“How do I market a game” or “How do I get visibility” is the number one question on any r/gamedev Reddit, on any #General channel in a game development Discord. Here is my single starting point guide. I update this every year. Here is the 2024 edition of how to market a game in 10 steps (but they aren’t easy).

These steps are mostly for Steam games. If you are working on another platform (like consoles) these might help but not entirely. If you are marketing on mobile, good luck none of this will work, because from what I know you just have to buy ads and optimize your game so that people buy IAP before they get tired of your game.

10 Things you need to do to market your game (largely in order).

  1. Make the type of game that Steam players want
  2. Understand the game you are making
  3. Figure out how to describe your game
  4. Build your marketing funnel
  5. Network with platform holders and other devs
  6. Optimize your funnel
  7. Get wishlists using festivals, press, streamers, and social media
  8. Launch your game
  9. Update your game and discount it
  10. Prepare for your next game

#1 Make the type of game that Steam players want

Most “how to market a game” lists start with “Get on social media and tweet about your game!” But tweeting about your game skips over the most important part which is to identify the type of game your target audience wants. I estimate (in a vary hand-wavy way) that 90% of your game’s success is based on the type of game you are making and how good it looks. Seriously. If you try and publish a hyper-casual match-3 game on Steam, it doesn’t matter what you tweet or when you do it, you will not sell any copies. Your game’s genre and visual style is the most important thing when it comes to determining your game’s financial success.

In general, Steam players like games that I lump together in a mega genre called “BUILDY-CRAFTY-SIMULATIONY-STRATEGY” games. Steam players who buy indie games prefer to just have a sandbox where a bunch of elements are thrown into their lap and they can smash them together in every which way they want. The game is endlessly replayable because something emergent comes from smashing those elements together.

These are examples of what I call CRAFTY BUILDY

And if you are wondering if these are just “trends” that will disappear, consider that Crafty Buildy Simulationy games have always been popular on PC:

  • Crafty (Minecraft, Stardew Valley, Don’t Starve)
  • Buildy (SimCity, Themepark Tycoon, Dwarf Fortress)
  • Simulationy (The Sims, Microsoft Flight Simulator)
  • Strategy (Civilization, Europa Universalis, Crusader Kings)

Players don’t typically buy indie games that are linear with a single on rails narrative. If they do buy those types of games it’s because the game has the BEST visuals that are top tier. Examples of “linear narrative” games that are able to emerge past the indie constraints are STRAY, Ori and the Blind Forest, GRIS, and Hollow Knight. Players like AAA linear-story-based-games because they are the most beautiful games being made. Unless your indie game has visuals on-par with a AAA game, you will have a hard time selling your linear narrative game.

Some EXCEPTIONS to the linear narrative headwinds are Horror Games and Visual Novels (VNs). The Horror genre is very very popular on Steam and they are games that can be made on indie budgets. There is a significant fanbase of Visual Novel also. If you are a good writer and really truly understand this sub-genre, you might do well making a VN.

There are a few specific genres that are especially hard on Steam because they are so many of them released every year or because the audience is tiny: Puzzle games, Platformers, Puzzle Platformers, Match 3, and SHMUPs. Also, with only 1 or 2 exceptions, VR games don’t do well on Steam. They seem to do alright on Meta, but not on Steam. Steam shoppers also aren’t looking for Educational games either. You will have a hard time selling games aimed at kids.

Picking an unpopular genre isn’t just a bit harder to market, it is a WHOLE LOT harder. No matter how spicy your tweets are you cannot market your way out of a game that the Steam audience doesn’t want. 

Here are some additional resources to help you with this 

Bonus note:

If you are making your first game or already deep in the development of a game that you have learned isn’t to Steam’s liking that is ok, just be aware of the risks. Don’t mortgage your house, don’t buy an anticipatory yacht, or invest in a lavish office. Keep your nose clean and cut features to get it out and see how the market treats it. If it does well beyond your estimation, great! Congrats you beat the odds! 

However I find that the reason you see so many “I made a great game but nobody bought it” is because it is in the wrong genre and was someone’s first game.

#2 Understand the game you are making

After you do the market research and you make your game you need to be clear what type of game you are making. I know you think you know but I have talked to so many devs who are not aware of the market surrounding the type of game they are making.

To get clarity you need to answer the following questions:

  • What is the biggest, most popular game in your game’s genre?
  • What are the 3 next best selling games in your game’s genre?
  • What are some failed games in your genre and why did they fail?
  • What are the unique features in your game that makes it different from all the games that you identified above (this is commonly called your hook)?
  • What are the genre expectations that the genre super fans have?

To answer all these you will need to play all those games (YES, even the ones that underperformed) for research purposes (see you do get to play games for your job!) You should also talk to game designers who have made games in your genre. You need to read reviews of all of those games. You need to talk to real life fans of the genre. 

