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[Del_Duio]

Just curious as to where people on here might post to get more exposure for their games? I've tried a few places (including here) but I'm drawing a blank really. I thought that advertising on the G4 PC forum might be a good idea, only to be told to "quit advertising my crap" and was banned (lol). Oh well, it never hurts to try I guess.

Most of my hits come from the links I put in my GameFAQs message board signature because I'm on there all the time.

Thank you for your help.

[AndroidScholar1]

Here's a great series of articles on social networking you may want to look into:

http://tinysubversions.blogspot.com/2005/10/effective-networking-in-games-industry.html

[Aik]

Pissing off everyone in the community seems surprisingly effective...

[Del_Duio]

Thanks guys!!

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

we can't really answer unless we know the game you're trying to get exposure for. methods would vary depending on the game.

[alspal]

I presume he means his game "The Outlaw, The Drunk, & The Whore!".

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

ah. then my first suggestion would be to use better music for the game's trailer, it's pretty bad:





when i saw that trailer i was far more repelled from playing it than attracted, because of the music. music is a big part of a trailer. the reason there was so much hype for vvvvvv before it was even released was partly because its trailer had awesome music.

my second suggestion would be to, in the trailer and in the website, differentiate it from other games of its type. right now it doesn't have anything particularly notable about it. to be popular, games either need to be very polished/lengthy (have a lot of meat to them), or have some sort of special controversial element or gimmick. this game doesn't seem to have either; the closest would be its cool name. even if it does have such a unique element, you need to emphasize that in the trailer, because it's not apparent in there. don't be afraid of using words in the trailer (you skipped past them in the trailer, too fast to read them).

i think it'd be good to study hyped indie games and discover why they were hyped. here are some trailers i'm partial to:




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVfV2OzEHwg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sf06P-_1lkU (aforementioned)

[CYS]

I haven't tried it before but try emailing the guys in gametrailers.com. They do showcase some indie games.

As shown in this link, http://www.gametrailers.com/advertise.php

Publishers/Developers
If you have questions about the site or a piece of media that you would like included on gametrailers.com, we would love to hear from you. Send us an email at: [email protected]

Worth a try since gametrailers is a pretty popular place.

[Del_Duio]

ah. then my first suggestion would be to use better music for the game's trailer, it's pretty bad:





when i saw that trailer i was far more repelled from playing it than attracted, because of the music. music is a big part of a trailer. the reason there was so much hype for vvvvvv before it was even released was partly because its trailer had awesome music.

my second suggestion would be to, in the trailer and in the website, differentiate it from other games of its type. right now it doesn't have anything particularly notable about it. to be popular, games either need to be very polished/lengthy (have a lot of meat to them), or have some sort of special controversial element or gimmick. this game doesn't seem to have either; the closest would be its cool name. even if it does have such a unique element, you need to emphasize that in the trailer, because it's not apparent in there. don't be afraid of using words in the trailer (you skipped past them in the trailer, too fast to read them).

i think it'd be good to study hyped indie games and discover why they were hyped. here are some trailers i'm partial to:




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVfV2OzEHwg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sf06P-_1lkU (aforementioned)

Yeah sorry that music was sort of last minute but I ended up liking it enough to actually use it in the game. If you didn't like it at least it only plays for the last parts of each stage so that might help.

As for trying to make it notable I tried to make the webpage look all "Old Westerny". Use some of the same speak and all that. One element I thought that might help set it apart I put in the trailer such as fighting a civil war era warship with a bowie knife (I don't think I've seen that one yet lol). I tried to make the trailer show a lot without being slow paced. I know that personally I've seen trailers that seem to linger forever on just one level and to me that can get boring sometimes. That's one reason why my trailer doesn't linger too long on the text screen that you mentioned.

But really ODW is in a lot of ways the "test run" for the eventual Hasslevania 2. So things that don't work well with this I can avoid with that game, and the things that do work I can try to augment.

Anyhow I've been around here long enough to see that you usually know what you're talking about so I'll look into those links straight away. Thanks!

[Del_Duio]

I haven't tried it before but try emailing the guys in gametrailers.com. They do showcase some indie games.

