Valentin Thomas

Valentin’s kickass hooks selection #3 – Sick games, sick people

Valentin — Wed, 28 Jan 2026 17:32:37 +0000

Hey there, welcome for another batch of kickass-y hooks and games !

Please forgive this lousy pun in the title, but fall and winter are all about coughs and sneezes so it seemed legit to dedicate this article to such games.

So yes, this month selection is going to be about doctors, sickness and all the games presented are sick, in a good way! It started with the discovery of Prescribe and play on reddit, then I dug to find out the others. Chat with the developer will be on my French blog soon! And yes it will be in French (Sorry not sorry, I’m froggy get over it sweetie).

Without further ado, let’s get into this kickass hooks selection!

Prescribe and pray

Type of hook

Visual, concept, marketing

Official USP

Who said being a Doctor was easy? In Prescribe and Pray, you are the Doctor! Check the patient’s identity, diagnose their illness (often bizarre), and write their prescription. All without making a mistake! So, are you up for the challenge? (Steam)

Marketing hooks

Treat your patients… torture others. You are THE doctor! Prescribe and Pray, the demo is now available on Steam! (Reddit)

Prescribe and Pray – Will you be able to treat all your patients, or sacrifice some? (Reddit)

Prescribe and Pray – Your decisions will heal, or kill… (Reddit)

Context

Precribe and Pray is basically Papers please set in a medical center, in France, in the 90’s. Las Ninas, the solodev behind the title, has no direct link with the medical world, but he’s nostalgic of the 90’s in France so here’s that. He was hugely inspired by Theme hospital, one of the first games he played and loved. I didn’t play this one, but you might find some references there as illnesses in the game are fun and wacky (Although gingeritis, which makes people become red-headed, might make a couple of Irish people furious).

(Short) Review

I played the demo, which lasts about 30 minutes, and it was quite fun ! It was before next fest so some bugs were still there, but the game is fun, the learning curve was steady so that you don’t get overwhelmed or bored and you could feel an interesting story is coming up in the full game.

And I’m not the only one to think so! From 800 wishlists before next fest, Prescribe and Pray surged to 2700 wishlists after the festival. That’s a 1600 increase, very good for a first timer.

My take and my hooks for Prescribe and Pray

Graphically, the games looks polished and the 90’s vibe is very well displayed to the player (we even find invoices in Francs, beloved French currency). The concept is fine tuned and understandable in a couple words. Maybe what Prescribe and Pray missed for performing on reddit or other social media is a catchier intro to its trailer. During the first 10 seconds, all you see is people getting in the office one by one. In rhythm with the music, so the artistic vibe is here, but the marketing devil in me says 10 seconds is too long for social media. Las Ninas could polish his trailer, making the intro only 3 or 5 seconds long, with the shocking moment closer to medium scroll time. It didn’t hurt his wishlist count (which proves the trailer is good otherwise) since people coming to your steam page generally have longer watch times : if they’re here, they’re already interested, which is not the case of people on social media.

Anyhow, here are my attempts to hook Prescribe and Pray’s potential players :

“Paper’s please in a doctor’s office”

“Your patients die, you retry. No risk for you! (Or is it?)”

“Now every doctor uses chat-GPT anyways, so why not try your luck?”

Please check out Precribe and pray’s Steam Page!

Do no harm

Type of hook

Visual, concept, sound

Official USP

Lovecraftian Doctor Simulator (Smart, simple, clear, unique. All you need in a hook)

Marketing hooks

Make moral choices — decide who to save or kill, discover whom to trust, and unlock multiple endings! (steam)

Our experience of rejections for a Game that made ~$750K Gross in 5 Months (reddit – 751 upvotes, the post does a lot too)

I just like the dumb and funny look on the character’s face in my doctor simulator game – Do No Harm (reddit – 170 upvotes)

Lovecraftian, Medical “Papers, Please” with Multiple Endings (reddit – 402 upvotes. The post was just presenting the game but told you the hook is particularly efficient)

Context

Do no harm is, as said before, a lovecraftian doctor simulator. And that’s all that is, but it’s a lot already. Geeks love lovecraft-y stuff. It might be less known than LOTR or Star Wars, but it’s a universe that works well. The horror genre is hot on steam too, here are 14 reasons why Mr. Zuckowski thinks you should make one. And paper please inspired games are pretty scarce, at least very well known ones.

Mix all these ingredients with a unique and polished art style, an interesting concept and compelling gameplay, you’ve got Do No Harm. No wonder why they made 750$ gross revenue on steam alone after 5 months. And 58 publishers ignored/declined their offers. I’d say shame on them, but the potential hit game missed is a big enough punishment for them to endure.

The community manager of the game, called novruzj on reddit, did a tremendous work gathering information and promoting the game, some posts having up to 900 upvotes, and bringing feedback to the team with spot on questions.

All in all, with a solid hook and a good game, they made it into the industry. And their next game, Lunar Ascendant, might hit it right as well with a whole different direction (more on that later).

(Short) Review

Here’s a 3 minute review with a heavy accent guy. Sorry if you don’t get much, but I promised a short review so here it is!

My take and my hooks for Do No Harm

Do No Harm worked well, probably because they had an interesting hook and a good game. They probably don’t need my help for marketing, but if I had to give them a hook, that would be…

“If you ever dreamt of being a doctor in Cthulu’s universe, try our game.”

Please check out Do No Harm’s Steam page!

Rhythm Doctor

Type of hook

Visual, concept, music, narrative, pretty much everything

Official USP

Rhythm Doctor is a rhythm game where you heal patients by defibrillating in time to their heartbeats. Learn each patient’s unique heartbeat and defeat boss viruses trying to sabotage your rhythm, all set to heart-pumping, soul-soothing music. (steam)

Marketing hooks

Save patients with your rhythm mastery! (Steam)

You hit the button. That’s it. (Youtube)

Context

Rhythm doctor has been in development for at least 9 years. 9 YEARS! At least that’s the first trace of the game’s alpha on 7th beat games youtube account. Now it’s a mega huge hit (25000 reviews in one month and 20 days, which is 750 000 units according to Video Game Insights) and not all games developed in 9 years achieve this success, but it can explain how fine tuned is the game now. It’s been in early access for 5 years, since February 2021 and was released in december 7th, 2025. I planned on writing an article about this game in november, and I might have been able to say “I TOLD YOU SO!!!!!” if I did, but well, maybe next time.

In short, Rhythm doctor is a one button rhythm game where you have to heal your patients by defibrillating the heck out of their hearts to make them feel better. One button might seem easy, but it’s not: visual cues are sometimes in motion, oftentimes tricky and you have to know the song well to beat the game. It’s got varied music styles, cute pixel art graphics, an interesting story with takes on loneliness, love, status of the healthcare system and other themes, and you can listen their OST for free on youtube.

(Short) Review

I did not play the game, but IGN reviewed it. When IGN accepts to review your game, it generally smells good for future sales.

My take and my hooks for Rhythm Doctor

Well, their sales skyrocketed and they certainly don’t need my help for marketing, but if I had one hook to give them it would be…

“One button to heal them all.”

Please check out Rhythm Doctor’s Steam page!

If you missed my previous articles (come on Valentin, they most probably did, you’re no Chris Z yet) please read them if you liked this one :

Valentin’s Kickass marketing hooks #1
Valentin’s kickass hooks selection #2 – Bugs, gnomes and houses
Valentin’s kickass hooks SPECIAL: Tanat, A man of houses and love

Good luck have fun (with marketing),

Valentin

L’article Valentin’s kickass hooks selection #3 – Sick games, sick people est apparu en premier sur Valentin Thomas.

Tanat, A man of houses and love

Valentin — Thu, 27 Nov 2025 11:20:41 +0000

(20 mins read – I know it’s long but it’s worth it)

Hey there everyone, it’s (finally) me again. Following last hooks list that worked pretty well on bluesky (compared to my other posts) I wanted to get back to an old habit of mine that I was missing somehow: interviewing folks. And since I spoke MANY times about soon to be hit game Building relationships, I figured I would interview the man behind the game, Tanat Boozayaangol, alias Tan ant games.

TL;DR : Building relationships is a dating simulation where buildings date other buildings. Try out the demo, it’s lots of fun!

In this thorough interview, you’ll find out how he came out with this crazy idea, how he struggled with perception of his piece of art and how he just didn’t care anymore somehow. And plenty of gamedev-to-gamedev tips to make it in the industry. It’s a long read, but it’s definitely worth reading! 100% guaranteed, if not satisfied I will pay you back.

Wait, you didn’t pay for this article. Well, if you didn’t like it, I will write you an excuse poem.

Ok? Ok. Have a good read!

Valentin

My first question is very simple : how did you come up with this quite crazy idea of a building dating sim ?

Tanat Boozayaangol

It kind of started as a game jam. The theme was construction, destruction. This was like 2015, 10 years ago now. It seems kind of crazy. But yeah, I was thinking I can make a game about buildings, so maybe I’m making one about relationships.

And I was like, wait a minute, it kind of goes together. And at the time, it was inspired by absurd dating sims at the time of 2015. Back then it was really a thing on youtube.

So yeah, it kind of started with that, like, absurd visual novel type route. But I didn’t really play visual novels or dating sims, so I couldn’t make something in that style. And feel like it is authentic in a way that makes sense to me, right?

Because I didn’t consume enough of that genre. So I kept the idea aside for a while. In 2020, lockdown happened and I suddenly had more free time. I just played a short hike. And I really wanted to play around with exploration as a mechanic, so I revisited the idea for a different game jam called unexpected jam.

So I was like, okay, let’s bring back building relationships in 3d with movement as the first thing I’ll tackle. The game had lots like, delightful surprises. I didn’t know if it had any weight to it.

But I made the jam, right? I put it on itch and random people would play the game. And turned out they would like it.

And so I was like, Okay, I guess there’s something here. So it was in 2020, and 2023 or so. That’s when I picked work back up again. I learned a little bit more about writing then. So yeah, that’s kind of the stepping stones of how we got to the game as it is now.

Valentin

Okay, it makes more sense now! So it’s your first game as Tan Ant, a name which I believe is something some guy called you?

Tanat

Haha, yes, my name is pronounced « Tanat », if you say that really wrong, it’s like « Tan ant ». But I have to go by Tan, because now everyone thinks I go by that name. And yes, it’s my first commercial game.

I’ve made games before, like during my undergrad bachelor in game design development. And I’ve done lots of jam projects, but building relationships is the first game that has moved from game jam or smaller projects to a commercial release on Steam.

Valentin

Can you tell me more on your studies?

Tanat

I studied game design development. So it was programming and a lot of game projects. That was in like 2015, to 2018. And I worked as a software engineer for five years.

Valentin

Okay. And so about your job, how do you switch to from Google engineer to GDC speaker? [he didn’t mention Google but I checked his linkedin profile beforehand. No, this is not stalking, I’m just doing my job, ok?]

