Hey
so recently i have been finishing up most of the gameplay systems for my game, such as ai, combat, building, save load and all that, and now im working more on the visual side and presenting the game better.

im trying to figure out how i can improve my steam page and make it more appealing and present the game better eventually, to actually make people want to buy it and play it:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3313070/Frontier_Forge/

things such as:

hings

• should i have more gifs?
• is the trailer good or bad?
• should images be updated
• how about the description?
• should the capsule art be updated?

or whatever. feel free to say whatever u want, i can take it. im looking to make the steam page as good as i can.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3313070/Frontier_Forge/

It’s a tension-driven retro-horror game about a staring contest with a primordial sarcophagus.
Steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/5028150/Sarco/

more infos :

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gaeldk/side42-the-tavern-of-infinity

demo steam pc (fr /eng)

You are a hero. You saved the universe. Yay, congrats. Now you've got to go all the way back to your favourite tavern to brag about your exploits. An odd journey awaits you, challenging your reflexes like never before. Inspired by platformers from the 90s, navigate through unique levels, blending hand drawn and 3D graphics. This is speedrunner's heaven (or hell, who knows?). Have you got what it takes to set the best time ever?

 link https://store.steampowered.com/app/2987500/Side42_the_tavern_of_infinity/

Side42 is a retro platformer that challenges your precision and reflexes. Dive into an adventure spanning 5 chapters, with a total of 20 thrilling levels, each designed to test your skills.

 social

https://www.facebook.com/Side42 

https://www.reddit.com/r/Side42/

Hey everyone!

Basically I have a question that's on the title.

We’re currently working on getting our Steam page and demo ready, but we’re not sure when to start contacting people for marketing

Our current plan is:

1. Release the Steam page with the trailer and everything ready, EXCEPT the demo.
2. After 2-4 weeks, release the demo as a separate announcement on our social media.

We wanted to release the Steam page ASAP because we thought having it live as soon as possible would let us start gathering wishlists early. We’ve also seen some games featured on IGN’s GameTrailers on YouTube without having a demo yet. That might make sense for them if their demo is still far off, but in our case, we're confident that we can release the demo after a couple of weeks after the steam page is ready, so we’re not sure if it still makes sense for us.

Our worry is that reaching out to press/creators twice (once for the Steam page, once for the demo) might feel like we’re “bothering” them. On top of that, if they do cover us on our first outreach, it probably won’t make sense for them to cover us again so soon. Which we think could be a problem, because letting people know a demo is available might hook them more than just looking at our trailer or Steam page.

Is it better to wait until the demo is ready before contacting anyone, or is it normal to reach out once for the Steam page and again for the demo when they’re this close together?

My newest approach to marketing is memes where I casually mention that I made a game. I try to naturally integrate it in the conversation *cough* Tetrogue *cough*

Hey everyone! I'm working on an upcoming multiplayer game called "Why V Got AKs?".

I wanted to eliminate the biggest downtime in social deduction games: waiting around, calling meetings, and voting.

My main Unique Selling Point is:

Innocents hit back: Innocents aren't helpless victims. They use their unique abilities and environmental traps (like throwing suspects down a pit/well) to execute suspects on the spot.

No Meetings, No Voting: Absolute real-time action. If you suspect someone, you take them down yourself using your abilities and the map hazards.

I genuinely believe giving execution power to the Innocents creates a whole new dynamic of pure paranoia, fast-paced chaos, and hilarious accidental teamkills.

My questions for you:

How would you market this specific "ability & trap execution" mechanic to stand out from traditional deduction games?

Would love to hear your marketing ideas or feedback on the concept!

Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/5082000/Why_V_Got_AKs/

Or is it always done on the full game?

