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[RATED-RKOFRANKLIN]

Hi everybody!

I'm looking into going commercial. My game will be released in 2013 or early 2014. What are the best ways to get my game noticed?

Thank You

[moi]

make a good game
don't make a cash grab
make the best game that you can

[James Coote]

Work out who you want to notice your game I.e. who is your target audience. Start thinking about those people, what sort of things to they respond to, what gets them excited, where do they hang out (internet wise and real-world wise), where do they get their info about games (from magazines? from friends? from blogs?)

Most people get excited by screenshots and trailers, and that requires you to at least have a demo or alpha version of your game, and ideally a finished version of your game so when they hear about the game, they can go play it straight away. 2014 is a long time away for people, who may forget about your game between now and when it is finally released. So you probably want to save your marketing campaign for closer to the release time.

[Maud'Dib Atreides]

google adsense

stick something in the ad like

"Play the game rated by IGA3 as the best game of 2012"

btw the IGA3 isn't a real organization, but as long as the organization is fake its ok to BS

i think

don't quote me on that. I just don't think anyone will take action to find out if it's the truth.

like my ap lang teacher told me back in hs for the ap exam

when you want to impress
BS
BS
BS

[ink.inc]

^don't listen to this guy

[Maud'Dib Atreides]

^don't listen to this guy

I guess it only works for some things. 

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

this depends on the type of game, really. give us a description of your game and i could give more specific advice about how to get it noticed

[C.D Buckmaster]

Tape physical copies of the game to bricks and throw them through the windows of well known game reviewers.

[Oskuro]

Slap some cleavage on the ad banners.

Sad but true.

[Maud'Dib Atreides]

Slap some cleavage on the ad banners.

Sad but true.

EpicX - one click for a roman orgy

Evony - Free to Play (most of you have seen evony so you know what's in the advert)

(Neither of these games feature anything related to sexual activity, or even sexually suggestive themes)

but they both have over an 6000+ playerbase through that method

[Oskuro]

Evony - Free to Play (most of you have seen evony so you know what's in the advert)

Exactly what I was referring to. I'd swear those adverts are for a brothel or massage parlor. Geez.

Also there's this F2P MMO called Elsword, where one of the several selectable characters is a busty blonde elf. Guess who shows up in all the banners, shoving her cleavage on our face?

If your game is about tits, hey, it's fine, but this is sad.

[sigfarter]

if your game is worth playing then it will get noticed, otherwise no one is going to care

get some beta testing done and if people say good things about it it might get some attention

[rofl_mao]

This seems to be a million dollar question. My answer would be I'd focus on the small number of people I'm certain would play the game and then polish the game to perfection using their input.

[bluescrn]

make a good game
don't make a cash grab
make the best game that you can

If only this was true. In reality, it seems that 'cash grab' games, or at least games riding the wave of somebody else's massive success, are the easiest ones to get noticed.

A Minecraft/Terraria-like game will get tons of free attention. With a half-decent video, it'll be all over the gaming sites, reddit, etc fairly quickly.

The real challenge is to make it look like a 'good clone' (e.g. Minecraft after Infiniminer, Terraria after Minecraft, Castle Story after all those) not an 'evil clone' (as some of the XBLIG and iOS Minecraft-a-likes are seen)

I'm starting to regret spending time working on original, polished iOS projects when I could have chose to 'ride the Minecraft wave' and potentially make a fair chunk of money from it...

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

cash grabs work but only for single games. if you want to build up a fan base of thousands of people who will buy your new game the moment it's released, you need to focus on quality and consistency and reputation, not fashion or waves or gold rushes

in other words, focusing on quality is a strategy that doesn't pay off until you've released maybe half a dozen or more games. cash grab is a strategy that pays the most for single-game releases, but doesn't give you the most money long-term because your games will be forgettable

basically there are two types of indie developers: "flash in the pan" devs who make one hit game and never make any popular games before or after, and "established" devs whose individual games may not be mega-hits but whose string of many games, collectively, sell a lot when added up

it's only worth being a 'flash in the pan' dev if your game is as popular as minecraft and it makes you enough money to live on for life. otherwise, it's preferable to be an 'established' dev, those people who pick a niche or two and churn out good games in that niche year after year (e.g. edmund, jeff vogel, hanako, cliffski)

[moi]

make a good game
don't make a cash grab
make the best game that you can

If only this was true. In reality, it seems that 'cash grab' games, or at least games riding the wave of somebody else's massive success, are the easiest ones to get noticed.

A Minecraft/Terraria-like game will get tons of free attention. With a half-decent video, it'll be all over the gaming sites, reddit, etc fairly quickly.

The real challenge is to make it look like a 'good clone' (e.g. Minecraft after Infiniminer, Terraria after Minecraft, Castle Story after all those) not an 'evil clone' (as some of the XBLIG and iOS Minecraft-a-likes are seen)

I'm starting to regret spending time working on original, polished iOS projects when I could have chose to 'ride the Minecraft wave' and potentially make a fair chunk of money from it...

I wouldn't call Minecraft/Terraria-likes "cashgrabs"
In my mind, cashgrabs are games made very fast (generally a couple of weeks) with a very simple mechanic, clones of angry birds or doodle jump or canabalt. Most of the flash games on FGL are cashgrabs.
minecraft-like is not a game that you can do fast and the XBLIG clones are generally well made.

[ionside]

Networking and spreading through word of mouth is a good way of getting your game noticed.

Offer beta periods (which will also give you some QA).

Show regular updates on your blog and link from your twitter, facebook accounts. Get your game on a twitter list to gain more followers.

Participate in various communities. You never know who's reading. If people get to know you, they would be more inclined to be interested in what you're doing.

[Jamo]

I have been looking into this problem too, and have been writing a monthly article about getting your game noticed and independent game marketing. You can check out Part 2 here, it has a link to Part 1 at the top

http://blog.jamogames.com/2012/08/marketing-quest-part-2.html

[d]

make a good game
don't make a cash grab
make the best game that you can

I would say this bears repeating, but anyone for whom this is anything other than obvious needs to stop and find purpose.

Also, this doesn't automatically mean your game will get "noticed" but if you're truly doing this then getting noticed won't be what matters to you.

[Haga]

Having never made a successful game myself, I can only offer the criteria for having a game grab my attention as an individual.  Seems like three of any of the following five things are good:

1.) Build an excellent reputation.  It's been my experience, even as an individual, in the games industry your reputation is everything.  This is coming from someone who has -50000000000000000000000000 reputation.

2.) Stand out in some way.  A gimmick.  I don't mean this in a derogatory way.  The time thing in Braid is baller, it's easy to describe.

3.) Get lucky.  Almost everything positive in my career has been luck.

4.) Polish the shit out of everything.

5.) Make something I want to tell my friends about.  JFK Reloaded is the negative example of this I guess.

Pretty much having a game that's worth noticing helps a lot.  As a developer, I can't see when my team crosses this threshold clearly, without feedback from potential consumers.  It's why I liked the downvote button on Greenlight.  For whatever reason, 40% of Greenlight bros didn't think our game was worthy - it's useful to hear that.