Tanat Boozayaangol

Yeah… I’ll be very honest, I don’t think Google helped at all [laughing]

So yeah, I worked for five years as a software engineer. Early parts of it was on first two years on Stadia, which is not the longer thing anymore. At the time, I just graduated. So I was still figuring things out for myself.

And then I worked on Android GPU profilers, so the overlap between that and indie games is nonexistant. And yeah, in my free time outside of work I would try to spend my time doing part time game dev, to meet more people in the industry going to meetups, organizing events and all that. And thanks to that, I ended up having a place to talk at GDC. The talk was about structuring comedy.

There’s a book I read called Writing for games. And it was a very logical breakdown of a step by step process that fits different types of writers and whatnot. But there was one page in that book that talked about comedy writing.

The author Hannah Nicklin could not tackle it within that book, because the book was already really big and it’s kind of a tangent. But one thing she asserted was that if you want to write comedy, you should study the fundamentals, specifically setups and payoffs.

And so that was the basis of « How do I, as an engineering brain, approach comedy in a way that is structural ? »

So there are a lot of things I cannot talk about, because humor is something that you understand intuitively, we can’t explain it. But there are certain things that help in terms of structuring a project like when you write a part of something. Like in other forms of writing where there’s rising action to help set up a climax. So it’s something similar for comedy and I think it’s just like an interesting way to look at things.

And I feel like no one has given a talk like that at GDC before, though. I believe it’s intuitive to a lot of people. But I think it’s just kind of here’s how programmer brain approaches comedy. Ironically, I think if you engineer a comedy too much, it’s not funny.

Point is, I don’t think that’s something I could have achieved if I stayed at Google.

Valentin

You told me you were afraid people would think your game is total nonsense. Can you tell me more about that? Like how you got rid of this impression.

Tanat

I was still at Google when I started working on the game. As I was working on the game part-time, the game got announced at summer games fest.

And so that was pretty early, I had never gone through the entire process of doing the introspection, figuring out what my instincts are, how do I know for myself that something is good, something is not good. And how do I build those instincts without having done any playtest beforehand.

I had limited time to spend on this game. I’ve also never written before. This is my first time writing a game.

I guess I’m a fun person. I didn’t think I was like a comedian funny person though. I just watched a lot of improv comedy. So I was kinda stressed about how my work is being received because I’ve never been perceived before. So yeah, in terms of overcoming that, a lot of it is time and space. And at that time, I ended up quitting from Google, not necessarily because I wanted to go full time into game dev, but because I couldn’t handle the work environment at that place. It was getting to me a lot. So I ended up quitting.

And then having more free time, I kinda said to myself « I can’t just like live in that anxiety anymore. » I have to address it, right? Because if this is my full time job, I can’t be anxious 24/7. So I released a demo almost immediately after announcements, just because I didn’t have a trust in myself. My questions were « Is this too random? » « Is this too crazy? » A lot of it in terms of overcoming this is looking at what people say.

Getting that feedback, I started working with Gina, who’s my composer. So Gina composed all the music in the game. And so between the two of us, there’s a little bit more of like, okay, are the references clear between between each of us? Is this making sense?

And over time, after a while, I just stopped worrying. I can’t pinpoint exactly where it started.

But at some point, I think I made this realization that it’s my first time writing for a game anyway, so it might not be the most amazing, perfect piece of writing, because I don’t have that experience. At the end of the day, I can’t be sure if it’s gonna be good, but I can be sure that it will be authentic.

And I realized when I did localization for another game, Urban Jungle, that I don’t need top notch writing to make it in the industry. English was not their strong suit, I mean the writing was good even though not exceptional, and it didn’t matter much. I could still understand the feelings conveyed, so that’s what really is important.

Another thing I didn’t mention fully, but for the talk that I gave at GDC, a lot of time I had to ask myself, like, okay, how do I condense my process in a way that is useful for other people. Because I don’t want to be the person who’s just blabbing nonsense. That’s what a lot of people did at my job. There’s an art to saying stuff nonsense, but you look smart. I did not want to be one of those people. So I tried my best.

It forced me to really introspect: what is my process? And how do I know if something feels right? And a lot of that coming comes out like, do I have the references? Does it feel like it’s clear?

For example for furniture building, there’s the IKEA reference. And I think it’s clear. And I think the first person building a furniture thing, is making sense to me, and to many people.

[Note from me : there’s a moment in Building relationships where you have to “cook dinner” by building IKEA-like furniture. Because in this crazy world, buildings eat tables and such. Doesn’t it make sense as much as it seems out of this world ?]

Valentin

So what’s next in the game, after furniture building?

Tanat

The next part of that is furniture moving. And so I was like, okay, how do we spin this concept in a way? And talking about what that feels like for buildings, you know, not humans moving furniture but buildings moving furniture.

Valentin

What does that mean for your characters? Is it a banquet or something like that?

Tanat

Yeah, it’s a dinner. They move furniture for dinner.

The next part is feeding the sandwich to your partner. It kind of plays on these dating sims that have this scene where you feed your partner. The ones that I’ve seen feel very weird.

So there’s just some weird energy going on. But I think it’s entirely different in my game. It feels authentic to me.

Valentin

Okay. So are you planning on keeping posting crazy posts on Reddit or other places, or are you going to be more « classic » now? What’s your take on your future posts?

Tanat

Posting has taken a long time for me because I started posting maybe in November 2023. When you don’t have any type of audience, I just posted things on back in the time Twitter and it would not get a lot of traction because when you don’t have a game already, you don’t have an audience and it would barely reach new people.

My philosophy with marketing or social media posts is it has to be kind of low effort for my end, especially at the time, because I was part time and I could not spend too much time doing everything at once. So I observed what was going on on platforms and the thing that worked best for me is I recorded some kind of gameplay clip and just narrated something over it in a way. What I try to hit is like, « Hey, I did X in this game » in a way where people would comment for Reddit, for example. It’s basically, if you say something so absurd, but still make sense, like « I added rock climbing to my dating sim where you play buildings ». It kind of makes sense and it’s absurd at the same time you know, I guess it just worked for me on Reddit.

On TikTok, I’ve tried to focus on content with a clearer angle. I think I have some strength in teaching when I prepare properly, so I don’t ramble. I did a shader breakdown, for example. With short-form content, it’s easy to waste time, but people tend to appreciate it more when they learn something.

That’s the angle I want to hit: here’s how the water shader works, how the 2D pixelation filter works, their pros and cons, and whatnot. This kind of content takes more time to make, but the water shader breakdown did pretty well. People love water in VFX—there’s something visually appealing and “learnable” about it, so it has more sharing potential.

I also add a bit of humor when it fits—maybe some funny emojis—but I don’t force it if it’s not naturally funny. So I sort of have two tones: something absurd, or something more straightforward, like “I added this house, and now it can jump”, things like that.

This type of content tends to do well on Reddit and performs decently on TikTok too, even though it takes a lot of time to make.

Valentin
Yeah, even though when I hope they wouldn’t, some posts still flop. As a marketer, I know how tough it is. Sometimes you spend 10 hours on a post and it goes nowhere, and sometimes you spend five minutes on a meme and it explodes.

Tanat
That feeling has been hard for me to deal with. In everything else I do—programming, design, art, writing—there’s a skill component. It’s not always luck; you just need to keep learning and improving. But with marketing, it feels harder when you put a lot of effort into something and nothing works.

When I moved back to Thailand from the UK, my reach on platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube Shorts became very local. Compared to my peers in the US or UK, my reach is just smaller, and I can’t do much about it. That’s why I focus more on Reddit, because it doesn’t limit reach by location.

Valentin
I’ve seen major press outlets write about your game. Did you contact them, or did they reach out themselves?

Tanat
A lot of this is new to me. I submitted the game to Day of the Devs and got in. During Summer Game Fest, Day of the Devs showcases get press attention—they reach out to a lot of press outlets.

It felt like everything aligned for me. They feature a variety of games and are willing to include newer devs with unusual titles. For example, this year there was a game where you play as a child inside a tire (what looked to me like a student project) and they still showcased it. Day of the Devs is one of the few events with real visibility that supports new developers.

Some press reached out on their own. In other cases, the Day of the Devs press team listed the people who would be playing the game, so I emailed them. It’s been a learning process. I’m grateful for the visibility Day of the Devs gave me. For launch and beyond, it’ll be more on me to initiate contact, but early on a lot of things just went right.

Valentin
Fair enough. Many devs struggle to get coverage. I always tell developers that the hook of a game is crucial, and that marketing starts in pre-production, not after release. So aside from what we already talked about, what have you done marketing wise?

Tanat

My marketing strategy is fairly lean. I’m not targeting large expos like PAX very much. There’s some value in them, but since I’m mostly working alone, the amount of effort required isn’t always worth it. My composer is in the UK on a contracting basis, so it doesn’t make sense to ask her to fly somewhere.

Summer Game Fest gave me a huge wishlist spike because it showcases a manageable number of games and appears on the Steam front page. I was also in Wholesome Games Direct, and one of the few games that had a demo available immediately, which helped.

I also participated in LudoNarraCon this year, another event with strong Steam visibility and limited slots. Those were the main drivers for wishlists.

Posting consistently is hard for me because focusing on numbers makes me spiral. Like when I’m stressed, seeing other people’s successful posts doesn’t make me happy for them, it just makes everything feel worse. So I try to post, but I haven’t been consistent. As I approach release, I’m finally setting up a social media calendar to maintain some rhythm.

I haven’t spent money on ads. My main focus is streamers. It feels crazy to me but people often say the game looks like a “streamer game” (a difficult platformer or climbing game) but it’s not exactly that. Still, viewers enjoy the puns, twists, and unexpected moments that create good reactions. I try to hang out in the chats of people who streamed the demo, not just thank them and disappear.

So overall: online showcases with Steam visibility, some expos, and selective social posting. Social media helps, but if it affects my mental health too much, I shift my focus.

Valentin
Okay, last question: are you willing to share your wishlist count, or is it private?

Tanat
It’s around 33,000. The biggest spikes were from Summer Game Fest and LudoNarraCon. I keep a spreadsheet of spikes from various events and showcases.

Reddit has been the strongest platform for wishlists—people are already on their computers and more likely to click through to Steam. YouTube is the one platform I haven’t tried yet. When I quit Google, I didn’t want to deal with anything related to it, but I’ll probably have to eventually.

TikTok doesn’t work well in my region. Instagram is difficult to grow, and I mostly use it to let friends know what I’m doing without having to explain everything in detail. Growing a platform there feels tough, but I’m trying.

Valentin
Okay, that’s all for my questions. Thanks!

Tanat
Great. Have a good rest of your day!

