koobas.hobune.stream
Advertising a game
I've released my game (Portal Quest) for free on the Google Play Store and I'm trying to spread the word, but I don't seem to be having much success. Its been out for a few days and only has 19 downloads, of which about half are friends and family.
I've posted on the unity forums in the showcase section.
I've contacted several youtubers who cover mobile games.
I've posted on Reddit in r/AndroidGaming and r/playmygame.
I've even posted a question right here to not so subtlely trick people into downloading my game.
Does anyone know any other good ways to freely advertise games? Do I need to just wait longer? Do I need to actually invest in some sort of paid advertising? Does anyone have any experience with paid advertising?
Also, I noticed that the unity website has a showcase section. Does anyone know how I could get featured there?
Unity Answers is really intended for specific technical questions concerning Unity development (i.e. "questions that have an answer"). Discussion-type questions are best suited to the Forums. However, seeing as this is an important topic (and @BoredMormon has already provided some good points in his answer), I'm not going to close it.
From a technical point-of-view, creating games has never been easier, largely thanks to tools such as Unity. But, (somewhat as a direct result), discoverability of games in a marketplace has never been harder. There are over 1.3 million apps available on the Google Play store. So, why should people download yours over all the others?
I just looked at your video and your gameplay video actually looks ok - but it didn't wow me. The portal mechanics are familiar to players (and that could be considered a good thing, especially for casual games), but they're not really innovative. The graphics are ok, but the textures look like they've just been used straight from Unity's standard terrain assets. The GUI font and buttons are clear, but they're not really stylish. Basically, everything is "alright", but that's simply not enough - you either need some truly innovative feature or, if you're going to rely on familiar mechanics, you need to have really polished aesthetics.
It's a lot to expect a lone indie developer to be able to compete with the production values of high-budget development teams of companies such as King, GameLoft, Rovio etc., so your other alternative is to offer your players something that they don't get with these companies - in some cases that can be the "personal touch" of feeling connected with the developer. Many successful small development houses (e.g. Bossa Studios, Introversion) and solo developers (Mike Bithell, Nicoll Hunt) form intimate relationships with their customers - through weekly blog updates on development, sharing early alpha releases, getting personally involved in forums concerning the game, and by appearing at conferences and usergroups and maintaining a strong online presence on Twitter etc. People like them, and if you like a developer, you're more likely to like their game.
You said that half your downloads are from friends and family (and I think that's true of many small developers initial experiences) - so think of ways of extending your virtual friends and family. Once you get a critical mass, they'll invite their friends and your potential userbase grows exponentially.
Your right, I probably should have closed. I just found the idea of a game with 19 downloads going into the showcase irresistible.
I like the idea of an 'extended virtual family'. $$anonymous$$ight use that myself one day.
Thanks for the advice.
I think I really needed someone to tell me your 3rd paragraph much earlier on in development. Everyone I showed the game either said they don't play games or told me it looks totally amazing. Obviously I tried not to get overconfident about my chances of success, but it made it really hard to tell if I was on track or not. $$anonymous$$etaphorically speaking, I had no idea whether I was noticing the game's scars because I'd seen it naked, or if those scars are clearly visible to other people too.
Ideas
Build a good game. Your product must be worth playing. This is more important then anything else. As a random stranger on the internet I googled it and it didn't look like it would be worth downloading.
Pay for advertising. The expense will be covered by whatever monetization strategy you are using.
Put your game up on gaming portals and social media.
Take your game to conventions.
Convince a reputed publisher to take on your game.
To get on the show case section your game has to be successful. Unity uses the showcase as an advertisement for Unity. They only put games there if they show the engine in a positive light. Your game will go up there once its famous, not before.
Disclaimer: I'm a hobbyist, I haven't actually tried to publish any games.
