I'm trying everything right now: posting on TikTok, TH-cam, X, and Instagram. I make devlogs, shorts, and posts. It's been almost 2 months since I opened my Steam page, and things aren't going too well, but it's okay, I think. I hope things will get better in the future after I release the demo and join the next fest.
Make a list of youtubers that make let's plays on similar games as yours and send everyone a mail of your game trailer and ask them if they are interested in playing it. TH-camrs and content creators watch other youtubers and creators and follow trends, so often they will catch up what's popular in the community and make videos on it. Also they reach your main target audience which makes it one of the best marketing route. You could also try to contact as many indie press sites and try to show your trailer and demo in fests if you have the option. Reddit is also great, you can easily generate couple of thousand views for couple posts in right communities, if you do it often you could make quite a following.
The book self-publishing crowd has a lot of good advice that indie game-devs can look into. Really liked Newsletter Ninja by Tammi Labreque for mailing list strategy. Too many devs let a weird combo of ego & imposter syndrome keep them from marketing properly, or they just don't give it the same respect as programming or art. If you're making games as a hobby, then it's cool to only tell friends & family. But if you are commercial, then marketing is just an essential part of running the business.
I made a small game and no publicity for it. As expected nobody came to me to ask if they could buy it from me. At the same time I put my house for rent with one little sign. People came to my house asking if instead of renting it they could buy the house. I had a car for sale. Immediately I found a buyer, but then a friend came to me also wanting to buy my car. I had a hard time convincing the first buyer that although he was first I preferred not to sell it to him using arguments why the car could be unsafe etc.. Maybe the point is that you need to try and understand what other people want/need and are willing to pay for. You can do a lot of work trying to push a square through a round hole but instead of searching endlessly for square holes maybe it is better to sell round products that fit with peoples needs. Man, that sounds like I'm selling women hygiene products. Lol.
This is very important. You don't want to convince the players that they should play your game. If you are in that situation, cut anchor and start over. The players know what they want to play and dgaf about your arguments. You have to give them what they want to play and deal with it. (Ideally you give them what they don't even know they want to play yet.)
Literally "product-market fit" and it's a core principle of business, not just marketing. It's the classic (but politically-incorrect) saying, "sell ice to Eskimos" as selling something wholly unwanted.
Our biggest problem is that. We have made an Early Access which people can get for FREE if they will spread the word about our game on Twitter and tag us. In our puzzle game you can win the money if you gonna solve the puzzles as First. People think its SCAM and we dont know what to do now. They litteraly can get that for FREE and try, but they rather not, even when they dont have nothing to loose only little bit of time. The more we talk about prizes and winning the more people dont like our game idea.
Prize giveaways, esp with real-money, are actually tightly-regulated in a lot of regions/countries. And a lot of scams use that as a lure to get people in. Or criminals use it for money-laundering. So yeah, people are totally reacting correctly! You should probably come up with some other way to market your game.
Waiting for the game to be polished doesn't make sense, especially for you. I could wishlist it right now, not because I want to buy it, but because I support what you're doing. Even if you just show a black screen, I'm already sold and adding it to my wishlist! But can I guarantee I'll be around when you finally launch your Steam page? Nope! So that's a wishlist missed, and every wishlist counts. Here’s some free advice that you didn't ask for it: If you don’t want your Steam page looking “unfinished,” create some placeholder images. Polish a small section of the game to perfection and showcase only that. Skip the trailers for now and use "advertise images" like a close-up of your character striking a cool pose, even if that camera angle isn't in the game. Make it look cool, but it doesn’t have to be completely real, every big game does this. Anyway, I like your videos and would hate to see another game of yours fail.