So here goes, satisfied? Come on, I’m sure you learned a thing or two. If not, here are a few key takeways:

Sometimes games take refining to become good. Tanat switched from visual novel to adventure game and it worked well for him. And he knew that after making people testing the game. When you feel there’s something going on, you might have to tweak some stuff (or starting over altogether) but keep it going!
Going to meetups and events can help. If real life events are not your jam, talk about your projects to people online. And submit it to showcases, you never know what might happen.
If you’re worried about your game reception, make people play your demo. You might have to face harsh comments, but you’ll know where to start to improve. And you’ll have nice ones too!
Wacky games don’t always perform, but a fun hook can seriously help your marketing. ie it made Tanat have a spot in Day of the devs (also, make a great game but I know that’s harder to do than to say)
Make posting on social media handy for you. Heck, you’re a gamedev full of creativity, you’ll find a way to post something cool with limited time! Also: humor helps.
Start with 1 or 2 social media platforms, then expand to others. Reddit is my all time favourite, but find one that suits your vibe.
Finally, some social platforms have local reach depending on where you live. Reddit doesn’t (I swear they don’t sponsor me. Yet.).

Stay tuned for Valentin’s kickass hooks n°3, and after that the interview will be in French! (sorry I’m froggy, need to feed my French blog).

Good luck have fun (with marketing),

Valentin

PS: If you’ve got an unusual or funny hook and want to be featured here, please reach out to me!

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L’article Tanat, A man of houses and love est apparu en premier sur Valentin Thomas.

Valentin’s kickass hooks #2 – Bugs, gnomes and houses

Valentin — Thu, 11 Sep 2025 12:30:06 +0000

Hooks are (almost) everything. Your game without a good hook is a fishing rod without one. You have most of what you need to catch your target, but the hook makes it insanely easier. Read my first selection to discover my take on the subject.

Hey folks, welcome to Valentin’s kickass hooks selection #2 ! This time I’ll focus less on correcting hooks for game that failed and focus on promising games that thrive or are on the way of thriving. Let’s start!

Kabuto Park

Type of hook

Visual, concept, marketing, storytelling (pretty much everything in this game is a hook)

Official USP

Catch the cutest bugs, train them and win the Summer Beetle Battles Championship in this tiny bug collection game! (Kabuto Park’s steam page)

Marketing hooks

This game has a lot of bugs (reddit)

Games about bugs are rare, very cute art, cozy and wholesome game orientation (which is trendy nowadays), clear and exciting trailer.

When analyzing Kabuto Park, what struck me was that its most successful posts on reddit were not on videogame subreddits. It was on entomology ones (subs for bug geeks). Here’s a takeaway from this strategy: don’t limit yourselves to videogame social media. You’ve got a farming simulation? Post in IRL farming groups or subs. You’ve got an horror game? Post in places where you can find horror movie fans. And as kabuto park did, make dedicated posts for each of them.

And about “This game has lots of bugs” pun… I thought it was pure genius. I don’t know if this line was found in pre production or on the fly, but it does sound like an inside joke the developers had and tried for the best.

If I had to give it a shot, I’d say “Developing this game bugged me for a while but now it’s out for you to enjoy”? But it’s nowhere near the quality of the original.

Gnomes

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Type of hook

Concept, game design (compared to kabuto park it seems scarce, will get back to that)

Official USP

Gnomes is a turn-based tower defense with deep roguelike progression, set in ever-expanding, procedurally generated biomes. Build, farm and defend your village as you push deeper into goblin-infested territory. Unlock powerful upgrades and craft your environment to survive the endless goblin horde (steam)

Marketing hooks

I made a tower defense where you can move your towers (gnomes) every turn – during the day you plant crops, build your defenses and arrange your gnomes, at night watch the chaos unfold as your gnomes defend against the goblin horde! (reddit)

There are times where you have to admit your shortcomings. I couldn’t see this one coming. The graphics are basic, sound design is not very advanced, the trailer says nothing about the game and the hook is interesting but not revolutionary. Yet, this game grossed more than $ 370 000 pre steam cut in just 4 months (and a 10 month developing time and a $700 budget working hours not included, which is a feat in itself).

Thing is, with the right analysis and the right kind of game for the right people at the right moment (that’s an awful lot of rights, right?) you can make your way to success. Dystopian made a very deep Turret defense game for TD fans with complex game design, on steam where people sometimes do not care for graphics (hello vampire survivors), especially TD enthusiasts (hello Bloon TD). But instead of making another Bloon TD copycat, they went with unique art, mechanics and GNOMES that clicked with lots of people.

So here’s my take on what a marketing hook should have been for this game:

“Offbeat art, deep gameplay, gnomes. TD fans, try it and you’ll love it”

As I said, I didn’t see it coming so that’s the best I can do for this one.

PS: Here’s an in-depth analysis of Gnomes’ marketing success. Interesting and crunchy details in it. (Thanks Chris, as always)

Building relationships

Type of hook

Concept, visual

Official USP

Experience life as a house in this silly adventure game! Play as a building as you roll, jump, and wave-dash across a cozy island. Meet eligible structures, romance them, and experience a bizarre, yet oddly familiar story.. or go fishing instead (though we replaced fish with cars to make more sense) (Building relationships steam page)

Marketing hooks

I’m making a game that’s kinda like ‘A Short Hike’ but stupid — play as a house, jump around, date other structures, and, of course, go fishing! (though I replaced the fish with cars bc that made more sense).

I already talked about it earlier, but nobody cares because you probably didn’t read my previous articles so here it is: Building relationships, which didn’t have a name at the time, is probably my favourite concept of 2025. Why? Because it’s just plain nonsense, and I love that kind of stuff.

But I played the demo and it’s not JUST nonsense… Dialogues are funny (although kinda creepy sometimes, but isn’t dating creepy sometimes too?), there is a soothing atmosphere in this island-based dating sim, and there are wacky surprises everywhere (I never “cooked” Ikea-like furniture for a bunch of buildings, but somehow buildings eating furniture makes sense).

Now that we have outlined that a good game is non negotiable behind an intriguing hook, here’s why I think the game will thrive: the game is silly and sounds like it’s a meme or a joke made game. The developer, Tanat, has a wacky humor that blends in perfectly with social media. A house bouncing around is highly shareable content, because it’s something crazy enough for having been seen nowhere else before. And finally, the game is deeply rooted into the cozy gaming trend and Tanat has been very active in the comment section of his posts.

“Building erection as never seen before” is my take on the subject.

This one’s a little rough around the edges, but why not?

Here ends Valentin’s kickass hooks selection #2. Stay tuned for #3, sometime in october!

PS: if you want to be featured there or need help fine-tuning your hook, shoot me a message and I’ll certainly consider it!

Header picture : Doot Tiny games

Article illustrations : Reddit, steam, developers copyright

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L’article Valentin’s kickass hooks #2 – Bugs, gnomes and houses est apparu en premier sur Valentin Thomas.

Valentin’s Kickass marketing hooks #1

Valentin — Tue, 22 Jul 2025 13:52:51 +0000

Marketing Hooks. Hooks might make you think about fishing, Peter Pan, or dating. To me, it’s synonym of success. Or at least, on a marketing level.

Marketing hooks are not everything. You won’t catch big fishes, or fishes altogether, with only a hook. You need a fishing rod to do that. In our case, the fishing rod is your game. But without a hook, it’s extremely harder to catch our lovely sea animals. So when developing your game, think about your hook at the same time you think about game design in pre production, to make marketing an easy task rather than a fastidious chore (read this bit from Ryan K Rigney on the subject, very insightful read).

But who am I to give lessons right? Just a fellow trying to make his way in the indie industry. Saying that isn’t enough. I have to give you proof. And I will my boys and gals, oh I will.

What are marketing hooks, exactly?

A hook is a statement, usually summarizable in one or two sentences, that encompasses a strong selling point or baseline for your game. It might be similar to an Unique Selling Proposition, even though it’s not exactly the same thing. USP is about the product, hooks are about marketing.

Example USP: The fastest FPS of the market

Example Hook: Even Shroud is lost in our game

See the difference ?

Note: an USP can be a hook, but a hook is not necessarily an USP.

You’ll see sometimes the line between an USP and a hook is thin, and I’m playing with that in this article. Some of the hooks presented might be USPs but honestly it’s not a big deal to me since I’m here to make a point: you need a solid idea, whatever the type or term, to promote your game. Then the sentences to present it will flow.

Proven successful marketing hooks

Once again, hooks aren’t everything and hooks of the following games only worked because the game itself is awesome. But let’s take a look at some hooks that made some developers rich and happy (probably):

Boyfriend dungeon by Kitfox games. Hook: Dungeon crawler meets dating sim (conceptual)

Cuphead by Studio MDHR. Hook: Hardcore hand drawn coop shoot them up in the visual and audio style of vintage cartoons (visual, audio)

The wandering village by Stray Fawn studio. Hook: City building on the back of a giant monster (visual, conceptual)

Assassin’s Creed Shadows by Ubisoft. Hook: Assassin’s creed in medieval Japan (visual, reference)

Valorant by Riot games. Hook: Counterstrike with MOBA powers, made by Riot games (conceptual, reference)

Overwatch by Activision Blizzard. Hook: Team Fortress 2 with MOBA powers, brought to you by Blizzard. (conceptual, reference)

You see in these examples that there are different kind of hooks. And these are not official hooks, but some I see in games above.

Here we see 4 types : conceptual, visual, audio and reference. I won’t dive into details but there are other kind of hooks. These examples are here to prove several things:

- Your hook should be unique. It doesn’t mean your game has to reinvent the wheel. But again, your hook should be unique.

- Marketing hooks might seem easier to find for AAA known studios, since their brand is a hook in itself. But remember most of the hook is the game, and boy these games are not easy to replicate.

- Your hook should be surprising. Either in a visual, audio, conceptual or in terms of game design mechanics.

- Marketing hooks from these games are a big part of the game. Not some detail. Even though it’s not revolutionary, it has something exciting and new. Assassin’s Creed Shadows is still Assassin’s Creed, but with medieval Japan it’s gone to another dimension.

Valentin’s kickass marketing hooks selection #1

Now that this introduction has been made, here are some marketing hooks I noticed over the last weeks that should either be easy to market or when they’re not, I’ll give my opinion on how they could be so. Now, some of these games have gone unnoticed, and if so I’ll explain my theory about why too. If I find a marketing angle that could present things differently through a baseline, I’ll give my version. And if the original is perfect, I’ll keep my mouth shut. You have the rules, so welcome to Valentin’s kickass marketing hooks selection #1 !

Pip my Dice

Official USP

Yahtzee Roguelike experience. (gamespress)

Marketing hook

Score Attack with dice, inspired by Balatro (found on reddit). Also, the title of the game is a hook in itself.

Why was Pip my Dice unnoticed ?

It has been noticed. Not by the big league, but by small to medium sized youtubers such as Interndotgif, Angory Tom, Haelian, Mynthos, and GothicLordUK. And a whole lot of micro youtubers. But it’s only a demo and Fokaz (the developer) already got the kind of coverage few games had the opportunity to have, so it’s a very good sign for a future full release.

