I have a game that has now been released on Steam EA, with so many games coming onto the market, I am looking for ways to get the name out there. All suggestions appreciated, thanks
Before someone posts “too late; you should have started marketing well before release,” I’ll jump in with a couple links that might be helpful. ![]()
Listen to Mike Rose.
Also read Marketing Your Indie Game on a Zero-Dollar Budget. Its bullet points are:
- Make a kick-ass trailer
- Capture beautiful screenshots
- Stick to the point in your press release and grab the press’s attention
- Optimize your landing page to convert visitors to players
- Post weekly on your dev blog (it’s not too late!)
The author provides some excellent, detailed steps and tips for each of those points.
cross promote between your game within each of them, have newletter with regular update at least once every 2 months. its virtually cost nothing to do this at an indie scale and take very little time.
Look up how to run an ad-campaign. Then make ads.
That takes substantial amounts of money (counter to the OP’s question).
That’s weird, all the times I ran ad campaigns I did it fairly cheap. What do I know, I’ve only done it. His ad could tank and he could keep pouring money into it, but that would be silly. Unless you just want to hope that another company puts your game on their first page or something, he should really learn the ropes, even if he does take a loss. The ad should make you money.
What sort of ad campaigns? I thought at first you were talking about traditional media, like movie theaters, which costs a few k (I was just looking into this last week), though has a decent /impression rate, and might actually make an impression since it’s a captive audience. But maybe you’re talking about something like Google ads, which I agree is cheap, but I’m not at all convinced it does any good at all (yes, I’ve tried it). In between is direct advertising on a website like TouchArcade (which I’ve also done, and also seemed like a wasted investment). I guess you get what you pay for, but surely the cost/benefit ratio is higher in some cases than others.
Where do you feel you got your money’s worth in an ad campaign?
Wear a trenchcoat, don’t shower for a week, and hand out copies on the street. ![]()
Below video was made by the now deceased John Bain (TotalBiscuit), but it’s information is still largely relevant for getting your game reviewed by YouTube personalities.
To be honest, I think the best thing would be to start building a community and a brand, and start working on your next game. When you have little money (and even when you have a lot) it’s so far and away the best thing to do that it’s not worth doing much else.
This doesn’t mean tweeting random stuff on the internet once a month though. It means regularly writing cool and interesting blog posts, setting up email subscription, creating cool stuff to give to your fans, etc and generally being an interesting and attractive personality.
Everything I’ve ever heard about ads makes it clearer and clearer to me that unless you can buy a billboard on the side of every bus in your city, it’s not worth a pinch of fluff.
^^^
first, make something sexy. Second, make sure people can see it. Third, be likable and visible. Fourth, keep doing this.
Proactive, not retroactive.
Mainly both dropshipping and private labeling. Google is good, but they hold your hand less with a lot of things. There are some things you can and can not do on Google that you can and can not do on other platforms. I 100% stand by using google ads in your own personal platforms though, I’ve used it my whole adult life and there not a more beautiful yet free solution out there for making money on their platform. However, for selling, I think people are full of shit and Facebook is still the way to go. Look how many gullible people are on Facebook, half of them are almost literally zombies. And they don’t understand the ad algorithm at all, and don’t always know the difference between a paid ad and a normal post. I know it’s a different field, but a finished video game is still a product, and products sell the same. Having said that, I have spent money I never saw again, on ad campaigns. It’s all the movement of the ocean.
Edit: I always start off on $20 for a week, then you study the analytics if you have any.
Actually, I’ve made a video which might help you out in promoting your game. In it, I talk about using Social Media, events, and third parties.
Hope it will help you out!
That’s not proactive…
That’s “build it first find a market later” mentality. Many of us have something we build because we want to, but there isn’t always a market for it.
Third, end up in jail for public indecency.
And finally, after someone makes a documentary about you, make sure to mention your game.
Finally, somebody grasp the nuance in my words. You have to have a little imagination!
That’s what Mr. Tomonobu Itagaki, did with the Dead or Alive fighting game.
And it actually worked. He even mentioned it, in a game interview.![]()