You're describing a "beautiful corner", which can be useful, esp for showing publishers what the game will be. My observation though is that players of indies tend to scrutinize us a lot harder than they do the big guys (both AAA massives and AA "darlings"). Rockstar or Ubisoft can get away with a full-cinematic trailer made entirely of bullshots, say "it's exactly what you want, and everything you remember!", and folks will literally crash servers trying to pre-order. An indie tries the same, using pre-renders, or even real-time but staged/"clean" gameplay, and the "we want real gameplay" critiques will come. Honestly, I think the criticism is valid, and should be applied to AAAs too. But life isn't fair, so we can't try to use their playbook and hope that we'll be judged through the same rose-tinted glasses. You're right that they should have a means of contacting folks pre-Store page, but I think that's their Discord. (I'd suggest a mailing list, but that's 'cause I don't trust 3rd party sites with my business contact list.)
I got some questions about the Steam page. Let's say I pay today the fee to create the page, but I decide after 1 year to cancel the game ... is it possible to cancel and will I get the 93 Euro fee back ? And if it's not possible to get the fee back, is it possible to change the complete site after a year let's say from a 2d platformer to a 3d horror adventure game ?
We've had this issue with songs of everjade, and I ended up contacting steam support. There is no way to get the credit back. But they also don't mind you changing the game (although it seems to be a bit more case by case depending on how many wishlists you have, so you don't bait & switch) -M
@@bitemegames Thanks, now I'm a little wiser. ^^ I have never thought about wishlists, but I think getting a "surprise game" is better than waiting forever on a game that never comes.
I wonder if you are against going early access soon then will just making a steam page is fine? As soon as it look good it’s ok right? I mean giving it time, a steam page can help us gather more audience.
Making the Steam page is fine, as long as there is some effort put into it (not just gray cubes on the screen), and there should be a trailer. Once those are done, you can get the Steam page up. I'm more against early access because of the promises you'll be making to your community, that most indie devs will never be able to fulfill, leading to angry players and stressed developers. Nobody wins there. -M
Demo is typically a one-time download, a limited piece of your game in terms of length (time) or breadth (options). It's basically the "free-sample" for players to see if they'll like the full game. A good demo should reflect the actual completed game as it'll look/play at-launch (or after it's already on-sale). Early Access is an ongoing commitment, the game is not-yet complete, and ideally, you are looking to balance continued development with player feedback. To me, EA seems closer to an open-beta, a marketing beat near the end of production, but some folks think of it more as "doing art in-public" where anyone who happens by (and buys your game in early-access) can offer commentary for you to consider or ignore. Up to you whether you want that experience, or how you'd want to go about it. Chris Zukowski had several case studies over the years about games that did Early Access, plus stats on how it generally works out for indies (not well!).
Depends on your genre & art. Reddit's audience overlaps with Steam's love of crafty-buildy-strategy games as Chris Z calls them 😅 And TikTok is good for games that are meme-worthy, or have great art - basically those that can grab attention in 5sec. But really you've got to figure out who your audience is, and then check stats on where they hang out online. For my game's audience, that's Reddit & TH-cam, maybe with Facebook for the mobile port.
I played a game called Breachway published by Hooded Horse and I start to see their published game more on Facebook. Although Facebook is more for those fake mobile game ads and gacha games. That make me wonder if Facebook is also good place to market strategy games.
When I saw my game 3:04 alt tabbed to make sure I wasn't on the wrong page LOL. Still it's really cool to see it in video form haha. Also marnix u smell.
Meanwhile I get 3 views on itch and I'm happy as can be.
Wait? You guys are getting views?!
Trying posting the game to Newgrounds. No joke, I posted a game on itch and got like 20 views, but the same on Newgrounds and got more than thousands
With a little bit of extra effort you can 10x that for 10x the motivation and happiness.
I found TikTok to be really good in marketing games
I'm trying everything right now: posting on TikTok, TH-cam, X, and Instagram. I make devlogs, shorts, and posts. It's been almost 2 months since I opened my Steam page, and things aren't going too well, but it's okay, I think. I hope things will get better in the future after I release the demo and join the next fest.
Great video for quickly tackling marketing dos and don'ts!
