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[Baobab]

I'm coming up to my second commercial release, a simple but unique puzzle game for mobile phones, and hopefully PC as soon as possible. My first game I didn't promote at all, and it got as much attention as I expected, almost none.

But for this game, I want to actually attempt to promote it. The problem is I don't have a lot of ideas for how to do that. I plan on making a trailer, and emailing as many game blogs that are relevant to this game as I can find. But other than that, I'm clueless.

If anyone has some suggestions for what else to do, or for how to do the things I've mentioned best, I would be most appreciative.

[Hima]

I find this list pretty useful.
http://www.pixelprospector.com/the-big-list-of-indie-game-marketing/

But there is no guarantee though. Just do the best you can!

[Baobab]

Thanks! This is exactly what I needed.

[Impmaster]

One idea I had was that you could give the game slightly cheaper if ten of the person's friends put in a redeem code. Like MMO's, where they give bonuses if you spread the game. Just thinking...

[richie]

I am wondering the same thing.  I just read through and posted on another thread on the same topic.  There are some interesting ideas there: http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=29257.0

We are about to release a game on Desura.  When we released it on Xbox Live Indie Games we emailed a lot of the blogs that covered XBLIG games and some that did not.  We ended up getting a good number of reviews and some nice reviews, but it did not really translate into sales at all.  I have heard that XBLIG is weird like that, (I cannot say about other stores/platforms, it was our first game, so you may have much better success with reviews generating sales), but I am trying to think up ways to get people to know about the game outside of reviews. 

One idea I had was that you could give the game slightly cheaper if ten of the person's friends put in a redeem code. Like MMO's, where they give bonuses if you spread the game. Just thinking...

I like the idea of giving away/reducing the cost of the game if someone helps raise awareness.  Even if it does not increase sales much, creating a fan base is probably great in the long term to help with sales and promotion.

[trilby]

I find this list pretty useful.
http://www.pixelprospector.com/the-big-list-of-indie-game-marketing/

But there is no guarantee though. Just do the best you can!

Thats a really good link.  Will try this for my next release.  Put it this way its 800% more work than I have put into previous efforts.

[PDS271]

That link has some great resources in it, and a lot of good information. I also have a few quick suggestions that may help to stir some ideas:

• Create a website that is aimed at the type of person who would play your game
• The website should have a mobile version with only the most important aspects of your game included - In the US alone this year there will be 100 million tablets sold, never mind smartphones. And people access content on these more than anything else.
• Create a Twitter account for your game and follow people that would like to play your game. Twitter is a great place to interact with your audience
• Make sure your videos are top notch - People love video and it is more and more becoming a standard on every type of device out there. Make something that people will want to show their friends, not just a few seconds of your game being played out of context

There are a ton of other things to do and a lot of them are listed in on that linked page. I am just trying to get some ideas rolling :-)