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[thefoolishbrave]

i'm currently working on two games arising from the ashes of my last dev (i underestimated how much a paid dev team would be willing to help me produced a polished demo once my funds dried out)

for the first time i'm working on games that I would be waiting for other people to make (in other words games i'd want to play and would mark my calendar for) instead of trying to bait the indie community with things i've seen work with other games.

taking this honest approach, i am going to need to sharpen my pitching and networking skills, so I was wondering what has worked for you guys? by worked i mean it got you an article or tweeted by some fan/buzz generating voice in the gaming world!

thank you for your tips! ^_^

[MeshGearFox]

Do you really need to? If you successfully get the word out on your game, it might become popular, and then everyone will just resent you for it.

[Cobralad]

i guess the current way is to get greenlit and send the keys to youtubers.
although it wont work if your game isnt appealing enough.

[Dragonmaw]

i mean, have a super interesting game, of course. not interesting just to you, but interesting to either lots of people or "tastemakers" (youtubers and the like that may have more finicky opinions but which have wide influence). while you may think your idea is the hottest shit in the whole world, it's statistically probably not. so temper your expectations, and know that even if your game is pretty and fun and innovative and intelligent and compassionate - which i guarantee you it's at most two of these things - you still may only sell ten copies. because indie is hell.

set up a super easy site that has a brief description and promo materials for press to pick up. good screenshots, videos, etc. i believe most devs use rami's tool (i think it's called presskit()? don't remember)

do the greenlight and youtube promo stuff, as mentioned above

i suggest talking to @devmicco on twitter if you want to know more (PandaraRa here, i believe) about marketing strategies and stuff, he's the most knowledgable indie on that stuff that i know

on that note, moving to business

[LucasMaxBros]

While I don't have much experience with this (since I've never made a game I could profit off of), it does sort of come down to luck some of the time. Some games fall flat even when marketed correctly. A big part of it, is YOUR game itself.

I made a fangame called Sonic 3CD & Knuckles & Knuckles (which is based off a video SomeCallMeJohnny made), and while it was one of the first and worst things I ever programmed, it has over 4k plays. While crap, I put heart into it for being a young programmer and it showed.

If you do stuff for various communities(And I'm talking about, for FREE), you put heart and make sure it shows, people will find interest in that. Then you. And from there, you can build an audience.

That's what I've seen and am slowly experiencing.

[ｂ∀ ｋｋｕｓａ]

i don't think you need to to sharpen your pitching and networking skills ,

The Foolish Brave

is an  ambitious project full of fake promises. You managed to get it greenlit and get attention on it.

What you need is either learning how to code yourself (there is a lot of alternatives to make platformers in an easy way nowadays) or focusing on smaller projects, and get the persistence to work throughout all the hardship of making a game.

And be honest.

[thefoolishbrave]

i guess the current way is to get greenlit and send the keys to youtubers.
although it wont work if your game isnt appealing enough.

you could be right, my last title was greenlit and got a few press exposures but at the end of the day, it didn't translate into financial support. I'm a life time gamer, and I think for if just this once I make the game I want to play and deflect the nay saying along the way I can generate something decent maybe.

[thefoolishbrave]

i don't think you need to to sharpen your pitching and networking skills ,

The Foolish Brave

is an  ambitious project full of fake promises. You managed to get it greenlit and get attention on it.

What you need is either learning how to code yourself (there is a lot of alternatives to make platformers in an easy way nowadays) or focusing on smaller projects, and get the persistence to work throughout all the hardship of making a game.

And be honest.

i do admit my game isn't where i wanted it to be, but it had nothing to do with me being lazy or my commitment, basically my coders stonewalled and said NO MORE YOU'RE BROKE SO WE AIN'T INTERESTED, it really really sucked to have to give up due to that.

That being said, I AM in fact learning how to code starting with C++ I managed to get through 5/17 in depth chapters but then took a break to make sure I had all the art ready for the demo I wanted to make- I am putting myself through game dev boot camp and working towards making a mostly sole effort game of quality.

[oldblood]

...basically my coders stonewalled and said NO MORE YOU'RE BROKE SO WE AIN'T INTERESTED...

Just another perspective here, but if that happened to me, I would assume that if they don't want anything to do with the game (without taking a paycheck for it), then either:

1. You did a poor job communicating the scope of the project (e.g. programmer could only work with pay, you promised pay but apparently didn't have enough funding to finish) so programmer had no choice but to walk away OR
2. Programmers didn't see the value or promise in your project to make it worth continuing without payment.

Running an "indie team" is hard without a lot of funding. So if you can't afford to be giving out salaries, then your game idea HAS to connect with the developers involved. If everyone involved hasn't "bought into" the game, then you're going to end up with a revolving door of team members...

...Anyways. Back on topic...

In a lot of ways, the same idea connects to the marketing side. It's all about the game. That's really all that can be said there. It's like forming a band and asking how you become the next Beatles to which the answer is (of course) "make amazing music".

[cynicalsandel]

It's good that you're learning how to code. Are you also an artist? Or were you just an "idea" guy? I hate to use the term disparagingly, but even I wouldn't work for no pay on a collaboration with someone who I felt wasn't contributing enough to the project. Ultimately, when you are indie, you have to wear many hats, and if all you have is an idea and money, that's what you offer to the project. If one of those stops being true, you are less useful. I also wouldn't collab with someone for free unless it was someone I was pretty close with. It's fine if people want to pay me to work on their idea, but working on someone else's idea for free is never really worth the time. Everyone has their own things they want to work on.

I hope your game works out, but it's not at all surprising to me that they bailed.

[Conker]

if you make cool shit it comes naturally so just focus on that

[TheWanderingBen]

This thread sort of shifted to specific feedback for thefoolishbrave, but as a developer recently removed from AAA and just starting indie, I think some more general answers might be helpful for people in a different boat. Basically, I'm stumped too! I'd like to know:

• How do you get community feedback on your early game ideas? I love chatting with friends and other devs, but I hear many indies touting "early community feedback loop" as a great strategy to build trust, sales, and genuinely improve ideas for a potentially interested audience
• Are there any websites/forums that you've used to drive an early interest for your game (besides TigSource, which OH MY GAWD are there delicious games on here!)
• Any thoughts on Steam Greenlight Concept? I've seen some good nuggets buried in there, but there's a fair share of junk clogging the system. Anyone get communities starting that way?
• Has anyone hosted their own web-forums for their own games/company? What have your experiences been? Would you recommend for all games? Some? None, never, nope?!

I've loved my first month of full-time indie development (playing around with prototypes is always the best!) but as a real game begins emerging, these questions become ever pressing. Any tips would be amazing!