Hi, Fellow Game Developers,
Marketing,
Such a familiar word, yet it’s very hard to define exactly what is it or how it’s done,
it’s almost like ‘Gamedev’ itself, a vast ocean that can’t be contained, or controlled.
Disclaimer : I’m not a marketing professional, so my understanding of marketing might lack a few things here and there.
This article contains some tactics that i’ve personally used or tried throughout my couple of years of development,
so i’m mentioning them here erratically hoping that some of you might find a use of them.
Also, most of those doesn’t involve money.
But a question might rise here, do we really need marketing ?
a good game will sell itself, right ?
No! it won’t, this could have been possible 10 years ago or earlier, since there weren’t a lot of games and competition back then,
but now, no, you can’t get your game to be successful without marketing ..
Now that’s off the way, let’s talk about these tactics (in no order):
1-Target audience :
They are the people who will likely play your game, you have to make a research on how to find those,
one way to do that is to make a research about games similar to yours, and see who’s playing them, where to find them,
and how to get in front of them so they can see yours.
2-Social Media :
This is where branding takes place online, you’ll need to be on the relevant social media websites,
like ‘Instagram’, ‘Twitter’, ‘YouTube’, ‘Facebook’..etc.
Make quality content about your game ( Gifs, Screenshots, Gameplays ) for the fans so they can interact with it and share it, giving you more exposure.
Make sure to interact and engage with them always,
Get as much feedback as you can.
Also here you’ll need to talk about your game, and what makes it special, you’re gonna need ‘COPYWRITING’ skills for that,
learn those as much as you can.
3-Press :
There’s hundreds if not thousands of game press websites out there, you don’t need to contact them all,
you need to find the ones who might like your game, so make your research,make a press list, email them, try to send those emails
on the right time for those people to actually open the email, it’s hard to pinpoint it, but make the approximations, and hope it works,
also, those are people with emotions, so better know what you’re writing on those emails, again it’s hard and time consuming,
but try to understand what motivates them individually.
4-Press Kit :
Make a press kit, for the press ( they will need it if they’re gonna make a review for your game ), it’s a web page that’s available publicly that contains informations about
your game, info, trailers, gameplays, icons, images, graphics, etc.. there’s many templates online that you might use to make
a press kit, (Example : https://dopresskit.com).
Also contact Youtubers, Gameplayers, Twitchers, etc.. who you think might like your game.
5-Trailer :
Your trailer is probably the video that will be most watched about your game, make sure to learn how to make
a decent trailer, “DEREK LIEU” is one of the best ‘Trailer Makers’, check out his YouTube Channel,
you’ll learn a lot from it :
https://www.youtube.com/c/DerekLieu
6-Release Date :
Make sure to find a suitable time for releasing your game, the minimum that you can do is to avoid
releasing it close to a ‘AAA’ game release.
7- Get an HQ ( Headquarters ) for your game :
That could be your website, a social media page, store page or anything, you should try to redirect people who are interested
in your game to this HQ, and keep them there, it’s a long topic, but you get the idea.
8- Store page optimization :
You gotta get it right, make sure you use the right images, Gifs, videos, info on your
store page, there’s a video by “Jonas Tyroller” that might help with making a good ‘Steam Store Page’,
but you can always find more.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ht6xx9en-ZU&ab_channel=JonasTyroller
9- Miscellaneous :
-Don’t start marketing on launch day, it should at least 3 months before.
-Don’t target other developers, they are probably not your target audience.
-Work out loud.
-Make sure everybody knows about your game.
-Attend events if possible.
-if you have money, make a marketing campaign.
-Experiment with marketing, you don’t have to follow this rules, other rules, or even rules you made yourself.
In the end, marketing is a way for you to get your game out there, it’s a multiplier, so make use of it.
and again, these are things i’ve did, they can’t guarantee your success always, so making your own research will help you more.
If you wanna read more about ‘Game Development’ make sure you follow me on ‘Medium’ or Connect with me on ‘Linkedin’ :
Medium : https://medium.com/@oussikhazmenski
Linkedin : https://www.linkedin.com/in/oussama-khazri-38133592
And don’t forget to share it with other beginner game developers,
Thank You For Reading..
-” Oussama Khazri”-