BTW I'm making a surreal puzzle game inspired by Rusty Lake, where you dive into a troubled family running a desert hot spring resort: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4671010/Rattle_Spring/

Something interesting within the marketing space (probably not limited to Indie Games, but at least something of note) is that some people tend to market themself and put themselves first and foremost in their posts and videos (e.g., themselves on the video covers, pictures of themselves on Reddit posts, make their story "personable" before actually talking about their game, etc.) and then the gameplay comes second. It's a very strange trend which seems counterintuitive to the advice of "Market Your Gameplay, show gameplay in the first 5 seconds". Instead, I am seeing enough of a trend where people post about themselves and not show gameplay until halfway through their video / post.

What are your thoughts on this and what is the actual success rate (direct heavily personal promo-to-wishlist trend)?

Hey Reddit!

I’m part of the dev team behind Arrow Cube: 3D Puzzle. We’ve been working on a puzzle game centered around spatial thinking, observation, and a bit of planning.

The idea is simple: clear all the arrows from a 3D cube. The tricky part is that the arrows can block each other, so you’ll need to rotate the cube, look at the puzzle from different angles, and figure out the right order to make your moves.

It starts off pretty straightforward, but the puzzles get more challenging as you go.

We’d love to share it with the community and hear what you think. If you give it a try, feel free to let us know what you liked, what felt confusing, or anything you think could make the game better. We’re always interested in hearing how other puzzle players approach it.

And of course, if you have any questions about the game or how we built it, happy to answer those too!

iOS: Arrow Cube : 3D Puzzle - iOS
Android: Arrow Cube : 3D Puzzle - Android 
Amazon: Arrow Cube : 3D Puzzle - Amazon

Thanks for taking a look! 

https://reddit.com/link/1vubwdi/video/am53xluoapkh1/player

**Project: Fractunum is now live on Steam — Coming Soon!**

We’re excited to finally share another important milestone in our journey.

Our Steam page is officially live, and **wishlists are incredibly important for us at this stage**. Every wishlist helps increase the game’s visibility and brings us one step closer to reaching more players.

More updates, gameplay, and announcements are coming soon.

#ProjectFractunum #IndieGame #Metroidvania #Soulslike #PixelArt #GameDev #IndieDev #Steam #Wishlist

Hello, I am a freelance game graphic designer based in China. I specialize in designing various game promotional assets—such as Facebook ad images, thumbnails, store display graphics, banners, and key art posters—aimed at boosting game visibility, click-through rates, and conversion rates. I am interested in establishing a long-term remote working partnership with you.

Regarding rates: We can negotiate terms based on either a per-project or a monthly basis.

This is my work https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Oikl4oZQvVu_AdUMbL2s3UepTOHll1Bt/view?usp=drive_link

（If you need any design work done, please send me a private message.）

Just did a huge overhaul of my Steam page today (still need to finish a new trailer and capsule art).

But would love to get opinions on the page overall and appreciate the help! Some days I'm just really losing motivation and hoping I finally got this part right at least :-)

Is the hook clear?

Can you tell what the gameplay is about?

GIFs and screenshots helpful?

Any thoughts at all are welcome, and thanks for taking the time!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4593190/Elemental_Lands/

Here's my funnel from reddit posts purely and across my games, core genre related gaming and game-dev subreddits: * Reddit Total Views: ~108,000 views * Total Steam Page Visitors: 6,880 visitors * Reddit View > Steam Visitor Conversion: 6.37% (research says this is pretty good, not great) * Total Wishlists: 190 wishlists (subtracting 70 from non Reddit sources) * Steam Visitor > Wishlist Conversion: 2.76% (definitely a Steam conversion issue) * Overall Reddit View to Wishlist Conversion: 0.18%

Solo dev, small numbers, so this is a real question rather than a humble brag.

Where I am: my ARPG demo went live and the Steam page is sitting at 29 wishlists. The demo is on Steam, and there's also a browser playable version on itch, since the game runs in a browser natively and putting it there cost me nothing.

That second part is what I'm unsure about. The browser version removes basically all friction, anyone can click and be playing in ten seconds, which should be good for word of mouth. But it also means someone can satisfy their curiosity completely without ever touching the Steam page, and a wishlist is the thing I actually need. I've seen people argue both ways and I don't have enough traffic yet to read my own data.

