After about a year, I’ve just finished and released my first game called Air Guardians. Now I am trying to get the game out there and marketed. Although its turning out to be quit a challenge, and I’m looking for suggestions on what to do.
Steam page
Update
I have my game on Steam now, the initial release was a bit disappointing, I only made about 100-300 bucks and was left a couple bad reviews. I fixed some of the problems they were having. Now I’m sending emails to game review sites and youtubers.
I was able to get a lets play of my game from BlueDrake42 yesterday. With 54,000 subscribers. The video has since gotten over 3,500 views.
I was shocked to notice that this did not result in ANY spike in sales. Sales were exactly the same as it was the previous day. There was literally no difference!
sounds like you need to sort out your upload problem… id be getting it on steam asap if I had teh option, and pulling all stops to figure out why I couldnt upload.
Congrats on the game. Here is a few tips from a web dev.
I think you should add social media links on your website and vice versa. Also adding more text can help with SEO.
For twitter you should follow people. You should post more often on twitter and facebook.
Once the game is out you can give away download codes to popular reviewers and let’s play people. I don’t know if this is effective but its one of the things I plan on doing when I finish my first game.
Your right, but steam does not let publishers get in contact with them. They direct people to the developer forums, which seems to be down right now or non existent.
Here is the twitter page. There’s not much activity going on right now. I don’t really have a strategy on how the game is going to get popular on twitter, I just created it so I would not miss an obvious marketing suggestion like “create a twitter page” https://twitter.com/AirGuardians
see if you can find a site thats dedicated to advertising your game… you might need to pay something for it… not sure when it comes to non-device advertising…
thats a lie, i dont know f’all about device advertising either. lols
I do like the section about Contacting The Press. I would also like to add that MANY small youtubers are VERY interested in making videos about your game, so find some youtubers and contact them.
Huge list of some youtubers you may want to get into contact with…
Here’s the best marketing strategy I’ve heard in all my years.
“If you build it, they will come”…
That’s the best solid… I mean, failed advice LOL.
Question I want to ask is, how did you go about getting Green Lighted? I heard it’s hard to get Green Lit.
Customers have to be earned, reminded that you exist and occasionally patted on the head.
The website could be imptoved… a proper logotype at the top would be a good start. Maybe you can a few more images and descriptions that give visitors a better idea of the game mechanics? It says that we will play over six levels, is that the same as six missions? Are they huge? How many hours of gameplay (don’t state X hours, give them an impression through words and images)? Replayability?
Many webisites stick to the coolest stuff on the landing page and have a separate “about” page or something similar for more detailed description about the game.
The layout could also do with some work… The header and footer on the website but the content is left aligned (I am viewing it from Chrome in case this or anything else appear differently to you). That looks a bit off and the whole footer for the website is disappearing and changing height depending on which page I visit. Remember that the website gives the visitor the first impression of the quality behind your work, issues like doesn’t reflect well on you.
A good idea is to connect everything together… post something on the website and it automatically appear in different ways in other feeds. Maybe just the topic appear on Twitter with a link to the post while Facebook viewers get a short introduction to the complete post. A news section on the website will also help to show that you are actively supporting the game.
Upload with Chrome or Firefox if Safari or IE is causing trouble for you.
It seems you’ve spent a lot of money on the game already outside what it cost to create the game itself. You can go to ZoHo.com for free hosting with templates, they can host your domain too.
Think of this way - who might searching for that genre of game you made? Folks that have played flight simulators and similar games in the past…
So I’d stop wasting money on google ads and find websites that are dedicated to flight simulator games and such and buy advertising exclusively at those places.
You are not selling corn flakes here, google ads hardly ever makes sense to buy.
That’s a great site for finding game reviewers, thanks! I have not contacted game reviewers yet, I am uncertain whether I should hold off until I get the game on steam.
I am not very confident in releasing the game on Macs. I’ve only tested on one mac machine. I guess I still could. The install folders with the mac build did not seem as straight forward in order to run the game, and the game does not come with an installer, so I was concerned I would get more complaints on how to install and play the game.
Deon Cadme - The website can be better. I am just using a wordpress template right now. It’s hard to juggle all these things at once. First making and designing the game, then marketing it. Then building trailers, press releases, social media, steam setup, game reviewers, adwords, etc…
goat - I am already targeting very specific audiances with the adwords campaign. But you have a point, I should try advertising on flight simulator websites. Google ads lets you advertise on websites that have ads enabled. But you have to be willing to pay the highest price.
I see a problem with trust. I wouldn’t buy a game from “some guy on the internet” that doesn’t have a well-known brand, etc. What if you just steal my credit card info or whatever? (I know you are not gonna do that, but still). What if you stop selling the game, can’t I download it anymore? Etc.
Try to get into Steam (best case scenario), or try Desura, GOG, or Indiegamestand, or get into an indie humble-bundle type, etc. These are all will increase people’s trust in you, because that means that SOMEONE already checked your game and found it worthy.
Also I am not exactly a marketing expert, these are just my thoughts
I’ve finally released my game on steam yesterday. They had me on the top pages for the initial release for a few hours. I got a couple bad reviews because of a mouse sensitivity bug and no joystick support. I worked through the night to get the bug fixed, and I was even able to add basic joystick support, along with fixing dozens of other smaller issues.
I did not make a ton of money yet ( about 200-300 dollars). And that was on the first day with first page ranking. I’m expecting sales to go down even further after awhile. So I need to get on the press release very soon and try to market the game myself.
It’s actually very hard to find people who will give you feedback. I hired a few people from fivver to play the game and give thoughts about it awhile ago. Then one personnel friend played the game. Then a few forum members left comments after playing a sample.
I would of liked a full flegged beta test with dozens of people giving feedback but its not as easy as it seems to setup.
:p:smile:
