Hi there all this month I am writing about the people you need to talk to as you grow in this industry. I started with an article about talking to Streamers and moved on to a bit about talking to your customers. Today I am going to talk about talking to us Continue Reading
How to talk to your customers
In the restaurant business, chefs and managers always make a point of swinging through the dining room and schmoozing with their patrons (usually after the customers have had a few glasses of wine.) This is an excellent way to build rapport but also so the restauranteur can better understand the Continue Reading
How to talk to Streamers
The benefits of talking to people Digital platforms like Steam, Youtube and Twitter have made it so that you can market your game without having to actually talk to anyone. You can just post a link then hide while random strangers find your game and buy it. Or so you Continue Reading
How to find your Anchors
In my last post I discussed “Anchors” which are the qualities of a game that make it familiar to audiences. It’s the complement to your game’s “hook” which is what makes your game unique. I have been thinking about how I could codify the Anchors for my upcoming games. Strangely, Continue Reading
Know your game’s anchor
Some of the most well trodden advice for indies is “define your hook.” A hook is what distinguishes your game from the rest. Superhot had “an FPS where time moves when you move.” This War of Mine had “not everyone is a soldier.” Untitled Goose Game had “you are a Continue Reading
How I did competitive analysis for my next game
My last game Return of the Zombie King was released just over 1 month ago. I am about to ship some new holiday content for it but I am already in pre-production for my next game. This means market research! BIG TIME. Let me walk you through what I am doing. Continue Reading
What is word-of-mouth?
I just completed another round of Steam User observations. I am writing up my notes now and there will be a new analysis article very soon. For this round I ran it during the Halloween Steam Sale. Store-wide sales add a whole new layer of urgency to get people to Continue Reading
The stairstep approach to indie game marketing
I was thinking about this tweet a lot last week You should really read his whole thread I write a lot about marketing. One worry I always have is that people will literally do everything I talk about. Which is impossible and not good for anyone. That fear is part Continue Reading
How to please your customers with Steam’s New Library Feature
(Title art by Qui-Gon Jinnah who makes custom Steam Art. You can see his Patron here) I been interested in what most Steam users have been saying about the new Steam Library Release which turns an otherwise dull list of games into a beautiful showcase of box art. The update Continue Reading
Methodology for a qualitative study of Steam
The following is the methodology I used to run my user test of Steam. Goal I am an independent game developer who is not employed by Valve. I do have 1 pixel art platformer game (soon to be a second) on the Steam store and have earned money by selling Continue Reading