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[UnyteLux]

Hello All,

Although I have been tinkering with a game on the side for over a year it was the present crisis (COVID) that effectively turned me into a game developer.  I finished that first game and did a beta release on Play Store and then moved on to developing my second one (in progress right now).  I also have a third one lined up. 

It is apparent to me that I am going to have to put some extra work into getting my games in front of the right eyes.  I have found that there appear to be a number of Indie game showcase sites such as Itch.io.  Although I often use freelancers to help out I am effectively a one man band so I need to ration my efforts with care.  My first game was created with Flutter and targets Android/iOS.  I am creating the second and third games on Defold and can target a wider range of platforms.  The genre I am constraining myself to is Hypercasual.  I'd much appreciate any advice on where I should start promoting/talking about my games

[mrb______]

Congrats

Hypercasual is really really tough - you'll have to do lots of reading into virality mechanics, and embed that into your game. Ultimately virality needs to be embedded into the user experience.

My only suggestion is to pick 1 platform. And to literally start from there..

Hope that helps.

[UnfoldGames]

Unless you have a giant marketing budget, I'd stay away from Mobile. The barrier of entry is very high nowadays. Also, monetization is extremely tricky. I'd start with PC because it's the easiest one to start with, especially if you're going the self-published route. Once your game proves financially viable, you can think of expanding to console - either through port-houses or with the help of a publisher.

There's no such thing as getting one-time exposure that results in a game's success. It's a long and gradual process, and it's all about building an audience around your project. I would start with creating an amazing trailer and create a Steam page as soon as possible, and then concentrate on collecting wishlists, both organically and non-organically. Don't launch your game unless you have a decent amount of wishlists. Although wishlist conversion varies greatly, aim at 20,000, which is known as the number that is likely to get you featured on the "New and Trending" tab. This can significantly increase your sales. 50,000 and more will likely get you to "Top Selling" and "Featured and Recommended" spots on the Steam front-page, which is extremely useful in the increasingly crowded market. There's a lot of advice to give on this subject, but that's the very minimum I'd recommend: get amazing at community management, social media, marketing and PR, and bring traffic to your Steam page. Work on your Steam page so it converts visits into wishlists. Sounds simple - yet it's very difficult to do.