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Common Misconception: When Should Indie Games Start Marketing

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Common Misconception: When Should Indie Games Start Marketing

This article is part of a series to address common misconceptions in game marketing that we often see perpetuated online, and to help game developers better market their games. The common misconception being addressed in this article is that games do not need to do much marketing and that indie games are unable to market their games effectively.

Reddit posts like this one show a belief among a subset of game developers:

This post is alarming for a few reasons:

  • It gives bad advice on when to start marketing, and we discuss below both indie games and AAA games that did the opposite.
  • It provides bad information about dev logs, how to use them, and their impact.
  • The amount of developers that upvote bad advice is alarming and exemplifies part of the reason why some indie and solo developers struggle to launch their games.

Many AAA games, and even successful indie games, are marketed a year or more in advance of their launch. The first part of this misconception likely stems from confusion between marketing and promotion, which is a good place to start.

Marketing vs. Promotion

We have a whole guide written here on how to market your game, which covers the entire life cycle of marketing. One of the biggest areas of confusion is the distinction between marketing and promotion. Marketing encompasses all communication with a user. This ranges from advertising and researching price points to starting a community to increase retention, writing a wiki for your game, planning your distribution strategy, and providing an online FAQ section.

Promotion, on the other hand, is a specific tactic within marketing. It refers to the activities and efforts used to communicate, publicize, and encourage customers to take action, typically focusing on increasing short-term sales or awareness.

Marketing can begin as soon as you have the idea for your game. This can include activities like researching your target audience and setting up social media accounts. Promotion, especially paid promotions, tends to occur closer to the game’s launch when the goal becomes sales or installs.

Successful Indie Games With Long Marketing Periods

Before we get into the AAA and AA games that have had long periods of marketing to achieve success, indie games need to be highlighted first. This is because there is sometimes a belief that indie games cannot do what AAA games can.

This is false. Indie games have a much harder time scaling the way AAA games do, but they can still execute the same strategies successfully, just on a smaller scale. Success for Indie games can be a very subjective term. So in this case we will leave the term "successful" as getting a lot of users to wishlist their games.

We will discuss the scaling issue below, but here are some examples of indie games with their wishlist charts:

Notice how each of these games demonstrates a steady growth in their wishlists over a long period of time. To become successful at game marketing, focus on consistent efforts and not the outliers that appear to be sudden “overnight successes.” Marketing and growth begin months or even years before the game is launched.

AAA Games Begin Marketing Years In Advance and Are Consistent

AA and AAA games often begin marketing well in advance of a game’s release—sometimes years. To provide viewable examples, here are a handful of games that are still months out from release. Notice these similarities among them:

  • They are consistent with their marketing efforts, producing something at least weekly. What is produced doesn't have to be in-depth or high quality; simple screenshots with a few words are often more than enough.
  • They start their marketing months or even years in advance. Even with bigger budgets, they still value and recognize the importance of time in marketing.
  • They promote their games across several different platforms (X, YouTube, Instagram, etc.). This is important because you want users to engage on the platforms they feel most comfortable with.
  • They consolidate all their assets using a LinkTree or similar service, allowing users to easily research the game and engage on the platform of their choice. One of the biggest mistakes indie games make is not linking their socials to each other and back to the game’s website.

Examples:

Successful indie games and AAA games employ multiple similar strategies over an extended period of when marketing. Next, we’ll explore the differences in execution between indie and AAA games and how smaller developers can utilize the same tactics.

Scalability: The Real Difference Between Indie vs. AAA Games

We understand that building a game is hard and is a full-time job in itself. Marketing is also very hard, especially when it is not your skill set, and the time needed to do it correctly can feel like another full-time job. Understandably, many developers feel defeated by this, thinking it’s impossible to market like an AAA game—especially for solo developers.

The difference between indie developers/solo developers and AAA games lies in the budget to scale, not the ability to market. Here are examples of the difference between the ability to market and the ability to scale:

  1. Posting Content: Social media engagement can have a positive impact on your game. An indie developer or solo developer can post one piece of content a week, such as a simple screenshot of the game. An AAA studio may be able to product screenshots or short video to post once, twice or several times a day. The result is the AAA studios typically scale faster on social and gain more attention, but indies can still gain attention on a lesser scale.
  2. Advertising: Today’s advertising platforms are all self-service, allowing you to spend any budget you want. Advertising is about ensuring that the amount you spend is less than what you make. For example, if an indie developer has $100 to spend and makes $120 (minus platform costs like Steam fees), they are profitable and can reinvest the $120 back into advertising. Growth may be slow, but it’s still growth. AAA studios do the same thing—they just throw $1,000,000 in and make $1,200,000 back for faster growth.

Indie developers and solo developers can market and be successful; they just won’t scale as fast as AAA games. Hence the steady growth charts seen over time.

How SoloDevs and Indies Can Market Like AAA Games

There are a few things you can do as an indie or solo developer to market your game successfully. Granted, it will not scale like an AAA campaign, but it can still yield positive results for your game. Here are some strategies to consider:

Carve Out an Hour or Two a Week

In the earliest stages of development, when you don’t have much to market, an hour or two per week is all that’s required. In our marketing guide, we shared a checklist to help you cover the basics. During these early stages, spend this time responding to people on Discord and posting content on social media (TikTok, X, BlueSky, Reddit, Instagram, etc.). That’s it!

The original Reddit post criticized dev logs, calling them a waste of time and hard to execute, with negative impacts. This is false. Dev logs can be one of the easiest and most effective strategies. We discussed dev logs and "building in public" in this post. Your followers are interested in what you’re building—it’s why they followed you. Use dev logs to build in public and grow your audience over time. These can start as simple as sharing concept art.

As your game progresses toward completion, ramp up your marketing efforts. Ideally, within 4–6 months of launch, you’ll need to dedicate more time to marketing. At this point, you can invest more hours, use automation tools, or hire someone to help.

Automation Tools

If time is an issue from the start, or as marketing workloads increase, automation tools can streamline your efforts. Workflow automation tools for gaming simplify processes across game development, testing, marketing, community management, and live operations. These tools integrate with popular gaming and development platforms to save time, reduce manual errors, and enhance productivity.

One example is Glitch, a platform designed specifically for game marketing. It offers features to automate social media marketing, simplify influencer management, create and deploy media kits, and even provide access to testers. Whether you use gaming-specific tools like Glitch or generic ones like Hubspot or Mailchimp, these tools can make marketing and growth much easier.

Outsourcing

Finally, there’s outsourcing. Many game developers dream of getting a publisher to handle all the marketing and localization for their games. However, if you pursue this route, make sure you fully understand the agreement you’re signing, including key aspects like payment structure, revenue splits, timelines, length of agreement, and exclusivity clauses. Also, ensure the publisher can add real value to your game—there are cases where publishers take games without providing significant benefits.

Alternatively, you can hire an agency or consultant to take over your marketing. Agencies and consultants can handle everything or focus on specific tasks. When outsourcing, it’s crucial to:

  • Vet the agency or individual thoroughly.
  • Set clear expectations and deliverables.
  • Schedule routine check-ins to monitor progress.

Your Competitive Edge Is Marketing Early

Compared to AAA studios, your competitive edge in marketing is your ability to start early and experiment freely. AAA studios, despite their larger budgets, often have strict rules and processes to follow. As a small indie game or solo developer, the rules are your own. So market early, be unique, be original, and grow your audience over time.