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Marketing Your Indie Game Throughout Time and Space

Victoria Tran

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Hello!

My name is Victoria Tran.

Community Director at Innersloth�
Wholesome Games Organizer

@TheVTran

victoriatran.com

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Table of contents

01

03

02

04

Understand the market and the potential viability of a game.

Pre-Production

Build up a solid community, engage and sustain

The Wait

Hype, call to action, framing

Announcement

Awareness and action

Launch

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Please note my biases!

What “works”

Resources

English

Language

North America

Location

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Pre-Production

01

Before it even begins.

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The Goal

Understand the market and the potential viability of a game.

The Goal

Competitor analysis, SWOT, customer profiles.

The Activities

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What does a competitor analysis do?

Platforms

Genre saturation

Audience size

Viability

Game differentiation

Messaging angles

Marketing

Player sentiments

Pricing

Gameplay length

Insights

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SteamDB
GamesLikeFinder
VGInsights
Press
Influencers
Kickstarter

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How to use the information

AVG # of reviews → Demand

New Boxleiter number:

Average of 41 sales per review
Median of 38 sales per review�

AVG review score → Quality�
AVG price → What players are expecting to pay�

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Category	Title	Release	Price	Sales*	Reviews	Score	Publisher	Avg playtime	Art	Notes
Funny	Panzermadels	2016	10.99	20 - 50k	1038	91	N	3h	2D
	Hatoful Boyfriend	2014	10.99	200 - 500k	4053	94	Devolver	1h	2D
	HuniePop	2015	10.99	500k - 1m	15,317	96	N	9h	2D	NSFW, match 3
	Hustle Cat	2016	21.99	50 - 100k	565	95	N	3h	2D

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SWOT

	Strengths	Weaknesses	Opportunities	Threats
Game	What does it do best?��What does your studio excel at?��What experiences can players get?	What do competitors do better?��Where are you lacking?��What does your game not do?	Underserved markets��New mechanic or style��What gap is there?	New competitors��Discoverability changes��Lack of resources or time

Leverage strengths and opportunities; understand risk/threats

Look at both internal and external factors

Less market-focused (numbers) but more marketing focused.

Will lead you to your game’s differentiators and message which should drive your marketing strategy

What does your game do best ?

What is the experience players can get from only your game?

What does your studio excel at?

What resources and skills do you have that can showcase your strengths to the fullest?

What does your game not do well?

What do competitor games and studios do better than you?

Where are your resources limited?

Where have you been lacking in your marketing?

Where is there a blank space in the market you can own?

Underserved markets

Few competitors in a genre

A new marketing approach

A new mechanic or crazy unique visual style

Media coverage possibilities

What are your goals and how can you seize unexplored opportunity to accomplish them?

Emerging competitors

Steam discoverability/algorithm changes

Changing customer tastes by the time game releases

A new platform releasing

What obstacles are you facing?

Taking too long to make a game

Lack of resources

Something very similar already exists

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Localization Note

Multiple markets? Multiple languages!�
Things add up: slang, cultural references, jokes, made up words, etc.�
The more complicated the script, the more complicated the localization

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Customer Value Prop

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Announcement

02

This is when you reveal your game.

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The Goal

Hype, call to action, framing

The Goal

Trailer, hype work, press, see if you can get on a showcase

The Activities

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Marketing Analysis

Game Hook

Trailer

Imagery

(for store page)

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Game Hook

Title
Visuals
Theme/story
Audio
Emotion (e.g. joy, sadness, controversy)
Familiarity
Uniqueness
Fame of developer, studio, or franchise

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Game Hook

Title
Visuals
Theme/story
Audio
Emotion (e.g. joy, sadness, controversy)
Familiarity
Uniqueness
Fame of developer, studio, or franchise

Game: Venba

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Game Hook

Title
Visuals
Theme/story
Audio
Emotion (e.g. joy, sadness, controversy)
Familiarity
Uniqueness
Fame of developer, studio, or franchise

