Hosted Games is releasing An Unexpectedly Green Journey on 3rd Orctober. I have no idea how to promote my game. I know HG sends out emails.
I have a small Tumblr, on which I post news and updates. I think I’ll make a few posts on the Reddit HG community- although not too much as I don’t think folks will take kindly to excessive shilling.
Just wondering if anyone has other things/sites/methods/tricks that they found had, or might have had a positive effect.
If its being released on Steam, and I think it is? make sure you haunt the Steam forum! To many devs ignore the fans who dislike discord and the other social platforms, and a dev who ignores the forums is likely to get an unfavourable review if they fail to answer a question.
Apart from that, there are the usual suspects, all the social platforms plus a FB group, if you can get enough followers, and Discord to discuss what goes on in the game, then promote those too. And the most important is on here!
Others will have had different mileage with their promotions, but I think that covers the basics.
Congrats on the upcoming release! Besides Tumblr and Reddit, consider joining relevant forums and communities, reaching out to influencers or bloggers in your genre, and leveraging social media platforms like Twitter or Facebook. You might also look into free game promotion sites or online communities focused on indie games. Networking with other developers and participating in game jams can also help get the word out.
Congratulations 
and I wishlisted your game already, I can’t wait to be an Orc again 
Create an entry up on IFDB. It won’t vastly increase the eyeballs on your game, but it might help in creating more online coverage for it. I created an IFDB entry for my game a while back.
Getting reviews will be a bit more challenging. If you entered your game in an intfiction contest, you are guaranteed some IFDB reviews from that community… but too late for that now. I think you had tried to promote the game on intfiction sometime back? Try plugging the game there again on release day, and seeing if folks in that community might like it enough to rate/review/wishlist it on IFDB. That said, it’s a busy time right now with IFcomp in full swing, so it might be tricky to get their attention.
I don’t lol.
Chance is right though, never hurts to put it up as a listing on IFDB, you might get the occasional search that way, but your chances of getting attention for the orc game would go up if you entered jams/comps listed at intfiction as they get a bit of promotion via your author name. In saying that, I don’t think I have any reviews on my HG there, only my freebee comp ones 
I’ve already been peeking at the forum- Though a place of echoes, I am poised to pounce on the first posters!
I have a very inactive facebook account but will have a look if there’s anything I can do there. I also have a Twitter account, in which I slowly built up about 14-15k followers. Although I never get traction on posts there, I shall continue to try!
You have made me smile, revealing big orc tusks, for the first time today, Queen Zelda! I hope you enjoy being a greenie all over again!
I never thought of this. Good call. I’ll look into filling in the correct stuff for IFDB. Yes, I posted on intfiction as a sort of devlog, like my HG forum posts. I fully intend to update the progress of the game there too.
I know it comes down to a roll of the die, reviews and, perhaps, creating a little organic buzz. I can only try to do little bits here and there, which may well have no true impact. It is still worthwhile to try and understand what works best. Now that I have a game joining the ranks of you legends, though as a mere apprentice, anything which draws an eye or two to Hosted Games is good for the HG clan!
I’ll even send the odd, utterly unrealistic, email to some YouTubers who like fantasy things- or ‘geeky’ things, though IF isn’t the best topic for videos. For an old game, a card swiper, I made and released on Steam many years ago (which this game is is a much-expanded version of), one Youtuber (unprompted), with only 10k followers, played it and, for that week, I got a very large boost to sales. Sometimes little things can pay off though this was purely luck on my part.
Thanks to all of you for your suggestions. Much love to this community for their openness and helpfulness.
i’m starting a review channel for wips specifically for the purpose of helping with this problem. likely won’t do much, but at least it might help, in a similair vein you could ask Brian le Wolfhunt to review it
“I’ve already been peeking at the forum- Though a place of echoes, I am poised to pounce on the first posters!”
Don’t worry, they will turn up! Its not my style of game but I’ll try to do some stirring nearer the time - in a good way, of course.
Reddit for sure. As soon as it is published, let me know and I will add you to the author directory there. Twitter, Tumblr, any social media is worthwhile, although none of them are going to yield more than a trickle unless you’re investing a lot (probably too much, really) of time into it.
Of course, the beauty part of putting a story out here is your promotion is just the cherry on top; the actual confection in question is the company’s mailing list. Nothing you do will make a quarter as much of an impact as that.
Just don’t pay for ads. You won’t get back any kind of rate of return.
Great Basketball in the Sky, I love the idea of a channel for wips. If you ever fancy casting your opinion on my little green project, I would be delighted! Even if not, I will be watching your reviews. -Or, since Green is no longer a WIP, I have a new little project hanging around here somewhere…
Have looked up Brain le Wolfhunt. Yes, another good idea, though I think he prefers reviewing Cog titles. Still, worth a try.
Whatever the case, let me know when you drop your channel!
I know the orc life is not for everyone and this doesn’t mean all non-orcs will be eaten. I am much humbled by your suggested stirring- but please do not add too much salt!!!
