Posts in category: marketing

3. Make the game that players actually want to play, not the game that you want to make!

Once your have analyzed the niche and its people, start to think on the game game based on their interests not in the game that you want to do. If you don´t know how to do that, try to contact some of them and try to find out what they would like to see in a game that they could like.

As you progress through the development you may need to create focus groups to validate the ideas being developed as to make sure that they follow the overall concept fit for your niche.

One of the biggest hurdles with creative tasks, is that usually, it is very difficult to split what we like from what we need to do. And in games it is very dangerous, because the line that divides those two realities if very thin, and the production process usually long, which increase the chances of breaking.

4. Understand the game you are trying to make and for who

Once you have done your market research and made your game, you need to be clear about what kind of game you are making. I know many developers who think they know what they are making, but don’t know the market around the type of game they are making.

To be clear, you need to answer the following questions

• What are the most popular and biggest games in your game genre?
• What are the next three best-selling games in your game genre?
• Which games in your genre have failed and why?
• What is the unique feature of your game that makes it different from all the games listed above (we usually call this a hook)?
• What is it about the genre that genre superfans would expect?
  To answer all this, you need to play all these games for research (see, you can play games for work!) You have to talk to the game developers who created the games in your genre. You need to talk to the real fans of the genre.
• Knowing what your fans like, what they don’t like, and what makes your game stand out is very, very important when you start tweeting about your game.

5. Think about how you would describe your game

At this point, you’ve identified what the targeted digital stores users are looking for, what the competition is like, and what makes your game unique.

Next, you need to tell them what genre your game is in and how it differs from other games. This may seem obvious, but it can be very difficult. Many developers are so obsessed with their own games that they forget that other people don’t know what they know.

For example, we’ve seen developers who claim to be making a space fighting game, but all their screenshots, descriptions and tweets sound like an planet exploration simulator. You have to use the right words to make sure genre fans know it’s a game you’re making: if you’re making an FPS, you need to show an image with a big gun in the middle of the screen. If you’re making a visual novel, you need to show dialogue choices and cute characters.

Test your message on a stranger playing a game. Show them your marketing material and ask them, “What games do you remember? and ask them, “What games do you remember?

Are the games they mention similar to yours? If their answers are vague or incorrect, then there is a problem with the game description.

On Steam, you also need to tag your games. If you tag your game in the wrong genre, Steam will not be able to show your game to the right people. Even if your tagging is correct, if your screenshots and descriptions are not of the correct game type, potential fans will ignore you because your game doesn’t look like their preferred game type.

During Game Development

6. Make an epic trailer

Think about the last time you saw an eye-catching trailer and how excited you were about the official release of your product, movie or game. Your trailer is your best chance to make a first impression of your game, and it’s an asset you absolutely must make a success of.

It is the only asset that combines exciting music, beautiful visuals and animation, and a clear call to action. If you can create an epic trailer and highlight all of this in less than two minutes, you’ve succeeded in your first marketing task in sparking interest in your game and creating a buzz. Here is a checklist we recommend

• Write and plan the story of your trailer before creating it.
• Create the trailer first, using free and easy-to-use tools.
• Emphasize gameplay and preview the main events of the game.
• Don’t forget the audio!
• Don’t rush the production of your trailer, take your time
• Above all, create a trailer that you would like to see. An example we love: Forgotten Fields*, released in April 2021 and available on PC, Mac and Linux, is about an unsuccessful journey of the author back to his childhood home before being sold.

There are great things about this trailer: the interesting story, the appealing graphics, the soothing audio used, and the clear explanations of gameplay. From the trailer alone, it looks like a fun game to play after a hard day’s work.

7. Create a nice press marketing pack

Every indie game developer will have their own ideas about what to use for marketing and press assets. Keeping in mind that you don’t need to spend thousands of dollars marketing your videogame, there are two very important assets that you should prioritize: trailers and screenshots.

A nice screenshot will draw more attention to your social media posts. Take as many high-resolution screenshots as you can, and take more. You will probably only use five to ten photos, but if you have a good database of photos, you will be spoiled for choice.

Make sure that each of these photos tells a different story, but not the whole story. At each stage of the marketing process, you want to make sure that you capture the interest of your audience. The resolution of your photos should be such that they can be used in social media, magazines and online articles.

Last, but certainly not least, you will need a high-resolution copy of your game’s logo. This logo should be featured on all of your game’s channels, so make sure it reflects individuality.

Here’s what’s in the press kit to help Turnip Boy commit tax evasion*.

• A dedicated Dropbox account to host your files
• An ‘Art’ folder containing high-resolution images of all characters
• A ‘Logo’ folder with high-resolution game logo files
• Screenshots folder with high-resolution screenshots of the game’s highlights
• A page with game details, including the release date, the developer, and a brief synopsis of the game.
• In addition to having a great game title and website, the ‘Presskit’ call-to-action is at the top of the list. Clicking on the link will take you to a dedicated Dropbox with folders for logos, screenshots and art. To make it as easy as possible for the press to find these assets, and to avoid confusion and unnecessary questions, make sure you clearly label the folders and files.