Knowing the things that fans like and dislike and what makes your game stand out are VERY VERY important when it comes time to start tweeting about your game. 

Here are some additional resources to help you with this 

#3 Figure out how to describe your game

At this point you have identified what the Steam audience wants, what your competition looks like, and what makes your game stand out. 

Now you need to make sure that you tell people what genre your game is and what makes your game unique among all the other games. I know this sounds obvious but it is very very hard. So many developers are so close to their game they forgot that other people don’t know what you know. 

For instance, I have seen developers say they are making a city building game but all their screenshots, their descriptions, their tweets make the game sound like it is a farming simulator. You have to make sure you are using the right words so that fans of your game’s genre will know that you are making a game for them. If you are making an FPS you need to show screenshots where there is a big badass gun in the middle of the screen. If you are making a visual novel you need to show off dialog choices and beautiful looking characters. 

Test your messaging on strangers who play games. Show them your marketing materials and ask “what games does this remind you of?” 

Are the games they name similar to yours? If their answers are vague or incorrect, you have a problem describing your game.

For Steam you also need to tag your game. If you tag it with the wrong genre Steam will not surface your game to the right people. If you tag your game correctly but your screenshots and descriptions don’t sound like the right type of game, potential fans will pass you by because your game doesn’t look like the type of game they like.

Here are some additional resources to help you with this 

#4 Build your marketing funnel

Very rarely does someone see a game then immediately buy it. That is like going on a blind date for coffee and then getting married by the end of the night. It doesn’t happen. Shoppers hear about your game and then need to be regularly updated with your progress so that they slowly fall in love with your game. Then after several times hearing from you they hopefully become excited enough to buy your game on day 1. 

This process of slowly falling in love with your game is called the marketing funnel. It is a strategic set of marketing channels that you put in place to guide someone along to finally buy your game. 

A typical funnel looks like this:

  1. A fan sees a game posted on reddit, they are intrigued so they go to your Steam Page
  2. They wishlist it.
  3. Then a few weeks later you post an update that you have created a Discord server
  4. They get notified and join your discord.
  5. Then they get notified on your Discord server that you are having a beta.
  6. They sign up.
  7. They play it.
  8. They like it.
  9. Then, when your game releases they buy it on day 1. 
  10. Then they tell their friends how good it is.

Notice that this funnel involved Reddit > Steam Page > Discord > Beta > Buy. Several different marketing channels. Several different things you need shoppers to do. 

To do this part you need to make sure it is very clear that no matter where someone discovers your game, they know what to do next. If you post on Twitter or Reddit you must have your Steam page built. Then if you go viral on Reddit you can post a link that says “wishlist my game on Steam.” Then on Steam you should have a link to your Discord or to a Mailing List that people who are very interested can join.

It is kind of like designing an airport. You know how some airports are so confusing. They have bad signage, meandering hallways, no landmarks. You end up going around and around and get lost and miss your flight. Other airports have very clear signs, wide hallways, and people to tell you how to get to your airplane. You need to test your marketing to make sure it is like the good airport with nice clear signs. 

Here are some additional resources to help you with this 

#5 Network with platform holders and other devs

The vast majority of your wishlists and visibility will not come from you alone tweeting about your game. The most popular games actually get it by partnering with big companies and popular sites and popular “influencers.”

For instance, getting into the post-E3 virtual events usually comes down to knowing someone behind the scenes. I know of games that got prime spots in the PC Gamer Festival or Geoff Keighley’s Summer Games Fest because the developer or publisher were on a first name basis with the organizer and they had a couple open slots they were trying to fill at the last minute. 

You need a wide network of people who will tell you about opportunities or will introduce you to people who will be able to help you. 

If you want featuring on the platforms like Steam, Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo you need to reach out to the developer partner teams on those platforms.

I cannot emphasize this enough. Most of your exposure will come from partnering with people who have bigger audiences than you and they let you in to share your game. But they need to know you are a good person before they will do that.

In fact, the main reason why most big publishers are so successful is because they have a huge history in the industry. They know every person who works for all the consoles and storefronts. They know the editors and journalists at all the big websites. They are friends with the agents of popular Streamers. They just have connections in the industry. “Knowing a person on the inside” is the #1 benefit a publisher can give to you.

