I wnat to summarize my thoughts on something and my thoughts on this experiance: I made a few notable mistakes when I started out that I have learned from now:

• 1. DR4X is way too ambitious. If I want to finish it, it will take another 4 years at minimum, to be honest (and for some reason, I still want to do that, even though it's highly likely I won't finish it).
• 2. I released into Early Access too early. Everyone says to get your Steam page up ASAP, but no, actually, Early Access isnt for prototypes or alpha games anymore. It's nearly complete, already compelling games that just need a few bug fixes nowadaysit isn't what it used to be. Feels like a trap.
• 3. Architecture.I just didn't design it to be extensible enough for it to stay easy to expand later (it's clear now that I still haven't finished Chapter 2 ewven though i think its perfectly doable).
• 4. The price was way too high for my first Steam game. I have now rectified this.
• 5. I put too much work into little things no one will ever run into, that kinda stuff only matters once your game has eyes on it. Because people can't see that atention to detail with a couple screenshots and an old trailer. This was clear when i got that refund note about the dog thing the other day that i reacted to.
• 6. It feels like the only real option for marketing is to have a big YouTube channel. You can see this with many of these indie devs nowthey get visibility because they already have a YouTube audience.
• 7. No one is Tarn Adams; you can't do what he does.
• 8.I didnt let wishlists build up before releasing into EA

If I were a smart man, I wouldn't just lower the price, i would stop completely and focus on my new game. But I am not a smart man I am a foolish man who still wnats to finish this game for some reason. So, this entire post is kind a pointless in the end., For transparency, here is my current Steam info:
This actually isn't bad for a first Steam game, especially one still in Early Access. But the sales were never really the goal. The goal was to make a good game (which I think I succeeded in) and to tell a story. A story that only 0.4% of players have actually gotten to the end of, so that part was an epic fail, as you say, heh. I also have about 400 copies sold on Itch, so in total, about a thousand copies sold. This means that the game isn't really a flop, at least not for a first game on Steam. Even though I'm kind of doom and gloom about it, it's not like the end of the road or anything. Achieving these numbers as a first-time dev is a solid start, and there's still plenty of room for growth and improvement. So while it may not have reached everyone I hoped it would, its far from a total failure. I also like i said, want to keep working on it even if my mental state is terrible heh i just wanted to share the lessons i have so far learned, so if you are striving to be a game dev, you can learn from me. Anyway TTYL.