In the spirit of Steam Next Fest in February, we want to help you strategize for your game’s next marketing campaign. We all face similar challenges in a competitive marketplace - what players are looking for on Steam, what mistakes to avoid, and more!
Following Unity’s Twitch/YouTube Livestream about How to Market A Game with Chris Z and our Director of Community, Larry HyrbInvalid date, this will be your chance to ask Chris about all things games marketing.
You can ask your questions for Chris in this topic throughout the next 7 days, starting Invalid date→Invalid date.
On February 13, 2025, the thread will close to new questions and Chris will be online to reply to the ones that were shared throughout the last week.
PLEASE LIMIT POSTS ON THIS TOPIC TO QUESTIONS FOR CHRIS!!! WE WILL BE MODERATING THIS SPACE AND ANY RELATED CONVERSATION CAN BE POSTED IN GENERAL DISCUSSION!
How are pixel art perceived by management game players on steam, compared to for instance “hand drawn” graphic? Is it a low production value warning lamp in the eyes of the average player?
Hey Chris, love your blogs. I am currently working on a
“first person action game where you quickly slash and shoot enemies who are afraid of you”
Is this a good marketable genre given that I execute it well?
Second question, someone in the chat asked about balancing publishing the steam page quickly or waiting until it is more polished. With the goal of fulfilling the checklist you talked about, I see two routes I can take with the marketing of my game:
One is to start it extremely early: make devlogs, make update videos, make general fun gameplay videos, and try to build a community over time.
Second is to reveal the game when it is extremely polished to give an exceptional first impression. Obviously there will still be tons of time to market the game, get feedback etc. Before that only playtest away from the market.
I am currently leaning towards the second approach because of potential of virality and less effort. What do you think?
On the topic of game trailers - I personally hate the very common “cinematic” trailer that is often the very first thing Steam shows customers. They are full of title fades and atmospheric or storyline clips that have zero to do with actual gameplay. As a player they never help me decide if I’m interested in a game. But as a developer I struggle with what to do; it seems they are still expected/desired by some sizeable subset of the user base of Steam?
What do you think? Are they a net benefit to converting page impressions to sales?
Hello Chris,
I am developing a story based tower defense mobile game. My focus is very much on the story. I also don’t want to put any ads in my game to keep the immersion as high as possible. Do you think my goals are too ambitious for a mobile game? My fear is that many people play on their cell phones to bridge a short period of time but don’t appreciate a more in-depth story.
Never do what AAA does. They are playing a different game than we are.
I have looked at AAA steam pages and they are usually awful.
That is because most of their marketing is very expensive. They can afford to have a bad page.
We cannot afford to have a boring bad page with a bad trailer starts with a boring intro that says “In world of magic and mystery and new destiny is born…”
I don’t know the mobile market. But in general unless you are making a specifically narrative game like a Visual Novel, story doesn’t matter in marketing.
People like story in games but only after they start playing it.
The Steam user base hates them too. Everyone hates those trailers except developers.
I think the reason developers do the boring slow build “in a world” trailers is because they are copying what AAA studios do. AAA studios can get away with it because they have built million dollar franchises for 30 years. Nintendo could make a trailer that is just a picture of mario’s hat and under it said “New game releasing on 1/1/2026” and then it would get 1 million views.
Small indies making their first game don’t have that history / brand / recognition so they cannot play the same game.
Don’t do anything AAA does.
They are playing a different game than we are.
FPS / combat games are big on Steam. HOWEVER, their success depends on good game feel and good graphics. I can’t tell you if your game will do well, you need to put out a demo, see if people agree if the level design, gamefeel, graphics are impressive and fun. But these are very hard for first time developers. Most first time developers don’t understand how important gamefeel and tiny tiny tiny details matter. Get ready to hear about “jank” a lot.
These games are also really hard to make enough content to satisfy fans without taking 3 years to develop (please don’t take 3 years to make your game).
If this is your first game, get that steam page up and demo out ASAP. You need to get feedback from regular gamers. Again prepare to hear about “jank.” The other thing is devs hold on to their page too long because they are afraid of getting bad feedback. So they say “eh the main character doesn’t look good enough I will wait one more month to polish then release the page later” then the next month something else makes them say “one more pass on the particle effects”
You really only learn how early is too early after a lot of games are released. That is why I always say release a lot of games. Get a lot of complaints about “jank.” Release another and another and then you will just learn how much is the right amount.
Management game players are ok with pixel graphics as long as the game is super deep. DEEP DEEP Gameplay is a must. So get that demo out, get feedback.
The problem with pixelart is you will not go viral on twitter / reddit / trailer. Pixel art just doesn’t WOW people any more unless you invent some crazy new shader effect or something.
But pixelart management games will find their place once you get that demo out and players have a chance to say “WOW this game is so fun and complex” and then streamers will play it and go “Wow this is so complex”
Hi Chris,
I am doing a playtest this weekend for my multiplayer board game should I contact streamers/content creators now? Or wait till I get feedback and contact them when I release my demo next week ahead of the steam next fest?
Chiming in here to say thank you to all of our community members who have posted questions today + a BIG THANK YOU to @zukalous for your time and engaging with our community!!!
I am not entirely sure because I haven’t studied the market enough. From what I hear you have to get a demo onto pirated software sites. If it does there, word spreads.
Press doesn’t matter as much. They usually only cover your game AFTER it is successful. So ignore the press. Just send a link to your demo / steam key to Gamespot, IGN, PCGamer. If they don’t cover you no big deal. Most of visibility will come from streamers / festivals / steam algorithm.
Hello, Unity Community!!! 
