IMPORTANT: In early July I am launching Wishlist & Visibility Master class 2.0! To coincide with the exciting launch in July I will be putting the course on DEEP DISCOUNT. So, if you can wait, don’t buy it until July. Join my mailing list to find out the moment it launches. I will warn you with plenty of time. If you already own the Masterclass, you don’t need to do anything, the 2.0 content will magically appear in July – no additional purchases necessary. 

So, in anticipation of the 2.0 July launch, I am presenting a series of mini blogs that celebrate the successes of some of the students who took Wishlist & Visibility Master Class 1.0.

First up is the solo game developer behind a stone age 4X game named Folk Emerging who used the launch of his Steam coming soon page to get free visibility to earn 725 wishlists in 2 weeks.

How to launch your Steam page

I get asked a lot if the Steam algorithm promotes you when you launch your Steam page…

They do not. 

However, there is a “social-algorithmic” boost when you launch a Steam page. What is a “social-algorithm?” For some weird reason, socially, humans like to commemorate special dates like birthdays, new years, anniversaries etc. There is no reason why one day over the other is more exciting but if you can just come up with a reason for it, we will celebrate it. So if you treat the launch of your Steam page as one of these special days, we humans will come together to celebrate it. This “social-algoirthmic” hack is how you can get more visibility with your Steam page launch.

As a first-timer at this, the Folk Emerging dev did fantastic with their launch. In two weeks they earned 725 wishlists. I have surveyed hundreds of devs and benchmarked (full benchmark report) their page launches and this is what is normal

Typical wishlists earned during first 2-weeks 

🥉 100 wishlists

🥈 500 wishlists

🥇 1200 wishlists

💎 7000 wishlists

Read the full report on Steam page launches

As you can see, 725 is very good. Typically the top tier gold and diamond games that earn 1200 – 7000 come from established developers who have prior hit games, established networks with other developers, and big social media followings they use to cross promote their game. This solo developer was starting from nothing and pulled themselves up to a very respectable start. 

I had no reason to expect that I’d surpass the 150 wishlist threshold, let alone gather 700+ wishlists in the first 2 weeks! It’s no viral hit, but certainly more than I hoped for.

Developer at Curious Dynamics in this medium post

How did he do it? Well the creator of Folk Emerging perfectly executed the promotional plan prescribed in my class. 

What helped most [with the wishlist & Visibility Masterclass] was the genuine breakdown of not only what’s worth doing, but especially what’s NOT worth doing. There are so many potential time-sinks in gamedev, especially as a solo dev. It’s way too easy to invest too much time marketing on the wrong platforms or developing a game that is very unlikely to find its audience. 

Developer at Curious Dynamics

Here are the pillars of his Steam page launch

  • Created a twitter account for his Studio and used it primarily as a networking tool to contact the press and befriend devs making similar games. He interacted a lot with #TurnBasedThursday to reach other strategy-focused, turn-based games devs and gamers.
  • Reddit (carefully) went full on promo mode on the biggest, most important subreddit r/gaming. But he also targeted more niche subs such as r/civ. Moderators of the subreddits will check your post history and if they see a bunch of promotion from you, they quickly delete your post. Even with the careful approach the developer took, he got his post pulled and temporarily shadow banned. Reddit is a rough place. 
  • Workshopped his games marketing materials before posting – The developer sought the feedback of other developers and marketing folks to get their input on his messaging and materials. It is very important that your message is clear and people understand the genre of your game. 
  • Press – The developer created a press release but also targeted very niche sites perfect for his type of game such as Civ Fanatics and Turn Based Lovers. The developer reached the journalists on Twitter; again proving its usefulness as a networking tool. 
  • Created an Announcement trailer and put the word “Announcement Trailer” in the title. That subtle distinction is one of those social-algoirthmic hacks to get people to pay attention. 

Summary

The developer behind Folk Emerging did great job maximizing every free opportunity available to small independent studios. It’s very hard to find an up-to-date list of what actions actually work in promoting your game. This is why I created the master class and the reason I am releasing the 2.0 version of the course: to ensure that all content is as timely as possible. 

The masterclass took me through the steps of validating that a market even exists for my game, finding what worked for my peers, getting a steam page up, focusing on a demo ASAP. As a first-time dev starting from scratch, this was crucial in helping me be a good project manager for myself and scope out my efforts across development and marketing. I was no longer staring at a blank page — I now had a peer-reviewed recipe book to help me concoct a clear path forward.

Developer at Curious Dynamics

Check out the developers full post on Medium to read the full steps of what the developer did and get some amazing analysis he did behind when to post to the subreddit.

If you are into 4X strategy games, check out Folk Emerging.

And stay tuned for July’s launch of The Wishlist and Visibility Master Class 2.0.