I am lost
So, I am looking for ways to get out to more people with my new game “Princess and Unicorn” and I was/am actually a bit unsure where to start? This is the first blogpost on what I am doing and planning to do in the future, in my attempt to promote and spread my game.
I have joined a slack group for indie developers, and I am hoping that this will give me something to get 
started somewhere. My primary focus was to find out how I can promote and get a broader reach. But since this is completely out of my comfortzone, and not my expertise, I am really struggling with this. And, really, I had (And still really dosen’t have) no real idea where to start.
So I do, as I always do when I have no idea on how to do stuff, I just do it. It is extremely terrifying, but I guess trying is all I can do. But where to start (and… spoiler alerts: this post is kinda my start).
Listening to podcasts
The very beginning for me was listening to podcasts about marketing and sales. Smart Passive income, The Fizzle Show and The business of Freelancing to mention a few.
Webpage, Google Analytics and Facebook
Then I tried to build a webpage, and added google analytics to it, to make sure that I could measure if what I was planning to do had any effect – last, I went to the obvious choice, I started with a few posts on facebook – but it really did not seemed to have any effect – either my game was really crap (well, I know, it is not great – but I believe that it is good enough for at least a few play throughs) And I decided that I would not develop more on it, until I had made at least one dollar.
My plan now is to try alot of differnet things, to see if there is some sort of plan that will pay off.
A plan starts forming
I asked where to promote my game on Slack, and I got this reply:
twitter, facebook, youtubers, indiedb, tigsource, tumblr, gaming sites
And this was my first entry into searching for alternative ways of trying to promote my game – I just want “some” sort of effect and see what happens. And this lead me on to figuring out a plan on how I wanted to go about this. I will of course keep you updated through new posts on the different idea. But firstly – here is my plan:
Secret plan, part #1:
Make sure that Google Analytics is up and running and filters applied so the data collected is correct.
Create som marketing content – som nice images, and a video showing the game.
Create a decent description of the game that I can use for promotion
Facebook updates, and blogposts on polyspice.com to try and see if that could cause some traffic.
Secret plan, part #2:
From searching I have gathered the following places where games can be promoted. On each of these sites I have all-ready put up some stuff about the game.
Gamespress: A page where you actually have to send your images and text as an email. This site will pass on information about the game to journalists. (Unfortunately, it is not possible to see the game unless you have an account, I guess this means that only journalists can see this. I have seen no impact from this page so far.
Gamxin: A really new page for indie game developers. The page for the game can be found here So far I have not seen any effect from this page, and there was a lot of bugs involved in setting it up, I believe they are not completely finished with the site yet.
Itch.io: Really professional page that looks really cool. However, after looking a bit on this page, I realized that only a few of these games stand out as moneymaking. The setup was easy – but I have not seen any traffice yet from this. See the game page here
tumblr.com This is just a blind shot in the fog, and I have no idea how this will turn out 🙂 I need to make more posts – but if you interested, you can see what I am trying to do with it here
Secret plan, part #3
So, this is where I am at now – and I want to use this part of the plan to see if I can get any of the places to give me more than traffic. Apart from that, I want to add more content and figure out how to get to use the following sites.
Dodistribute: A page that should help you set up some marketing material
Indiedb: I need the game to just be on here.
Tigsource: Need to find out what this page is about, but I believe that I should get my game here.
Another part of part #3 is to distribute the app on the iPhone. I have created an account, and will be porting the game as soon as possible to the iPhone, to see if it is possible to get some more traction on that platform.
Secret plan, part#4
After I have all of these sites and blogs up and running. I need to start trying to use these sites, and update them with news. One of my biggest problem with this is that I do not feel that I have enough content to keep updating at a regular pace. This is something I need to figure out how to do.
Creating a promotional video of the game, that I can use on my webpage.
Update my webpage with more interesting information about games and projects that I am working on.
Secret plan, part #5
For each time that I have something that needs to be updated, I need to make a scedule that I use, so that I get all of these channels updated – but with content that fits each channel.
I want to create some “flyers” that I will distribute at specific events, and around town with a promocode for the game. These could be put on schools and places like that to get some attention.
I will create a “give this to a friend for a promocode” that will unlock a new unicorn.
A kickstarter campaign to get some attention around the product.
Lastly, I will hire a person to help me updating and creating content for the game, so that it will be updated more frequently and get a bigger audience.
The end
Then end is not now, I have not seen any results from any of this yet – I get around one real hit a week or something like that. I want this to increase drastically.
Stuff that I found along the way.
The following links are stuff that I am planning on investigating at a later stage
http://tay.kinja.com/how-i-upgraded-my-gaming-attention-span-1770384443