Once you have all the resources you need to market your indie game, you can respond to requests from journalists, streamers and other key stakeholders who want to know more. One thing to remember is that your external messaging needs to be as consistent as your social channels. You don’t want to confuse people when your game has just become so popular.

Don´t forget to Optimise your landing page to be mobile-friendly.

8. Build your own dedicated social media channels

If you have a mobile device, there’s a good chance you’ve downloaded some social media apps. Social media is no longer just a niche, and in 2021 there is no escaping its power. In addition to placing social buttons on your landing pages, we recommend creating dedicated social media channels to provide a connected user experience.

Remember that each social platform has its own vibe and audience. As mentioned above, it is important to support Twitch and YouTube during the development phase. However, this is just the beginning. These channels also need to be used in the marketing phase. Here is some insider information about each social media channel.

Twitter: According to this social platform, there were over 2 billion tweets about games throughout 2020. This represents a 75% increase over the previous year, and a nearly 50% increase in the number of unique authors. This commitment is a step in the right direction, but Twitter is not the channel to use for marketing your game. It is a channel to capture/grab people’s attention.

Use Twitter to get the attention of publishers, streamers, journalists and other interested parties.

Once you have identified the people active in your indie gaming circles (for example, journalists who enjoy the same genre of games), make sure you nurture these relationships. It’s also important to take note of relevant hashtags and use them as often as possible.

Instagram This visual channel is a great way to get a “behind the scenes” look at how your indie game is run.

Instagram is also a great channel for sharing trailers, highlighting game updates and posting event appearances – just like Twitter, make sure you use relevant hashtags.

Hashtags are very important because they will amplify your reach over your actual number of followers and increase your chances of getting some attention by the people or companies you could be interested.

Some Hashtags important are : #screenshotsaturday, #wishlistwednesday , #pitchya, #madewithunity, #epicfriday, etc…

9. Build and continuously optimize you marketing funnel

If you’re on on a digital game store, you will have probably the concept of wishlist and you will need to get as many as possible before release – your game page needs to be up and running at least 6 months before your game is released. The reason why wishlists are so important air that they are essentially a reservoir of potential power. When a game is released, the store will notify to everyone who has signed up for your wishlist, telling them that “this game has been released”.

These messages usually converts at a very high rate, so the more they go, the more people will buy the game on the first day.

Very few people see a game and buy it right away. It’s like going on a blind date and getting married on the same day. That simply doesn’t happen. After buyers have heard about your game, you need to update them regularly on your progress so that they gradually fall in love with your game. And after they’ve heard it a few times, hopefully they’ll be excited enough to buy your game on day one.

This process of gradually getting people to like your game is called the marketing funnel. It is a strategic set of marketing channels that are put in place to guide someone to eventually buy your game.

A typical funnel might look something like this A fan sees your game posted on reddit, is interested in it, goes to your Steam page and adds it to their wish list. Then, a few weeks later, you post an update that you have created a discord, and they get a notification and join your discord. They will then be notified that you will host a beta on your Discord server. They sign up. And they play. And they like it. And when your game is released, they buy it on day one.

Note that this funnel is related to Social Platforms / Media / Influencers > Game on Digital Store Page > Wishlist > Buy.

To do this part, you need to be very clear so that no matter where someone discovers your game, they know what to do next.

if you’re posting on Twitter, Facebook or Reddit, you need to have a Landing Page built in the Digital Stores where your game will be made available.

Then, if it goes viral on Twitter, you can put a link saying “Wishlist my game on XXX Store”. And on the game store, we can put a link to a Discord or mailing list so that very interested people can join.

There’s nothing stopping you from improving your marketing resources – your game’s page, your Twitter account, your reddit posts, your website with its landing page.

If you’re new to marketing, you might look at a successful indie and think that everything they publish will quickly become well-known and constantly go viral.

The fact is that marketing consists of trying dozens of things and only one of them will actually produce results. It’s just that the dozens of failures are the ones you don’t see because they are the ones with zero visibility. Marketing is about trying and experimenting with different messages. We rarely know why one headline was better than another. We just need to think scientifically, formulate hypotheses, test them, and readjust our experiments based on what we learn. Most marketing campaigns fail. We just need to get back up and try, try, try, try.

We have to repeatedly remake our game’s page until the game reaches the end of its life. It’s normal. All great developers do it.

What do I need to know before I start?

Remember that other games developers are not your target market. Whatever game you are making, there are people (99%) who are passionate about that type of game. If you find that audience and market directly to them, you will be much more successful than if you advertise to everyone else. The mistake that many developers make is that they assume that other game developers are their target market. Sure, many developers play games. You may get envolved in cross-promotions but this will not happen casually you will have to look specifically and talk directly with other devs about this point.

10. Networking with platform holders and other developers

Most of your wish list and visibility will not come from you tweeting about your game alone. The most popular games are actually obtained through partnerships with large companies and popular websites.

For example, to get into E3 or any other popular event, you usually need to know someone behind the scenes. I’ve also seen games where the developer or publisher is first with the organizers and there was a last minute slot available, so they got a prime spot at the festival.