Game: Cult of the Lamb

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Game Hook

Title
Visuals
Theme/story
Audio
Emotion (e.g. joy, sadness, controversy)
Familiarity
Uniqueness
Fame of developer, studio, or franchise

Game: Crypt of the Necrodancer

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Game Hook

Title
Visuals
Theme/story
Audio
Emotion (e.g. joy, sadness, controversy)
Familiarity
Uniqueness
Fame of developer, studio, or franchise

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Game Hook

Title
Visuals
Theme/story
Audio
Emotion (e.g. joy, sadness, controversy)
Familiarity
Uniqueness
Fame of developer, studio, or franchise

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Game Hook

Title
Visuals
Theme/story
Audio
Emotion (e.g. joy, sadness, controversy)
Familiarity
Uniqueness
Fame of developer, studio, or franchise

Game: Unpacking

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Game Hook

Title
Visuals
Theme/story
Audio
Emotion (e.g. joy, sadness, controversy)
Familiarity
Uniqueness
Fame of developer, studio, or franchise

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Trailer

Use cases: Social media, hype, press, influencers, store page

Cost per trailer: $1000 — $20,000 USD

Experience and the amount of work

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Trailer Tips (Derek Lieu)

Show the game loop
Variety
HUD/UI should be on
Simple and easy to understand
No logos until end slate
No cinematic shots with no player interaction

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Store Page Optimization

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Showcase/Events

Example Events

The Game Awards
Xbox, PlayStation State of Play, Nintendo Direct
Summer Game Fest
Gamescom Opening Night Live
PC Gaming Show
Future Games Show

Indie Friendly

Day Of The Devs
The MIX
Nintendo Indie World Showcase
ID@Xbox showcase
Wholesome Direct

Publisher Specific

Devolver Direct
Annapurna Interactive Showcase

Shop around for events

Many have a submission process - don’t scoff at smaller events either! You need to start somewhere! (Wholesoe Games?)

Can also be great for things like a Steam event

If you’re a certain size, companies can try to do their own publisher showcase - that’s another option. (Though how you get a lot of people watching it without co-streaming deals? Hmm.. not always as easy as you would hope, if you’re not EA.)

So maybe you need something semi-agnostic, something a lot of people will be watching already for ‘reveals’, huh? Something that already has a reputation and ‘heft’. Which is where platform-specific & independent streaming game showcases come in. Some are part physical, some are all digital. Many have reach.

And yes, you can be featured in many of the non-platform showcases editorially - without $ changing hands, if you’re smaller, innovative, and very lucky. But most of these ‘aggregator’ folks have to make a little cash back.

It ain’t always cheap. You’re looking at paying anything from $500 (one very nice showcase!) to $50,000+ (woo!) for each 30 seconds of trailer you show in them. And you might want to calculate how many Steam wishlists you need to generate to get ROI? Though since you can’t A/B test for reveals, we will never really know, *sigh*.

paid placement can also cost $100-250k+ for some of the major events. From a financial standpoint, we would not suggest paying for placement unless a very strong asset is used, particularly for an existing title that has had a prior reveal.

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Presskit

Studio logo
Game logo
Key art (16:9, 1:1, 9:16)
Trailers
Screenshots
Boilerplate studio description
Short description of the game
Gameplay footage*
Gameplay GIFs*

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dopresskit.com

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Press Release Checklist

Easy, simple, email title

Avoid too many “!!!” or all caps

Embargo information
Basic game information: Genre, platforms, price, short summary
If relevant: key or request form
Trailer
Screenshots and one or two GIFs
Social
Presskit
Press contact

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_pwENlqLD3wv-3T4l2m0cILfLg2jsY_1ra9LgoDBMFI/edit#

Press is great for SEO and global notice

Have a bundled media kit in your release or pitch with a clear direct link, or it may be ignored

Have an angle when you write press - show why they should cover you over global AAA news

DON’T

Pretend to be a person’s friend for reviews or coverage

Lie to make a product look better

Put down the competition

Type in all caps or speak only in jargon in professional emails (informal emails don’t count)

Expect coverage just because you’ve written a journalist or given them a review copy

Be rude to press because of a bad review or rejection of a story/review

Request a certain review score – good or bad, it is enough your product is reviewed

You may or may not have the budget to hire a PR agency. The one benefit of a PR agency will be their media database and established relationships with the press. Handling correspondence and relationships alone is a full-time job, but it’s also handy to have a company that can send press releases in bulk without being blocked by spam filters.

