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[DJWeinbaum]

All the advice I find on writing to the press says "make sure to include a download key!". Many sites say a playable build is required to get any previews/coverage about your game. I found this a bit surprising. How soon do you think its wise to send a playable build to the press? As soon as pre-alpha? As soon as beta? Do you fellow devs send out work in progress builds to press? Is this advice mostly for smaller games that start their marketing after release?

I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts on this.

[Joure]

Well, I have no real first hands on experience, I worked on Contagion from Early Access all the way to release and beyond. We never got any proper press coverage but that's mainly due to a certain person all the way at the top screwing up royally. But it depends on your strategy among other things. In general I would hold off until you have a steady beta. Something that will create confidence in your game and the development team.

I would never ever hand out alpha's and even beta's are risky, it just depends on how stable the game is. As an indie we're at a disadvantage mostly because we're unknown developers with no proven track record. If you have had a success before, then the press knows who you are and they will gladly play whatever you offer them.

As for the game itself. If it's at least a decent to good quality I would say that you'll have a good chance someone might be willing to give it a go. But you have to make sure that you leave an impression, because the first impression is incredibly important and you'll never get another chance to impress someone for the first time ever again. If it puts that person off you will most likely never get them back. There are so many games being made today and they all scream for attention. If your game version/build (which might be in alpha or beta) sucks then they will move on.

As for strategy, well, my own strategy is making sure that whatever I put out is the highest quality I can offer. I have a fairly open development process and I like to show off stuff that's in the works and talk about things behind the scenes but I make it a point that whatever I show is at least in a presentable stage. Regardless if I'm going to tweak it more after that, it has to be something that's worth someone else's time. I also hate it when developers spoil things so I make sure that whatever it is, is either out of context or just nothing that spoils anything but I'll admit, it's hard to keep stuff to yourself.

My personal approach is working on a demo that I can show off which looks and feels as close to the final game as possible. This is to be the game's calling card for the majority of the development even though I know the final game will have so much more added to it, it's a good way to get an audience interested early on and build up from there.

I am planning to release the demo slightly before our kickstarter campaign so that anyone interested can play it and determine based on hands-on experience if they want this game to be made. Well, it will be made but with a budget I can work faster and increase the overall quality.

After the demo I will hold off from releasing anything else in the form of a demo until I'm very close to release and want to get a momentum going. And that's what you want, momentum. You have regular updates so that people know the game is actively developed, they have something new to look at which is always exciting and when you get closer to release you will become more active publishing articles and approaching press and whoever else you might want to and ride that momentum and make sure you don't loose it.

I don't know if this helps you at all but that's hat I wanted to share, I'd be curious what other peoples advice would be and their experience.