1st Edition

A Practical Guide to Indie Game Marketing

By Joel Dreskin Copyright 2016
    178 Pages
    by Routledge

    180 Pages
    by Routledge

    Learn how to market for your indie game, even with a small budget and limited resources.

    For those who want to earn a regular income from making indie games, marketing can be nearly as vital to the success of the game as the game itself.  A Practical Guide to Indie Game Marketing provides you with the tools needed to build visibility and sell your game. With special focus on developers with small budgets and limited staff and resources, this book is packed with recommendations and techniques that you can put to use immediately. As a seasoned marketing professional, author Joel Dreskin provides insight into practical, real-world experiences from marketing numerous successful games and also shares tips on mistakes to avoid. Presented in an easy to read format, A Practical Guide to Indie Game Marketing includes information on establishing an audience and increasing visibility so you can build successes with your studio and games.

    • Through case studies, examples, guidelines and tips, you will learn best practices for developing plans for your game launches, PR, community engagement, channel promotions and more
    • Sample timelines help you determine how long in advance of a launch to prepare your first public communications, when to announce your game, as well as recommended timing for releasing different game assets
    • Book also includes marketing checklist 'cheat sheets', dos and don’ts and additional resources

    Chapter 1: Introduction

    Chapter 2: Marketing Fundamentals

    Chapter 3: Branding

    Written by Guest Author Tom ByronCase Study: Klei Entertainment

    Chapter 4: Developing Your Market Campaign and Calendar

    Chapter 5: Marketing Vehicles That Can Work Well for Indies

    Case Study: Supergiant Games

    Chapter 6: Developing the Marketing Plan

    Case Study: The Binary Mill’s Mini Motor Racing

    Chapter 7: PR

    Written by Guest Author Emily MorgantiCase Study: Additional PR Examples

    Chapter 8: Marketing Materials

    Chapter 9: Audience/Community Development

    Case Study: Telltale Games

    Chapter 10: Post-Launch

    Case Study: Flippfly’s Race the Sun

    Chapter 11: What if Something Goes Wrong?!

    Appendix 1: Glossary

    Appendix 2: Marketing Fundamentals Worksheet

    Appendix 3: Marketing Plan Outline

    Appendix 4: Check Lists

    Appendix 5: Press Release Worksheets

    Biography

    Joel Dreskin has developed expertise with marketing, strategy development and campaign executions for high profile, enthusiast and indie brands over the past 20 years—including Star Wars, Back to the Future, Wallace & Gromit, Monkey Island, Sam & Max, original IP, and more. In addition to Joel’s experience with game tie-in launches for the Star Wars prequel films during his years with the LucasArts division of Lucasfilm, he drove brand, channel and marketing program development for Telltale Games from the company’s second through seventh years and digital media software initiatives with Macromedia (now Adobe). Joel has recently created and run focused showcase events for indie developers: Indie Press Day and Good Game Club; and has also been contributing to the Media Indie Exchange press/industry mixer events.