Zero Budget VIDEO GAME MARKETING // Marketing for Indie Game Developers

Money is not needed to do marketing as an indie game developer - You CAN do video game marketing with a zero dollar budget. I used $60 and my game sold almost $130k in 1 year. In this video, I'll give my opinion on what are the best game marketing methods to do as an indie game developer.

⚔️ Roguebound Pirates: https://store.steampowered.com/app/33...

⚔️ Mortal Glory 2: https://store.steampowered.com/app/22...
⚔️ Chambers of Devious Design: https://store.steampowered.com/app/16...
⚔️ Mortal Glory: https://store.steampowered.com/app/10...
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0:00 Intro
1:49 Contacting YouTubers & Streamers

Send a free key to a video creator and hope they like the game enough to make a video about it. These can be review videos, commentary videos, gameplay videos or some other types of videos. I consider this to be the best way of doing marketing for indie game developers. If I could only choose one type of marketing activity to do, it would be this one. 100%. You can do it either manually or through different services like Woovit, Keymailer and Indieboost

Verdict: Highly recommended

3:18 Contacting Journalists

This used to be THE dream for indie game developers, but with decreasing readership numbers and the rise of alternative sources for news and entertainment, the influence of both print and digital media has declined. Getting your game featured on one of the top sites will still give you a visibility boost, but the actual effect on sales might be disappointing if your expectations are not kept in check.

Verdict: Recommended, but not the highest priority.

4:55 Setting up a Steam page

When you have created a Steam page, Steam will occasionally show it to people who might be interested in your game. Those people might then wishlist your game. This is a passive boost on top of your other marketing efforts. You’ll need to create a Steam page anyway to sell your game there so you get this extra marketing bonus without any additional effort. Having a Steam page also allows you to have a place you can direct potential customers to and where they can express their interest towards your game through wishlisting. So you should get your Steam page up ASAP to start utilizing these benefits. You might even consider this one of the best game marketing tricks.

Verdict: Highly recommended. This should be your top priority.

5:46 Press Release Distribution Sites

After I released my game, I sent a press release through prlog.org and gamespress.com. From what I can tell, it’s a waste of time. At least if you are an unknown indie game.

Verdict: Not recommended.

6:22 Mailing List

This is more for enabling future marketing. Setting up a mailing list with services like mailchimp is easy and free. But if you are just making your first game, I wouldn’t stress about creating a mailing list. Aside from a few die-hard fans, you won’t get many people to join your list unless you have something to offer them. Google for Lead Magnet if you want to get ideas for this.

Verdict: Recommended, but not a priority.

Let's move on to social media!

7:52 Twitter

Twitter is best suited for quick-to-consume content like gifs. You can use tools like ezgif to quickly churn out gifs of your game and then keep dropping them on Twitter from time to time. But honestly, I feel like Twitter is better at reaching your current customers than new customers. Also, most of the people liking your tweets are usually fellow developers instead of your target audience, the players. But still, using twitter is so easy that there’s no reason not to give it a try.

Verdict: Recommended.

8:45 Reddit

Reddit is the best at turning hobbies into careers. Posting on Reddit can be a bit tricky though. You will need to maneuver varying subreddit rules, over-zealous automoderators and idealistic guidelines on self-promotion. After all this, many times your posts will get zero traction. To get the most out of Reddit, you should become a part of a community there and not use it just to advertise.

Verdict: Recommended.

9:58 Imgur

Imgur is like a visual, more light-hearted version of Reddit. If your game has good gif potential, you’ll probably do fairly well on Imgur.

Verdict: Recommended

11:01 Tumblr

11:39 Outro