So im starting this thread for 2 reasons 1 being for advice and thoughts on how i can improve the number of people i can get to find out about SWAP and to improve sales.
But also kinda to stir up thoughts and ideas from everyone on clever or interesting ways to get your game out there and market it. I look at solarlune and all the success he is having with soldier of and its not even out yet. Also this game called slender witch has gotten a load of press and excitment over.
I obiously dont think its something that happens over night and it takes alot of hard work.
Ill kinda list what exposure had so far marketing SWAP has bin reddit posts twitter youtube, forums this one and tigforums. Also gamespress, indiedb. SWAP was mentioned on rock paper shotgun and then indiemag twice. a podcast called bitloaders(that one i think they kinda stock pile interview and slowely release them)
so ya ive also sent alot of emails to game blogs and such.
So my question is how have I done and how can I improve on this. So far ive had 15 sales and 53 demo downloads. Now im trying to think of how i can kinda revamp and get the word out about the game.
fortunately and unfortunately i had to stay back a year in highschool so i have about a year before i graduate and head to college, so this is kinda what is stiring in my head as to the urgency of trying to get my game to be a success.
by all means just getting it finished and saleling is a success in itself.
Seems like your going about it all the right ways, all i can think is to continue advertising through those social channels non stop and maybe try to add more features and advertise the new features, would also be great if you can get the game to self advertise by having it make twitter, facebook posts etc, its all about viral marketing these days.
Quite surprised your sales are so low, game looks good and you’ve presented it very professionally, I myself would also be interested to hear what others have to say on this matter.
Regarding to Slender. In that case the popularity came actually over night.
PewDiePie, a really popular Youtuber with nearly two million subscribers did a Let’s play video about it. That’s how it started. And to this date it has around four million views. The other thing which made that game so popular is the fact, that it is free.
Youtube is the best marketing you can get for games. People want to see the game in motion. Try to get it in front of those Youtube gamers. Give them a free copy. If you have luck they will make a video about it and it will boost your sales.
And even more important. Don’t get discouraged mate.
15 sales doesn’t sound much. But this market is quite competitive. And for only selling it on Desura, it is pretty good. Desura is pretty notorious for lower sales.
Edit:
Also try to get your game on a Mac and Linux.
You miss some sales with a windows version only. (I’m on a Mac and I can’t buy your game)
I think your sales are low because the first few reviews showed some bugs and glitches. In future it might be better to call the game Beta until its running smoothly. Also 15 is not that bad if you take into account that there wasn’t any hype around the game when it came out. Maybe you can increase sales by adding something new, call it version v1.1 and re-release it. But this time, before you release, set a release date and send a trailer or gameplay recording to the sites that already reviewed your game, they will most likely post that you have a new version coming.
agoose ya im awful at spelling where is it that you noticed it? on my website or on desura or?
josip I thought about relaunching it im just kinda waiting for blendozo to finish the linux version I know he is working hard on it and he is really busy. But so far ive updated it starting from 1 up to 1.3 and so I think will put out 1.4, i was planning on releasing that the same time as the linux build but now might be better.