next »

[TeamMortenO]

Hello everyone!
Quick introduction:  My name is Morten, I have worked as an artist in AAA games for 16 years, and over the last couple of years I have been working on this mobile game with my three brothers as a pet project using Unity. This was a fun way of doing something together and learning tons of new things along the way. The list of challenges in game development is endless. In my regular job I only deal with environment art, but lately I have been coding in c#, managed the release and build process, and the next big challenge will be marketing.

I was hoping that someone here had some good tips on how to get those first users, get a few reviews and maybe some day enough for the game not to be completely invisible for people browsing Google Play. Or is this even possible anymore without paying for user acquisition?

The game is an on-going development, but we have a very stable build out now with 27 levels. It is a pretty polished catapult game. so far with no monetization or ads, we just want people to play and see if it could have any legs.

Here's a link:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=dk.videodane.gameofstones

Let me know what you think, and share any tips you might have.
Thanks,
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

[udkultimate]

WOW very beautifull your game, loved the graphics style.

I am developing a game, alone, from 4 years (2 years to modify Unreal Engine 3 and 2 years on the game itself): https://www.indiedb.com/games/fursan-al-aqsa-knights-of-al-aqsa-mosque

My real life job is Web Design and Social Media Advertising, so I have a good experience on marketing (+10 years).

However, whenever working as a solo indie developer, you need to do everything by yourself. There is no "secret recipe" or magic to get noticed.

I will try to resume for you how I am doing it all alone, maybe you can get some ideas.

First detail, is that you need to do the marketing for your game in a daily basis, you need to consider it as a part of the development.

Second, you need to do like old days, mouth to mouth, people to people. You must not act like a bot (you will be banned), you need to get in touch with many people over the web.

You need to have pages on Social Media, like Facebook, Twitter (is very good), Youtube Channel, Instagram, and so on. Everything you can manage, is good.

You need aswell, register on as many game development forums, and general gaming forums as you can. The more the better. However, is always good before posting about your game, ask permission (contact the forum) for this, as many will not allow advertising.

You need to create compelling promotional art for your game, and share, manually share on all social networks. If you have facebook friends, this will help, if not, make friendship with random people who are somekind related to gaming, game development.

Twitter is excellent for this because there are thousands of gamers there, game developers, and so on.

Do not restrict to whom you are going to pitch about your game. Even other indie developers will help. You follow random people on twitter, then begin to interact with them, comenting about their tweets, and the like (begin a friendship).

Then after people already know you (after some interactions), you can tag them on a posting you do in twitter, like a new update, you go there and create a new banner, art, then share on twitter and tag as many users as you can. However, don't do it too fast, otherwhise twitter will ban you (make like 5 times by day, giving one hour of interval between each posting).

However, be aware man, that this is a VERY TEDIOUS WORK, but needs to be done all days. Each new friend, follower you get, ad him/her to a list of people you can tag.

You can search on twitter for IGN and Gamespot Journalist to tag them aswell. I am doing it however, these guys did not answer, like my tweet yet. But 2 Important editors of IGN Brazil (I am brazilian) already liked my posts and are now aware of my game.

In the end my friend, there is no "magic", there is a LOT of labour. But your game I think will be easier to marketing than my game, because of the political content, MANY sites banned me, even Youtube deleted 2 channels I had. However, I am stubborn, and NEVER GIVE UP.

My game even got into the list of TOP 100 Indie Games of 2019 on IndieDB Website!

Last but not least, there are a LOT of sites specialized in reviewing indie games, you can search on google and contact them. Dude, never underestimate anyone, even a small youtuber, small website who make a review for your game is good, valid, and can make a bigger site raise interest on your game.

The secret is spread your game to reach as much people as you can!

Cheers from Brazil.

PS: search on google https://www.google.com/search?q=fursan+al+aqsa+game to see how I am making my game VIRAL on the web :D :D :D

Here is my thread: https://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=68991.0

[TeamMortenO]

Thanks for sharing, udkultimate This is exactly the kind of of info I was looking for. I guess it is going to be a lot of hard work, and keeping at it.
I am willing to give it a proper shot after spending so much time developing the game. I am not giving up without a fight
If anyone here has any specific suggestions for websites or forums or anything else that can be useful for spreading the word, please let me know.
Maybe there is a place dedicated to entirely free games without ads or iap?

And if you are reading this and are even remotely curious, please download the game and give it a try, maybe even a rating if you like it
I can tell you that so far we have 16 installs and most of them have played through all 27 level available so far, which tells me that they are enjoying the game.
Please also share any feedback/critique on the game in this thead, we are going to continuously improve it.

Thanks,
Morten, The Meat and Fruit Co.

[udkultimate]

Hello my friend. Just installed and played it, until level Six, Three Kings. Congratulations, loved each bit of this game. I promisse after I have a free time I will play again. However, I did wrote a small review for you (my real name is Nidal Nijm).

The thing which I most loved was the physics, simply fabulous! Did you program the physics or used an Unity Plugin?

We indies should support each other, and whenever I can, I do it, by purchasing the game and making a review.

By the way, did you see my game? Could you try the demo, after I finish and publish it? Maybe make a review/comment?

By the way, you could try to find a publisher to do all the marketing for you. I personally prefeer to do everything alone, even though there are and will be even more hardships and content censoring (in the case of my game).

I personally like chalenges, and I think there is no more chalenge than develop, promote and sell a game all by yourself. In the end, if the game be suscessfull, the feeling of accomplishment you feel is priceless.

Cheers dude and good luck with your game.