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How do I promote my game - without spending money?

A topic by rockrhead created 7 days ago Views: 137 Replies: 7
Viewing posts 1 to 5

Hey there! I am a student and in my free time I make smaller video games. Recently, I have published the Demo of my game "Flummy" in hopes of that leading to more traction when it comes to the full release. However, I only get around 3-5 views per day - if even. I have opened up a discord server, put out regular dev diaries, promoted the game on other game dev discord servers and on reddit and have also implemented small, non obstructive ads for this game in my slightly more popular games. 

However, the game doesn't seem to get more views. What am I doing wrong? If anyone could help, I would greatly appreciated that! 

(As said, I am a student - that's why I don't have the funds to pay for advertising)

(+1)

Sounds like you're doing the right things.

I guess my only advice would be, to really try to put yourself into the mindset of the potential audience. And think of yourself as someone that knows nothing about the page, but sees the thumbnail or advertisement for the first time, and try to picture what they would think.

As you've discovered, there's a little bit more to marketing than just showcasing a product. There are a lot of additional factors such as the quality of the thumbnail, the quality of the page, the quality of the product, whether the product gets word-of-mouth advertising, whether there's an element of luck, etc.

Yeah I have kind of tried doing all that already. 
I mean, I AM part of the target audience so it's pretty easy to put myself into their shoes haha.

Thanks for the advice tho! I think I just kind of got unlucky with this one. I am currently saving up for a steam release of the game, maybe that will push it a bit.

Moderator moved this topic to Questions & Support
Moderator(+1)

You should have a site that search engines can index, not just a Discord server. And you should talk to people right here in the community. Simply talk to them, don't just promote your own games. Show some interest in theirs, too.

How would I make a new site without money tho?

Also, I don't want to forcefully talk to people just because I want views in the long game. Kinda feels bad for me; just talking to people because I want them to play my game.

Thanks for the help!

Moderator (1 edit)

There are plenty of free hosting options, from Neocities to InfinityFree. And that's my point: don't talk to people for self-promotion, talk to them about whatever is being discussed: other games. Development. Off-topic stuff.

(+1)

itch.io does a pretty good job directing peeps to your stuff its self..., just make sure to have the appropriate tags. Most of my traffic are just from the tags alone, :3

Hmm... If you look at my game, what tags would you give it? I thought I did a pretty good job lmao. Here arethe ones I have rn