Building Hype & Traction Before Your Game Launches
So you’ve got a game and you want people to know about it. Let’s make sure your work gets noticed, talked about, critiqued, hyped, hated on, or doubted! That may sound silly on the surface, but getting noticed is hard, so now’s the time to get eyes on your game—even if they’re from skeptics!
Traction in Unexpected Places
If you have a small budget or are relatively unknown in the “gaming world”, you’ll have to get a bit scrappy when getting the word out about your game. Building up this type of resourcefulness is a skill in itself, and you’ll learn a lot about how things go “viral” in the process. First I’ll share two stories from my personal experience, and at the end I’ll provide a quick list of free promotion tactics.
From Forums to (some) Fame
I was helping promote a completely unknown ARPG. One other agency they hired had already published their first story that was basically a short article filled with a lot of hype and hyperbole. It was a dud. The developers and the agency were a bit flummoxed about why the story flopped so hard.
So, I casually asked the developer if I could kind of… mess up the entire promotion schedule by trying my hand at the closed beta announcement. At the time, I was helping the developer make some posts in gaming communities. The reaction on one gaming forum, Touch Arcade, was highly enthusiatic and positive. The editors of Touch Arcade saw the post and decided to post a story based on the conversation I was openly having with the players.
When I noticed what was happening, I wrote a press release about the upcoming beta. I referenced the Touch Arcade post in my pitch to other members of the gaming media. The news blew up. An ARPG developed by a scrappy team of unknowns was now receiving organic coverage across major gaming media outlets. Smaller platforms then compied the news, creating a cascade effect of virtually free promotion.
So was my writing style better than the other agency’s writing? Maybe a little. Did I have a larger list of contacts? Definitely not. Did I have a better pitch? Yes. But it was a single forum post that instantly validated the message I was trying to send.
Taptap
Taptap isn’t that well known in the West. It’s basically like “APKPure, but only for games”. I think it owes its existence due to the fragmented nature of China’s Android scene. Any large western platform is blocked. No-one has Google Play unless they go out of their way to install it. So why would a developer publishing games in English waste their time with Taptap? Good question.
“Should we register with Taptap?” A guy from their operations team asked. I shrugged and said “It can’t hurt I guess.” And then boom. Over the next week, there was way more chatter about our game than before. Google and Talkwalker Alerts were flooding my inbox. As I mentioned above, Taptap is a game APK download platform designed primarily for the Chinese market. We spent half an hour registering our game on their platform. The return on this time was massive. How did a relatively obscure Chinese APK platform push our game into the mainstream? I had no idea. I still have no idea.
Many times game promotion is quite linear. Increase the ad spend and get users at scale. Larger game companies don’t worry about guerilla marketing or being scrappy; they’re concerned about the big metrics. LTV. ARPU. ARPPU. Churn. Retention. These metrics matter a lot. But if you can’t afford this type of scientific, data-driven acquisition, then start with every free tool or resource you can find. The important thing to consider here is organic, external validation. Gaming media will feel better about hyping your game if they see it already gaining steam with early adopters and gaming enthusiasts. Seeing your game validated elsewhere in an obscure corner of the internet helps them feel like they’ve stumbled on a secret that’s safe to talk about.
Places/Methods for Free Traction
- Introduce your game on gaming forums where you’re allowed to self promote
- Make a Wiki for your game before launch. Include lore, easter egg hints, or things that get players talking/speculating
- Livestream on Twitch, YouTube, or Facebook. Make it a preview showcasing the most engaging aspects of your game.
- Talk about your game on Discord servers
- Register your game on game databases
- Publish a press release on Gamespress
- Register your game on third party APK platforms
- Register your game’s presence on all social media channels
- Record your gameplay and make shareable GIFs or short trailers
- Start a developer’s blog and update it frequently
- Make a presskit so when the media does want to talk, they have the basic facts readily available
You could do all of the things listed above for free. Are these steps basic? Yes. But, as I illustrated earlier, traction and momentum come from random places and at random times. Once the essentials are fully covered, you can then delve into more expensive (but more measurable) ways to get your game in the hands of your target players. Good luck!