Make a list of youtubers that make let's plays on similar games as yours and send everyone a mail of your game trailer and ask them if they are interested in playing it. TH-camrs and content creators watch other youtubers and creators and follow trends, so often they will catch up what's popular in the community and make videos on it. Also they reach your main target audience which makes it one of the best marketing route. You could also try to contact as many indie press sites and try to show your trailer and demo in fests if you have the option. Reddit is also great, you can easily generate couple of thousand views for couple posts in right communities, if you do it often you could make quite a following.
Good patreon call to action!
not me literally publishing a barebones steam page with 5 screenshots last week becus i heard its best to set it up ASAP...
The book self-publishing crowd has a lot of good advice that indie game-devs can look into. Really liked Newsletter Ninja by Tammi Labreque for mailing list strategy. Too many devs let a weird combo of ego & imposter syndrome keep them from marketing properly, or they just don't give it the same respect as programming or art.
If you're making games as a hobby, then it's cool to only tell friends & family. But if you are commercial, then marketing is just an essential part of running the business.
The book name sound common, can I get the author name?
@@fishyfinthing8854 Author's name is right there after the title 😅
I made a small game and no publicity for it. As expected nobody came to me to ask if they could buy it from me. At the same time I put my house for rent with one little sign. People came to my house asking if instead of renting it they could buy the house. I had a car for sale. Immediately I found a buyer, but then a friend came to me also wanting to buy my car. I had a hard time convincing the first buyer that although he was first I preferred not to sell it to him using arguments why the car could be unsafe etc..
Maybe the point is that you need to try and understand what other people want/need and are willing to pay for. You can do a lot of work trying to push a square through a round hole but instead of searching endlessly for square holes maybe it is better to sell round products that fit with peoples needs. Man, that sounds like I'm selling women hygiene products. Lol.
This is very important. You don't want to convince the players that they should play your game. If you are in that situation, cut anchor and start over. The players know what they want to play and dgaf about your arguments. You have to give them what they want to play and deal with it. (Ideally you give them what they don't even know they want to play yet.)
Literally "product-market fit" and it's a core principle of business, not just marketing. It's the classic (but politically-incorrect) saying, "sell ice to Eskimos" as selling something wholly unwanted.
Finally a list of capsule artists!
1:52 That chart is a crime, haha
Our biggest problem is that. We have made an Early Access which people can get for FREE if they will spread the word about our game on Twitter and tag us. In our puzzle game you can win the money if you gonna solve the puzzles as First. People think its SCAM and we dont know what to do now. They litteraly can get that for FREE and try, but they rather not, even when they dont have nothing to loose only little bit of time. The more we talk about prizes and winning the more people dont like our game idea.
Prize giveaways, esp with real-money, are actually tightly-regulated in a lot of regions/countries. And a lot of scams use that as a lure to get people in. Or criminals use it for money-laundering. So yeah, people are totally reacting correctly! You should probably come up with some other way to market your game.
You look too good to be true. That’s why they don’t believe they can claim the prize without any trick.
People also don't value what they can get for free. And a free offer where I can win something? That sounds/feels like a scam.
Waiting for the game to be polished doesn't make sense, especially for you. I could wishlist it right now, not because I want to buy it, but because I support what you're doing. Even if you just show a black screen, I'm already sold and adding it to my wishlist! But can I guarantee I'll be around when you finally launch your Steam page? Nope! So that's a wishlist missed, and every wishlist counts.
Here’s some free advice that you didn't ask for it: If you don’t want your Steam page looking “unfinished,” create some placeholder images. Polish a small section of the game to perfection and showcase only that. Skip the trailers for now and use "advertise images" like a close-up of your character striking a cool pose, even if that camera angle isn't in the game. Make it look cool, but it doesn’t have to be completely real, every big game does this.
Anyway, I like your videos and would hate to see another game of yours fail.