Here are some networking tips:

  • Join development groups for your local IGDA chapter, or communities around your developer tools (e.g. Unity developers)
  • Write blog posts on Gamedeveloper.com about problems you solved (industry bigwigs read them all the time and often reach out to you).
  • Introduce yourself to developers who have recently released or are currently making games in your genre. They are not your competition. They can actually help you make connections to people who helped them. 
  • Use LinkedIn to track down the content teams at the big development houses. 
  • Follow all the twitter accounts of the biggest games in your genre. Then find out who the “influencers” are in that genre. For instance, if you are making a wholesome game, you must follow and be known by @_wholesomegames.
Here are some additional resources to help you with this 

#6 Optimize your funnel

You can never stop improving your marketing assets like your Steam page, your Twitter account, your reddit posts, and your website. 

People who are new to marketing might look at successful indies and think that everything they post is instant visibility and it always goes viral.

In fact, marketing is all about trying dozens of things and only 1 of them will actually produce results. You just don’t see all those dozens of failures because they are failures that go 0 visibility. Marketing is all about trying and trying different messages. We really have little idea why one headline did better than the other. You just need to have a scientific mindset and hypothesize, test, and recalibrate your experiments based on what you learned. Most of your marketing campaigns will fail. You just need to get up again and try try try.

Over the life of your game you will have to redo your Steam page several times over. That is normal. All the big developers do it.

Here are some additional resources to help you with this 

#7 Get wishlists using festivals, press, streamers, and social media

I surveyed hundreds of developers about where they got wishlists, and here is what actually works when marketing your game:

In order, the top activities to get visibility are:

  • Virtual online Festivals with Steam front page featuring
  • TikTok (not all games do well here though)
  • Streamers on Youtube or Twitch who play your demo / full game
  • Reddit (only if you get past the mods)
  • Press
  • Twitter (some games can go viral, but most do not).

Visibility on Steam comes from getting a HUGE influx of traffic from external sources (most commonly Festivals and Streamers) and then Steam shows your game everywhere in widgets like Discovery Queue and on More like this. That is where real visibility comes from. You will not get to 100,000 by tweeting every day and earning 5 wishlist per tweet. True wishlist visibility comes from HUGE viral moments where you get tons of traffic in short periods of time. See case studies linked in the “additional resources” for examples of how this work.

If you are on Steam you MUST collect as many wishlists you can before your launch. Your Steam page should be up for at least 6 months before you release your game. The reason wishlists are so important is they are basically stored potential energy. When your game launches, Steam sends an email to every person who wishlisted your game and says “this game is now out.” Those emails convert at a very high rate so the more of them you have the more people are going to buy on day 1. 

For the most part, the Steam algorithm does not actually provide visibility based on the number of wishlists you have. But don’t confuse this – it is not actually the wishlists that Steam is looking at. Steam cares about the raw dollars that you bring in over a short period of time. The more wishlists, the more likely there will be people who convert, and the more money you will earn. Wishlists are the fuse. Sales are the explosion. The Steam algorithm only cares about the size of your explosion.

But how many wishlists do you need? The scale of your game will dictate this. Wishlists convert at launch at about 1%-20% in the first week. If you are looking at getting on the good side of the Steam Algorithm I would not launch a game without at least 5,500 to 7000 wishlists because that is the minimum threshold to appear on “Popular Upcoming”

How do you earn wishlists? Here are the most impactful 

  • Try to go viral on Reddit, TikTok, Twitter. Not every game goes viral though. Typically it is only VERY VERY beautiful games.
  • Build a demo. Release it first as a Playtest. Then if people like it, strategically release the demo using Steam’s new Demo visibility tools. Read about those tools here.
  • Submit your demo to every single online festival that applies to you. You can find a list of festivals at howtomarketagame.com/festivals. (But don’t do Steam Next Fest yet).
  • Submit your demo to every single streamer who plays games like yours.
  • Submit your game to the last Steam Next Fest before you launch (read about that here)

FINALLY: if all of that doesn’t get you wishlists, troubleshoot why you are not getting visibility using my checklist.

Here are some additional resources to help you with this 

SPECIAL NOTE:

Marketing a game is actually quite cyclical. The steps #2 through #7 are repeated several times throughout your game’s development process. You will have to adjust your games messaging based on how people react to it. The best games track, adjust, track, adjust. Nobody (even professional marketers) gets it right the first time. 

#8 Launch your game

This is the moment you make your game available for actual purchase. People can now pay money for your game. 

I get asked all the time about Steam Early Access and what it is. THIS IS IMPORTANT:

YOU ONLY GET ONE LAUNCH IN THE EYES OF STEAM.

Launching to Early Access is the same as doing a full launch. Several developers have come to me saying “I launched into early access to get some feedback. Now I am ready to possibly get a publisher and launch my game.”

Unfortunately, that launch into Early Access is the launch. Once someone can buy your game, the marketing push is over. Publishers won’t touch you. You really can’t improve your sales much if you aren’t already selling well. I know, I am sorry, it sucks.