You need a wide network of people who can talk to you about opportunities and introduce you to people who can help you.

If you want to appear on platforms like Steam, Xbox, Playstation and Nintendo, then you need to get in touch with development partner teams on those platforms.

We can’t stress this enough. Most of your exposure will come from partnering with people who have a larger audience than you and having them embrace you to share your game. But before they can do that, they need to know that you are a good person.

In fact, the main reason most big publishers are successful is because they have a great history in the industry. They know everyone who works on every console and in every store. They know the editors and journalists at the big websites. They are friends with the agents of the popular streamers. They just have connections in the industry. Knowing someone on the inside” is the number one advantage a publisher can give you.

Here are some tips for networking

• Join your local IGDA chapter’s development group or development tools community (e.g. Unity Developers).
• Write a post on the Gamasutra blog about a problem you’ve solved (big names in the industry read it all the time and often reach out to you).
• Introduce yourself to developers who have recently released or are currently working on a game in the same genre. They are not your competition. They will, in fact, help you make connections with people who have helped them.
• Use LinkedIn to look up the content teams of major development companies.

11. Use festivals, press, streamers and social media to get your wish list.

In most cases, Steam’s algorithm doesn’t really provide visibility based on the number of wishlists. But don’t confuse this: it’s not really the wishlist that Steam is analyzing; what Steam cares about is the gross dollars it brings in over a short period of time. The more wish lists you have, the more people are likely to convert and the more money you will make. A wish list is a fuse. Sales are blasts, and Steam’s algorithm only cares about the size of your blast.

We can’t stress this enough. Most of your exposure will come from partnering with people who have a larger audience than you and having them embrace you to share your game. But before they can do that, they need to know that you are a good person.

In fact, the main reason most big publishers are successful is because they have a great history in the industry. They know everyone who works on every console and in every store. They know the editors and journalists at the big websites. They are friends with the agents of the popular streamers. They just have connections in the industry. Knowing someone on the inside” is the number one advantage a publisher can give you.

Here are some tips for networking

• Join your local IGDA chapter’s development group or development tools community (e.g. Unity Developers).
• Write a post on the Gamasutra blog about a problem you’ve solved (big names in the industry read it all the time and often reach out to you).
• Introduce yourself to developers who have recently released or are currently working on a game in the same genre. They are not your competition. They will, in fact, help you make connections with people who have helped them.
• Use LinkedIn to look up the content teams of major development companies.
• Here are some additional resources to help you do this
• I have an official HowToMarketAGame Discord channel where you can find programmers like you (please join).
• Why indies don’t compete with each other
• Platforms are also people

But how many wish lists do I need? It depends on the size of your game. At launch, wishlist conversions are about 10% to 20% in the first week. If you want to get on the better side of Steam’s algorithm, I wouldn’t launch a game without 10,000 wishlists, Steam will kind of bury games with less than that, since they won’t make enough money at launch.

How can I get a wishlist? The most effective ways are as follows

• Attend festivals like Steam Next Fest, Pax Online, Wholesome Direct, and Gamescom. A full list of these festivals can be found here on Akupara Games.
• Make a viral post on Reddit. It’s harder, but will attract thousands of wish lists. Here’s an example.
• Get a streamer to cover it.
• Get your article published on a website
• Make a viral post on imgur
• Tweet about your game (seriously, tweeting about your game is actually not very effective for getting wishlsits)

Marketing a game is actually a very cyclical process. Most of the advices in this list needs to be repeated many times throughout the game development process. The message of your game needs to be adjusted according to people’s reactions. The best track games, adjust, track and adjust. No one, not even marketers, gets it right the first time.

12. Launch the game

This is the moment when you actually make your game available for purchase. People can now pay for your game.

We are often asked what Steam Early Access is. It’s important to know.

Why is the launch so important?

It’s an excuse to get a lot of press. Streamers, press and even the media are more likely to respond and cover your release if you mention it.

Steam also gives you extra visibility during the launch.

So use it to your advantage.

Get in touch with all the people who covered it, liked it, reviewed it, added it to their wish list, or put it on their mailing list. Let them know your game is coming out and waiting.

13. Prepare for the next game

If your launch was mediocre and your updates and discounts didn’t have a significant impact on your bottom line, it’s time to move on to your next project. No matter how much interest you had in your first game, you start to reach an opportunity cost where your efforts on your current game take away from the potential of your next project.

If your first game doesn’t sell, don’t give up. To do well in this industry, you need to build a reputation and a backlog of games. Unfortunately, most developers leave the industry after releasing a game. You’ve come so far, you’ve learned so much, and your second, third and tenth games should be much easier. This GDC talk featured a slide called Put your Name On Your Game, which says that most studios close after just one release.

When you create a Steam page for your second (or third, or nth) game, cross-promote with everyone who liked, bought, wishlisted, reviewed, or commented on your first game.

Building a studio with a successful game is a lot like building a snowman. You start with a small pinch of snow and roll and roll, slowly at first, but later it becomes a big giant snowball.

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