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Raft capsule

Raft

Raft™ throws you and your friends into an epic oceanic adventure! Alone or together, players battle to survive a perilous voyage across a vast sea! Gather debris, scavenge reefs and build your own floating home, but be wary of the man-eating sharks!

$13.39Very Positive(1,899)
SurvivalMultiplayerOpen World Survival Craft
Redbeet InteractiveJun 20, 2022

Raft scores 87/100 — better than 99% of Steam capsules we've analysed (n=22,658).

Very Positive (1,899 reviews) · $13.39 · Released Jun 20, 2022 · By Redbeet Interactive

Explore:Steam page optimisationCapsule design best practices

Quick text summary

Raft scored 87/100 on Steam Analyzer — Excellent for a Steam capsule. Top priority fix: [title_readability] Consider enlarging or strengthening the RAFT logo treatment slightly to ensure maximum impact at the smallest thumbnail sizes where indie games compete densely.

Capsule scores by dimension

  • Genre Clarity: 9/10 — Survival adventure instantly clear. The composition immediately communicates oceanic survival through multiple genre-specific cues: characters on a makeshift raft, a shark breaching beneath them, tropical islands in the background, and scavenged debris. Even at tiny size, the shark silhouette and raft setting are unmistakable survival mechanics, and the playful character poses reinforce the adventure tone perfectly.
  • Title Readability: 9/10 — Bold logo readable at all sizes. The RAFT logo uses a strong white sans-serif typeface with excellent contrast against the sky and a dark outline, making it legible from full header to tiny thumbnail. The subtitle 'THE FINAL CHAPTER' in gold/yellow remains readable even when scaled down, and the logo placement centered above the shark avoids competition with busy elements.
  • Contrast & Color: 9/10 — Vibrant tropical palette pops distinctly. The bright blue sky, turquoise water, and warm character tones create strong value separation from the dark Steam background. The white logo and yellow subtitle stand out sharply, and the shark's dark silhouette contrasts cleanly against the lighter water. At tiny size, the color blocking remains effective with clear foreground-background separation.
  • Uniqueness & Polish: 8/10 — Charming character-driven scene memorable. The capsule moves beyond generic survival imagery by emphasizing playful character personality and dynamic action poses rather than just showing mechanics. The art style is cohesive and polished with intentional lighting and perspective. While the concept of raft survival is known, the celebratory tone and specific character expressions give it distinctive appeal without feeling derivative.
  • Brand Consistency: 8/10 — Coherent art direction recognizable. The warm, vibrant character rendering, tropical color palette, and hand-drawn aesthetic align with survival adventure branding expectations and maintain internal consistency across all elements. The playful tone in character expressions and body language creates a memorable identity distinct from darker survival games. The style would be recognizable across multiple marketing materials within the genre.
  • Composition: 9/10 — Excellent focal hierarchy balanced. The shark breach creates a powerful central focal point with the characters positioned dynamically on either side, creating balanced visual weight and natural eye flow. The logo placement above does not compete with the action below, and depth layering (characters, raft, shark, water, islands, sky) creates clear foreground-to-background reading. Safe margins are respected and no critical elements risk Steam crop boundaries.

What works

  • Shark silhouette dominates instantly. The breaching shark is immediately recognizable even at tiny sizes and communicates the core survival threat without text explanation.
  • Character expression conveys tone. The playful, celebratory poses and expressions of the two characters communicate fun adventure rather than grim survival, setting a unique tonal expectation.
  • Logo legibility across all scales. White sans-serif with dark outline maintains crisp readability from full header to thumbnail while avoiding the noisy water background.
  • Tropical color palette pops against dark UI. Bright blues, warm skin tones, and yellow accents create strong contrast and visual appeal on the Steam dark background.

What hurts the capsule

  • Subtitle 'THE FINAL CHAPTER' competes minimally. While readable, the subtitle adds secondary information that becomes harder to parse at tiny sizes and slightly dilutes focus from the main logo.
  • Multiple focal points could fragment attention. Though well-balanced, the two characters on opposite sides plus central shark create three competing elements that briefly risk scattered focus on quick scroll.

Priority fixes

  1. [title_readability] Consider enlarging or strengthening the RAFT logo treatment slightly to ensure maximum impact at the smallest thumbnail sizes where indie games compete densely.
  2. [composition] Test crop safety by simulating Steam's edge cropping behavior to verify no character limbs or important details risk clipping at 231x87 resolution.
  3. [uniqueness_polish] Ensure character design consistency with in-game assets visible across the 24 store screenshots to reinforce brand identity and gameplay authenticity.

Store copy priority fixes

  1. [hook_strength] Replace "epic oceanic adventure" in the short description with a specific mechanic or consequence: e.g., 'Raft throws you into the open ocean with nothing but a hook—gather floating debris, build your floating home, and fend off sharks to survive.'
  2. [feature_communication] Add 1–2 sentences after the feature list explaining progression or difficulty curve, e.g., 'Master basic survival, then navigate to dangerous islands filled with new challenges and rare resources.'
  3. [uniqueness] Add a sentence explicitly comparing Raft's floating-base mechanic to traditional survival games, e.g., 'Unlike land-based survival games, your home drifts with the ocean—you're never truly safe or settled.'

Related guides

Steam app ID: 648800