How to market your indie game

Exeunt Press Shop, zero luck combat, marketing your game, and Everdell

TL;DR Summary

• 💀 Exeunt Press Shop discount code

• ⚔️ Zero luck combat in Rising Sun

• 📣 How to market your indie game

• 🎲 Recently played: Everdell

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💀 Clothe yourself in the skeleton

Are you currently naked? If so, this shirt would partially resolve that.

The Exeunt Press Shop is open and currently shipping to anywhere in the United States! Get yourself an Exeunt Press shirt, sticker, and printed copy of Exclusion Zone Botanist!

Use code HAILSKELETON23 for 50% off stickers through the end of the month.

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⚔️ Zero luck combat

I’ve been thinking a lot about combat systems lately, in particular how they can be more than just two units hitting each other until one dies.

While that can be a fun simulation exercise, it can sometimes feel random and leave players feeling like they didn’t have much control over the outcome.

That line of thought turned into the Zero Luck Combat post at Skeleton Code Machine. In it, we look at how Eric Lang’s Rising Sun uses sealed-bid auction mechanisms to resolve battles. It’s a really interesting mechanism from one of my Top 10 Games.

Subscribe to Skeleton Code Machine, and place your bids.

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📣 How to market your indie game

Show Your Work by Austin Kleon

Marketing is one area that can really make indie game developers struggle. Getting comfortable with promoting your own stuff is hard.

Tony from Plus One Exp recently mentioned doing a marketing workshop at The Gauntlet’s writer’s retreat.

His three main points were:

• Good marketing is fun.

• Good marketing means being intentional.

• No one will love your game as much as you do.

I’ve been reading quite a bit about marketing and self-promotion lately — books, blog posts, and whatever I can get my hands on.

Here are some of the things I’ve been checking out:

• How to Press Kit: A really helpful resource made by Tony for ZiMo 2022. This hour long workshop is a crash course in marketing.

• Show Your Work: Tony also suggested reading Show Your Work: 10 Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered by Austin Kleon. My copy arrived, and you should expect another post about this.

• Interview with Kelsey Dionne: An interview with the creator of Shadowdark RPG, which raised over $1.3 million USD on Kickstarter with over 13,000 backers. Discussions include direct sale vs. DTRPG, digital vs. physical products, and focusing your goals vs. side projects.

• Interview with Sean McCoy: Another interview, this one is with Sean McCoy of Tuesday Knight Games / Mothership. Discussion of email lists, ROAS, and Kickstarter campaigns.

• Game Marketing Milestones: A list from Reddit that lists milestones from pre-development to post-launch.

As someone who comes from a technical background rather than a marketing one, these have been really eye opening for me. If you have other helpful links and resources for indie marketing, please share in the comments!

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🎲 Recently played: Everdell

Adorable little bunnies, mice, and porcupines

Played Everdell for the first time in a long time. Had some new players at the table and thought this might be a good introduction to both worker placement and engine building.

While I’d be hard pressed to identify anything mechanically new or novel in Everdell, the way it brings existing mechanisms together is really satisfying. With just three seasons, it plays quickly and yet still allows for some satisfying, late-game combos. The adorable art and beautiful components certainly make for a nice table presence.

Turned out to be a very good choice for the evening!

I think it’s easy to forget that board game fluency is learned and developed over time. Games like Everdell serve as wonderful introductions, and can be solid games in their own right.

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- E.P. 💀