3 ms·

If you go into something creative, you’re going to have to accept that you’ll have to play the marketing game. This studio sucks at marketing; their Reddit post

If you go into something creative, you’re going to have to accept that you’ll have to play the marketing game. This studio sucks at marketing; their Reddit post, which may well have had tens or hundreds of thousands of views by now, doesn’t even have a link to the game’s steam page. It’s all about the acquisition funnel. I went to GDC last month solely to attend business/marketing talks as I have a couple game projects in early stages and I’ve been wondering whether I wanted to commit the effort and money to see them through production. Everyone there seemed to be unanimous that as far as marketing goes, the only thing that matters right now is TikTok. Posting a 10 second video once a week - even if it’s just a silly recording of your dev process - can and will net you hundreds of thousands of views, all through the organic “For You” page. None of the marketing people who spoke had good things to say about Instagram/Twitter and the general takeaway was to not waste your time with them. So many indie game developers want to work on their project alone in a cave until they release it to the world and everyone unanimously declares it to be a work of genius and they sell 10 million companies. Every once in a blue moon that does happen, but if you’re investing years of your life into making a game, do you really want to take that gamble? There are people who have made it their specialty to figure out how to get your game in front of people, can you really afford to not listen to them? Florent, if you’re reading this, hire a marketing person. (if you already have one, fire them). With 2 award winning games under your belt this is where your problem is.

pcthrowaway 4y ago
> This studio sucks at marketing; their Reddit post, which may well have had tens or hundreds of thousands of views by now, doesn’t even have a link to the game’s steam page Many subreddits (maybe even reddit as a whole) have rules against self-promotion. I don't see why they need to link to the games. They're easy enough to find, and those who are interested can easily find them (I just did)
- belugacat 4y ago
  People are much more likely to click a link than do a Google search. There’s no need to do anything really, but if you’re complaining about lack of attention, why wouldn’t you maximize your (people who see the post) -> (people who visit the steam page) conversion rate? The indie dev subreddit has no rule against making your game name a clickable link. (The whole point of the subreddit is kind of self promotion for indie devs…)
  - arp242 4y ago
    I don't really know what the standards on that subreddit are, but in my reading the author of this post is looking more for a "community discussion" rather than "promotion" here. Trying to promote your product can distract from the community discussion aspect. Aside: one problem is that from looking at [1] is that I have no idea what kind of game this is; I get that it's mostly story-based, but is this a point-and-click adventure? Or more like Gone Home? Or something else? "3D visual novel" almost sounds like a movie in a .exe format. I feel like I'd be spending €19 for a cat in a bag. [1]: https://www.gog.com/en/game/the_wreck https://www.gog.com/en/game/the_wreck
    - kevinventullo 4y ago
      From Wikipedia: “Visual novels are often associated with and used in the medium of video games, but are not always labeled as such themselves. They combine a textual narrative with static or animated illustrations and a varying degree of interactivity.” To my understanding, it is a stretch to call them video games at all. More like “Oops! All Cutscenes”.
      - setr 4y ago
        They’re basically choose your own adventure books, in digital format. You could say it is the exact minimum level of interaction required to differentiate between games and say movies. But they’re also a major class of video games since the 80s, and still a popular format for Japanese games (nearly every dating sim you’ll find is a VN), so their choice of label isn’t likely the problem
brucethemoose2 4y ago
This line jumped out at me: > Rock Paper Shotgun’s Bestest best good. 9/10 on Pocket Tactics, 8/10 on Gamespew and 8.5 on Well Played good ... Don't get me wrong, I love RPS, but anyone using written reviewers as a yardstick is operating in a different decade.

pcthrowaway 4y ago

> This studio sucks at marketing; their Reddit post, which may well have had tens or hundreds of thousands of views by now, doesn’t even have a link to the game’s steam page Many subreddits (maybe even reddit as a whole) have rules against self-promotion. I don't see why they need to link to the games. They're easy enough to find, and those who are interested can easily find them (I just did)

belugacat 4y ago
People are much more likely to click a link than do a Google search. There’s no need to do anything really, but if you’re complaining about lack of attention, why wouldn’t you maximize your (people who see the post) -> (people who visit the steam page) conversion rate? The indie dev subreddit has no rule against making your game name a clickable link. (The whole point of the subreddit is kind of self promotion for indie devs…)
- arp242 4y ago
  I don't really know what the standards on that subreddit are, but in my reading the author of this post is looking more for a "community discussion" rather than "promotion" here. Trying to promote your product can distract from the community discussion aspect. Aside: one problem is that from looking at [1] is that I have no idea what kind of game this is; I get that it's mostly story-based, but is this a point-and-click adventure? Or more like Gone Home? Or something else? "3D visual novel" almost sounds like a movie in a .exe format. I feel like I'd be spending €19 for a cat in a bag. [1]: https://www.gog.com/en/game/the_wreck https://www.gog.com/en/game/the_wreck
  - kevinventullo 4y ago
    From Wikipedia: “Visual novels are often associated with and used in the medium of video games, but are not always labeled as such themselves. They combine a textual narrative with static or animated illustrations and a varying degree of interactivity.” To my understanding, it is a stretch to call them video games at all. More like “Oops! All Cutscenes”.
    - setr 4y ago
      They’re basically choose your own adventure books, in digital format. You could say it is the exact minimum level of interaction required to differentiate between games and say movies. But they’re also a major class of video games since the 80s, and still a popular format for Japanese games (nearly every dating sim you’ll find is a VN), so their choice of label isn’t likely the problem

brucethemoose2 4y ago

This line jumped out at me: > Rock Paper Shotgun’s Bestest best good. 9/10 on Pocket Tactics, 8/10 on Gamespew and 8.5 on Well Played good ... Don't get me wrong, I love RPS, but anyone using written reviewers as a yardstick is operating in a different decade.