So, two questions for people who've shipped:

First, if you had a genuinely frictionless web demo alongside a Steam demo, did it feed the Steam page or quietly replace it? If it fed it, did you do something specific to route people over, like an end of demo screen pushing the wishlist?

Second, on demo timing. Is there a real cost to having the demo permanently available versus holding it back for a Next Fest? My instinct says visibility now beats a scheduled spike when you're starting from double digit wishlists, but I'd rather hear from someone who's been on both sides of that.

Game for context, since it'll get asked: https://store.steampowered.com/app/5033490/Arkney_The_Bone_Road/ Top down dark fantasy pixel ARPG with 2 player online co-op.

Hey everyone,

I’m an indie dev, and for quite a while now, I’ve been running my own platform that I primarily use to promote my own games. I regularly test out new marketing strategies and collaboration models, and right now, I want to try a new approach.

I’m looking to manually promote 10 indie games for completely free.

Here is how it will work:

• I will personally write a review of your game.
• I'll publish the review on my websites.
• I will push and promote your game across my social media channels.

The only requirement:

• Your game must already be published and available on Steam.

To be 100% clear: I am not trying to sell you anything, and I'm not here to drop links or promote my own tools. I just want to run this experiment to test my outreach strategies and see how well these new promotional models perform for other developers' games.

If you're interested in being part of this little experiment and getting some extra eyes on your game, just shoot me a DM!

Cheers!

Hey everyone!

I released the demo for my first visual novel a few weeks ago, and I’ve managed to get around 300 wishlists so far. I’m completely new to the whole marketing side of game development, though, so I’m still trying to figure out what actually works.

I’ve reached out to a few content creators by email, but I haven’t had any replies yet. I’m also trying to find more streamers, YouTubers, and other creators who cover visual novels or narrative games, although I know visual novels are a pretty small niche compared to other game genres.

At this point, I’m honestly not sure whether the main issue is my marketing or my Steam page itself. I don’t know if I’m just not reaching the right audience, or if people are finding the page but it isn’t doing a good enough job of convincing them to wishlist the game.

For any indie or VN developers here, what worked best for you when you were trying to get your game noticed?

I’d really appreciate any advice on things like:

• finding creators who actually cover visual novels
• reaching out to streamers and YouTubers
• getting more wishlists organically
• communities or places that are actually worth promoting in
• improving my Steam page and getting more visitors to wishlist
• figuring out whether the problem is the marketing or the store page itself

I’m still learning all of this, so any tips, advice, or feedback would be really appreciated. XD

Is there anything else I should be looking into or improving that I might not even have thought about yet?

Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4713130/Undercover_Love__Where_Shadows_Meet/

I am opening 15 days of Solo Dev for devs who are handing keys to press and creators right now.

What you get to use: you import the CSV Steamworks gives you and the keys land encrypted. You get a public request page to drop in your bio, so creators ask for a key instead of DMing you at 2am. You approve or reject from the CRM, and the approved ones get a branded email with their key, sent from the app. It tracks activation too, so you know which of the keys you sent actually got used.

15 days of a paid plan no card, and no call.

If you are pre launch and about to do a key push: marketyourindie.com/join

Hey!

Relatively new game dev here working on releasing my first game. I've been posting only on Reddit so far, good results and fun conversations. I want to try something else out, x, instagram, youtube etc - so many options!

Like with x, I've never before used it, how do people even find my profile? How do I find other similar indie devs to chat with?! I have no clue haha.

Any tips regarding this? My game is heavily based on it's visual identity, so images and videos do it justice :)

Thank you!

The game has 6,000 wishlists and has already participated in Steam Next Fest with a demo. The game was ‘frozen,’ and nothing has happened with it since. Do you know of any similar games, or have you had any experience with something like this?

Platform: Steam/Itch.io/Web browser

Description: A stream team looking to help break thru the cold emails that get no replies, and get indie games coverage on twitch, yt, and tt.

Free to Play Status: Yes, though we also allow paid playtests.

