What are some actually decent marketing strategies for an indie game?

Discoverability is probably the second biggest hurdle when it comes to developing a game (the first is actually having something to publish)

So, title question. I know I could try to throw money at Instagram, TikTok and Youtube (know your target audience), but I think using their built-in advertising is more likely to miss than hit. Youtube is even more problematic, as a significant portion of people smartly avoid their ads (either with extensions or watching from piped or invidious).

Maybe paying to be on top of itch.io might work somewhat? I’d like to know from someone who did that, what was the turnout (number of sales/downloads per number of clicks)

One thing I think about is getting in contact with a number of small-ish (2k or less followers) content creators and work out a deal - free copy of the game, make a video being honest about it, leave a referral link for viewers to buy.

A problem of mine that I’m aware of is that I don’t have much of a social media presence, not even Discord servers, thus I completely lack any sort of “organic digital voice”.

I really want to know what are some decent strategies that a solo person could attempt to get some attention for their own game, and maybe the prices/budgets needed.

ch0ccyra1n,
@ch0ccyra1n@emeraldsocial.org avatar

@ICastFist
I would treat every indie game as basically a lottery ticket. Keep making more fun games until you get lucky.

Darthjaffacake,

Devlog shorts on YouTube and live streaming programming/making assets. GDC talks and other exposure is good, sending to relevant YouTubers for free can be fantastic.

glitches_brew,

Absolutely.

I have boughten many an indie games on sight because a YouTuber I watch did a “I know you usually watch me play this game, but this one is similar and really good” video.

RonSijm,
@RonSijm@programming.dev avatar

So, title question. I know I could try to throw money at Instagram, TikTok and Youtube (know your target audience),

Besides throwing money at a third party, you could just do it yourself. I don’t really use TikTok anymore, but I used to see a lot of “Watch people program” style TikToks where developers show their game in progress, together with some explanation of something challenging they recently build.

If your game is cool, showing some “In progress” / “Making off” videos gets people excited about the game before it’s release

But like you said, it depends on your target audience. Something like that would end up in the algorithm for “Programming TikTok”.

ICastFist,
@ICastFist@programming.dev avatar

On tiktok, what might work is showing off silly stuff possible with my game, or close calls that end in failure, as that tends to get people to rewatch the video and share. Wouldn’t fall into programming content, but “funny”, which has a huge audience.

Kolanaki,
@Kolanaki@yiffit.net avatar

Guerilla style. Just never STFU about it on public spaces. Show it. Make a demo. If you’re balzy, encourage some piracy of it. It might be annoying, but it works.

ICastFist,
@ICastFist@programming.dev avatar

Go down so hard on the never STFU that I become second only to the Todd Howard selling Skyrim meme.

Not looking like an obnoxious moron probably helps, as Daniel Fox (author of Zweihander RPG) comes to mind as someone who did exactly that kind of “never shut up about it”, to the point he got banned from a forum. It certainly brought attention to the game, but I don’t think he’d manage to pull it off a second time.

He was also the main reason behind bringing down The Trove, but that’s another story.

Kolanaki,
@Kolanaki@yiffit.net avatar

Haha, if you just stick to informing about your game(s), and not making it personal if someone has mean things to say, and/or oversharing your personal life, I don’t think you have to worry about anything other than the occasional “I don’t even wanna try it because I see it everywhere” person.

muhanga,

From my personal consumer experience I would say twitch streams and steam demo fest are my two main sources of new games to “put a pin”. And on twitch I mostly watch small channels (below 200 viewers), with couple of exceptions.

Milksteaks,

I find all my new indie games from splattercat on youtube. He does a new indie game every day, that or comes back to indie games that just had big updates. So personally I’d say youtube reviewers first then twitch

kemsat,

Getting streamers to play your game on their stream is probably one of the best.

DocBlaze, (edited )

I have an unshakable gut feeling that the “I mostly enjoy watching people play games on streaming sites” and “I actually spend a significant amount of time/money playing games myself” are after different types of content to consume. Seems like the twitch chat regular is mostly a “social” AAA content consumer and way less likely to actually be interested in purchasing and playing an indie game than someone who regularly has a budget for them instead of donation emoticons, and actively peruses steam with that time instead

kemsat,

Among Us took off because of streamers

DocBlaze,

that’s a highly social game and certainly in the streamer watchers wheelhouse as I described them. I wonder how common that would be for a non social-deduction game space, however.

I would love to hear Chris zukowski’s thoughts on this.

JohnDClay,

I’ve found a couple though dev logs on YouTube. That is very time consuming, and the algorithm might still decide to not show you to anyone. But if they’re good, you can get a large reach.

acastcandream,

Ad buys do not guarantee anything and are truly only effective (unless you drop millions and brute force your way with an expert) when coupled with some other efforts on your part. I have a lot more to say on the matter but unfortunately I’m pretty busy at work. Suffice to say, don’t waste your money spending a few hundred dollars or even thousands of dollars on social media platforms that you and your game are not even present on.  if you are already on these platforms and have a presence/community following, then there are strategies available to you. But you can’t just walk onto TikTok and buy your way to the top without significant investment and connections. The kind that large corporations can do.

I would recommend getting involved on social media platforms that you think you can actually enjoy engaging in. Yes social media can be very toxic, but you don’t have to be, and a lot of people will flock to somebody who is just doing what they love and talking about it in an open, honest way. Start there, find your community, then build out ad buys and partnerships.

jrheronn,

Seriously. I’ve tried so many games that people post about on indie developer communities.

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