HOW DO YOU GENERALLY MARKET YOUR GAME?

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Ratty524
The 524 is for 524 Stone Crabs
12986
Something that's been bugging me personally is how often a lot of people don't even acknowledge the existence of any game I put up in any community. Lately, I've been avoiding trying to hype up any project early and sort of release it without anyone knowing about it prior, but as far as I know, that hasn't drawn anyone to take a look at my games.

For those who seem used to getting a crap-ton of views and comments on their projects, how do you market games on the general level of getting people to play your stuff? How do you get popular?
I've been curious about this as pertains to commercial games, too; I've never been very strong on self-promotion, so I don't really know if people tend to just let news outlets stumble onto their projects or if sending out little introductory emails to potentially-interested journalists is the norm.

in general, though, I've heard it said that self-promotion isn't anything to be ashamed of, especially if you're an indie or freelancer. being active and charismatic on social media is a nice rule of thumb, but posting directly about your game is also something people sometimes seem a little too embarrassed about. seeing it secondhand, though, it's never come off as shameless or obtrusive to me -- and if the project is the reason I'm following them in the first place, then updates on what they're working on or releasing is a definite plus.
I don't really promote my games either.

I mean, I share them on facebook when they're done, and I put a link in most of m forum sigs linking to my page here on RMN...But that's about it.

While I do talk about my games on other forums too, I don't want to post links to my games unless asked because that just feels shameless as hell. :s
As someone who's going to attend grad school for marketing, I myself have a very passionate interest in the topic.

I don't think there's anything intrinsically wrong with marketing and promotion; after all, we do it every day; to make friends, to get a job, to attract a mate, to find people with like interests to hang around with. When it comes to products, marketing and promotion is how most of us have grown to like anything; most of your favorite games, movies, or TV shows have had some kind of advertising theme or item to get them off the ground from a concept, to a reality.

I think that the gross, engorged excesses of Western marketing have turned people off to the idea, but that's the worst of what marketing is; the reality is that nobody is going to hear of your works if you shamefully tuck them away. Make your shit seen and heard, even if your marketing is just an honest presentation of what it is. There is such a thing as 'honest marketing', and it's not an oxymoron.

So how do I market my game? I always try to incite discussion on what I'm doing; I showcase my game's systems, direction, and design, and I encourage people to talk about it. When my game gets closer to completion, I'll increase more of a focus on showcasing what the players can expect to experience and feel. I always try to keep it honest, but exciting and cool, and I think it can be a real blast.
Addit
"Thou art deny the power of Aremen?!"
6394
Well, first off, you need to be pretty relativity active in the communities that you’re posting your games up on to make them become more noticeable and desired. The more that you’re around and the more that you do things over there, the more that your name will get brought up and the more people will want to try out one of your games and, thus, word will surely spread to others who are interested as well.

Second, it’s good to have a general plan about what you’re planning on showcasing throughout the game’s overall developmental cycle throughout time. Perhaps on this said date you plan to showcase a couple of newly minted screenshots, maybe upload a gameplay video maybe a week or so later after that date, and so on. If you’re the type of person who can manage to submit things very, very swiftly and at a relativity rapid pace, then this generally slides in your favor, as you have a lot more stuff to talk about and showcase throughout the course. But for general developers who are quite slow at producing results (like myself, lol), it’s good to wait a little while before showcasing anything…maybe get to around the 50 – 75% mark or so done before finally unveiling the game for the world to see. You want to have a lot to talk about initially when the game gets submitted, so it’s best to save some material for later on for when you need it.

Third, you need to have something that catches the eye of the users around here to draw more people in to it. A nicely, designed title page with a creative, simple sounding name is definitely a nice welcoming start, as they’re usually the first things that people will see whenever they first look at a gamepage if they’re initially curious about it, but having a well-constructed group of characters, a promising setting, and general impressive screenshots along with interesting design mechanics definitely helps out as well.

Four, you need to have a good track record as a whole when it comes to you actually finishing your games. If you’re the type of person who always tends to cancel projects, put them on hiatus all the time or always keeps constantly changing things over and over again or never manages to make any leeway on them, then that will definitely play a little bit of a factor too. People want somebody who can get the job done. They don’t want somebody who just starts off on something for about a month and doesn’t get anything remotely done with it; they want results! It also helps to finish more of your projects to attract more desirable help, as you’ll probably get more experienced, more skilled creators to team up with you over time and their past good results will trickle down to your recent good results.

And, finally, is the game that you’re currently working on extremely sought after and is something that everyone will want to play? You have to take everything into accountability before you decide to really market it hard or not, as too much hyping or not enough hyping can really hurt or hinder your games overall performance.

All in all, just be smart about it and take some pride in your own creative abilities and skills. Know when it’s the best time to market and release some details about your game and know when it’s the best time to wait just a little longer for the right opportunity to strike. Try not to jump the gun if something else in the community has taken it by storm, as it’s generally best to wait until the hype for that dies down a little bit. It’s like a game within a game itself, actually.

And, oh, just because the game happens to be finished and released doesn’t mean you can’t market it a little bit more after it’s done! Upload a blogpost about your personal experiences about the finished product; talk about what you had to cut out or remove or change last minute that might interest some players; talk about potentially doing a sequel, prequel or a side-story to the game sometime in the future. Perhaps your game got mentioned elsewhere else on another more popular site or a famous Youtuber happened to stumble across it and play it out of the blue. All of this constant news, without it being too annoying or too rapid, really, really helps.
slash
APATHY IS FOR COWARDS
4158
Not well enough, myself! I'm starting to realize (and hear more and more) that, if you're trying to expand outside of a niche community like RMN, and especially if you're trying to make commercial games, you've gotta put significant effort into marketing - the same kind of effort you put into the game itself. It's unfortunate because talking about your game can be a lot of work, especially if you're shy, and you've already got enough to do as a gamedev!

Promoting yourself via social media is good, of course. Finding niche areas that your game might fit into (and people into that niche!) is a good plan! Plus, just being honest and earnest and passionate about your game, the things you love about it, the things you're doing with it - I think people like to see that from indies.

I did send out a couple of emails when I released It'll Look Great on Your Resume, and I did get a decent response to it! I don't know if it was the emails or just luck, but it ended up on a couple sites, got quite a few Let's Players, etc. It might behoove you as a dev to keep track of Let's Players, reviewers, game critics, and others who are interested in the kind of game you're making, and send them an e-mail when you release it! Something short, personal (not copy-pasta), with a link to a promo vid or some screenshots, a link to a download (or a download key), etc. From what I've heard from reviewers, that's the sort of thing that gets their attention. They're always looking for new stuff to review!
that's a fair point, yeah. I often forget about it, but I guess it's pretty fair to say that reviewers and developers have a symbiotic relationship -- if not always a friendly one.

on that subject, actually, I'm curious if anyone has seen instances of a dev receiving poor reviews and directly addressing them in a way that wins back some of that goodwill. from what I've seen, the general rule for negative reviews seems to be to maintain a respectful distance, but surely there have been instances where a dev had something interesting and productive to say for themselves, right?
Sooz
They told me I was mad when I said I was going to create a spidertable. Who’s laughing now!!!
5354
Honestly a lot of my "marketing" has involved having friends who either let me ride their coattails or help spread the word. In p. much any market, a lot of it comes from having friends and acquaintances who like you and your stuff.

As for what you yourself can do, a lot of marketing is just making sure people who might be interested know about your stuff. Social media posts with relevant tags are good, posts in relevant fora are good. Don't think of it as being arrogant or whatev, think of it as letting people who are into what you're into know about a thing.
author=Ratty524
Lately, I've been avoiding trying to hype up any project early and sort of release it without anyone knowing about it prior, but as far as I know, that hasn't drawn anyone to take a look at my games.


You may wish to strike a compromise of the two instead of doing either-or. My last project was roughly 60-70% finished before I formally announced it on RMN. Before that, I had only really been discussing it and showing materials here and there on twitter, with fairly little interest outside of friends.

Announcing a project too early is risky, because it may cause people to burn out their hype while they wait for it to be finished. On the flipside, releasing a game quietly leaves no time for potential word-of-mouth to spread.
Aside from "make a pseudo-puzzle/adventure game starring a little girl (optionally, scantly dressed) -> tag it as horror -> ??? -> profit", the only other option is to bring it up every now and then in conversations where relevant. I haven't released anything in a while, and the only game I made that got quite some attention followed the initially stated formula, so...

I doubt there's a 'best' in the ways to promote your game. Just make sure to be easy to talk to or approach, and to never be obnoxious. Even those genuinely interested in your project will be driven away if you shove the merch up their faces every single time you meet. But I suppose this applies more to interacting in general, and not just to promoting.

Edit> Reading back, addit's 4th point really hit a nail in my head. I should seriously start clearing my backlog x.x
Addit
"Thou art deny the power of Aremen?!"
6394
author=mawk
on that subject, actually, I'm curious if anyone has seen instances of a dev receiving poor reviews and directly addressing them in a way that wins back some of that goodwill. from what I've seen, the general rule for negative reviews seems to be to maintain a respectful distance, but surely there have been instances where a dev had something interesting and productive to say for themselves, right?

Oh yeah, that sort of thing has happened before with lots of developers around here after getting a less than stellar review, but it’s still pretty uncommon to see happen. For example, I gave one of Rose_Guardian’s games a one star rating and instead of lashing out and getting her pitchfork all nice and shined up to do some stabbing she generally understood why she received such a low score and vowed to do even better and improve on her overall work next time around. I tend to appreciate developers more who act like that because they understand that their overall product might be a bit more flawed than they once initially thought and are willing to work even harder to improve themselves next time. I mean, some developers will just shrug off low scores like it’s no big deal and have a quick laugh about it, sure, especially if they already have multiple conflicting review scores, but it’s always generally nice to hear their own thoughts about it.

author=karins_soulkeeper
Just make sure to be easy to talk to or approach, and to never be obnoxious. Even those genuinely interested in your project will be driven away if you shove the merch up their faces every single time you meet.

In other words, don’t be like BizarreMonkey or be like old me. Old me wouldn’t shut the f**k up and kept on shoving it into people’s faces almost every single day and it generally hurt my own reputation in the end. At least old me is sleeping soundly in a ditch somewhere alongside with old, inconsistent Archeia_Nessiah.

(P.S. They both died of overdosing on too much cheese.)
Red_Nova
Sir Redd of Novus: He who made Prayer of the Faithless that one time, and that was pretty dang rad! :D
9192
As someone who uses 99% RTP tiles, I'm always afraid of marketing my stuff outside RMN for fear of being labeled as yet another developer who falls back on the default assets and just pumps out crappy game after crappy game. On the occasions I do branch out, I focus less on the visuals and more on what sets my games apart, like the story and gameplay. I love writing dialogue, but most of what I write is short, snappy sentences accompanied by amateur facial expressions, so I'm not confident that it's enough to win over an audience. I show off these main points when I submit screenshots. I want players to look at them and get an idea of what kind of game it is instead of a bunch of pretty visuals, since I don't think I can pull that off. Yet.

Though there is a difference between seeking feedback for your project and just showing it off. I'm trying to make it clear to potential players that a project is still in development, and things can and will change. That way, they might be more inclined to give it a download and (hopefully) send feedback. Only when I think I've got a sizable amount of finished content do I even think about showing it off outside developer-focused communities.

Lately however, I'm starting to rethink this attitude. You shouldn't be afraid of showing off your work if you feel it's time. Sure, there's a risk of being labeled a crappy shovelware dev, but if you really believe in your project and put the effort into it, there will be people out there who will like your game, and not showing it off because of what COULD happen seems nonsense and self-defeating. You miss 100% of the shots you don't take, after all.
Nova, why don't you try buying one of the store packs? Or using the 2k3 RTP on VXA? Things like that could set your game apart (well not really, but at least set you apart from the flood of bad rtp games) without netting you extra trouble!

And yeah... I agree. Being afraid one person dislikes is counterproductive. With my own creations, I don't mind how many people hate them, as long as I know others enjoy them. (though I haven't gotten any hate comments yet from anything[/b] so >v>') maybe i have but my optimistic attitude interpreted them as positive

In any case I'm shit with marketing XD
I'd love if this became an article. As well as I'd love if we had a marketing section for articles!
Red_Nova
Sir Redd of Novus: He who made Prayer of the Faithless that one time, and that was pretty dang rad! :D
9192
author=JosephSeraph
Nova, why don't you try buying one of the store packs? Or using the 2k3 RTP on VXA? Things like that could set your game apart (well not really, but at least set you apart from the flood of bad rtp games) without netting you extra trouble!


Here's the punchline: I actually have a handful of graphics packs. I've got my eye on a few of them, but I don't want to commit to anything yet for two reasons:

1) Very few of them are in the style that I'm looking for (neither too square nor too pixel-y), and even then, they don't contain everything I need, and I don't want to swap out tilesets until I know EXACTLY how it's going to look.

2) In addition to practicing my character drawing, I'm learning how to make my own tiles. By doing so, I'm learning not just tileset anatomy, but how they come together to enhance a map as a whole. It's a slow, painful processes, but I feel like I'll get more out of it in the long run than by grabbing other tilesets.

Chances are I'm going to give up on making my own tilesets before long, but I want to give it an honest try first.
I've always had trouble marketing, as well. With my current game, I'm trying to appeal to fans of classic RPG Maker 2000/2003 games in an era dominated by RMVXA and non-RPGs made with the engines. I think trying to appeal to a certain niche is a good strategy, but I have no evidence to back that up yet. I've also been trying to emphasize the differences between the RM2K/3 games of old by constantly pointing out the non-linear sections of my game (my game is, in many ways, influenced by western fantasy and western RPGs in addition to jRPGs), among other things, and I haven't thought of a way to do so without shoving it in people's faces.

That's my main problem, I suppose. I really want to my game noticed but I don't want to be too annoying about it. Maybe I should just go all out and constantly be like

EXILE'S JOURNEY!!! PLEASE LOOK!!!

author=Addit
In other words, don’t be like BizarreMonkey or be like old me. Old me wouldn’t shut the f**k up and kept on shoving it into people’s faces almost every single day and it generally hurt my own reputation in the end. At least old me is sleeping soundly in a ditch somewhere alongside with old, inconsistent Archeia_Nessiah.

(P.S. They both died of overdosing on too much cheese.)

It did make your project extremely well known back in the GamingW days, though. Generating controversy is an effective marketing method even if it's generally frowned upon.

Sooz
They told me I was mad when I said I was going to create a spidertable. Who’s laughing now!!!
5354
author=dethmetal
That's my main problem, I suppose. I really want to my game noticed but I don't want to be too annoying about it. Maybe I should just go all out and constantly be like

EXILE'S JOURNEY!!! PLEASE LOOK!!!


Nah, just talk to people around the forum, get known for liking/offering a certain thing, maybe do a few statuses about gettin hype while makin a thing, ask for help when you need it. Bring your game up when it's relevant to the topic, maybe PM a person if they seem to be interested in the kind of stuff you're offering.

It did make your project extremely well known back in the GamingW days, though. Generating controversy is an effective marketing method even if it's generally frowned upon.


Eh, controversy really isn't that great a marketing thing, unless your strategy is to market to Edgy types. You run the risk of alienating people who would otherwise try your product because they don't want to be associated with the marketing or the assholes being marketed to. (Or the asshole making the game!)

You'll get a lot farther in the long run by just being generally cool to people and having a network of folks who might want to help you out rather than refusing to respect others. Heck, Virtual Grappi got most of its attention from a single cool guy who liked the original forum game and thus spread the word in several areas! (Thanks Cash you're a peach)

The other side of the coin is you should def. advertise other people's work if you like it, or at least think your current audience would like it. I don't do that so often here, but a good chunk of my art tumblr is reblogging internet frands who I think deserve some eyeballs.

It's all about being cool bros and mutually encouraging one another.
There are two types of marketing: promotion and awareness. Promotion is what we commonly associate with marketing. It's the "say whatever it takes to make people interested." Awareness, on the other hand, is simply an effort to make people aware your product exists. That could be as simple as the Snapchat (or Linux) image on a billboard (I don't know if any of you have seen them, but they're common where I am), or mentioning "I made a game, you should check it out." Technically, speaking about specs for your game would be awareness (classic RPG, no random battles, etc.), but there's not really a hard line between describing and promoting (which is "in-depth battle system"?).

As for marketing games, I'm confident that good games eventually rise and people play them, and bad games, no matter how well marketed, eventually fall off. That doesn't mean the best games get the most players or views. But it does mean that if you make a good game, people will notice eventually.

That said, I think most of us just like some feedback for our games. It's less about being #1 and more about "hey, what do you guys think?" At least that's what it is for me. I released my game demo during a "Release Something" event and let RMN do some of the marketing for me. It worked well, and I think more "get noticed" or "make a comment" events is always a good thing for a community like RMN.
Ratty524
The 524 is for 524 Stone Crabs
12986
author=hedge1
That said, I think most of us just like some feedback for our games. It's less about being #1 and more about "hey, what do you guys think?" At least that's what it is for me. I released my game demo during a "Release Something" event and let RMN do some of the marketing for me. It worked well, and I think more "get noticed" or "make a comment" events is always a good thing for a community like RMN.

Interesting, maybe I should start putting forth more constructive feedback on other gamepages for once!
Sooz
They told me I was mad when I said I was going to create a spidertable. Who’s laughing now!!!
5354
Lavish attention on others and they may think to return the favor in the future, yes.
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