How to promote your game, contacting websites

[dimidimidimi]

Hello,

I am the project director of an small development team, you can read this thread (http://forums.indiegamer.com/showthread.php?t=7216) to find out more about our game. We have tried to send press releases and contact websites that cover indie and casual games, to ask if they would be interested in running some articles about our game. But our effort has not been that succesful so far.

I am wondering what it may be that is causing this and these are my assumptions:

a) My emails don't go through spam-blockers
b) The websites are not interested because this is our first game and we have not done anything before, so we are not big enough yet.

Regarding a:
I read on an article at gamasutra that a good strategy for marketing your game is to pay money to some indiegames PR agency so that they send the press releases for you. But the price was something like 500 dollars for 5 press releases, and this is something we cannot afford at this stage. We have already gone over our budget for the first episode of our game.

Regarding b:
I would expect websites that cover indie games to be less snobbish about such issues. But if this is indeed the reason, is there something we could do to get those website's attention?

Maybe there is a third alternative that I am missing altogether? Anyway, I would appreciate it if any of you could give me some advice on how to go about promoting our game in websites and how to get in touch with editors and writers. Especially websites that cover independently developed games and/or casual games...

[KNau]

Spam blockers is a possibility but not likely. There's a lot of variables here that come into play. Here's my 2 cents:

1) Press release services are much cheaper than that. There are a few who have advertised on this board. But mass mailing press releases isn't worth more than $100 bucks, so don't ever pay more than that. I paid $40 (I wish I could remember through whom) and got plenty of coverage.

2) "The Press" are incredibly lazy or overworked depending on who you ask. The more you can package the story for them the better. I think part of the reason I got so much coverage was because rather than just advertise my game I created a story around my company. I was a former studio guy who went indie and claimed indie games were overpriced (they still are) so I chose to charge much less. EVERY outlet that picked up the story focused on that aspect.

3) Be professional in your wording and correspondence. In my opinion it's better to be too formal than too casual.

4) It takes time for them to get around to your story. Give it a couple weeks before you decide that the world has abandoned you.

The bottom line is that in order to get media coverage you really have to be "newsworthy". Simply releasing a game makes you no different than the tens of thousands of other people who are going to release freeware, shareware and shovelware this year. Why should they cover your story?

And have a backup plan in case you can't get coverage for your game.

[mahlzeit]

Al Harberg has a press release service at http://www.dpdirectory.com/. It's mostly aimed at applications, not games. However, he has a good newsletter and a whole lot of free advice for writing your own press releases and how to get them read. Check it out.

[Hamumu]

I believe Al Harberg won't do games anymore (he started that policy many years ago, maybe he does them again now). His list was very much not in the gaming vein, so it wasn't a good match. His site does have tons of good info on writing PRs though.

And of course, VGSmart and Indiepath are both well-known here for providing a PR service tailored directly to games.

[terin]

What he said :)

The key to successfully contacting places is simple: have something interesting to say or show. If you don't, then you're sunk.

period, end of story. Huzzah!

-Joe

PS: It sounds like you have an interesting product- but .. An Italian who goes to Sweden? Uh, am I the first to point out that the markets of the United States and the UK are a little larger and belive it or not that kind of stuff DOES impact sales and coverage? Italy has a decent market... but I haven't heard much from the Swedes out there.

PPS: Persistance is the #2 criteria for coverage

[arcadetown]

You may also be starting to early. You've got nothing to show on your website except a bunch of pages with little or no content and "come back later". I'd wait till you have something to show people before trying to seek interested parties.

I'm looking for screen shots and if they get my interest a download to try out the game.

[dimidimidimi]

Thank you all for your replies.

3) Be professional in your wording and correspondence. In my opinion it's better to be too formal than too casual.
[...]
The bottom line is that in order to get media coverage you really have to be "newsworthy". Simply releasing a game makes you no different than the tens of thousands of other people who are going to release freeware, shareware and shovelware this year. Why should they cover your story?

And have a backup plan in case you can't get coverage for your game.

I did send everyone a formal press release, you can read the press release contents in the thread I was linking to in my first post. Some big sites like gamesetwatch published my press release, so I do not see why some site would deem it professional and newsworthy and some other site wouldn't.

And of course, VGSmart and Indiepath are both well-known here for providing a PR service tailored directly to games.

Indiepath is the one I was talking about in my first post, but it seems I was wrong about the price. They charge $360 for 5 press releases and not 500 as I remembered, but it is still an amount of money we cannot afford to pay for 5 press releases. Haven't heard about VGSmart before, I'll check it out.

PS: It sounds like you have an interesting product- but .. An Italian who goes to Sweden? Uh, am I the first to point out that the markets of the United States and the UK are a little larger and belive it or not that kind of stuff DOES impact sales and coverage? Italy has a decent market... but I haven't heard much from the Swedes out there.

PPS: Persistance is the #2 criteria for coverage

I thought that the point of being an independent developer was to create products that would not be bound by marketing beliefs (or misconceptions as some people like to call them). If I wanted to make a game full of cliches (i.e. american hero saves the world from aliens/terrorists/ancient prophecy) I might as well have applied for a job in the gaming industry. I also wonder if these marketing beliefs are always accurate. Before the release of the first Sims game, how many gaming analysts believed that it would have the success it had? It was not a FPS, it was not an online Warcraft-style RPG, yet it managed to outsell all those 'hot games'.

Furthermore, point and click adventure games are more popular in Europe than in the US. This of course does not mean that we are not interested in the US market, nor did it play any role in the choice of the main character's nationality. I strongly believe that games should be developed focusing on quality and not on marketing.