Potential marketing hooks :

Level 1 (easy)

Balatro with dice (conceptual)

Level 2 (medium)

Xzibit loves this game. (humor)

Level 3 (hard)

Pip that dice, otherf*cker ! (humor, but use this one with care)

Alcyone: the last city

Official USP

Alcyone: The Last City is an interactive sci-fi novel where your choices can lead to the salvation or destruction of the last refuge of civilization in the universe.

Marketing hook

Immerse Yourself in a Branching Narrative of World-Altering Decisions (games press)

Why was Alcyone unnoticed ?

Alcyone gathered around 8000 AU$ during a kickstarter campaign thanks to 428 contributors, so once again it wasn’t totally unnoticed. Some streamers played the game online during next fest, and their reactions seemed enthusiastic. But what could have been made better for the game to perform more?

If “World altering decisions” are not everywhere, they are common nowadays among narrative games. It’s a good hook, but it’s been used over and over so it’s not unique enough. The game needs something newer in its marketing to stand out from the crowd.

Potential marketing hooks

Level 1 (easy)

Rule the last city on earth… Or erase humanity from the planet

Level 2 (medium)

Finally a narrative game where you can save the world… Or destroy it.

Level 3 (word count):

250 000 words are awaiting for you in this interactive sci-fi adventure. Harry Potter 1 is 76000.

Total Loadout

Now, I hear a lot about success stories and such, but I’d like to analyze not a failure, but an attempt that didn’t make it. Because not-success sometimes teaches us way more than a big unexpected buzz.

Official USP

Auto-battle for stardom and the multiverse in a new inventory management game where weapons are the main event. (gamespress)

Marketing hooks

Total Loadout, an inventory management auto-battler where weapons are the stars!

The fiery new game show that pits the best of the best… Against the best! (Official trailer)

An inventory management auto-battler that’s Out of This World (Twitter bio)

Why was Total Loadout unnoticed ?

You could also say Total Loadout has been noticed, but only by minor creators or outlets. I found a short article on Gamer matters and a dozen gameplay video by micro youtubers, but not much more. I don’t know who they aimed and how, but I have my idea why it didn’t

They asked reddit to destroy their trailer, but listened too late

A couple months ago, 1TK posted their trailer on the more or less famous Destroymygame subreddit and had very relevant comments: the trailer looked professional, but lacks actual gameplay explication and the voice seemed like it could have been featured in an Idiocracy trailer (reddit said it, not me). They now have a gameplay trailer on their steam page, which is, I believe, an answer to those comments. But all the other following posts on reddit are showcasing the first trailer, so they didn’t reply to criticism early and strong. That’s probably a mistake that could have been avoided.

They were not clear enough

“Weapons are the stars” is not clear enough to be catchy. Why are they the stars? What does this mean exactly and what kind of weapons are we talking about?

Out of this world is too generic to be catchy, too.

And about the best of the best, the multiverse and so on… Well, that’s a lot of bests and that don’t say much about who these are right?

The game looks genuinely good, even if gameplay videos make seem like battles are not breathtaking, which might not be to the taste of everyone (especially some streamers). But Backpack battles is the same. And having played both, there was a huge potential anyways if marketing is done right.

They stopped trying too early

No new message from the team on all social media platforms since February Next Fest. Hope the project isn’t abandoned, will let you know more about that (I reached for one person in the team that didn’t answer yet).

Note : I’m only mentioning marketing problems here as I’m not a developer, but there seems to be a RNG problem in the demo according to negative steam reviews. Nothing that seems unfixable to the dev noob I am, but maybe I’m wrong.

Potential marketing hooks

Level 1 (easy)

Backpack battle with myths and fantasy weapons

Level 2 (medium)

Will Alice in Wonderland or Wukong take the lead? Let’s find out!

Level 3 (cheeky)

No backpacks, no problems. Only async PVP inventory management like it should be.

Here ends Valentin’s kickass hooks selection #1. What do you think about this format? Should I go on or keep my mouth shut?

Comment my posts on social media, substack or everywhere but my website (I’ve been spammed bad in the comments by cryptobros, they can go to hell) to let me know!

And of course I’m here if you need advice on your hooks or anything marketing related about your game.

Good luck have fun (with marketing),

Valentin

Photo by Jonathan Zerger on Unsplash

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L’article Valentin’s Kickass marketing hooks #1 est apparu en premier sur Valentin Thomas.

Game pricing thanks to neurosciences through absurdity

Valentin — Mon, 14 Apr 2025 10:07:30 +0000

Game pricing can be a tough bit when it comes to indie gaming. Setting the bar too low will lead to potentially low income and induce low quality, while fixing an over evaluated price might generate negative reviews and refunds. Once again, I won’t give you any magic recipe here, rather some ingredients on how to price your game in a smart way, thanks to tips from neurosciences. And also tips from me, who’s got an A-level in sciences*, so it kinda blends in.

*I also have a masters degree in marketing, but some would not call that science.

Game pricing: Summary of previous articles

This article series is about the marketing mix. As said earlier, marketing is not just tweeting around and contacting press and content creators. 4 core things, also called the 4Ps, are composing marketing:

Product (part 1)

Price (part 2)

Placement (part 3)

Promotion (part 4, it’s what most people call marketing)

Editor’s note : I know some people consider 7 Ps in the marketing mix. I was taught with 4 and the others seemed not enough relevant to me. And who would read a 7 parts article, really?

Let’s dig into pricing techniques, or how to make people want to buy your game and not rant about it shortly after.

Note: doesn’t this image look like a Magritte painting? I chose it to picture absurdity and how you will feel when you have your price set.

~ 8 minutes read

Quick general advice

Before we dive in science-y stuff, let’s look at some things you should consider when setting your game pricing.

Cheaper game pricing can mean a lot of things

A cheap game might say a lot to your players:

It’s a short game
It doesn’t have much replayability
It’s bad quality
It’s a casual game you play for 5 to 60 minutes a day maximum
…

Send your players the good signal. If it’s short (less than 5 hours*) or feels limited, say it in your description and price accordingly. If it’s not, you might be able to sell it a little more… But not too much.

Expensive game pricing only means one thing…

…That players will expect to have enough for their money. If your game is highly replayable, or has a long story and in both cases is very high quality, you might ask for what the big indies ask for (ie up to 30$). But if not and you still choose a high game pricing, be ready to face negative reviews by truckloads. Or rather, 5 or 6 negative reviews that will strongly reduce your chances of having positive ones.

Anyhow, if you’ve got a doubt, see how much similar games are asking for* and follow that. Also see who made the game: Supergiant (Hades), FrozenByte (Trine series) or Mega Crit (Slay the Spire) can charge more than indie first timers. And double check by asking your testers how much they would pay for your game (NEVER ask whether they’d buy it or not, but that’s another debate).

* Check https://howlongtobeat.com to find out how much replayability your competitors have, it often matches with pricetags.

Here comes the science-y stuff. Behold!

Reference price

In France, and elsewhere in Europe, we’ve got this hard discount supermarket brand: Lidl. Nothing exceptional about them except they’re the top tier of hard discount, with a broad array of products, mostly okay to more-than-okay quality, and they’re innovative on the marketing side.

One day, they launched limited editions of sneakers and high heels with the brand’s colors. It sold for less than 100 euros (maybe even less than 50), but it was sold on the second hand market for… Thousands of euros. THOUSANDS!

I won’t dive into a fashion and sociological analysis of this event (I’m neither a fashionista nor a sociologist and you probably don’t give a mouse bottom) but this short example is to remind you that price is relative, not absolute. Here’s another example:

Here’s a light saber. A real one. That cuts through sits and jedis alike. How much do you think it costs?

You don’t know? Imagine you do. Have a wild guess.

Whether you found a price tag or not, don’t worry about having a hard time finding out, this is normal. I might have also cheated beacause it’s something from out of our world. But our brains aren’t wired to find prices because well, prices are concrete numbers but they sometimes are kinda absurd. Especially in cultural industries.

I have a friend with which we’re having crazy laughters. Like rolling on the floor crazy. How much is worth an hour of that? It’s priceless. In both meanings of the term.

Yet, I’m ready to pay 50 € to see a guy I’ve never met do jokes on stage in a crowded room for one hour, potentially get laughed at in front of 5000 people if he picks me up and asks questions about my personal life, and I’d still feel it’s been money well spent. Even though I laugh harder with my friend.

When I smoke (because yes, I’m French), I create crazy stories in my mind, about myself saving the world one way or another. Mostly through promoting an indie game that went under the radar of everyone, full of inclusive values and that would open minds of many through an engaging and powerful message. How much is it worth? Priceless again. And I can do that whenever I want, for free.

Yet, I’m ready to pay 5 to 80 euros to play games that do exactly the same thing, but I’m playing alone, I’m probably gonna face narrative shortcomings, potential bugs and technical limitations and I can’t write the scenario myself. But still, once again, money well spent.

Prices are absurd, I tell you. And so is game pricing. But there are ways to find out what your price is.

Science says that to find out what price is a product worth, we use a beautiful thing named context :

Previous price: “What did the lightsaber cost last time?”

Announced price: “What price was announced in the ad?”

Estimated price: “What should the price be according to me?”

Adjacent price: “What are the prices of other lightsabers?”

Similar offers: “What is the price of a laser pistol?”

Our brain blends all of this to find the reference price. And these are ingredients on how you can set yours.

Perceived value

Percieved value is the subjective value people give to a product or service, often influenced by subtle and irrational signals.

A product perceived value only depends on the story you write around it

Hades is sold today at 24.50 €. Yet it’s got buckloads of 9s and 10s from professional reviewers and it’s been GOTY several times.

LEGO Star wars Skywalker saga (I will refer to it as LSW) is worth between 30 and 50 €, so the same price or more, got mostly 7s and 8s and won only one steam award, although being nominated several times.

Hold down. I’m not saying Hades rocks and LSW sucks here. They are both games that lots of people enjoyed and made their studios financially happy. I’m just using facts to prove my point: your price does not define your value, your players do. If you delete the price tag on these games, it’s impossible to tell which one is worth more. Hades might be underpriced, but maybe its price is part of its success, and the fact LSW did not earn as much awards doesn’t mean that it’s overpriced. Do you get my point? If not, tell me and I’ll find another example.

Hades tells a story about a game loved by many and critically acclaimed. LSW tells a story about Star Wars and Lego, two famous brands that make you go back into childhood through a space opera. Find your story, it can be anything. But make it fun and/or entertaining, because we’re not selling copying machines.

(And even if we were, why couldn’t copying machines be fun?)

So to sum it up, don’t ask yourself alone what you should charge. Make your testers and players part of the process.

Charm pricing (is 9,99 better than 10?)