Here is a chart I built by looking at the first month of Early Access (EA) compared to the first month of Full launch. Basically if a game doesn’t get 250 reviews in the first month of EA, there is almost no chance of having a successful full launch:

If you are new to Steam I highly recommend against doing an Early Access Launch. 

Why are launches so important?

It is an excuse to get a bunch of coverage. Streamers, the press, even people on your social media are more likely to react and cover you when you say it is your launch. Also Steam does give you extra visibility during your launch. So use it carefully. 

So how do you launch?

  • Get 5500 or more wishlists
  • Time your launch so you get onto popular upcoming (See resources below)
  • Get Streamers to play your game
  • Convert well – hopefully 10%-30% wishlist conversion (this depends on you having an exciting, well crafted game in a genre that steam likes.)
  • Get 10 Reviews from players who bought your game (cannot be from free Steam keys)
  • Get onto New & Trending list (probably $8000 revenue in first 24 hours)
  • Get players to recommend your game to their friends (again, this depends on you having an exciting, well crafted game in a genre that steam likes.)

A few indies mistakenly assume launch success depends on whether they launch next to a AAA game. I argue that it actually doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter how big the other game that launches next to you. The important thing is HOW MANY other games launch next to yours. See “additional resources” below for more of an explanation why.

Here are some additional resources to help you with this 

#9 Manage your game post launch

The rise of digital distribution and Games as a Service and free to play games have implanted in shoppers’ minds the idea that games should be updated after the launch. The thinking that a game is “done” is a relic from the physical retail times.

But how much to update? When is your game done?

Here is the harsh truth: If your game sells well, Steam wants to promote your game. They will feature you in special sales and special promotions. They will put you in all the widgets and expose your game well after initial launch. Your game is a cash cow that you can milk every month.

What is “selling well” in the eyes of Valve? I don’t know the exact number, but in my experience working with clients trying to get visibility from Valve, I estimate that it is about $150,000 USD gross revenue in the first 6-9 months of launch (this applies to Early Access launches too.) If you reach those numbers, Valve thinks it is worth their time to promote your game on Steam by featuring you in the various widgets.

If you do not make at least $150K in the first 6 months of your game’s launch, you are likely on your own. Valve will not promote you. And if you are on your own, it is very very difficult to make significant income from that point on. I am sorry, this is a hard industry.

So if crossed that wonderful $150K threshold, it makes sense to keep updating your game and contacting Valve to give you more visibility in the form of Daily Deals, Weekend Deals, and Themed sales. It is awesome.

If you did not reach that $150K threshold, I am sorry, there is not much you can do. I would patch your game a few time if there are any major game breaking bugs. Try to keep your review count positive. Maybe do 1 more content patch to show you are a good dev. Continue to discount your game every chance you are allowed to. Enter every big storewide seasonal sale like Winter Sale and Summer Sale. Apply for official Steam Themed Sales. Then after that move on to your next game. It probably won’t happen with this game.

Here are some additional resources to help you with this  

#10 Prepare for your next game

If your launch was softer than expected and updates and discounts aren’t making a significant impact on revenue it is time to move on to your next project. No matter how much you care about your first game you start to reach an opportunity cost where your effort on your current game is taking away from the potential of your next project. 

Please don’t quit even if your first game didn’t sell well. You need to build up a reputation and a backlog of games to do well in this industry. Unfortunately the vast majority of developers release one game and leave the industry. You have come so far and learned so much. Your second and third and tenth game will be easier. I used VGinsights to figure out the average number of games released by each studio. There is a massive dropoff when it comes to studios releasing more than one game:

When you create the Steam page for your second (or third or Nth) game, cross promote everyone who liked, bought, wishlisted, reviewed, or commented on your first game.

In another bit of research, I asked a bunch of developers to share how many wishlsits they earned over the first 2 weeks after announcing their Steam page. Here are the results.

Each bar is a different game. The bars that are colored red are from studios that have launched more than one game. Your second game is propelled by your first game (even if it wasn’t successful).

Building a studio with a hit is a lot like building a snow man: you start with a tiny pinch of snow and you roll it roll it and slowly at first but fast later you get a big giant snowball.

You must release a second and third and forth game. You must not make your dream game your first game (save it for your 10th game).

I think the biggest problem with modern indie game development is not “too many games.” I actually think it is “not enough games.” You see, too many studios spend WAAAAY too long making their first DREAM GAME and then have to close the studio after it “fails.” First games rarely do well.

30 years ago, indie studios would release dozens of small games quickly to build up experience and an audience. Unfortunately in today’s marketplace studios spend too long trying to make a game that is too big. I call this “the missing middle” of game development You must make smaller games more rapidly.

Here are some additional resources to help you with this  

Additional Questions

That was a lot. If you need more help here is so more information

Header Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash

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