Guide: Marketing your Game - Pt. 0 - Introductory

[Losdivinos]

This forum is full of game developers on different levels. Some started two weeks ago and some started years ago. We all have in common, that we enjoy developing games, but I bet that more than 90% of us would enjoy having a successfully running game with active players, that interacts with the development. I, myself, enjoy developing mainly not because of my own satisfaction, but others satisfaction. It is a pleasure to see, that what I make is loved and used by many people, that i would never have gotten the chance to give a smile or an enjoyable moment (hopefully hours) if it wasn't for the game.

I am sure, that a lot of the people here on the indie-resource board are interested in knowing how they can get their precious work seen by others and that is what I will be trying to help you out with. This will be a tutorial series consisting of several parts, where I will teach you everything I know about marketing a game/project. I will cover whatever may be interesting for you guys to know and I am more than open for requests on specific topics. It could be anything from SEO, Link Building or even a specific case, where I go through how I would market it.

Keep in mind, that this is how I would do it. There is no 100% magic success recipe and that is not what i am trying to give you either. However, I am trying to give you the knowledge I have from my projects that worked out well. Everything has to be used differently in the exact context and I am more than happy to ask your questions. I will be making quite a few of these tutorials over the next few weeks so let me know how you want this to be before I start going in the wrong direction.

What would work best for you - A tutorial with a fictive game, that I would go through exactly how I would market it? Tutorials on specific topics like SEO?

[Jackolantern]

Great idea!

I would think just cover the basics first. For a dev with a new game, I would think SEO may be a bit too much. Or at least approach it rather than trying to get on the top page (and lets face it, none of us are going to make the front page of "Browser based game"), approach it as the Big No No's of SEO, like things that could destroy the position you would have had had you done nothing.

And then beyond that, just the basics a new game dev could do if this is just their hobby and they are looking to put in a few hours a week to hopefully get a few dozen regular players to fill out their game.

[Losdivinos]

Great idea!

I would think just cover the basics first. For a dev with a new game, I would think SEO may be a bit too much. Or at least approach it rather than trying to get on the top page (and lets face it, none of us are going to make the front page of "Browser based game"), approach it as the Big No No's of SEO, like things that could destroy the position you would have had had you done nothing.

And then beyond that, just the basics a new game dev could do if this is just their hobby and they are looking to put in a few hours a week to hopefully get a few dozen regular players to fill out their game.

Fully agreed. I will base the series on different topics, but moving from A-Z, so it would make logical sense to start from Part 1 and then read tutorials ascending. Probably will be releasing the first part either tonight or tomorrow.

[Jackolantern]

Sounds great! I will be looking forward to this. I have read some stuff about promoting a game but have not really done it myself.

[vitinho444]

Wow this is what WE need!! Marketing tips

My suggestion is based on your proposal, create a fictional game, like "Let's creae our game X, X will be a MMORPG based on text in your browser"... Something like that and then show how we could make Game X a success.

I, myself, enjoy developing mainly not because of my own satisfaction, but others satisfaction. It is a pleasure to see, that what I make is loved and used by many people, that i would never have gotten the chance to give a smile or an enjoyable moment (hopefully hours) if it wasn't for the game.

This right here, is the MAIN (99%) of my will-power. I would love to have like a community of 100 people that loved my game and gave tons of feedback for me to improve it.

[Losdivinos]

Great to hear! I have begun writing the first part of the series and it is about landing pages and catching the visitors attention. Basically on how to give the right first time impression and with some actual examples of my browser game landing page principle. Looking forward to share it with you guys. Give me a day or two and it will be ready.

[vitinho444]

Great to hear! I have begun writing the first part of the series and it is about landing pages and catching the visitors attention. Basically on how to give the right first time impression and with some actual examples of my browser game landing page principle. Looking forward to share it with you guys. Give me a day or two and it will be ready.

Hey man take your time! Thank you for sharing

[SpiritWebb]

Looking forward to this as we have a game about ready to release!