You probably don’t know the term but you’ve certainly seen it around. Charm pricing is everywhere. Be it for a 9,99 game or a 1999 computer, they are the norm today. But what are they and why are they used? More importantly, what does science say about that trend? Let’s find out.

What are charm prices ?

Charm prices are prices that are not rounded : most often they look like 5.99, 99.99 or 1999. That’s it.

Why are charm prices used ?

Because our brain computes numbers from left to right. For an 8.99 price, the 8 is computed first: hence the price seems closer to 8 than to 9. Studies say numbers after the coma or the point don’t matter that much. That’s why most round prices are ending in .99.

Technical point: with different currencies come different prices. You can set them up using steam, but I won’t tell you how in this already-too-long article. You can use charm prices (or round prices) for each country. Be sure to do your research on how much you should charge for each currency on your game: since cost of living is not the same, you might have to reduce the price of your game in some countries.

When use charm prices ?

Charm prices work very well with discounts.

Here are two discounts :

9.00 -> 7.94

9.06 -> 8.00

Which one seems better ?

The first? Are you sure? Do your math, they are exactly the same discount (-1.06). It’s a small trick, but times 10000 sales, it might make the difference.

Also, a recent study debunked the idea among marketing professionals that charm prices induced low quality for products using this technique. Turns out, people only remember they had a good bargain. So on paper, there’s no reason not to use charm prices. Except…

When NOT to use charm prices ?

With products linked to emotions. So yes, according to another study, round prices work better when there are emotions involved. If say you’re developing a serious game, charm prices might work better. But for most games including emotions, studies say it’s better to use these beautiful zeros for your pricing.

Editor’s note: Studies are what they are, and sometimes they are closer to theory than practical use. Most prices on steam are charm prices, so a rounded price might seem offbeat at first for your players. Like all things in marketing, it takes some tests to find out if it works for you or not. So ask questions to your audience, test things and find out by yourself if this technique is actually useful or not.

Thanks to Clément Fromont from insight

Most of the principles presented in this paper are from Clément Fromont, a French bloke having a neuroscience newsletter. All of the examples are from me though. If you understand French, do subscribe to his letter. His advice is, like all good things, priceless. I tried as much as I could to fit in examples from the games industry, hopefully he won’t consider it as stealing (I asked, he didn’t).

Good luck have fun (with marketing),

Valentin

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L’article Game pricing thanks to neurosciences through absurdity est apparu en premier sur Valentin Thomas.

Game Marketing mix Part 1 : Product

Valentin — Fri, 14 Mar 2025 16:47:02 +0000

Game marketing is based on 4 key elements, also known as the 4 Ps: Product (your game), Pricing, Placement and promotion. So it’s not just about tweeting around and contacting press and content creators.

Technical marketing note: the 4 Ps are also called the marketing mix. Hence the DJ as a cover image. Yes, I like wacky humor. Haha.

Let’s take a look at every P and what it implies regarding your game.

Part 1 : Product

Part 2 : Placement and Price

Part 3 : Promotion

**Disclaimer**

In this piece I’m going to say hard and cold hearted truths about the business reality of game marketing and development. Know that I do think game development is a form of art, but my background and my observations tell me game developers tend to forget it’s also a business. I’ll try to sugarcoat it as much as I can, but not too much so that it’s not bullshit. Ok? Ok. Keep reading then.

(~ 10 minutes read)

Game marketing mix – Product

Yes, accept it or not, your game is a product, even if it is free. I know it’s hard to hear because you probably consider it’s your baby, and I’m not saying it’s not an art piece or masterpiece (again, it most probably is). But in game marketing terms it’s a product with a branding, a core target, customers and competitors. Let’s see what it implies when you’re in pre-production.

Market study

You have a game idea, or at least a genre you want to make your game in* but now you don’t know where to start. Start by analyzing your main competitors.

*Check that popular genres list if you don’t have ideas. But before anything, pick something you love playing, there’s no point in making game development and testing a chore.

By competitors, I mean INDIE competitors. If you’re making a platformer and are comparing yourself to the latest mario game while being alone or a small team, that’s probably a little pretentious, if not silly. Pick some of the most performing indie platformers instead, ie Super meat boy or Celeste for example, and also other similar games with minor success. Play these games, try to get the essence of why they were hits in the genre. If you struggle finding out, read reviews from professional journalists which have experience in analyzing games. And note who wrote articles/made videos about them, it might be useful later on (see part 3). Also, look at their promotional stuff like steam pages, trailers, and capsules (steam page main pic). Now that you did your homework, it’s time to craft something of your own.

Targetting

After finding out what the premises of your game will be, time for deciding what type of players you are targeting. We game marketing devils sometimes do at least one persona profile or several personae, which is some sort of identity card of who your player could be. You can gather there information about who they are (man/woman, age, profession, relationships etc), what they play, their hobbies other than videogames etc.

For starters, think about somebody you know and tweak them somehow to fit your ideal customer profile. But try to be realistic, like don’t make them dreaming of your game day and night.

Here’s a short example to get a better grasp of what a persona looks like:

Quentin, the musician daddy

Quentin is 33, is a professional musician and is married with two kids. He’s been a gamer since he’s 5 and everybody in his family also plays games.

His income is average and he buys around 5 games a year. He mainly plays indie games of all sorts on pc but also plays coop games with his wife and AAA party games on switch with his family.

His favourite games are the we were here series, hades and mario party

His hobbies are watching movies, especially westerns. He likes the nuance and the grey area between good and bad actions you can have in these movies.

He also plays music regularly with friends and families and enjoys well crafted soundtracks in games.

Try to make one that thinks like you, and two radically different people, possibly inspired by relatives, all having different interests in playing your game. It could be the gameplay, the art style, the music, the theme of your game…

If they are complementary, you’ll be able to say « this message is for Quentin », « this one is for X and Y » and « this capsule is for everyone ».

Note for myself and my colleagues: a fun game marketing campaign will NEVER be what people are looking for.

Fine tune your personas as you meet players online or in events, but limit them to 5 maximum to avoid getting lost.

Positioning

Positioning is the art of standing out of the crowd in a more or less saturated market.

Spoiler alert: with 19000 games on steam alone in 2024, videogames are a saturated market. But according to the article linked above, 80% (approx. 15k) had not enough players to get out of Steam’s “limited” games (meaning they couldn’t have collectibles such as steam cards), so there’s still room for you.

So, how should we define positioning? Before giving a concise definition, let’s look at examples of positionings.

According to me, there are 3 main types of positionings in game marketing: copycats, lookalikes and rare stones (the third will surprise you).

What I call copycats are complete and sometimes dishonest copies of an original game. You see that a lot in mobile gaming. You rebrand the game from Flappy bird to Flappy dog, use a flying dog as main character instead of a bird and poof, you’ve got a new game. It’s totally okay to make copycats for learning purposes and/or hobby developing, but I obviously don’t recommend doing this for commercial games because copyright infringement might cost you a lot. It kinda works in other industries, not ours.

Now, I call lookalikes most of the games today. Very few games are 100% unique, and most are « this game + this twist ».

Valorant: Counter Strike + MOBA powers

Fortnite: PUBG + building mechanic

Trine: Action meets puzzle game

Boyfriend dungeon : Dungeon crawler + Dating sim

You see that base concepts of these games are pretty simple and straightforward, and they come from existing genres or even games. Most of the game looks brand new (ie the art, the lore, some gameplay mechanics, game marketing elements…) but also, most of the concept was already there. I’m far from saying having a simple concept is enough, but my point is you don’t have to create a dating-sim-for-mountain-climbing-buildings to thrive on the market (it’s a real game, please do things like that once in a while, knowing these kind of games exist makes people’s days. But it’s not mandatory). Execution is also key, both in promotion and game development. But I’ll get back to that.

Finally, there are rare stones. It’s a tricky name since a rare stone may sound precious, but they can also be weird in the bad sense (because yes, there’s a good and a bad weird). These are very unique games no one has seen before, from the mind of a creative and audacious developer. Sometimes a slightly crazy one.

There have not been that much very famous rare stones over the years, but some of them would be:

Katamari series, where you roll a ball that glues objects and gets bigger over time (old)

Space channel 5, a rhythm game where you dance with aliens before shooting them (old)

Untitled goose game or Goat simulator, two sandboxy games where you play goofy animals (pretty recent)

Before your eyes, a game where your blinks are part of the controls (recent)

Very recently, Escape from Duckov, ie Escape from Tarkov starring ducks (might be a lookalike too)

Now, all these games are mildly to wildly successful games. But know that most of these “misc” games can be very tricky:

Some games are very fun when announced, but not compelling enough to thrive. Lately, I’ve seen a game concept of a worm having a remote job in corporate finance and trying to pretend it’s a human. Fun, right? Graphics looked okay, the post had lots of upvotes and I do believe it’s fun for 5 minutes, but I also think from what I saw that it was not enough to make a hit game. Hope the dev will hear me out and give more content to his game.

Some of these games are so complicated that they are not marketable. Burgers and tiramisu are two excellent dishes, but arranging them in a single meal is way more tricky than copying an existing recipe with a twist. And what game marketing do for this kind of thing? Is it a desert? Is it a main course? You see the point: it’s not impossible, but it might be harder.

Execution and a good tutorial are crucial when you do something completely new.

Then again, you might have the best positioning in the world, if execution doesn’t follow it will be hard for you and your players to follow up. But it’s not my job to tell you how to make a good game, other devs are better geared to help you on that. But that’s my introduction to positioning.

You may have noted I haven’t classified genres or scopes of games here, but rather concepts. Because that’s what you’re looking for when you position your game: a strong concept, also called « hook » that markets itself and makes game marketing easier. That’s what should be a good positioning according to me.

Unique value proposition / hook

So this leads us to your unique value proposition or your hook. You should be able to sum up your positioning in one catchy and crystal clear sentance that makes players want to know more. You don’t have to use this exact sentence in your promotional messages, but it has to sweat through every pore of your game marketing, from your visuals, messages and interactions with your players.

Let’s go back to our previous lookalike examples to spot their value proposition:

Valorant: Tactical 5v5 fps with characters (official)

Fortnite: Battle royale with forts and playable pop culture heroes (I made this one)

Trine: Fantasy action game where the player can create and use physics-based objects to beat hazardous puzzles and threatening enemies. (official)

Boyfriend dungeon: Plunder the dunj as you fend off dangerous monsters and take your weapons on romantic dates. (official)

These propositions are short, straight to the point and immediately tell what you need to know about the game, no more, no less. It’s not as straightforward as retail UVPs, you have to be a gamer to understand what it means. But for their target audience, it’s clear and sound.

Now, hooks are slightly different. They are what is interesting in your game and why players should give it interest. It sometimes doesn’t tell everything about your game, but it’s a clear statement of what it is.

