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[tomshreds]

Hi,

I'm working on a game called "Indie Game Story".

The game is practically half-done, and an alpha will be released in about a month.

I have a blog, a uservoice community page and I sometime post article on reddit and on my personal social networking accounts. Also I have put it on IndieDB on which I publish many aritlces, news, screenshots, etc.

I gain a good amount of attention so far. I had about 850 visitors since last week and a few likes, comments there and there.

I publish development updates and screenshots almost daily now. (On the blog)

Now I'm looking to get a bit more serious, I'd like to build a little community around the game to share ideas, discuss the game, report bugs, etc. What should I do to get the word spread around and get more attention?

Who should I write to? Once the game is released I intend to send it to as many reviewers as possible.

I don't want to go viral, my game is not a Farmville clone. I just want to get more people to build something interesting around the game.

Any suggestions, links, ideas are very welcome and will be appreciated.

Thanks and have a nice day!

- Tommy

[trilby]

How about releasing the alpha, telling everyone and their dog to play it on forums, twitter, facebook etc. and adding an "enter your email to receive news about updates" feature to the alpha so you can directly target interested parties with updates etc?

This isn't based on any sort of experience on my part just a couple of thoughts!  I think people need to have access to the game before you go too wild with trying to promote it.

[Xienen]

I tend to agree with trilby.  I would also suggest having a refined version of the game before getting too press happy, which getting even 10 people to play an alpha build will help with.

[tomshreds]

How about releasing the alpha, telling everyone and their dog to play it on forums, twitter, facebook etc. and adding an "enter your email to receive news about updates" feature to the alpha so you can directly target interested parties with updates etc?

This isn't based on any sort of experience on my part just a couple of thoughts!  I think people need to have access to the game before you go too wild with trying to promote it.

Very good point.

I'm actually working very hard to have an alpha ready for next month. So I guess from there I will be able to fully promote the game. I'm so excited, I can't wait to be there haha

I tend to agree with trilby.  I would also suggest having a refined version of the game before getting too press happy, which getting even 10 people to play an alpha build will help with.
[/quote

I agree, I think it'll be time for an alpha.

Thanks to both of you!

[trilby]

I understand how you feel.  I came on here back in November with grand ideas about starting to promote my own game.  All I had was a square moving around a grid!!  Realistically I will have something promotable in April i.e a beta 

[Graham-]

Community dev is important.... Here's my thinking: give out alphas/demo/whatevers; have a place to engage with people, on a forum on your site; engage with your community. This is the cycle:
  1. Release update.
  2. Receive feedback.
  3. Interact with community i.e. understand feedback and communicate how you will respond to it (with future updates).
  4. Repeat.

I think this process more than anything helps you understand how to sell your game to people, because you'll be interacting with them so much. On the side, be emailing every reviewer/journalist publication/blog there is. Every time you do a new big update you can remind people who have responded, and re-pitch to those who haven't. ... I've never done this before but I imagine coming back with figures makes a difference: 100 daily visitors, 10,000 downloads of the demo.

Here's a good trick. On your site put in metrics, so you can count which posts are getting read the most, which images people are viewing, which posts lead to the most downloads etc. This will help you iterate your "marketing campaign," such as your game's main page, to be better and better.

[Mister Dave]

There are already several helpful threads on the subject in this forum linking to other sites, including a sticky from the admin.

[tomshreds]

Sorry forgot to update this thread.

I found several ways of doing so and I'm even currently running an Indiegogo campaign.

We have now more than 100 alpha registrations, a lot of feedback and more than 15 people sent us funds.

Website generates now lots of traffic and interest, which if very good.

We event got coverage on many indie websites!

All I needed to do was some reddit threads, sent lots of emails and spent hours replying to everybody, etc. I try to keep my twitter, indiedb, indiegogo and blog active at all time. People seems to like it now =)

You can check it out here:
http://www.indiegogo.com/indiegamestory/x/1720837

If you can spread the word or help a little, even 1$ is useful to us!

An alpha will also be released next month!

Thanks for the replies!

- Tommy