I need help marketing

ManlyMouse

  • Posts: 144
Hey guys,

So me and the rest of my team recently started our Kickstarter campaign for You Are God to On Person

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1619485858/you-are-god-to-one-person

and we realized somewhat disastrously that without a serious following and/or marketing campaign, we can only do so much to get our project seen. We have gone the traditional route through press and we hit up our own social networks, but all of it only amounts to a small plop in the ocean. Stencylers who have successfully marketed your games, what were your methods?

Thanks!
I know more about Stencyl now.

henson802

  • Posts: 381
Well I haven't had much success but I'll offer some insight from what I've seen/experienced being a gamer for many many years- games that take off have 'mass appeal' or  have refined mechanics or technologically sound.

While your game's premise is interesting, but from the average consumer perspective who'd possibly donate to a kickstarter, it just seems like someone's spin of telling an interactive story - which is what nearly every good RPG does too with graphics and gameplay to boot!

I don't want to sound harsh as I think you have a pretty cool idea.. But your game conforms to the typical RPG experience, with less graphics / gameplay, and development seems very early.   As you said you have tried marketing a little and it was just a small plop in the ocean with responses... so maybe you need to re-evaluate your project or figure a bette time to do it where you can show off more of the product or find a bigger market to do a Kickerstarter Campaign for.

ManlyMouse

  • Posts: 144
Those are pretty neat points that nobody else brought up before. Of course, we had our doubts about visual novels, especially given how everybody seems to hate them, It seems that the overwhelming trend of response to our game is "well, it's interesting, but....."

Hmmm, thanks Henson.
I know more about Stencyl now.

henson802

  • Posts: 381
Well keep going at it. 

I don't think there's really any 'golden' way of marketing besides putting nearly as much effort into it as making the game, as some would say. 

Social media presence helps, with frequent updates on development, and requesting media for coverage.  But I'm guessing most of the popular media outlets get a ton of these type of requests.  So you need to be far enough in development to be able to really sell the idea with concrete examples - not what you plan to do.  Cause unfortunately with Kickstarters, they rarely pan out and that's why people are afraid to donate unfortunately.

Best of luck to ya.  I hope you can find a way - I'm all for Indie Developers.  As you said, Visual Novels are tough niche market to break through into and get funded before anything substancial gets developed.  Never give up! :)

ChristianEs

  • Posts: 230
nice concept, and the video presentation is good but i think the game needs to be more complex ,for example  the character looks very static just placed on different environments, but if thats the style of the game and can't be changed  maybe adding  different effects to add some variety would help at least.

ManlyMouse

  • Posts: 144
Yes the game is still in a very, veeeeery early phase artwise due to us not having a dedicated artist yet. Those are some problems that we plan on fixing later on so the game doesn't feel as static/boring. At the least, that would mean character animations.
I know more about Stencyl now.

letmethink

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  • Posts: 2545
From what I have seen; Kickstarters mainly get funded based on their art so making one without having a dedicated artist could've been a bad choice for you.
~Letmethink