You can do PR on your own as long as you handle it with care. It can be very socially intensive. You don’t have to contract an agency as long as you’re willing to put in the extra work required - and you must put effort into your PR. Otherwise, it will reflect poorly on your product and make you look unprofessional as a developer. It is also worth noting that GamesPress exists, and is a completely free video game-focused press release distribution service.

https://www.gamespress.com/en-US

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AMONG US RELEASING ON JUNE 15 2018

An online multiplayer social deception game… in space!

<City you are based in>, <Localized date to place being sent to> - Innersloth has announced that Among Us will be releasing on 15th June 2017. Among Us is a party game of teamwork and betrayal for 4-15 players...in space! ��Release information embargo: March 15, 10:00AM PT.

Play with 4-15 player online or via local WiFi as you attempt to prepare your spaceship for departure, but beware as one or more random players among the Crew are Impostors bent on killing everyone!

NEW trailer: youtube.com/somethingsomething

Alongside the release date and platforms, the game features:

Customization: Pick your color, hat, visor, skin, and pet.
Lots of game options: Add more Impostors, more tasks, different roles, and so much more!
Different modes to choose from: Classic or Hide n Seek.
4 different maps to play in: The Skeld, MIRA HQ, Polus, and the Airship.

<Image>

For more information on Among Us, follow it on Twitter at @AmongUsGame or on the website at innersloth.com

More assets are available at: PRESSKIT LINK

About Company

Company boilerplate blah blah bah.

###

Press Contact:

Victoria Tran

email@company.com

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Your First Community

When you’re starting from scratch, your main growth channels will be:

Direct invites

Social

Word-of-mouth

Events

Give them a reason to join!

When you’re starting from scratch, your main growth channels will be:

1) Direct invites. This is the first way you’ll start getting supporters. You probably have some sort of network to start from when it comes to building your community. Friends, family, coworkers, colleagues, people in your D&D group, people who watch your Twitch streams, that Discord server you only sometimes pop into and it’d be kind of awkward to ask but you’re gonna ask anyway, employees, lovers, enemies, etc. These are people who are going to be your day ones. Don’t be shy! They want to support you! Be respectful if they don’t want to join, of course. :)

2) Social. Now social media isn’t necessarily easy for discovery, but it can be useful for getting out of your immediate bubble. However it’s a time sink, and dependent on you having SOME sort of content to show for your game. At the time of writing, I’d recommend having a poke at TikTok if you’re able to. Some people prefer doing it organically through Twitter or Reddit! Here’s my quick thread about building social media followings from scratch.

3) Word-of-mouth. This is different from direct invitations because it depends on other people inviting folks to join your community. Whether you have a friend who’s active on Reddit when you’re not, or your community members tell their friends about your cool game, that’s another way communities are built. Basically by creating a warm, welcoming community, other folks are much more excited to help you out and make it a success.

4) Events. Local game events, online events, PAXs, Steam festivals, Kickstarters, third party platform events, etc. Events are some of the harder things to get into because you will need something useful for them. A trailer, a demo, a store page, submissions, possibly a physical presence, etc. Check out this event list from GIBiz, this list, but if applicable I also recommend checking out the Wholesome Games Showcase and Game Developers of Color Expo. Also if you’d like some tips on game demos, here is an old article I wrote.

Before you scurry off to these channels and do the deed, there is one BIG rule when it comes to inviting people to join your community: don’t. Like, really, don’t. Do not ask them to just join your community.

No one is actually looking to join a community. No one is missing out on anything by not being in your community, at least not that they can tell when you frame it that way. There are 50,000 other communities they could join.