The Father of HG Reddit! Yes, trickles, or lone drips, are all I can really expect. I’ll fiddle around the sides. Definitely won’t be paying for anything. I will be plopping down a few reddit posts over the coming month- and one on release day and it would be great to be added to your author lists there. However, after that, I feel I will want to hibernate to escape my grinding pessimism about the world.
I think this whole thread has been really useful. Are there more threads about promo stuff? The info here would be good in a sticky thread as the advice here is excellent for so many of us.
Thanks, everyone.
Also just existing in the catalogue, I’d wager. There are so many games I’ve faved so that I can buy them when I have money, that I wouldn’t know of otherwise.
Not gonna lie, letting someone else do all the promoting is certainly one of the reasons I’m not seriously considering self-publishing.
Reading this does take some weight off my mind. As @hustlertwo said, buying advertising is cost-prohibitive and ineffective unless you have thousands to spend in very targeted communities. I am nearly clueless about all this and CoG and HG have been doing their thing for a good while now.
For an old project, I went around the net making a large mailing list of YouTubers, reviews, magazines and blogs which I thought might like to look at an old game- about 500 addresses. No one responded, as I didn’t really have anything to offer, except for an indie magazine. To be fair, they created a nice spread about the old game but, as far as I could tell, the effect was negligible. Still, it was a lovely spread!
This company is not perfect. I have had gripes with them both public and private. But I volunteer my time to mod on the subreddits specifically because I believe in and am grateful for the unique opportunity to reach a wide audience while still maintaining nearly complete creative control. Hosted Games marries the best elements of self-publishing and working with a publisher. It’s so great that, if anything, it’s also constraining. I don’t really want to work on other projects I have in mind, like trying to get some more of my children’s books out there or writing my screenplay, because no other avenue provides guaranteed acceptance and monetization like here. Why would I self-pub a picture book to sell 65 copies when I can write Grandparenting Simulator and sell thousands? It’s a no-brainer.
You put it so well. Back in the day, I’ve had the odd short story published, in magazines and collections, the old-school way. I’ve published a fantasy novel through a small publisher, with basically no promo, and sold very little, though I’m still proud I got it out there. I’ve also self-published and gained no traction. It is very difficult to publish stories, more so children’s stories, without having personal connections in more well-known publishing houses.
My brief interaction with Hosted Games has led to more feedback with one of my stories than anything I have ever done. I am amazed that this place offers anyone the chance to get published, with a pre-built and receptive fanbase that is willing to give unestablished names a go.
Obviously, this doesn’t come with any guarantees but it gives us a fighting chance at having stories seen and enjoyed that otherwise would linger in forgotten corners of our minds and hard drives.
I’d be more than happy to review your book mate. I’ll probably wait until release so I can pay you for it though.
Reddit iz for Gitz, not for true Orky masterpieces!
Most youtubers will want to be paid as advertising unless you luck out with someone who does “lets play” type things who might consider a copy of the game. But text games aren’t very exciting to watch other’s play for most people in the scheme of things so it’s pretty niche. I’m on the fence with “let’s plays” anyway if they help or hinder sales if people can just go watch it on youtube. I did actually ask a couple of relevant channels about a paid shout out for one of my games (I thought it might be something that’d work since I’d seen them do quick shout outs for indie books on rare occasion) and it was prohibitively expensive (like thousands) and would not at all have been worth it. (I’m guessing maybe the books were for people they knew unless someone was feeling like taking a massive risk.)
Not so much useful for promoting it, but post release, having a discord server active gives you a nice informal place to let fans talk about it, but that might not be worth it because you have to have a few guys maintaining it and spend at least some time on their answering questions and otherwise doing stuff to keep it active
My green brutha in arms! I’ll DM you. 
(actually what comes up in the emojis for ‘orc.’ mot-orc-ycle- Note the colour!)
Droppin’ propa troof bombs 'ere!
Yeah, it is difficult to imagine IF let’s plays, especially silent ones, being watched by many. Niche factor and a committed community could establish something. I mean, someone might have the charisma to pull it off. Video reviews are something with more traction. We are CYOA fiction and I feel we also have an inherent nostalgia-bait appeal to older gamers, those who flipped through actual paper books or typed into parsers as well as to the younger demographic who instinctively relate to the smooth-operations and the challenging and broader subject matter of modern IF.
I will say that a let’s play did help an old game of mine- a binary card-swiper, the basis for this orc game. That involved short, punchy sentences, simple graphics and soundtrack. But this was through sheer luck. The Youtuber randomly picked the game.
Yep, my emailing strategy was useless and utterly ignored and, as you say, getting a mention is not worth forking out loot for.
Hi Sujan,
I was thinking about something like this. Truth is, I don’t know anything about discord and what it entails time-wise. As you say, if it is to be just an open void, then it wouldn’t be worth it. But, if people actually wanted something like this to actually talk about the game, then it might be very handy during release month.
A great suggestion. I will mull it over.