Examples again:

Valorant: Counter strike with MOBA powers made by Riot games, creators of international success League of legends

Trine: Fantasy action meets puzzle game with three different gameplays you can switch from with a single button

Boyfriend dungeon: What if a dungeon crawler and a dating sim went on a date? That’s boyfriend dungeon.

Escape from duckov*: Escape from tarkov playing ducks.

What the golf: NOT A GOLF GAME (official)

*This analysis of Escape from Duckov’s positioning, makes perfectly clear how a good hook, alongside a well prepared marketing campaign, can skyrocket your promotion stats. The game has been tested before release and seems to be well developed, but this is game marketing in easy mode.

I wrote most of these hooks myself so they might not be as accurate as if people from the studio wrote it. Also the dating bit is kind of overused, sometime saying “this game and this game” had a child. But it’s here to make a point: before any art or line of code were created, the game core was here. It was marketable from the very beginning because it was new, fun, exciting or thanks to the studio’s aura. The rest is perfect execution in game development and promotion. I won’t be able to help with the first one, but I’ll write about the latter in another article.

Branding

Branding is a whole package: it’s your game visual indentity (ie logos, steam capsules, website design and more), your baseline, your elevator pitch, your potential goodies… And it should come from your positioning.

Let’s take a look at branding from an example we used before : Valorant. We’ll look into the logo and how it was inspired by both FPSs and MOBAS.

This is Valorant’s logo and title with what I suppose were inspirations. Do you see where I’m getting at? Well I’m getting there anyways.

In the upper left corner is League of Legend’s logo. Lol is the ultimate reference when it comes to MOBAs. Its logo is just a letter in a circle. Riot, who develops both Valorant and League of legends, has very talented artists that could have made beautiful icons representing god knows what in a very classy and futuristic way. However, they decided to keep a single letter. Certainly to show this IP (intellectual property) is Riot’s as well.

Now, in the upper right corner is overwatch’s logo. Overwatch was released in 2016, Valorant in 2020. See how the futuristic lettering matches between the two logos? Why would they do that? Because Overwatch is also a futuristic FPS combining teamfights and MOBA-like powers. It sold well, so they probably were inspired by this to create both their gameplay, their game marketing, hence their branding.

I’ll be honest, this analysis is just assumptions at this point, I did not interview any Riot officials to find out. But facts are here, similitudes too, and it’s a breakdown of how you could brand your game yourself.

Here ends Part 1: Product. There’s soooooooo much more to say on the matter, but most of this stuff is purely game development so it’s out of my jurisdiction. For all marketing questions I’m here though, shoot me an email if you have some. And if you feel like it! Until then…

Good luck have fun (with marketing),

Part 1 : Product

Part 2 : Placement and Price (to be written)

Part 3 : Promotion (to be written)

PS: Read this piece about how some games have it the easy or the hard way when doing promotion. And it all depends on positioning, branding and the unique value proposition. It’s a long read but a good one, give it a shot.

L’article Game Marketing mix Part 1 : Product est apparu en premier sur Valentin Thomas.

Reddit gaming section exploration: notes after 111 days (reddit 101)

Valentin — Tue, 18 Feb 2025 10:41:16 +0000

Reddit Gaming subs can be amazing for gamedevs, but it can also give them serious headaches. Be sure that the same goes for marketers though. So here is reddit 101 for anyone that would like to have a look there, and if you’re a gamedev, you definitely should.

(6 minutes read)

Developers most often don’t know how to market themselves, so they are lost but in constant discovery mode. We, marketers, know how to market ourselves. Or rather, we THINK we know. But if we come over here like we do on other social media, it goes bad on reddit. So bad. Because Reddit is not like your other platform.

Day one. I land in a new territory apparently called Reddit. It seems familiar somehow, but different altogether. Foreigner among indigenous redditors, I lurk in between these blocks they call subreddits to find a way through the noise. And look for what I’ve been searching since year 2020: the perfect Indie gem.

Reddit: where forums meet feeds

First observation: reddit has some kind of forums called subreddits, that have a topic, objective and/or concept, just like our good old forums back in the days. These subreddits have posts like on other social media, regrouped in a feed. Posts from all the subreddits you follow end up in your home feed, but you can of course check each subreddit feed manually (by searching them). More on subreddits later.

Reddit for gaming is infinite

I already shared a list of genre specific subreddits here, but have a second look, you’re welcome again. Almost every genre, even the most confidential one, has a dedicated subreddit. I’m not saying all have potential sales wise since some are VERY confidential, but still. For general recommendations, I’d say go for r/indiegames and r/one of your genres.

But WAIT! Haven’t you seen the warning sign ?

Day 33. Discovery is exciting but I don’t seem to understand the local rules. Apparently my « karma » is not high enough so my comments are scrutinized then spit upon*, my writings burnt to the ground and my person is looked at in hatred while I was worshiped in my city, Linkedin.**

*I was not spit upon, even metaphorically, because I spent a fair amount of time observing things. But let’s romanticize things a bit and imagine I’m a Nathan Drake like explorer that exploded everything before realizing things do not work this way in that place. I’ve seen that in a subreddit, and it looked bad.

**I’m not worshiped on Linkedin. And frankly seeing what makes 70% of the posts, I’m kinda glad I am not (and what kind of hellish city would that be?). But you don’t have to gather tens of thousands of followers to thrive. And there are good people there, Jessie Chica (FR) is one of them. If you remember your French classes, or if you’re a native French speaker (wesh frère) she’s the reference when it comes to marketing your game there.

Most gaming subreddits have rules.

I’m not (day 111 me) entirely sure to have seen all the rules that could be on reddit gaming subs, but I’ve seen some for sure. Here is a non exhaustive list of rules I saw:

Classic rules: no nsfw content, no discrimination, no disrespect, etc.
No promotion rules: in some subreddits such as r/gamedevelopment, you can’t openly promote your game. You can ask for feedback, but no promotion. Some subreddits even force you to hide your game name in your trailers or not mention it in the post. But you sometimes can in the comments or always in your profile, people check that way more often than on other social media (more on that later)
No spam rules: in r/indiegames, you get to post twice a week.
Karma rules: Oh yes, there is a score called « karma » you grow by receiving « upvotes » on your comments or on your posts. You can also lose karma if you get « downvoted ». And some subreddits don’t let you post until you’ve reached a certain amount of karma. Now it sounds like some kind of cult, but don’t worry things will be fine (we have cake).
Misc: no effortless questions, no emojis, no Large language models…

Game Redditors can be tough…

…But it’s like most social media nowadays (except bluesky, that place is a day at the beach). If you don’t respect rules, if you try to promote where you can’t, if you ask for feedback and your game doesn’t look that good… Reddit gaming subs members can be brutally, but politely, honest. But what better way to have honest feedback than facing an honest crowd rather than only receiving milk and honey from your relatives?

There even is a specific subreddit for that, called r/destroymygame. And that’s all that is, you post a video and people give brutally honest criticism about your game. But don’t worry, if you’re feeling insecure about your game they won’t harass you telling it’s horrible though, I assure you they are polite and well behaved. Most of them.

Day 77. Now that I have made my way in and got used to the do’s and don’ts of the redditors, I am able to communicate and be heard, even respected by some. They seem like a very serious tribe, searching and looking for information in their environment wisely. Unlike people from other nearby major cities like Facebook, Instagram or the most dangerous one ever, simply called by his evil mayor X.

… But they’re not lazy.

And it feels FREAKIN AWESOOOOOOME!

Oh. Wait. Too early, didn’t explain.

Usually, on social media as a marketer, you have to guide people to do everything. There’s a well known acronym known as CTA for “call to action” that I invite you to use (call to actions, not the acronym) to push your readers towards one selected action. One and only one per post.

« Wishlist now! » Or « Consider buying my game! » would be two examples of classic CTAs.

The thing is, everyone does that. And on most social media good games posts are drown in feeds full of 10 seconds videos that you never wanted to watch but were thrown at you without your consent and now you have to finish what you have begun *inhales* Oh boy was that sentence long. (Some say you sometimes stop breathing while you scroll). So when people interact, they sometimes don’t click or follow up. That and algorithms bash posts with links.

The good thing is, on reddit gaming subs, with rules and moderation, most often people are forced to dig a little to know more. They ask for steam pages, they visit profiles, they read comments (even when there’s 100 of them!) et cetera. And they take time to listen to other people arguments WITHOUT YELLING AT EACH OTHER !!! So as a marketer, and a human being that feels…

Day 111: This diary is over, I’ll stay in reddit forever. I hope after sharing my findings and observations my relationship with redditors will remain the same. If only they could leave me a sign of gratitude, such as an upvote, a comment or follow my newspaper we call a newsletter, that would feel…

… Freaking amazing.

And that folks, is how you make a CTA using storytelling.

Good luck have fun (with marketing),

Valentin

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L’article Reddit gaming section exploration: notes after 111 days (reddit 101) est apparu en premier sur Valentin Thomas.

10 things to promote your indie game (from most effective to almost useless) – Part 4 : crowdfunding & often forgotten marketing ideas

Valentin — Wed, 05 Feb 2025 16:18:46 +0000

(5 minute read)

In this 4 parts article, we’ll talk about 10 marketing actions you can use to promote your indie game, ranging from super effective and trendy to less effective, wishlists and sales wise (but they have other qualities). Here’s the last part, presenting crowdfunding and some ideas that are sometimes forgotten by many.

Have a good read, and I’m here if you need a marketing professional to promote your indie game, we’ll get back to that.

Part 1 (Steam next fest, festivals & content creators)

Part 2 (Gaming media)

Part 3 (Social media)

Part 4 (this article)

—

DISCLAIMER: This marketing 101, for those who have almost no idea on how to market a game. If you’re advanced in marketing, this article might be boring. If you’re average, you may learn a couple of things there. And if you’re an absolute beginner, you will learn a lot.

Thing to promote your indie game #6: Crowdfunding

This is only number 6 because you might need all the previous things to run a good crowdfunding campaign. But it can bring a whole lotta money.

I only led one crowdfunding campaign in my career, and it was a long time ago (and yes, it was successful) but what I have learnt over the years reading and chatting about it, is it’s the middle of your community building, not the beginning. And it’s a lot of preparation. You need pretty polished things, and preferably at least a playable demo to get your backers hooked and give them a reason to hand you a fistful of dollars/euro/local currency. You need a somewhat long promotional video, not just a trailer. You need to write emails in advance if stretch goals are achieved, because you’ll have a ton of things to do while the campaign is running. In a nutshell, you have to prepare for the best, and be ready to push things up if it doesn’t happen soon enough.

You also need the beginning of a community to boost algorithms and back you when the time comes. Here’s a cheating code : in 2024*, kickstarter’s algorithm boosts campaigns based on the number of backers, not the amount of money spent. It also promotes more projects that achieve their objective in 24 hours. So ask for just enough and invite your relatives to contribute for 1€ (yep, I’m european) or so and tell them they can withdraw later on. Chances are they will not, and some will even give a little more because well, your relatives are supposed to love and support you. Total strangers will only give 1€ (not everyone loves you) but it will lead to other people that might enjoy your game more.

