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[AleHitti]

Hey, I'll share a few secrets with you

Why should you listen to me? Well, I have had two fairly successful DevLogs so far. One of them is FROG SORD, which managed to get 9000 views in 15 days and currently SUPER III, which managed the same feat in 30 days. Disclaimer, I am not taking personal credit for this as I am not the only one responsible for running both of these threads. The whole team did a lot to help.

Anyway, here's a list of tips we use to generate traffic:

• We hired barbiturates as an artist.

I cannot guarantee this will bring you thousands of views overnight, as it also depends on the quality of your game and, unfortunately, how pretty it looks, as people enjoy reading through DevLogs of "Pretty games". That being said, I'm sure traffic will increase significantly if you follow the list I posted above.

Good luck with your project!

This made me laugh But yes, Hunter is an amazing artist and we are glad to have him working with us.

[ryansumo]

Reduce your game resolution to 8bit style graphics, rename it to something funny & ironic ("Don't [main way of failing in your game]), otherwise I think you've got the zany game mechanic down, and should be all set for tigforums popularity

Zing!

I've been thinking a lot about this lately so thanks for making the thread OP.

[tieTYT]

I've been thinking a lot about this lately so thanks for making the thread OP.

NP, hope it's helping.  Is your avatar you giving a presentation or stand up comedy?

[Scifa]

Sure everyone wants their game to be the most popular thing out there and I would be lying if I said I didn't want that as well, but foremost I do it for myself (forever alone) I enjoy the process of making games and the challenges it brings, if something good of this then happy days.

[InfiniteStateMachine]

^^^ yar just do it for yourself and think of it as a reflection that other people can see. Doesn't really matter too much if it blows up.

I guess this advice is more for if you aren't planning to sell your game and support yourself.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

i think this thread's premise and most of the replies are stupid. the reason is: getting people to reply to your threads on tigsource is not an effective way of marketing. marking your game on tigsource is probably one of the worst and most ineffective ways you could market your game. a successful game is not correlated with huge tigs threads. there are plenty of games that have huge tigs threads and then either didn't get made, or got made and bombed and were forgotten on every other site besides tigs

you need to focus your marketing efforts where it matters: game *players*, not indie game developers. focusing your marketing on other indie game developers -- people who can make games for themselves, typically pirate games rather than buy them, typically do not buy the games of other indies, and are a tiny tiny percent of people who buy games -- makes sense exactly how?

it even comes with dangers. if other indie devs think of you as a guy who tries to market to them, rather than a guy with a passion for making games despite monetary concerns, they will look down on you, and indie game developers are far more useful as friends than customers. among other indie game developers the most effective thing to do is not market to them at all, don't treat them as customers, instead treat them as a valuable resource, a set of people who can improve your game with their advice, suggestions, and ideas. that is the value of tigs

if you want to market your game on forums, there are forums specifically for people who buy games that this would be a better idea on -- reddit, something awful, and neogaf are some common ones. they have thousands as many people posting on them as tigs does, and are composed of people who tend to buy games rather than make them. for illustration, a single thread on something awful resulted in thousands of sales of my last game immortal defense. the tigs thread probably resulted in, maybe, 10 sales

there are games that had fairly unpopular threads here on tigs, but were wildly popular elsewhere. these are typically games that don't appeal to the tigs developer, but do appeal to the general gamer. getting no replies to your game here doesn't mean it won't succeed elsewhere. i can think offhand of several games that made hundreds of thousands of dollars that have threads on tigs that are less than one page long

[tieTYT]

indie game developers are far more useful as friends than customers. among other indie game developers the most effective thing to do is not market to them at all, don't treat them as customers, instead treat them as a valuable resource, a set of people who can improve your game with their advice, suggestions, and ideas. that is the value of tigs

Actually, the main reason I want replies in my devlog is for these reasons.  I'm looking for more advice, suggestions and ideas.  Using the devlog for marketing purposes is one of my considerations, but not my primary one. 

[Pandara_RA!]

i think this thread's premise and most of the replies are stupid. the reason is: getting people to reply to your threads on tigsource is not an effective way of marketing. marking your game on tigsource is probably one of the worst and most ineffective ways you could market your game. a successful game is not correlated with huge tigs threads. there are plenty of games that have huge tigs threads and then either didn't get made, or got made and bombed and were forgotten on every other site besides tigs

you need to focus your marketing efforts where it matters: game *players*, not indie game developers. focusing your marketing on other indie game developers -- people who can make games for themselves, typically pirate games rather than buy them, typically do not buy the games of other indies, and are a tiny tiny percent of people who buy games -- makes sense exactly how?

it even comes with dangers. if other indie devs think of you as a guy who tries to market to them, rather than a guy with a passion for making games despite monetary concerns, they will look down on you, and indie game developers are far more useful as friends than customers. among other indie game developers the most effective thing to do is not market to them at all, don't treat them as customers, instead treat them as a valuable resource, a set of people who can improve your game with their advice, suggestions, and ideas. that is the value of tigs

if you want to market your game on forums, there are forums specifically for people who buy games that this would be a better idea on -- reddit, something awful, and neogaf are some common ones. they have thousands as many people posting on them as tigs does, and are composed of people who tend to buy games rather than make them. for illustration, a single thread on something awful resulted in thousands of sales of my last game immortal defense. the tigs thread probably resulted in, maybe, 10 sales

there are games that had fairly unpopular threads here on tigs, but were wildly popular elsewhere. these are typically games that don't appeal to the tigs developer, but do appeal to the general gamer. getting no replies to your game here doesn't mean it won't succeed elsewhere. i can think offhand of several games that made hundreds of thousands of dollars that have threads on tigs that are less than one page long

This isn't the case for crowdfunding at all.

[RudyTheDev]

[indie game developers] typically pirate games rather than buy them, typically do not buy the games of other indies

Never considered so, and I may be speaking from minority, but other indies is precisely the one place I wouldn't pirate. I much rather buy 4 indie games, never play them, and pirate an AAA title of the same price. "Morally dubious" factors aside, I kind of expect many indies to share this.

(Not that I don't completely agree that there is little point marketing to devs other than seeking some initial feedback that devs might be more inclined to provide before the game has enough substance to be shown to regular players.)

[AleHitti]

I honestly don't understand where the whole marketing thing came from. He was just asking how to get more activity on his DevLog. He just wanted more feedback and input from other Devs. We were never discussing if an active DevLog makes your game more or less successful or known. Just how to get it to be more active.

[ryansumo]

I've been thinking a lot about this lately so thanks for making the thread OP.

NP, hope it's helping.  Is your avatar you giving a presentation or stand up comedy?

LOL it was a presentation.  I've thought about standup but a) there isn't a huge market here in teh Philippines and b) it's super nerve wracking.

[Jeff Skyrunner]

I honestly don't understand where the whole marketing thing came from.

Maybe it was misunderstood by the business forum in which the post has be made, but I agree with you: I've never understood the original question on "market side", just "suggestion side".

Love and peace everybody