GyCot Posted February 15, 2014 I just watched the Steam Dev Days session on marketing and really enjoyed it The problem with my dev style is that I iterate, but I do a HUGE horizontal pass. I get in the zone for animation, then I get better at animation, then I want to keep doing animation for 30+ enemies. And I completely lose out on a vertical slice. Just curious what you guys thought, when is the right time to start chatting it up and putting it in front of people? Do you need a scene that is completely playable? Do you show off a partial scene and keep apologizing or trying to verbally fill in the gaps? Screenshots are great and grand, but after watching the video, it made me realize how much feedback I'm missing out on. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
pdyxs Posted February 15, 2014 Just to put this advice in context: I'm working on indie game Particulars, which has done fairly well marketing-wise (we got through greenlight), but hasn't exactly hit marketing gold. I feel like we've learnt more of what not to do than what to do so far. In general, you only get a few specific opportunities to make a big splash: announce and various launches (and announce is pretty dicey unless you have something really meaty). It's not a good idea to go for press if you don't have something important to say, coz you only really get a few shots at press. Having said that, I don't think it can ever be too early to start blogging and talking about what you're doing on social media. Social media is driven on open communication, and that takes time to build. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Joewintergreen Posted February 16, 2014 I just watched the Steam Dev Days session on marketing and really enjoyed it The problem with my dev style is that I iterate, but I do a HUGE horizontal pass. I get in the zone for animation, then I get better at animation, then I want to keep doing animation for 30+ enemies. And I completely lose out on a vertical slice. Just curious what you guys thought, when is the right time to start chatting it up and putting it in front of people? Do you need a scene that is completely playable? Do you show off a partial scene and keep apologizing or trying to verbally fill in the gaps? Screenshots are great and grand, but after watching the video, it made me realize how much feedback I'm missing out on. guarxc.jpg So I actually haven't watched Alex's presentation yet (even though I was there on the day and hung out with him that evening and basically I'm a bad friend) but I would say:The time for chatting it up and putting it in front of people is All The Time. Like even before it exists. That is a thing Alex did with Antichamber, you probably knew what it was and were interested in it a year before it came out, and my game InFlux totally didn't have that going for it at all, and that is a thing I regret - even though I've very consciously always thought "transparency is the best, secrecy is dumb" etc, I still fell into the trap of "it's not near enough to done yet to be ready to show!" It's always ready to show. Right now I'm making some kind of adventure/story game thing that I'm not even sure what it is yet and I'm up on these forums and Twitter and everything sharing screenshots of stuff that very probably won't end up in the game, and it's still early enough for the game to not happen at all. And that, I think, is the correct if occasionally nerve-wracking way to do things. hopefully this makes sense, I'm drunk Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
darthbator Posted February 19, 2014 I actually thought this was a really good presentation that touches on a lot of the "indie studio" concerns. Including product release cycles, marketing, and outsourcing/contracting. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
chummer Posted August 11, 2014 John Polson was the EIC of IndieGames.com. Here's his Full Indie Summit talk on interacting w/ press. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