*I’m mentioning the year when I wrote the article because algorithms change. So it might not be the case when you read this piece, sometime in 2042 when I’m a famous and overbooked marketer.

Thing #7: sales (ie discounts)

I don’t have much to say about sales. They just work. Most people only buy games when they’re on sale. Just don’t over discount your game at first, and discount it more as it gets older.

Now is the time for less interesting actions, sales and wishlist wise. They have other objectives, but don’t expect a huge sales bump doing them.

Thing #8: Devlogs

Be it on your steam page or on your website, devlogs can be very interesting for retention. Understand that most often, loyal players appreciate having news on your development, who the team is behind the game, your day to day challenges and so on. These people can become ambassadors on your social media, and, why not, backers for a potential kickstarter campaign.

Note : a huge announcement might lead to a wishlist/sales peak, if you already have a reputation.

Thing #9: Micro content creators & Small press titles

Same objectives, same effect on your sales, but different format.

By micro creators, I mean content creators having less than 10k followers (generally accepted definition). They won’t bring you much sales, but can offer you a solid live playtest you are attending to. Don’t forget to be online if it’s a scheduled stream, their enthusiastic reactions when they play your game will melt your little heart. You can also ask them questions if you feel like it, and you’ll see what questions they are asking, revealing potential problems or blurry lines in your game design/narration/you name it. It’s good to send it to them before you try your luck on bigger creators!

Small press titles offer the same thing, except it’s in the shape of a blog article. It might melt your heart again or make you sad if they don’t like the game, but life is full of risks, and so is marketing.

Final Thing to promote your indie game: Steam curators

Did you ever buy a game because it was recommended by a curator ? Chances are, no. But it can be used as a social proof that your game is good, so sending a couple of keys through curator connect can be a good idea.

I’m putting emphasis on curator connect here, because when you launch your game some scammers might send you messages asking to send them by email. Don’t. And this is my final advice.

That’s it for this 4 parts article, I’m glad I shared it with you. Whether you liked it or not, please shoot me a constructive message in the comment section to improve my craft or boost my ego. Both are equally fine with me. If needed, my social media profiles are in the contact section of this website (click “here” below).

Part 1 (SNF, content creators & Festivals)

Part 2 (Gaming media)

Part 3 (Social media)

Part 4 (this article)

Editor’s note: “Haven’t you forgotten something?” Said the rich folk in the room. Yes, I have. I didn’t mention paid ads here, which can also have significant impact on your wishlists and sales. But I have very little experience with that and this 4 part article would have been a 5 parts article with 11 things, which was too much to my taste. But feel free to comment with sources on how to manage paid ads and maybe I’ll sum it up in an article someday.

You can also subscribe to my brand new newsletter below which only subscribers are me, another email address of mine, and my girlfriend.

You can be my first subscriber! Subscribe! Please!

Just kidding, do what you want. But if you don’t want to miss on these articles, it’s a handy way to stay tuned.

Good luck have fun (with marketing),

—

I’m Valentin Thomas, and I’ve been a gamer since I was 5. I started my freelancer marketing career in 2014, and switched from “every project that wants my help no matter the industry, but preferably games” to “only good indie games I can promote” around 2020. I worked with studios, marketing agencies and even associations needing help to promote indie games one way or another.

You can join me here for a free marketing plan, a thorough collaboration or just a marketing question. See you soon !

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L’article 10 things to promote your indie game (from most effective to almost useless) – Part 4 : crowdfunding & often forgotten marketing ideas est apparu en premier sur Valentin Thomas.

10 things to promote your indie game (from most effective to almost useless) – Part 3 : social media

Valentin — Tue, 21 Jan 2025 13:41:02 +0000

In this 4 parts article, we’ll talk about 10 marketing actions you can use to promote your indie game, ranging from super effective and trendy to less effective, wishlists and sales wise (but they have other qualities). Here’s part 3, presenting social media with a focus on when and why use them (or why not).

(8 minute read)

Part 1 (Steam next fest, festivals & content creators)

Part 2 (Gaming media)

Part 3 (this article)

Part 4 (Crowdfunding and often forgotten ideas)

Have a good read, and I’m here if you need a marketing professional to promote your indie game, we’ll get back to that.

—

DISCLAIMER: This is marketing 101, for those who have almost no idea on how to market a game. If you’re advanced in marketing, this article might be boring. If you’re average, you may learn a couple of things there. And if you’re an absolute beginner, you will learn a lot.

Thing to promote your indie game #5 : Social media

Aaaaaaah… Social Media. Where everything is said, especially what shouldn’t be. Again, there’s too much to be said on the matter, and you’ll find tons of stuff about it online. So I’ll focus on underrated networks that need your attention first and end with the major ones and tell you if they fit your game or not. But first, general recommendations.

Your first interactions will (most probably) come from people that know you.

Social media are called social for a reason. Except if you have exceptional art, writing or video content to share (and even so), your first interactions will come from your relatives or professional network. I have 500+ contacts on linkedin and barely know half of them, because at one point in my professional career all I was doing was accepting people I didn’t know and don’t interact with them. Don’t do that. (if you feel like adding me, feel welcome and we’ll have a chat, that’s what I always do except with non customized messages). But even so, for now all those that interacted with my posts were people I knew in person or worked with. Adding random people out of the blue might feel reassuring, but adding people you had an interaction with will probably bring your more likes and shares.

If your relatives aren’t fans of social media, or even if they do, make friends there

As said earlier in part 1, posting is not enough. You have to interact with other devs, comment on accounts of content creators your players like, take part in #screenshotsaturdays and #wishlistwednesdays, everything you can to boost your follower count. And eventually, your interactions will grow as your game advances in development, and as you have prettier things to show.

Your follower count will grow as you do stuff OUTSIDE social media

I stole this one to Chris Zuckowski. Again. Sorry Chris, you’re too good to not be mentioned.

What you do with steam, content creators, festivals and such will bring you more followers than most of what you do on social media. Check accounts of those who post with huge interactions: they, 99% of the time, already have a huge following. And they got it with time, interactions with other people or actions outside the platform. But mostly time. So keep going, be ready to post messages in bottles, and choose your social media to start with.

Start with ONE social media

You’ve seen other studios have multiple platforms so you might think it’s a good idea to post everywhere at once. If you’re a total beginner, start with one, and go all in there for starters. When you mastered one, it’s easier to thrive on others, even though each media has its codes, rules, memes etc.

Social media music

Dealing with social media is like playing an instrument: to play one you need the basics, and when you mastered music 101 the others are easier. But learning to play other instruments takes time and it might be less intuitive depending what you are good at.

Now, here’s some social media I recommend joining, when, and why. Number one may, or may not, surprise you.

Bluesky, new (white) knight in the realm

Yes, bluesky. If it was a couple of months ago, you probably never heard of it. Now it seems like it’s the new twitter.

When use bluesky to promote your indie game ?

Now. This network is booming and now is the time. Indies are slowly making a crowd there and it’s less toxic than X. Even though it’s mostly game professionals now, get a following there and get ready to welcome gamers soon. More and more brands are moving from X to Bluesky, so people will follow someday.

Btw, if you like what is going on on X right now, I respect that. You can continue on X/twitter if it works for you. And if you don’t… Come my friend, the grass is blue-er elsewhere.

So yes, Bluesky is mostly left-wing people. X is mostly right-wing. I don’t think it’s a good thing to separate people like that, but that’s how it is. Pick your team or don’t, everyone has rights to play good games. But I picked mine and I’ll tell you what, I prefer butterflies than letters.

That being said, and after a couple of days spent personally on the platform, expect more unexpected follows, but not necessarily more interactions, when you begin. But maybe that’s because I don’t have many friends using bluesky to give my posts credit.

Why use bluesky to promote your indie game ?

Kinder communities, more followers, more wishlists, and potential beta testers. Mainly devs though, but still.

I’ll be testing seriously the platform soon, I’ll let you know how it went for me. You can follow me if you feel like it. But try it yourself and see how it goes.

Reddit, the enigmatic sorcerer in the woods

Reddit is a tougher one to master, but I believe every developer should have an account there.

When use reddit to promote your indie game?

As soon as you have a defined game genre, you’ll find a subreddit (like a facebook group but with more interactions) for promotion. Even several if your genre is a mix. Here’s a genre specific subreddits list. They’re not all there but it’s good for starters. You’re welcome.

Subreddits have rules you must accept and respect and it’s not that easy to stand out in those. But see it like a game: there are rules, you need to improve your skills and there’s no tutorial. Yet (a beginners guide to reddit is on the works, but if you come from reddit you probably know everything that’s in it).

Why use reddit to promote your indie game?

More interactions, potentially more wishlists, from devs and players alike. I don’t say it’s easy, like all marketing efforts it will take some tests, but iterate and success will come to you. It’s also a place where you can gather your first beta testers.

Discord, forgotten whisperer of the social court

When writing this article, I almost forgot discord. Because it’s not like the others. It’s more a gathering platform than a “classic” social media with a feed and such. But it’s super worthwhile.

When use discord to promote your game ?

As soon as you can. Discord should be the 2nd step of your marketing funnel, where all your links link before you get a steam/itch.io page. That’s where you can showcase your work in progress, your test builds and start gathering your community.

Why use discord to promote your game ?

Because most gamers are used to the platform
Its channel system makes it easier to sort information
It allows you to be directly in contact with your players, and makes interaction easier than on any other social media.

Tiktok, fresh prince of short videos

Longtime considered a social media for teenagers, Tiktok is not anymore and can be very powerful for indies. Not all of them, but for some it does.

When use tiktok to promote your indie game?

If you have great/cute/pixel art graphics and animations, or anything that makes good videos, it’s worth the shot. If you have content creation or video editing skills you should also definitely try your luck. Expect more views than youtube if you cut your videos right, but not an instant buzz except if you’re the next Viewfinder or Manor Lords (was the link necessary for this one ?). Being popular, 99% of the time, takes sweat and well… Time. Except if you have crafted your game so that it is marketable easily

Why use tiktok to promote your indie game?

Tiktok’s audience is younger than anywhere, hence probably geekier. There also are gaming content creators there, publishers and people from the industry. You want them all to see your game. But it takes effort and interesting graphics, or even more creativity to make your game look interesting. Check #gaming to have inspiration, among other sources.

Youtube, mesmerizer in chief

Often forgotten by indies because video editing is long and tedious, youtube can be a solid source of information about your game for your potential players, if you take the time to use it right.

When use youtube to promote your indie game?

Technically, you can start as you begin developing. There are countless channels showing how to build this, how to craft that and you have your chances if you want to go full youtube.

