I said the personal bit I wanted to say privately, as I think thatās a better way to go about that.
However, now I want to say some things about indie dev in general, as Iām seeing comments like this more and more.
Indie games had a huge boom, a couple lucky guys hit it pretty big and the market saw a sudden influx of what were basically clones. Sadly, with those clones came some legit games made not for a slice of āfat money cakeā but with love and hope that maybe they could make enough to live off of.
The market is flooded. If you check Steam right now for indie titles, right now go do it I can wait.
Back now? Did you see them all? Thereās a lot, right?
Now Iām going to say something that a lot of indies, by nature, wont want to hear.
You need to market. You need to talk to people. You need to yell from the mountain tops, āHEY I MADE THIS THING, LOOK AT IT!ā. Get used to talking about your game, find and become a part of every game site you can that talks about in-development or indie games.
You could also go the route so many have lately and hire a PR guy to do this for you. Many seem to be fairly inexpensive, but Iām not sure that will last given demand. You could designate a team member (if you have a team) to that job if their current one isnāt too demanding (Iām going to make some people mad by saying composers, but know that I love composers from the bottom of my heart, I just know they do not need to be working on music 24/7 and likely have more time than other team membersā¦also I know quite a few that are masters of multitasking),
The point is; You canāt just throw your game up on Steam and expect people to buy it. They canāt buy what they donāt know about. Some people ignore the store page entirely and just go straight to their games. Unless they are looking for something specific.
For instance, I did not know Momo 3 was on Steam until I noticed the pinned tweet. I miss a lot of new releases because I donāt have time to go looking for them anymore. So I make it a point to follow all the devs I like through social media, this way I can see what all of them are doing in one go.
Iāve watched a couple devs go from, āHere is a little dude, he shoots thingsā to āeverybody is talking about my game and I am freaking outā. I learned later, after some smart devs asked, that they had PR guys to help market their game.
As much as you love your little playable babies, as much as you might hate people or marketing or feel like a shill, it is absolutely necessary. Tumblr and Twitter make it a little easier now, as you can just post updates and in-dev stuff and not really have to push too hard to get noticed.
When you get to the point where you want to sell your game, however, you have to branch out. You have to hit all the places. Talk to all the people. Post videos and demos everywhere.
You love this thing youāve made. You love it so much youāve worked on it for free, in your spare time, because itās something you wanted to make.
But even devs need to eat and isnāt it everyoneās dream to make money doing what they love?
So get out there, show the world how awesome your game is. Theyāll never know if someone doesnāt tell them.
That got a little long, Iām sorry and hope it made sense. I canāt keep seeing these messages. You guys canāt give up. Indies are where games are being made now. AAA titles are mostly stale and often rehashes, much like mainstream movies. Indies are the ones still making things with love.
We need you guys. Games need you guys. Donāt give up.
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