Revision 952377 of Game promotion

<p>Developing and finishing the game is not enough anymore. You have to let the world know that you have something interesting which people will enjoy playing. There are many ways to promote your game - most of them being free, so even if you're struggling to make a living as an indie dev with zero budget you can still do a lot to let people know about your great new game. Promoting the game helps a lot in <a href="https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Games/Techniques/Publishing_games/Game_monetization">monetizing</a> it later on too, so it's important to do it correctly.</p>

<h2>Competitions</h2>

<p>Taking part in the <a href="https://compohub.net/">competitions</a> not only level up your gamedev skills and let you meet new devs who eventually can become your friends, but also will get you started in no time if you don't feel yourself part of the community yet. If you make a good game for the competition and win some prizes in the process your game will automatically be promoted by the organizers and other attendees. You'll be rich and famous, or so they say.</p>

<p>Many great games started as a quick, sloppy demo submitted to a competition. If both the idea and the execution are good enough, you will succeed. Plus the competitions restrict the games being created to have a mandatory theme to follow, so you can get creative on that if usually you don't have any ideas. It will give you a proper headstart.</p>

<h2>Website and blog</h2>

<p>You should definitely have your own website with all the info on your games, so people can see what you've worked on. The more the better: screenshots, description, trailer, press kit, requirements, platforms. Bonus points for being able to play your games online. Also, get yourself familiar with SEO so if people are looking for your games you have to make sure they will surely find them.</p>

<p>You should also blog about everything related to your gamedev activities. Write about your development process, nasty bugs you encounter, funny stories, lessons learned, ups and downs of being a game developer. It's all about communication and letting people know what's going on. The good thing to do beside the regular posts on those topics is to have <a href="https://dev.end3r.com/?s=monthly+report">monthly reports</a> that summarize all your progress. It works also for you, so you can see what you've accomplished through the month and what's still left to do.</p>

<h2>Social media</h2>

<p>Your social presence is very important - follow the right <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/gamedev">hashtags</a>, make friends, engage in conversations, help other devs in need. Honesty is key and you should be authentic, because nobody likes stiff and boring press release messages or pushy advertisements. When the time comes your community will help you spread the word about your shiny little game.</p>

<p>You should use at least Twitter and Facebook and be active on the forums - the most popular one is <a href="https://www.html5gamedevs.com/">HTML5GameDevs.com</a>. Share the gamedev news, answer questions, so people will value what you're doing and will know that you're ok. Remember to not be too pushy on telling everyone about your games - you're not a walking advertisement. Act cool and you'll be treated with respect.</p>

<p>Grow your fanbase by talking to them, sharing tips, offering discounts, giving away prizes in the competitions, or just complaining at the weather or buggy browser you have to deal with. Be yourself and be there for the others.</p>

<h2>Game portals</h2>

<p>This would mostly belong to the <a href="https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Games/Techniques/Publishing_games/Game_monetization">monetization</a> part, but if you're not planning to <a href="https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Games/Techniques/Publishing_games/Game_monetization#Licensing">sell the licenses</a> and will <a href="https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Games/Techniques/Publishing_games/Game_monetization#Advertisements">implement adverts</a> instead, then promoting the game across the free portals will also work along monetizing them. To do that you can send your games for publication on portals like <a href="https://html5games.com/">HTML5Games.com</a> which work more as an advert platform rather than usual publisher portals wich pay for your games. Free sites offer traffic, but only the best ones are popular enough to earn something noticable out of the implemented advertisements. On the other hand they are the perfect tool to spread the games and make them visible to the broader audience with no budget and limited time.</p>

<h2>Press</h2>

<p>You can try and reach the <a href="https://indiegames.com/">press</a> about your game, but remember that they get a tonne of requests like this every single day, so be humble and patient if they don't answer right away, and be polite when talking to them. Be sure to check first if they are dealing with specific genres of games or platforms, so you don't send them something they are not interested anyway. If you're honest with your approach and your game is good, then everything's gonna be fine.</p>

<h2>Tutorials</h2>

<p>It's good to share your knowledge with other devs, after all you probably learned a thing or two from an online article anyway. Talking or writing about something you achieved, problems you overcome is something people would be interested it. And you can use your own game as an example, especially in a tutorial when you're <a href="https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Games/Techniques/Controls_Gamepad_API">showing how to do something you've implemented already</a>. That way everyone benefits, because people learn new skill, and your game gets the attention in the meantime, and if you're lucky you can even get paid for writing the tutorial if it's good enough.</p>

<h2>YouTubers</h2>

<p>It's a rising trend - don't underestimate the power of YouTubers playing your game, talking about it and streaming everything, but also don't think this alone will skyrocket your downloads or visits - they can be spoiled and say that your game is crappy without any good reason. Still, it's one of the many ways you can reach broader audience, so you should definitely go for it if you can.</p>

<h2>Events</h2>

<p>If you've come through all the options listed above you can still find new, creative ways to promote your game - for example events. Attending an event, both local and global, gives you the ability to meet your fans face to face and talk with them personally. Value the fact that they spent their time to see you.</p>

<h3>Conferences</h3>

<p>There are many conferences where you can give a talk explaining some technical difficulties you overcome, or how you implemented specific API, and again - use your games as examples for that. It's important to focus on the knowledge part, because devs are sensitive on that matter and you may end up with angry crowd disgusted about whatever you've built, because they will think all you want to do is sell them something.</p>

<h3>Fairs</h3>

<p>The other event-related option are fairs where you can get a booth among other devs and promote your game to all the attendees passing by. If you do so, remember to be unique and original, so you easily stand from the crowd. Do it the right way and everybody will be talking about you and your game. Having a booth gives you the possibility to interact with your fans directly - beside the promotion part you can also test the builds of your games against regular people and be able to fix any bugs they will find. You can't imagine what people may come up with when playing your game, or what obvious issues you've missed spending hours on polishing it.</p>

<h2>Other</h2>

<p>If you're selling the game, then send promo codes all over the place. Give the codes to press or as prizes in the competitions, because if the game reaches certain people you'll get a free advert to thousands of players. It can boost interest in your game more than anything else if you get lucky.</p>

<h3>Fostering the community</h3>

<p>You can help community grow and promote yourself and your games at the same time. Sending out <a href="https://gamedevjsweekly.com/">weekly newsletter</a>, organizing <a href="https://js13kgames.com/">online competition</a> or <a href="https://gamedevjs.com/">local meetup</a> will show others that you're passionate about what you do and that they can rely on you. Be an expert and when you'll need any help possible they will be there for you.</p>

<h2>Summary</h2>

<p>Any way of promoting your game is good. You have a whole lot of options to chose from with most of them being free, so it's only about your enthusiasm and available time. Sometimes you have to spend more time promoting the game than actually developing it. Remember that it's no use to have the best game in the world if no one knows it exist. Now get on that <a href="https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Games/Techniques/Publishing_games/Game_monetization">monetization</a> part and earn something for a living.</p>