Now, you probably prefer to spend time making your game, so as soon as you have decent gameplay videos and trailers, shoot them here. Know that other social media don’t like links outside their platform though, so post your videos directly in them (or “natively” as we marketer devils say) instead of linking to youtube, or it will decrease your reach (definition in the bit about facebook) dramatically.

Why use youtube to promote your indie game?

If you haven’t contacted content creators yet, your potential players may want to see what playing your game looks like. Content creators will make your game look great, but who better than you to show it right? Dig into the details of your gameplay, show how to master the right skills and if your game is good and with a little luck, people will follow.

Instagram, the mighty place to be (but is it for indies really ?)

ATTENTION : I wrote this article before Zuckerberg went crazy and opened all doors to toxic content and AI. I hope he will change his mind someday (even if I doubt that) so these advice about Facebook and Instagram might be outdated when you read them. Right now I would say go for other social media, but you can try and figure out yourself. But the future of these two is pretty unpredictable. And if some have theories, they don’t look good. Note, out.

Instagram is not renowned to be a place for indies to thrive, but it can be useful in some cases.

When use instagram to promote your indie game?

When you have beautiful or cute graphics. It could be pixel art, anything 2d or 3d, but it has to have a “wow” or “aww” effect. Instagram is 100% based on pictures and videos, and you will be competing with photographers, video editors, or bikini bimbos and muscular dudes both on desert islands. If your graphics stand out, you have a chance.

Ps : it also works if you’re an artist or have an artist in your team that can craft beautiful posts. But it might be time consuming.

Why use instagram to promote your indie game?

Everyone is on instagram, from teenagers to parents. Grandparents are getting to it, but they’re mainly on facebook and they’re not (yet) your target. Some studios are big there, and there are ways like hashtags to get more traction and be known by complete strangers.

Facebook, the aging king of social media

Generally, I don’t recommend creating a Facebook page. At least, for small indies. I’m mentioning it here because you probably thought about it. But if you have created one or if you absolutely want to, here’s when and why do so.

When use facebook to promote your indie game?

I’d say, when you have money to do facebook ads and if these can be helpful for you. ie if you have a mobile game or someone experienced in your team to do so. Organic reach for facebook pages is almost dead and to thrive on the platform today you need facebook ads.

Btw, organic reach is the number of people seeing your posts without you paying. Ads and suggestions have boomed over the years on facebook feeds, hence less room for pages.

Also, if you have lots of loyal facebook friends ready to join your page and interact with your posts, it might be a good idea.

Why (and why not) use facebook to promote your indie game?

Why ? Facebook, and instagram, are very powerful ad placements, when used right. They are two of the biggest social media right now and are popular all around the globe. And some videogames thrived thanks to them, but with massive ad campaigns. Also, they have insanely detailed data if you’re a number geek. You can also just have a presence there in case of a big buzz, but don’t expect lots of interactions if you don’t have an active following.

Why not ? If you have almost 0 experience in marketing, you certainly don’t have a massive marketing budget. And with the reach issue, you’ll soon be devastated by the absence of likes in your posts. They won’t be displayed to many people, your growth will be slow (much slower than on other platforms) and well, you will hate marketing even more. That’s why I don’t recommend facebook to start marketing, for indies that have little experience in this cursed capitalist art.

Linkedin, The royal Tax collector

Not a bad idea to post there, but for your game it’s not the first place you want to be. Except if you already do, or if you have a corporate related game. Or are looking to hire people, but then you have the budget to hire me, so stop reading and contact me right now.

X/twitter, The crazy old man shouting in the streets

X is apparently known to not being good for gathering clicks for wishlists.

But that’s only a part why I don’t recommend posting on X.

X is full of toxic people (ie Neonazis among other joyful surprises), drama and bots. Don’t get my wrong, it’s not ONLY that, but the fact it’s tolerated doesn’t send a good sign. Go there if you feel in synch with the vibe here, but I don’t. I’m not saying I will never post on X anymore, but it’s not a good place to start your marketing efforts. Not anymore.

(if it already works for you, continue, but be careful of what kind of community you’re gathering).

You can also read:

Part 1 (Steam next fest, festivals & content creators)

Part 2 (Gaming media)

Part 3 (this article)

Part 4 (Crowdfunding and often forgotten ideas)

Good luck have fun (with marketing),

—

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L’article 10 things to promote your indie game (from most effective to almost useless) – Part 3 : social media est apparu en premier sur Valentin Thomas.

10 things to promote your indie game… – Part 2 : gaming media and emailing for outreach

Valentin — Tue, 31 Dec 2024 09:13:37 +0000

(6 minute read)

Here’s part 2 of this 4 parts article, delving through gaming media, and how to write a perfect email to them and content creators. I’m guiding you through 10 marketing actions you can use to promote your indie game, ranging from super effective and trendy to less effective, wishlists and sales wise (but they have other qualities).

Part 1 (Steam next fest, festivals & content creators)

Part 2 (this article)

Part 3 (Social media)

Part 4 (Crowdfunding and often forgotten ideas)

Have a good read, and I’m here if you need a marketing professional to promote your indie game, we’ll get back to that.

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Thing to promote your indie game #4 : Biiiiiiiig gaming media

By biiiiiiiig gaming media, I mean IGN, PC Gamer, Eurogamer etc. Or you name your local leading gaming website with lots of readers. They are hard to reach, their journalists will rarely answer your requests, but I got one article there for a student project, so your full-blown-state-of-the-art game has its chances. Here’s a 4 step plan to get your game featured there.

Note : these people are really busy, over solicited and you’re (probably) not Activision Blizzard, Ubisoft or Nintendo. So what you want here is to prepare yourself to put on your craftsperson shoes, if not those of a jeweler. Just like you do with your game.

1. Identify gaming media titles first

There are many ways to find gaming media, known or not known. Sometimes underrated press websites might be a good start to improve your craft and cheer you up in this spooky adventure where you seem to be a ghost no one wants to answer to. Google is, as often, your best friend, and the titles which come first for “gaming news” are probably the most popular (or with the best SEO manager, but that’s another debate).

Aside from google, reddit, or discord as usual, some gaming unions sometimes have statistics on gaming news websites. At least, we did in France until 2021 and maybe in your country too. If you don’t, please email your local union to do so. If you don’t do it for you, do it for the team. I’m craving for fresh data.

If you achieve that, or the classification already exists, send me the link and I’ll have a special surprise for you 😉

2. Spot indie / genre specific journalists

Now that you have your somewhat big list of gaming media, let’s dig a little deeper. First, look for “Indie” or “independent” in the search bar of said media. If you don’t have relevant results, look for any famous indie game. If still no results, it’s probably a dead end. (or the search bar is broken and you need to use your google skills, I don’t have time to teach you about that but there’s a way). Now, if you have some results, look for a famous indie game in your genre and continue until you find one. When done, write the name of the journalist somewhere (in your PR spreadsheet if you have one yet. And if you don’t, create one) and… Stalk them, professionally speaking.

Wait. I’m not telling you to find their physical address, knock at their door and yell at them “WRITE ABOUT MY GAME ! PLEEEEEEEEEEEASE !”, because that would be awkward and you might end up in the newspapers, but for bad reasons (and also, prison, for good ones).

No, look for their professional email addresses (great, you might use hunter.io), their professional social media accounts (ie Linkedin, good), and if you don’t find anything stop there and look for someone else.

Some might even tell you Linkedin is going a step too far, I don’t, and these ones won’t answer you, it’s their choice and drop it there. But I had meaningful and constructive discussions with journalists that way so I can only invite you to do so.

Just don’t cross the line and be a creep by going further though, contacting them on personal facebook profiles or so, please. Their exposition is a burden enough for you to stomp on private lines on the top of that. Except if the link is clearly displayed on their gaming website profile.

If you don’t find any of this, send your email through the contact form or generic email address like everyone and use “To *journalist*” in the object as a way to stand out from the crowd. But don’t do like most people: don’t send a copy pasted marketing slur to them. Send a love letter masterpiece instead.

3. Craft your release and email like an artist

Now, about being a gentleman or a lady, how to contact gaming media journalists. There’s a lot on the internet about press releases, so I’ll focus here on the email that goes with it.

I told you earlier (like 20 seconds ago) to send a love letter. It’s not exactly that. You should praise said journalist about their job on their article, but don’t go “this is the best article I’ve ever read”. You know it’s not true, they know it’s not true, hell, even Donald Trump knows it’s not true, and this guy has a relatively not good appreciation of what is true or not. Be subtle. Mention details. Of things you genuinely liked. But start by this, because it’s always good to hear our job was good.

Then comes the pitch. It’s an email, so be very direct and catchy. “Game 1 meets game 2” might work, but it’s been used over and over. Try something new, like “If Slay the spire and Xcom played catch in the far west era, that would be Baseball tactical cowboy deckbuilder”

(I just made up this game title and now all I want is someone to make it).

If your game doesn’t fit this type of elevator pitch, it doesn’t have to be super fancy but to fully represent what the game is. If you claim your game is the deepest city builder ever and all you have are 3 types of buildings and no population management, chances are the person testing the game will feel flawed. But if it’s catchy AND representative, you’re the king/queen of the world.

Example of a representative and not that fancy pitch : Sweet city has only 3 buildings but each of them can be customized and it’s one of the coziest city builder you can find on the market.

Final advice: add a visual and a key or a link to your build directly in the email. The visual can be a beautiful screenshot or a gif, to tease the person you send the email to. The key or build is for them to enjoy your game as soon as they want. You can check if they activated your key or not in the steam interface, or track the link using bitly (wonderful link shortener website for data oriented people). That’s it for emails!

4. Watch the internet, send a follow up email, then…

I’m not saying you should check all the gaming media you’ve contacted every day to see if your article is out. Use google alerts instead. It allows you to be warned every time your game title gets out on the internet. That way you can thank the journalist that wrote the paper as soon as it is out and share it on your social media when you’re done. If you don’t see anything published after two weeks, you can send a follow up email or message once, but stop there. They might have bigger fishes, or don’t like your game, or your emails might have just been lost in a flow of uninterrupted “IT’S THE BEST GAME OF THE WORLD”. You tried your luck, better luck next time.

This is my personal technique to get your game more covered. I got an article in IGN France and several other minor websites thanks to that. I also tried bulk emails and it worked, but way less effectively than this. The major downside is that it takes tons of time, but if it gets you more coverage, it might be worth the shot.

Also, don’t forget games press, keymailer and such. This article is too long and you’ll find resources about that elsewhere. If not, contact me and I’ll write a blog about it someday.

Again:

Part 1 (Steam next fest, festivals & content creators)

Part 2 (this article)

Part 3 (Social media)

Part 4 (Crowdfunding and often forgotten ideas)

Good luck have fun (with marketing),

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L’article 10 things to promote your indie game… – Part 2 : gaming media and emailing for outreach est apparu en premier sur Valentin Thomas.