"No one" cares about your game. Here's why that can be a good thing
One of the most enduring topics in the games industry, particularly in an era of abundant indie releases, is how to compete for attention in a crowded market and what works to get people's eyeballs on your game. With so much noise and so many platforms to choose from, it's crucial to determine what is effective, and what will speak to your potential audience in the fleeting time you may have.
Shedding some light on this topic is Thomas Reisenegger, co-founder and CEO of Future Friends Games, who spoke at GDC 2023 on this topic, talking about the "golden rule of games promotion:" no one cares about your game. Here's what you can learn from embracing this knowledge.
"This 'no one cares about the game' mindset is one of the most helpful sentences and mantras I've learned in my marketing career," says Reisenegger. While games marketing has gotten more professional and organized in the past several years, there's not been as much discussion about the qualitative approach.
Though it's very natural to look to others as an example of what to do or not do, when it comes to the most prominent examples in the games industry, most of the information won't be applicable. Games marketing suffers from what he calls "The Avengers Problem," that is, that triple-A games receive the lion's share of marketing and audience attention, and thus, examining their methods is not particularly helpful. What works for them will not work for games that cannot rely on that level of inherited brand awareness.
Reisenegger describes "micro level" as all the forms of communication at your disposal from big to small, email to Reddit. Every one of these interactions matters. Here are a few rules you can use as a checklist when preparing communications:
Rule 1:
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