Any time I write a blog about what Genres that sell well on Steam I get responses that are like “The best thing you can do is just make what you know and love.” On its face that sounds like such good advice. I really really want to believe that. Continue Reading
How to use the Prologue trick to potentially earn thousands of wishlists
IMPORTANT: The Prologue Trick is probably going away soon due to Steam’s changes to the Demo algorithms. You can read about the 2024 changes to the Steam demo algorithm in this blog post. I am leaving this post on the Prologue Trick up for posterity. Don’t expect that Valve will Continue Reading
Will your games be marketed by Chat-GPT
Chat GPT-4 just dropped and it is causing people to say ridiculous things like we are all going to lose our jobs. Maybe I will lose my job? I guess I should figure that out. So I signed up for the $20 version of Chat-GPT 4 and I asked it Continue Reading
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about marketing your game
How do I get visibility on my game? I surveyed over 100 games to see where their wishlists came from and this was the result In order of effectiveness it is For more information on Tiktok, check out these links Does Instagram work? Nope. I don’t know why but I Continue Reading
Why demos don’t hurt your visibility
Last GDC I gave a talk about how to design a demo (You can view it for free on the GDC Vault here). I think a demo is one of the most important keys to unlocking extra visibility for your game. In the talk I recommend 2 big things: But, Continue Reading
How New Genres Are Invented
Aka: The Robert Muldoon theory of genre breakout hits Raptors never attack the same place twice. They were testing the fences for weaknesses systematically. They remember. Robert Muldoon This is one of my favorite parts of one of my favorite movies. BTW Robert Muldoon never skips leg day. That guy Continue Reading
Editorial: Maybe mixing genres is a bad idea
Your game’s genre and graphic style is the biggest determinant of your game’s potential success. Marketing decisions such as whether you use twitter or tiktok don’t matter as much as the type of game you make. Game development has thousands of these tiny risky pitfalls that don’t seem like a Continue Reading
What’s the best day to release an indie game?
Indie game developers spend a whole lot of time trying to figure out their launch day. I think part of the reason is because you can’t control whether a streamer covers you or how many wishlists you can get on a day BUT if you enter a date into Steamworks, Continue Reading
How Cosmoteer’s 4.5 year marketing campaign shows that wishlists don’t get stale
I recommend that developers post their Steam page as soon as they have these 3 things: It is important to have as much time as possible to build your steam community and collect wishlists, even though your game might be years away from release, One of the most common arguments Continue Reading
Lighting the ZERO Sievert fuse: what a Steam Strategist actually does
Last week I wrote about the marketing campaign of ZERO Sievert. Here is the wishlist chart showing off all the key marketing beats: I was fortunate enough to consult for the Modern Wolf team as their launch strategist. What does that job even that mean? 99% of that impressive wishlist Continue Reading