Oh dear; well thought I'd update people on the status of 'Sean' and their little YouTube thing.
Unfortunately it seems this may have just been a shameless selfish ploy to exploit indie devs that are desperate for ANY kind of exposure. Get some free keys/games and use them (and their game footage) for resales and/or other purposes.
The YT channel in question linked by the OP earlier. It has 3 videos with the last video being made around mid-October. The OP hasn't posted for over a month and hasn't made any new videos in several months. RIP :(
On the bright side, I'd like to take this opportunity to self-promote a bit and hopefully improve this situation. I'm a strong supporter of great indie developers that put attention & care into their games. I'm not Jim Sterling to waste my time with asset flips or other trash. I'm the admin of the FreshGaming Discord community that seeks to grown and maintain a community for gaming that has fair moderation without arbitrary BS. Every person (including admins) has to follow the posted rules. That's how I work.
I've been looking into reinvigorating my semi-dormant Twitch streaming and YouTube video accounts. Had many poor experiences with both due to copyright trolls so if indie devs here really want exposure then perhaps I can get some good quality content as well.
If anyone here is interested in getting some promotion for their game they should follow a few bits of advice on the state of YT/streaming for those not aware of things. This'll be a bit 'wall of text' because formatting is silly on these forums.
- You're gonna need to self-promote in addition to asking people to play & make videos on the game.
- Most major YT people need to be paid for their work as 'free games' are so plentiful and they get so many offers that they have to refuse nearly all non-paid work.
- The YT DMCA abuse by trolls and jerks has upset and driven off many content creators. Those that left (once again) only typically do videos in return for compensation.
- Some notable YTers I know who might be into trying out indie games are Skylent, Fevir, TheLazyPeon, and OrangeHatter. Though Orange Hatter uploads once a month at best, the rest of them upload fairly regularly. If you aren't afraid of super-harsh criticism then you can try poking Jim Sterling and SidAlpha. As for others, I have either not seen their content or I haven't seen them take particular interest in indie/unknown games.
- The thing about KNOWN games is that doing a video on something like WarFrame is GUARANTEED interest & views & analytics & channel promotion. We all have limited time to play games (let alone make them) or keep track of the hundreds of thousands of games on PC and mobile that are flooding the markets.
- Please think carefully on why someone should spend limited time to play/promote your game. Think of the time involved in creating, editing, and uploading a video to YT. Take that into consideration when negotiating compensation. If you are unable to provide compensation then be up-front about it. Pretty simple hopefully.
Now if anyone reading that wall is still not running away then feel free to get in touch with me exclusively via Discord. I want to weed out potential scammers and Discord provides me the control to do proper moderation on my terms.
When joining my Discord server, please identify yourself by your developer studio/name/game and that you are responding to my itchio posting. You will also be able to check out my Discord profile and see the links to my YT/Twitch/Twitter/etc. I'm hesistant to post them all here as I'd like to avoid spammers.
Keep in mind that those new to Discord (or the server) might need to wait ~10 minutes before being able to chat and/or send DMs. So don't be alarmed when you join and see the timer. Just wait it out; it is there to deter spammers.
If anyone is willing to proceed in chatting with me on Discord, then we can hash out requirements, compensation, and so on. I am interested in nearly all types of games but I'm a fairly harsh critic when it comes to technical issues. Feel free to check my Steam reviews to get an idea of my review style.
Thank you to anyone & everyone who managed to read the entire post and make it this far. You are AWESOME! As a special treat, when joining my server please PM me with the code 'pancakefire101' for a special surprise :)