Places to announce your game?

News & General Discussion
1

So obviously you can announce your finished game in the Unity Announcement forum. And that’s all well and good. Except that most people reading that forum are game makers and not the game playing public. :face_with_spiral_eyes:

Is there a list somewhere of places to announce your game to the (indie) game playing public? In my early days making Windows Software there used to be loads of shareware sites to send your links to.

For example I put my latest Unity racing game (which I spent about 6 months on) in the Android and Windows stores last month. And put in the screenshots/videos etc. And without any promotion it’s getting a couple of pounds a day, about 3% conversion from the trial and good ratings. But that’s not really going to cover the cost of making it. I need to multiply that by about 10. :hushed:

I refuse to pay for advertising since it is not cost effective if your game only costs a pound or two. It only works for games such as Candy Crush where people pay up to £30 in in app purchases.

For Windows 8 Store games I guess having links to your game from websites is good. But would that work for android games as do people actually look at websites on their phones so much? I don’t really want to spam forums but if there are legitimate places to announce your game that would be better.:slight_smile:

On the other hand do you think that there is no way to increase your downloads and people will find it if they want it? For my previous apps I just put them in the store and hoped for the best. But this one I spent a lot of time on so I want to do more to promote it.

2

Well, I’d start by linking the game in your signature. :slight_smile: Here’s some good resources on indie marketing you may find helpful:

http://www.pixelprospector.com/the-big-list-of-indie-game-marketing/

3

Thanks! Maybe I’ll put it in my sig. I kind of like being anonymous on this forum though! :sunglasses:

4

I know what you mean about wanting to remain anonymous on forums, but that isn’t going to work. You need to take every opportunity to shout about your game. And game developers are also avid gamers, we are likely customers.

5

if you aren’t willing to pay there isn’t much more than post in forums/twitter/fb, write to gaming sites for reviews and make a trailer and put it on youtube.

6

Laughed way too hard at this.

7

Well I think it would be kind of like trying to get customers for your new butchers shop by going round all the other butchers in the neighbourhood and telling them you have just opened a butchers shop. If anything that would be counter productive. Even if butchers themselves may buy meat from other butchers sometimes. Besides how many people even read that forum? Not too many compared with the population of the world.

8

Aren’t you basically asking “How do I do marketing?”

If there’s a simple, complete, and foolproof answer to that question, I’d like to hear it myself…

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9

Creativity.

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10

Have you sent emails to youtubers, game reviewing websites etc? Your game might get featured and reviewed. I don’t think there is anything better than that.

11

Not so much. But I’d like to know if someone said, “Well didn’t you know, everyone who buys indie games always finds out about them on this popular database/news feed of indie games. Didn’t you know that? Your games not on it? No wonder nobody knows about your game!”

I mean, it’s worth asking just in case I’ve missed something that everyone else thinks is obvious! I mean I wouldn’t exactly say I was in the gamers loop. (If there is such a thing!) Like if I never heard of the Apple store for example that would be something obvious I missed.

12

I think my game is good. And my ratings are good so far. But I’m worried what if they just trash the game? If it’s just not for them? It would be like Coca Cola submitting coke to a blind taste testing and then finding out that no, actually, Pepsi is better! That’s why Coca Cola wouldn’t get it’s cola reviewed by YouTubers! Like I bet Minecraft’s been trashed loads of times on YouTube!

I suppose all publicity is good publicity. :eyes: I wouldn’t say my games are aimed at dedicated hardcore gamers and isn’t that who mostly make YouTube videos?

I’ll give it a try. They probably won’t review it anyway so no harm done!

13

It’s the gamble you have to be willing to take. You either go big or not go at all.

Good luck.

14

Any press is better than none. If people don’t like it then it likely others won’t. Even bad reviews often lead to people wanting to see just how bad it is themself.

15

That’s why you should have one account on the forums where you’re always respectful and talk about your game, and one where you remain anonymous so you can be a cynical troll. NOT THAT I WOULD EVER.

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16

haha… me/

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17

So, is this your respectful account or your troll acount? :wink:

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18

There’s one thing I haven’t seen in this thread…

Congratulations for completing your game!

On topic, you might find this helpful: http://dopresskit.com/

Cheers,
-D

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19

It started off as my respectful account, but after years of being here, I’ve become jaded and troll/abuse the odd user… Id like to think they generally deserve it, but they often dont. Its just me being in a c*** mood…

20

For starters, you might want to post a link here :wink: