Ways to promote a game
Hello guys,
I just want to see if I could get some tips and tricks that I don't know of already for promoting a game.
Typical ways would be to get it on a few news websites and ask a few friends to play it but I would like to hear from someone with experience (maybe Desktop Dungeons) on the best methods on getting your game out there.
I just want to see if I could get some tips and tricks that I don't know of already for promoting a game.
Typical ways would be to get it on a few news websites and ask a few friends to play it but I would like to hear from someone with experience (maybe Desktop Dungeons) on the best methods on getting your game out there.
Comments
That was written pre-Desktop Dungeons and we didn't deviate from that strategy much while we were working on the game, except that we were working on a game that people already wanted even when it was just a prototype. That's actually the biggest thing I see people doing wrong when it comes to marketing: Fail to consider if their game is an appropriate investment or not.
Because not all games are investments, only some are. Some are great art, or learning experiences, or personal statements, or barriers to overcome, or reputation building milestones - or even a combination of the above. And each of those things is totally awesome in their own right! But not everything is an investment and, as such, not everything can be sold in such a way as to benefit from marketing. That's all marketing is: Doubling down on an investment in order to make it return better: Only sell something when people are asking you how they can buy it. Only market something when people are already buying it.
Promoting a game is a bit different. Promotion, compared to marketing, is more about getting the people that you want input from to look at your game so that you can make it better, or realise some other kind of feedback from it. Step 1 for promotion is always to have your game playable somewhere. People need to be able to reach it, play it and then you have to have some sort of path for their feedback to reach you. Promotion is not about making money, it's about learning - your learning. Sometimes that means that you learn what you can from one game idea and then move on to the next, because it's not worth getting tunnel-vision on one idea.
So: Promotion. Where is your game? Why can't I play it? What are you trying to learn from it?
Entering competitions is great, but it's yet another multiplier on top of solid groundwork on a game.