You're describing a "beautiful corner", which can be useful, esp for showing publishers what the game will be. My observation though is that players of indies tend to scrutinize us a lot harder than they do the big guys (both AAA massives and AA "darlings"). Rockstar or Ubisoft can get away with a full-cinematic trailer made entirely of bullshots, say "it's exactly what you want, and everything you remember!", and folks will literally crash servers trying to pre-order.
An indie tries the same, using pre-renders, or even real-time but staged/"clean" gameplay, and the "we want real gameplay" critiques will come.
Honestly, I think the criticism is valid, and should be applied to AAAs too. But life isn't fair, so we can't try to use their playbook and hope that we'll be judged through the same rose-tinted glasses. You're right that they should have a means of contacting folks pre-Store page, but I think that's their Discord. (I'd suggest a mailing list, but that's 'cause I don't trust 3rd party sites with my business contact list.)
I got some questions about the Steam page.
Let's say I pay today the fee to create the page, but I decide after 1 year to cancel the game ... is it possible to cancel and will I get the 93 Euro fee back ?
And if it's not possible to get the fee back, is it possible to change the complete site after a year let's say from a 2d platformer to a 3d horror adventure game ?
We've had this issue with songs of everjade, and I ended up contacting steam support. There is no way to get the credit back. But they also don't mind you changing the game (although it seems to be a bit more case by case depending on how many wishlists you have, so you don't bait & switch) -M
@@bitemegames Thanks, now I'm a little wiser. ^^
I have never thought about wishlists, but I think getting a "surprise game" is better than waiting forever on a game that never comes.
I wonder if you are against going early access soon then will just making a steam page is fine? As soon as it look good it’s ok right?
I mean giving it time, a steam page can help us gather more audience.
Making the Steam page is fine, as long as there is some effort put into it (not just gray cubes on the screen), and there should be a trailer. Once those are done, you can get the Steam page up.
I'm more against early access because of the promises you'll be making to your community, that most indie devs will never be able to fulfill, leading to angry players and stressed developers. Nobody wins there. -M
what's the difference between 'early access' and 'demo'? does releasing a demo of your game on steam have any positive impact on conversion?
Demo is typically a one-time download, a limited piece of your game in terms of length (time) or breadth (options). It's basically the "free-sample" for players to see if they'll like the full game. A good demo should reflect the actual completed game as it'll look/play at-launch (or after it's already on-sale). Early Access is an ongoing commitment, the game is not-yet complete, and ideally, you are looking to balance continued development with player feedback.
To me, EA seems closer to an open-beta, a marketing beat near the end of production, but some folks think of it more as "doing art in-public" where anyone who happens by (and buys your game in early-access) can offer commentary for you to consider or ignore. Up to you whether you want that experience, or how you'd want to go about it. Chris Zukowski had several case studies over the years about games that did Early Access, plus stats on how it generally works out for indies (not well!).
I don't remember which article I read, but it said that the best social media for marketing are Tiktok and Reddit
Depends on your genre & art. Reddit's audience overlaps with Steam's love of crafty-buildy-strategy games as Chris Z calls them 😅 And TikTok is good for games that are meme-worthy, or have great art - basically those that can grab attention in 5sec.
But really you've got to figure out who your audience is, and then check stats on where they hang out online. For my game's audience, that's Reddit & TH-cam, maybe with Facebook for the mobile port.
I played a game called Breachway published by Hooded Horse and I start to see their published game more on Facebook.
Although Facebook is more for those fake mobile game ads and gacha games. That make me wonder if Facebook is also good place to market strategy games.
what's the game in @4:29 ?
It's just a proof of concept shared in our Discord once. There's no name or Steam page about it. -M
I probably can't buy a military vehicle to help marketing my game.
Day 17 of asking for Melon-Pan tier list.
When I saw my game 3:04 alt tabbed to make sure I wasn't on the wrong page LOL. Still it's really cool to see it in video form haha. Also marnix u smell.
are you ok dude ? 😅
you look kinda tired (speaking from experience..)