So when it comes to getting people to join, give them a tangible reason to. Is Discord the place that gets exclusive dev updates? Is Twitter the spot where they get the latest news the soonest? Will people be able to provide feedback on Reddit? These shouldn’t be fake reasons - direct them to the place that you actually will be using to do these things. No lying to the community!

Do not concentrate solely on the big publishing platforms but also on smaller and medium-sized platforms, because those may offer new opportunities for incremental gains.

Here are some core ideas I recommend you keep in mind:

Low cost.

No automation.

Quality > Quantity.

Paying attention and engage.

Community.

Work.

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Social Media

Many people want a community BEFORE they announce. This is INCREDIBLY difficult unless your art is impeccable and goes viral. But being invested in something that doesn’t exist or that you can’t get a firm grasp on (which, by that point, is basically an announcement) is near impossible. If you want to post work but don’t have a game name or store page: you don’t worry too much and start showing in progress early information about the game. Show vibes and core gameplay aspects. Short, interesting videos that show off gameplay. Leave out the name. Just put it out there.�

These are some of the world’s favorite social media platforms, but on the West, I would say the most common ones and ones I’d recommend are using are Twitter, TikTok, Discord, and Reddit for games specifically. Facebook and Instagram too, but most devs prefer these spots for diff reasons.

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The Wait

03

Development time!

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The Goal

Build up a solid community, engage and sustain

The Goal

Social, events

The Activities

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4 Main Marketing Activities

01

03

02

04

Social

Events

Press

Network

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Social Media

	Frequency	Effort	Strength
TikTok	Daily	High	Discoverability
Twitter	Daily	Medium	Game devs
Reddit		Medium (if part of audience already)	Hardcore
Instagram	Daily	Medium	Mobile

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AMONG US

Game Development

Gameplay

Betrayal

Updates

Setting

Behind-the-scenes

Fun bugs

Questions

Aliens

Stars/planets

Spaceships

Map details

Tasks

Cosmetics

Kills

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Cut social into chunks

Generate ideas & capture content

1-2 hours

Monday

Edit content

1-2 hours

Wednesday

Schedule content

1 hour

Friday

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4 Main Marketing Activities

01

03

02

04

Social

Events

Press

Network

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Press/Influencers

Keep it updated
Meet influencers where they are
Think globally
Don’t just look at size
Reward early supporters
Build relationships

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4 Main Marketing Activities

01

03

02

04

Social

Events

Press

Network

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Physical Events

Examples:

Busan Indie Connect
Melbourne International Games Week
BitSummit
Taipei Summer Game Show
PAX
GDC

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Digital Events

Examples:

Specialized Steam events

Steam Puzzle Showcase
Steam Next Fest
Ludonarracon

itch.io events
Wholesome Snack
#PitchYaGame

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Demo Advice

Must haves:

Runs smoothly
Polished art
As bug-free as possible
Ends after 10-15 minutes of gameplay, 30 mins if online
Represents the ideal experience of the game
CTA at the end

Optional:

Ends on a cliffhangers
Cheats enabled*
If multiplayer, has a single-player mode*
Attract Mode*
Can work without audio*

We see fixing bugs while the demo is on the show floor as a catastrophic failure of process — it’s not possible to test builds properly on the go and staff the booth properly at the same time, so this is taking a huge, preventable risk. Instead, we try to finalize the build a week before the event, including playing through it at least 3 times in a row, to make sure it’s as thoroughly tested as possible.

Must haves:

Runs smoothly. TEST. YOUR. GAME. BEFOREHAND. If you have the computers you’ll run them on, test it on all the systems to make sure it works. We use portable computers (laptops or mini PCs) which do not have the same processing power as a desktop, so it’s important to make sure it still runs smoothly. If you’re renting PCs, know the specs beforehand.

Relatively polished art. It doesn’t need to be finalized (of course, the more final, the better) but it SHOULD hopefully seem to be ✨shippable quality. ✨ People take photos as they play, sometimes press will be around with video camera equipment, etc. You want to put the game’s best face forward.