As shown in this link, http://www.gametrailers.com/advertise.php

Publishers/Developers
If you have questions about the site or a piece of media that you would like included on gametrailers.com, we would love to hear from you. Send us an email at: [email protected]

Worth a try since gametrailers is a pretty popular place.

Somebody put Hasslevania 1's trailer up there in 2007 (It wasn't me, swear!) and you're right that instantly brought in thousands of hits to my website. Mostly the people there REALLY bashed the hell out of it, but any press is good press they say.

I actually tried e-mailing the guys at Steam. I didn't think it'd get in but hey you have to give it a shot, right? So unless it takes 3+ weeks normally to get a reply back I'd say that was a big NO too. 

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

i also had the immortal defense trailer on gametrailers and it got like 90% bashing comments too -- i think it was worth it, though. since 10% of thousands of people liking it is still a lot of new people liking it.

anyway, for general marketing/promotion, besides the psychological thing about hype that i mentioned, some other things are:

- use social networking if possible: twitter, facebook, youtube, forums, etc. -- try to remain somewhat active on them
- gradually build up an audience based on your record of past games; each game will likely be more well known than your previous one, so just keep making games and over time your fans will increase
- help out in the community so that you're more of a recognizable name among the community; which you somewhat have achieved already -- i've heard of hasslevania, but know nothing about it other than its name, so it does have some name recognition

for a recent example, most of the sales/traffic for the immortal defense pay what you want sale which i had over xmas / new years came from a something awful forum thread and twitter, and from a destructoid post

even so, which games people like and which they ignore is totally unpredictable and often has nothing to do with the developer's marketing or fame or with the quality of the game, but often feels completely random.

for instance, podunkian's merry gear solid 1 was far more popular than his merry gear solid 2, even though merry gear solid 2 is by far the better game and he spent more time working on it and its promotion. so there are things you can do that help, but to me there's really no solid connection between the popularity of a game and its quality nor the effort spent promoting it; it's like the weather.

[Del_Duio]

I guess I just thought ODW would do a little bit better. Not with sales necessarily because I never expected a lot to begin with, but just overall. Personally I thought it was a lot more solid engine wise than a lot of my other games and for the most part I haven't heard too many complaints for my stuff graphically so I wasn't worried about that part (knock on wood). It probably didn't help that my last 2 games had more "big-nameness" to them (a Castlevania parody & a game with Rush's drummer Neil Peart) which automatically generated more interest than a title nobody's ever heard anything about before. ODW being an all-original game idea-wise for me again was almost certain to not do as well right out of the gate because of that. I was hoping the title for ODW would help a bit of course. You know, a bit "edgy" and whatnot.

It's for sure hit or miss world though, I'll agree to that. For example I've heard of Immortal Defense in name only but didn't know you made it before now and never played it before. Shit, I only downloaded Dwarf Fortress for the first time earlier this morning and that's supposed to keep track of your characters getting splinters or their periods every month or something (can't wait to get into that one, hah!) So I still have a lot to learn about the indie gaming scene still.

I've always tried to be helpful in the areas that I know of on these and other message boards about this sort of stuff. After all it never pays to be a jackass in the community. Anyhow I do appreciate you taking the time to post so much, thank you.

[CYS]

I did a search on hasslevania on gametrailers.com and like you said, people bashed it. But i believe its a matter of marketing. The description of the vid never say much and the video didn't really show much either. If people knew that it was freeware and was made solely by 1 person, that's gonna turn some heads.

And even if people bash your game in gametrailers, im sure out of the thousands who viewed it, some would buy the game.

Im working on my first shareware myself so keep me updated if you encountered any useful place for advertising .

[Blindsight]

so there are things you can do that help, but to me there's really no solid connection between the popularity of a game and its quality nor the effort spent promoting it; it's like the weather.

Is this a static weather pattern, or does more/continued marketing do anything for indy 'weather'?  After the initial push for a games release, how much marketing would you suggest doing after the fact?

Of course it's possible for games to be 'discovered' a year or more after their release, but isn't that highly unlikely?