Practical indie marketing advice with Steam expert Chris Zukowski - Game Developer Podcast ep. 34
During GDC Showcase 23 earlier in the summer, Game Developer publisher Alissa MacAloon and I interviewed game marketing consultant and strategist Chris Zukowski about the mechanics of the Steam marketplace, what strategies work best for smaller developers and how to deal with publishers giving teams the runaround. Welcome to episode 34 of the Game Developer podcast!
Music by Mike Meehan. Produced by Jordan Mallory.
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I posed an open question to Zukowski, wondering how a team of say, five developers making a medium-sized indie game for PC might go about getting attention for their title. Zukowski had a multi-step plan ready to go. He advised getting a Steam page set up, looking into online festivals (on Steam, you can only do this once, so you have to get your timing right!), having a demo ready for streamers and get cooking on socials.
"We like to say, get your Steam page up nice and early: as early as you possibly can. And basically what you're doing is you're trying to collect wish lists and get into those festivals, get some early streamer coverage and possibly some press."
He also advised getting some pretty assets ready as soon as the art direction is finalized, pick a few environments (say, three for variety), and think about making a trailer.
"Once you get that, make a quick trailer. It's like 30 seconds long. And then from there on out, what you're doing are these kind of hits you're trying to get into all those festivals that I mentioned."
Zukowski also plugged howtomarketagame.com/festivals for that specific point.
"You got festivals, and then from the festivals, you also try and get your demo out as soon as you can. Demos are hot now—that's the new 'meta'
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