Game promotion

It is not enough to develop and publish your game. You have to let the world know that you have something interesting that people will enjoy playing. There are many ways to promote your game - most of them are free - so even if you're struggling to make a living as an indie developer on a zero budget, there's still a lot you can do to get people to know about your great new game. Promoting a game helps a lot with its monetization in the future, so it's important to do it right.

Competitions

Participation in competitions will not only improve your game development skills and allow you to meet new developers, make friends and learn from them, but also involve you in the community. If you make a good game for the competition and win some prizes in the process, your game will be automatically promoted by the organizers and other participants. You'll be rich and famous, or so they say.

Many great games start with a quick, sloppy demo submitted to a competition. If both the idea and the execution are good enough, you will succeed. Also, competitions usually require games to follow a mandatory theme, so you can get creative with the theme if you're running out of ideas.

Website and blog

You should definitely create your own website containing all the information about your games so people can see what you've been working on. The more information you can include, the better - you should include screenshots, description, trailer, press kit, requirements, available platforms, support details, and more. You will receive bonus points for allowing your users to directly play your games online - at least in the demo version. Also, you should work on your SEO to make it easier for people to find your games.

You should also blog about everything related to your game development activities. Write about your development process, nasty bugs you encounter, funny stories, lessons learned, and the ups and downs of being a game developer. Continually posting about your games will help educate others, boost your reputation in the community, and improve your SEO even more. Another option is to post monthly reports that summarize all your progress - this helps you see what you've accomplished during the month and what's left to do, and constantly reminds people that your game is coming out soon - creating hype is always good.

While you can build your website from scratch, there are also tools to make the process easier. ManaKeep is a website builder made for indie game developers and is a great starting point for building your website. Presskit() is a press kit builder that will help you create a press page for media publication.

Social media

Your social media presence is very important - follow the right hashtags, make friends, participate in conversations, help other developers in need. Honesty is key and you have to be sincere because no one likes boring press releases or annoying ads. When the time is right, your community will help spread the word about your brilliant little game.

You must use at least Twitter and Facebook and be active on the respective forums - the most popular being HTML5GameDevs.com . Share your game development news and answer questions so people appreciate what you do and know you're ok, see post for the right way to do it. Remember not to be too pushy about your games - you are not a walking advertisement.

Grow your fan base by talking to them, sharing tips, offering discounts, giving away prizes in contests, or simply complaining about the weather or the buggy browser you have to deal with. Be cool, be generous, be yourself and be around others and you will be treated with respect.

Game portals

Using game portals is mostly about monetization, but if you don't plan to sell licenses that allow people to buy your game, but instead intend to implement ads or in-app purchases, promoting your game through free portals can be effective.

There are a number of different game portals where you can submit your games for publication. Some portals have their own APIs that allow you to authorize users, save their progress, and process in-app purchases. You can also sell the full version of the game from a browser demo, which is a great move given the high competition, some developers even manage to make full browser versions. Most portals offer revenue sharing deals or buy non-exclusive licenses.