Every 4 months Valve hosts their Steam Next Fest to showcase the games of the platform. It is free to enter, they accept anyone, and it gives you a ton of visibility. But because of that there are always a TON of games you have to compete with.   From February Continue Reading

I don’t have to tell you that competition on Steam is stiff. It is hard to differentiate yourself with so many other games coming out every year. Also Steam is a very winner-take-all marketplace where there is one clear winner in the genre and a whole bunch of also-rans.  Now Continue Reading

Last week I wrote a quick list of tips for tiktok that helped one indie game developer market their game. But their success is not a fluke. In the past week 3 more developers have had phenomenal success with TikTok earning views by millions and wishlists by the tens-of-thousands.  This Continue Reading

Yes, TikTok works and is worth doing (for now.) For a long time Twitter has been every developer’s choice for top of the funnel social network for showcasing their game. But Twitter has become sclerotic (or maybe always was) and unless you have an adorably cute game, even your most Continue Reading

Intro I think there is a real hole in the Steam Marketplace for a different type of game that I found with Vampire Survivors. For years games have been moving up in quality and value. In this 2021 report more games are releasing in the $5 to $20 range. In Continue Reading

Your graduation, bat mitzvah, bar mitzvah, your wedding day, quinceañera, confirmation,  gastrulation – life is full of life milestones that mark the passage from one phase of life to the next.  The first milestone when you release a game on steam is when it earns it’s first 10 reviews.  I Continue Reading

Why even bother marketing if it comes down to going viral? Last week I wrote about how the game Laysara Summit Kingdom had a viral post on reddit that resulted in 11K wishlists. You can read the post here: While this bit of marketing was amazing, many fellow developers remarked Continue Reading

On December 29th, game programmer Maciek for Laysara: Summit Kingdom uploaded a 30 second clip of his game’s trailer onto Reddit’s r/gaming. Within 12 hours it had gone super viral and earned his game 3.2 Million Views, 73,000 upvotes, and over 11,000 wishlists in less than 24 hours. In today’s blog Continue Reading

I love when game developers write about what worked and what didn’t about marketing their game (commonly called a postmortem.) I don’t care about the size or the scope or the experience of the developer, if they write about their experience, I will read it. I reviewed a bunch of Continue Reading

For the most part, Twitter will NOT be a major source of wishlists for your game. (see footnote #1). It’s actually more valuable as a Business to Business tool among your fellow indies. It’s LinkedIn for cool-kids. It really is a great place to collaborate with other studios, find out Continue Reading