos region while searching for a missing childhood friend, capturing creatures and using them in turn-based battles along the way. According to the game's official Steam listing, there are more than 140 original Dokimon, over 15 towns and a main story designed to take roughly 15 to 20 hours.
The presentation deliberately looks backward, but Yanako RPGs has layered modern conveniences over the retro foundation. Players can speed up battles, use a quest log, choose among numerous color palettes and even enable battles that occur directly in the overworld.
It is familiar enough that anyone who grew up with early Pokémon immediately understands the pitch, but different enough to establish its own world.
That makes it particularly suitable for a giveaway. There isn't much explanation required.
See pixel-art monsters. Download free game. Start collecting them.
Free Changed the Scale Almost Immediately
Before the promotion, Dokimon Quest was hardly competing with Steam's largest releases.
SteamCharts recorded an historical peak of only 56 concurrent players through August 23. Once the free-to-keep promotion began, that picture changed dramatically. Steam's Community Hub showed more than 1,200 players in-game when checked on August 25.
Concurrent players and claimed copies are different measurements, of course. A million people adding a free title to their libraries does not mean a million people will actually play it.
But that may not be necessary for the strategy to work.
Every claim places Dokimon Quest into another Steam account. Even if only a fraction of those players install it, Yanako RPGs suddenly has an audience dramatically larger than the one it had days earlier.
And those new players are arriving just as the developer is beginning to talk about what comes next.
Dokimon Quest II Is Much More Than a New Map
The Steam page for Dokimon Quest: II went live on August 15.
The sequel is set partly in Edo-period Japan, with the player traveling between the modern world and the Xelos region of 1855 while continuing the attempt to save Maiko. Yanako RPGs has not announced a release date yet.
More importantly, the sequel appears substantially more ambitious.
New systems listed on the official Steam page include mounts for land and sea travel, dungeons, crafting, collectible furniture, player housing and a Buddy System that lets characters such as trainers, healers or merchants accompany the player.
Battles are also being reworked, while trading and bartering will play a larger role in the Edo-period setting. Dokimon Quest II on Steam
For someone who just received the original for free, that sequel page is suddenly much more relevant.
The First Game Is Still Getting New Features Too
Yanako RPGs isn't simply giving away an abandoned game.
An update released alongside the renewed attention added offline-style trading and battling through shareable codes. Players can generate a code representing a trade or team, send it to a friend, and import the corresponding data into their own game.
The developer explained that full online functionality would require resources beyond what a mostly solo project could realistically support, making the code system a creative compromise.
The update also reworked the quest log, added a Tutorial Fairy and delivered a long list of smaller fixes.
That matters because free games can sometimes feel like advertisements disguised as products. Here, players are getting a complete RPG that is still receiving attention from its developer.
Giving Something Away Can Create Something More Valuable
A million free claims obviously do not equal a million sales.
Yanako RPGs is sacrificing revenue on every copy that might otherwise have sold during the 48-hour period. The developer has even publicly emphasized that the giveaway itself doesn't make money.
But direct revenue isn't the only thing an indie developer needs.
Visibility matters. Reviews matter. Word of mouth matters. Wishlists for the sequel matter enormously.
Before this week, plenty of Steam users had probably never heard the name Dokimon Quest. Now more than a million of them reportedly have the first game attached to their accounts, right as Dokimon Quest II begins its own journey toward release.
That might ultimately be worth far more than selling a few extra copies of a nearly two-year-old game.
Sometimes the smartest way to convince someone to buy your next game may be surprisingly simple.
Give them the first one.