You may also be starting to early. You've got nothing to show on your website except a bunch of pages with little or no content and "come back later". I'd wait till you have something to show people before trying to seek interested parties. I'm looking for screen shots and if they get my interest a download to try out the game.

Yes it is true that we have not released much on the website yet, but this is because we wanted to save some exclusive material for the press previews. I did this because that's the way it works in the adventure gaming press (I am the editor of an adventure games website so that's where my experience comes from) but maybe things work in a different way in the indie/casual game press. A demo will be available for the press by the end of this week, I hope that press members will be more interested in our title when they get to play the demo.

[KNau]

Marketing is universal. If you're in business, then you're marketing. Or you won't be in business long.

Unfortunately with websites you're kind of at the whim of their editors and it's always going to be a crap shoot, especially if you don't have a packaged "story" like we mentioned. At the moment your press release is simply a product announcement (not even a demo yet) but you do have the seeds of a few good stories there:

Story Angles:
Episodic Game
This is an interesting concept and if not new, at least a unique way of delivering a game to the audience.

Will Eaken / Dave Rigley Graphics
Fans of classic adventure games would probablye like to hear about the Dig / Fate of Atlantis / Indiana Jones connection and fans of online comics would love to hear about Dave Rigley's connection to the project. Put your strongest assets out front!

Sense of Humour
Don't be afraid of a "if you liked this, then you'll like that" campaign. If your game has a quirky sense of humour and some flirty foreign exchange students don't be afraid to drop the "If you liked Leisure Suit Larry..." bomb. Or "if you liked classic games like Zakk McKracken..."

Anti-violence Stance
This can actually get you some mileage. That your company believes that games don't have to resort to violent scenarios to be entertaining. It's not news to casual developers but to the general public it kinda is.

Lastly, keep it short and avoid things that aren't news, like what langauge you used to develop it. In fact you could almost completely drop the 3rd paragraph without having any effect on the overall message.

Some may disagree but I don't think that press-releases are a "one size fits all" scenario. Feel free to pick a handful of highly targeted sites / magazines and send a custom press release / media kit to each. You'll probably get better results than the typical casual games spam campaign.

[tretmike]

Hi there,

We have one of the widest list of game-related publications and will be glad to help you to promote your game.

Just visit us at http://www.SoftPressRelease.com/games/ to see more information about us, our services, and our database.

[GREENhERMIT]

IMO.

Maybe Flash is not good choice to make commercial game? because of its performance and its position as free web game . . . .

People can play tons of free Flash game on many site so maybe they don't want to pay money for another Flash game . . .

PS. I've made game by using Flash too , I also have good feedback , and my situation is as same as you . . .


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ops!! , I read your previous post and someone there say your game is made from Flash , But I can't find any game on your site . . . Maybe I'm wrong , Sorry >_<"

[Indiepath]

@dimidimidimi, I think you'll find that we are very flexible when it comes to our pricing structures. Please get in contact if you wish to discuss this further.

Regards,

Tim.

[Polycount Productions]

Hello,

I am the project director of an small development team, you can read this thread (http://forums.indiegamer.com/showthread.php?t=7216) to find out more about our game. We have tried to send press releases and contact websites that cover indie and casual games, to ask if they would be interested in running some articles about our game. But our effort has not been that succesful so far.

I am wondering what it may be that is causing this and these are my assumptions:

a) My emails don't go through spam-blockers
b) The websites are not interested because this is our first game and we have not done anything before, so we are not big enough yet.

Regarding a:
I read on an article at gamasutra that a good strategy for marketing your game is to pay money to some indiegames PR agency so that they send the press releases for you. But the price was something like 500 dollars for 5 press releases, and this is something we cannot afford at this stage. We have already gone over our budget for the first episode of our game.

Regarding b:
I would expect websites that cover indie games to be less snobbish about such issues. But if this is indeed the reason, is there something we could do to get those website's attention?

Maybe there is a third alternative that I am missing altogether? Anyway, I would appreciate it if any of you could give me some advice on how to go about promoting our game in websites and how to get in touch with editors and writers. Especially websites that cover independently developed games and/or casual games...

I checked your website (I must say that I'm already fan of the art) and I could spot one simple reason for lack of success:

C) Your game is not finished. You have no downloads available at the site.

You can try making press releases (http://www.indiegamebusiness.com) but I wouldn't spend much for that... until you have something to show.

In case you are interested... there's the Adventure Company (http://www.adventurecompanygames.com/tac/) which might be interested in distributing your game. Also getting touch with the Adventure Gamer (http://www.adventuregamers.com/) might do good.

[KNau]

Flash is fine for commercial development - it's been used more than a few times by bigger companies. If you wrap it in a deployment program it's much more difficult for anyone to decompile and steal your assets.

Theft of assets is one of those things everyone seems to worry about when they start in this business but you have to trust that it's really not an issue. It doesn't happen that often and when it does happen it's rarely in a way that's going to effect your business. Besides, no matter what you make your game in I can always hit "print screen" and steal graphics with very little effort.

It's worth noting that no one cares what you made your game in so drop the line about "made in Flash". Other people don't say "made in C++". It's not newsworthy (unless you plan to market to Flash users).

[Tom Ohle]

I'd reinforce the sentiment that a broad press release probably won't be worth it for you. You've got a better chance of getting a response if you follow up with individual editors; browse a site and find someone who's favorably reviewed a game similar to yours... get in touch with them; even if you send a press release directly to that editor, you're more likely to get a response than if you sent one to 500 editors who may not have anything to do with your genre/platform/game.