Indie Games have a disadvantage: No one has heard of your game. This sucks because you can’t depend on the game selling like hotcakes once it’s on the store shelf. You don’t have the advantage of a huge marketing campaign with billboards and prime time commercials, but what you do have is the freedom to do what you want with the game to make sure I get to play it (and if I like it, pay for it). Assuming you are trying to sell the game in some way, shape, or form, here are some approaches I have found extremely favorable from a consumer standpoint. Some of these points seem a little obvious, but you’d be surprised how often they are overlooked, and there are other great games online as well where you can even make money, like slot games which you can find in sites like digital ledge and others.
Make a Trailer
Whether you are trying to build hype, sell your game in beta, or show off your hard work, you’re going to need a trailer for your game. IndieGames editor Mike Rose wrote an article on how to market your indie game and what he looks for when accepting submissions to IndieGames.com. Not surprisingly, having a trailer made the list. But you can’t just throw anything into the trailer. When I see your trailer, I need to know why I should play your game and that means showing me actual gameplay. I should grasp a basic understanding of how the game works as well as the depth of your game. Don’t just screen capture the tutorial levels, show me some of the content at the climax of your game and give me something to look forward to for when I play your game. Which brings us to the next point: let me play your game.
Make a Demo
Make a demo available, even if it is just a level or two. However, don’t just put the tutorial levels in there. Give me a taste of your endgame because that is the interesting part. Show me how your game mechanics will evolve throughout the course of the game when I play the full game. Maybe even make unique levels for the demo so I don’t have to replay them when I play the full game. Anything goes as long as the demo has a quick ramp up and is entertaining.
As far as delivering the demo, make the process as simple as possible for the consumer. Make the game an executable instead of an install. If possible, post the demo in browser form (or even the entire game). I rarely play demos if I have to download them, but I always play the games with browser versions. This is becoming easier and easier for developers with html 5 on the rise and Unity 3D available for free.
Also, give some thought as to how you want to release the game when in the planning stages. If you want a browser release in some shape or form, make sure the software you’re developing in can be embedded into a web page as well as handle your game design. Knowing these facts early can help you scope your project accordingly.
Give Direction
Make sure when all is said and done, the player has a good idea of what your full game is. I recently played a tutorial to a game with no prior knowledge of what the game was or how it played. In the tutorial, the game’s description jumped from “Defeat the opponents Empire” straight into “Build a house”. This was extremely disorienting to me because I never knew what my goal was or what building a house does for that goal. This made the tutorial a lot more difficult to get through. Then when I was left on my own, I never felt confident with any of my decisions and felt as though I stumbled through the rest of the game. A simple slide of text saying “Build up your economy and army to fight the enemy” or even “Build up your own Empire” would be ample.
This is something to keep in mind for your demo or even your trailer. Let the player know the what (building the empire) so that they can get interested in the how without confusion. Just remember that direction does not mean story. Crowding your trailer and demo with endless dialog is going to push me away from your game.
Long story short, don’t prevent a consumer from experiencing your game. Take these points into consideration throughout the entire development process and not just as an afterthought for release.