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How To Market Your Game With Devlogs and Building In Public

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How To Market Your Game With Devlogs and Building In Public

For SoloDevs and IndieDevs, marketing is an important and often overlooked aspect of game development because of the limited time and resources they have. Yet there is a crucial and easy marketing strategy that can be used with minimal time commitment and effort while the game is in development.

It’s called “Building In Public,” and for game developers, there is a very specific process in which they can turn their devlogs into marketing material for easy success. This article will cover the following points:

  1. What is Building In Public.
  2. How to use devlogs are used in to Build in Public.
  3. Past successful games that have used this strategy.
  4. How you can easily execute it with your game.

What Is Building in Public as a Marketing Strategy?

Building in Public is a marketing strategy where game developers openly share their process, progress, and even struggles while developing a product or service. Rather than keeping everything behind closed doors until launch, the process is made transparent to the public—usually through social media, blogs, videos, or other online platforms.

Building in public works as a strategy because of these benefits:

  1. Transparency Builds Trust: Players feel connected to the game and the developers, fostering loyalty.
  2. Community-driven Development: Developers can address real-time concerns and improve the game, ensuring it aligns with player expectations.
  3. Marketing Momentum: Continuous updates and open communication keep the game in the public eye, increasing word-of-mouth promotion.

For game developers, one of the best ways to execute building in public is by utilizing their devlogs.

Devlog Strategy With Building in Public

Many successful games spend months and sometimes years marketing. Charts below show the gradual success of a games marketing over a long period time. What if long development cycles could power long term marketing strategies?

Devlogs, short for Developer Logs, are ongoing journals or documentation created by developers to share the progress, challenges, and insights gained during the development of a project. Devlogs can take the form of written blogs, videos, social media posts, or even live streams.

One common misconception about devlogs is that they have to be long and overly technical. This is false. Devlogs can take a variety of formats, from simple quick one-liner updates to more in-depth devlogs, each catering to a different audience.Take into consideration these kinds of devlogs and their intended audiences:

  • Short devlogs: A single video up to 1 minute, an image, or a one-line update. These cover one topic with a singular focus. They’re great for keeping people up to date with bite-sized content. This format works well for non-technical audiences who just want quick updates and is effective for audience growth—people who are likely to buy your game. These kinds of logs can be produced weekly.
  • Medium devlogs: 3–10 minute videos or short blog post write-ups. These can cover multiple topics or go in-depth on a specific subject. They’re versatile and cater to a mix of audiences.
  • Long devlogs: 10+ minute videos or in-depth write-ups. These are ideal for people who want to dive fully into the details, such as technical users. While this content has a high long-term value (LTV), it often targets other developers who are not necessarily the target audience who will buy your game.

Devlogs Are Not Spam

Another common misconception about devlogs is that posting updates is spamming users. We wrote a blog entry here on why it’s not spam, but to sum it up: people follow you on social media because they want to hear about your progress. Because it is opted-in communication, it is not spam.

Then there is the fear that posting too much content on social media is spam. In the blog post, we also covered that when you post on social media, only about 3% to 10% of your followers ever see the update. Therefore, like AAA games, you have to create a lot of content to reach a significant number of your followers.

This is a tool for distributing updates about your game on social media that we will also discuss below. Next, let’s get into some examples of games that used building in public as a marketing strategy.

Games That Used A Build In Public Approach

1. Minecraft

  • Developer: Mojang (Markus "Notch" Persson)
  • Strategy: Early versions of the game were made available to the public during its alpha and beta stages. Players could purchase and play the game while it was still being developed, and their feedback directly influenced features and updates.
  • Outcome: Minecraft's open development and active communication with its community helped it become one of the best-selling games of all time.

2. Among Us

  • Developer: Innersloth
  • Strategy: Although not an initial part of their plan, the developers started engaging more publicly after the game's sudden rise in popularity in 2020. They shared updates, roadmap plans, and directly communicated with fans on platforms like Discord and Twitter.
  • Outcome: Regular updates and transparent development won the trust of their audience, sustaining its popularity.

3. Stardew Valley

  • Developer: ConcernedApe (Eric Barone)
  • Strategy: Eric Barone shared updates on forums and social media throughout the development process, showcasing the game’s progress and gathering feedback.
  • Outcome: By the time Stardew Valley launched, it had built a passionate community that significantly contributed to its success.

4. Factorio

  • Developer: Wube Software
  • Strategy: Factorio adopted an early access model on Steam and frequently posted detailed developer blogs about updates, challenges, and new features.
  • Outcome: The transparency and dedication to player input created a loyal following, making Factorio a standout success in the simulation and automation genres.

5. Hollow Knight: Silksong

  • Developer: Team Cherry
  • Strategy: Team Cherry regularly engaged with their fanbase through Kickstarter updates, sneak peeks, and communication on social media about progress and delays.
  • Outcome: The anticipation for Silksong is driven largely by an active and engaged community that has been kept informed.

6. Valheim

  • Developer: Iron Gate Studio
  • Strategy: The game launched in early access with active developer interaction through Steam updates and social media. Developers regularly highlighted player creations and incorporated user feedback into updates.
  • Outcome: This approach generated massive word-of-mouth marketing, leading to millions of sales in a short time.

7. Hades

  • Developer: Supergiant Games
  • Strategy: Hades was released in early access on the Epic Games Store and later Steam. Developers released updates based on community feedback and kept players involved through detailed patch notes and developer commentary.
  • Outcome: Hades became one of the most critically acclaimed games of its time, with praise for its polished gameplay and community-driven improvements.

8. Dead Cells

  • Developer: Motion Twin
  • Strategy: Early access allowed players to experience the game during its development, with developers frequently engaging with the community to refine features.
  • Outcome: The iterative process ensured Dead Cells launched with a well-balanced and polished gameplay loop, making it a commercial success.

9. Subnautica

  • Developer: Unknown Worlds Entertainment
  • Strategy: Released in early access, the developers frequently posted updates and listened to player feedback to enhance the underwater survival experience.
  • Outcome: Subnautica's open development and continuous community engagement built a dedicated fanbase and strong sales.

10. No Man’s Sky

  • Developer: Hello Games
  • Strategy: After a rocky launch, the team shifted to a "building in public" approach, openly sharing updates and adding community-requested features in frequent, free patches.
  • Outcome: Over time, this strategy helped turn No Man’s Sky into a redemption story and a beloved title in the gaming community.

Tools for Assisting Building in Public

At Glitch, we specifically have a tool designed to help with building in public. We call it a Social Scheduler, and it is designed for developers who are strapped for time and resources to effectively manage their content on social media. Here is how it works:

  • Once a week, a developer can submit a short update about their game updates. Updates can be as small as “I fixed the bug of people running into walls,” to screenshots, short videos, etc.
  • The update will then be turned into social media content that can be posted to all platforms such as X, TikTok, Discord, Instagram, etc. You can review all content before it is posted.
  • Over time, your audience will grow on each platform, and you can keep your current users engaged.

That’s it! It normally takes about 5–10 minutes of work a week to manage this entire process and can have you marketing at the level of an AAA studio on social media as you submit. We also do funnel tracking to capture users as they move through your marketing funnel from awareness to installs.

Start Early; Start Now!

We’ve posted in the past how marketing a game to success happens over months and sometimes years, with many of the successful indie games (that are not outlier stories) executing on this strategy. This means as an indie developer or solo developer, you should be marketing your devlogs now. Do not be shy or bashful, and most importantly, do not overthink what you post. People are interested in what you are building at all stages, so start growing that audience now and turn them into installs later.