As bug-free as possible. Well. Not sure if we need to expand on this, but it’s frustrating to any player if their game suddenly crashes, especially if they’ve been waiting in line to play your game. Also, ensure the build has something like “ALPHA BUILD” clearly on the screen somewhere if you know you’re going to be working on it before it ships. Who knows what might change, and geez does it suck when a bad screenshot becomes the top Google Image search result.

Ends after 10–15 minutes of gameplay. Hopefully many people will want to play your game. Hopefully there will be a line. And hopefully they’ll buy your game. So make sure YOUR DEMO ENDS. We’ve seen devs who didn’t have time limits or end points in their demo, and people have legitimately tried to stick around as long as possible in order to complete the game.

Represents the ideal experience of the game. Don’t make the demo about cats if the game is mostly about dogs, EVEN IF the first 10 minutes/tutorial of the actual game are about cats. If people want and expect the dogs, give them the dogs. ASAP.

Optional:

Can work without audio. We know game audio is important and we’re sure your music sounds great, but during conventions some people don’t like the idea of putting headphones on, or the show floor is so loud it’ll be drowned out. Make sure your game is able to be played without audio!

Ideally, ends on a cliffhanger of some kind, that leaves the player wanting a little bit more. You want them intrigued enough that they’ll sign up for your newsletter, want more information, or buy your game!

Cheats enabled. Depending on your game, maybe the most fun way to experience the game is in the middle. But they haven’t necessarily learned how to play well yet and need some help. Or.. despite your best efforts, a bug happens. Oops. Cheats can help.

If multiplayer, has a single-player mode. Herding people to play a game because it won’t work without 2+ players is no fun, especially for the lone person who has to wait.

If adult-only content, has an age warning. Yeah. Don’t surprise people.

Attract Mode 💖

When the game isn’t being played and idle, it should have an “attract” feature.

This could mean:

It plays the trailer on loop when idle

A highlight reel of gameplay footage

The game auto-plays itself for a little while somehow

Essentially, anything but a static menu screen.��CTA at the end of the demo

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4 Main Marketing Activities

01

03

02

04

Social

Events

Press

Network

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Network!

Other devs
Publishers
Press
Influencers
Community
Storefronts/third party platforms

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Optimize

Listen to how people talk about your game�
Key words�
First impressions�
Think of your end goal

What the player values is often different than what you THINK they value

Combat this by watching people play your game early and often (watch what they do, not what they say)

Look at what other people talked about about your competitors

Use everything you learn during the big wait to optimize your messaging, your store front, and pitch.

How many wishlists do I need before I launch?

At least 7000, some say 10000. This is because the Steam algorithms start to consider games at this level of visibility viable and they will promote you. With about 7000 your game probably will appear in the Popular Upcoming widget the week before your launch. That visibility will then lead to a possibility that you will convert enough to appear in the New and Trending widget (provided you are not EA), which starts the rest of the dominoes to have a game that is “favored” by the steam algorithm.

Note that 7000 is approximate because it depends on the other games also launching at the same time. Basically, look your game up on Steam DB, and if you have a rank number for wishlists you are eligible for Popular Upcoming. See the rank next to “in wishlists”

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Launch

04

You finally made it!

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The Goal

Awareness, action

The Goal

Trailer, hype work, press, events, campaigns

The Activities

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Same thing, but amped up

You’ll need:

Release date trailer
Release trailer
Press release with keys attached
Social campaign

Optional:

Event timing

Community sharing encouragement

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Press

Send keys automatically�
1-2 weeks lead time for reviews

Influencers can be less�

VERY CLEAR EMBARGO

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Community Sharing

Ask the community for help�
Encourage reviews�
Highlight their gameplay moments�
Show up in livestreams

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THERE IS NO GUARANTEE.

It’s going to be tough! Especially your first one!

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Thanks!

Do you have any questions?

@TheVTran�victoriatran.com