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[BlueLemon]

Hey Tig !
French Game design student here.

My team and I finished our end year project about two month ago. We all got good grades and everything was great.
But it was meant to stay inside the school's walls, or in our portfolio. But that same school proposed us to present our game for some contests (IGF,not to name it) and we decided to go for it.

I read a lot about indie marketing, but mostly the open devellopement strategy and we can't apply this one right now.

So, what are our options ?

Send it to the press would be a good thing but ideally, the awarness spike should happen around the contest. So, it would probably be best for us to wait a little.

I guess it wouldn't hurt to release the demo to the public, but again, Not to soon.
Screenshots and posts on forums seems to be a little Hypocritical, since the game is finished and i'm not sur devlog's would be of any help.


Any Idea ?

Some pretty Pictures.







(We are currently making a trailer)
Thanks for your time !

[Zogthor]

Just a quick clarification, what specifically is your marketing goal with the game? To win the contests? To push awareness for your game toward publication and sale? To promote and brand your dev team?

How are the winners decided for these contests you're submitting to? Is it by public popularity or is it decided by independent judges playing the game? If it's the latter, you could save time marketing and continue to focus on development to do any polishing you might want.

[BlueLemon]

The contests we run for right now don't have any Public Favorite category, so that's not it. Maybe some other context might.

The real goal is double :

1°) Get our name out. If we can go in a company, searching for a job, and the boss already knows one of our game, i think that's a big plus. Even if he just vaguely remember the name

2°)See if the project has the potential to evolve in a full fleshed game. We are still student, and unless there is a real demand, our studies come before anything else. If many people are entousiast about Run for their lives, that would be a way for us to take a step in the industry.

Does that make sense ?

[erebusman]

It looks nice enough but I think your expectations of remaining in school AND using it as a career launching while staying in school seem to be against each other.

If your set on remaining in school then this is a portfolio piece and stands on its own nicely.

If you want to use it to launch a career then you need to dedicate yourself to that.  It doesn't mean you have to quit school per se but it does mean your priorities need to be in the right order.

Honestly I say stay in school, use it as a portfolio piece. A degree will do you much more good than one student project over your life-span career cycle.

Good luck.

[Zogthor]

The contests we run for right now don't have any Public Favorite category, so that's not it. Maybe some other context might.

The real goal is double :

1°) Get our name out. If we can go in a company, searching for a job, and the boss already knows one of our game, i think that's a big plus. Even if he just vaguely remember the name

2°)See if the project has the potential to evolve in a full fleshed game. We are still student, and unless there is a real demand, our studies come before anything else. If many people are entousiast about Run for their lives, that would be a way for us to take a step in the industry.

Does that make sense ?

I understand, if that's the case then I would recommend focusing on development since winning should be your main goal. Marketing your game at this point won't make you more likely to win the contests and is kind of putting the cart before the horse. Since, as students, you have limited time and resources, they would be better spent investing into the game itself and making sure you get that diploma.

Should it do well enough during the judging process and you feel strongly that you could sell your product, use that to launch your marketing campaign. Set up a some social media pages and a website to drive any media and public attention you receive from the contest buzz into trackable stats and traffic. People who hear about your game and want to know more would then be able to find and follow you.

That'd be my generalized advice for you

[BlueLemon]

Thanks you both for your wisdom. It really helped my to sort out my thought.

I have now a clearer vision of what we should. i'll have to talk to the others, of course, but if everyone is up, we gonna pursue the project on our spare time, while keeping our studies in priorities. If something should happen, it will.

Thanks a lot, and check your PM.