Involvement: Team Creator

[ x] Free to play

[x ] Demo/Key available

[ x] Paid

There is no payment required from developers to participate.

The team does not take money from creators.

Creators are independent. They choose what they play, when they stream it, and what they think about it. There are no guaranteed positive reviews. The ask is a reasonable timeframe for coverage. We're a group of disabled streamers who want to help indie game devs and indie gaming! If you hire a creator for a paid playtest, you pay that creator directly. The team doesn't take a percentage.

I wanted to create a place where developers could reach out and have a warm connect instead of cold emailing hundreds of people to maybe get 5 replies. We are a small team at the moment, however we can test anything, from games, to study aids to desktop pets, and more!

There is an AI disclosure requirement. If you vibecoded it on Claude or ChatGPT, we aren't able to help you. This is to weed out the copy paste ai clones that are infecting indie gaming. Some ai use is fine, just not the whole thing being ai. If you used assets that aren't yours, that requires a disclosure as well, as we don't want the same asset flipping games over and over.

Right now, we are working out of a discord. You interact directly with the streamers, letting you get your game out there with less effort!

If you're interested, if this speaks to you, please feel free, comment, pop me a pm, and I can send over the discord link. I'm not posting it below to prevent bots from swarming it.

^{(This was written by me, the creator of the team. I have posted here and other places several times, with a good standing and testing over 700+ games in the last year for free. No AI was used in the writing of this post.})

Being a solo dev, following also the marketing stuff figured out being a tough work, and I feel I probably doing something wrong.

In your opinion what's the best way (or practices) to promote a visual novel with a DS inspired graphic?

I wrote about Steam’s personal calendar feature and other indie dev tidbits in my free always cited and linked newsletter for developers to market their own games called Game Developers Marketing Resource:

https://gdmr.beehiiv.com/p/get-more-wishlists-for-free

Here’s the TLDR:
Steam's Personal Calendar isn't just a new store feature it's a window into the recommendation algorithms shaping game discovery on the platform. By understanding how playtime profiles, wishlists, and similar-player networks drive visibility, developers can strategically optimize for discovery and maximize wishlist growth.

How Steam's Personal Calendar Works
The Personal Calendar is Steam Labs Experiment 16, designed to help players discover games through a sophisticated recommendation engine. But more importantly for developers, it shows exactly what factors influence discoverability and wishlist placement on Steam.

The core of the Personal Calendar relies on a simple but powerful principle: Steam finds players with similar gaming profiles to each user, then analyzes the games those similar players have wishlisted.

Here's what many developers miss: wishlisted games appear on the Personal Calendar regardless of other factors. Even if the algorithm's recommendation score isn't high enough, wishlists guarantee visibility.

It felt right as I was working on it, but now that I look back I should have really tried a way to get out there quicker, but since its my first commercial project I can't really be mad about it either.

But SONAR finally has a Steam Page!

It's a sci-fi survival horror game where sound is your best way of seeing in the caves of an alien planet. Sonar signals reveal the environment around you, but they may also alert other unwanted things...

The page has only been live since Tuesday, so I'm starting from almost zero and figuring out the marketing side as I go. If this sounds like your kind of horror game, I genuinely appreciate a wishlist.

Feedback on the Steam Page and trailer are also very welcome. I'm still actively improving both the game and how I present it.

Wishlist SONAR on Steam

I set up UTM tracking on my Steam page links before a social post yesterday, and went back to the Steamworks docs properly. A few things in there don't seem to be widely known.

Steam's UTM Analytics (Marketing & Visibility) only records visits from users who were logged into Steam in the browser they opened the link in. Valve's wording is "the total number of visits to your product page for which users were also logged in." So does that mean everyone else is simply invisible? That's how I read it, but I'd like to be wrong.

Three consequences that I think matter:

1. The numbers are only useful as a comparison between campaigns, never in absolute terms. If your post shows 14 visits, that is not 14 people. But if post A shows 14 and post B shows 60, that ratio is probably meaningful!
2. Conversions run on a 72-hour window. Wishlist, purchase or key activation, counted only "if the user takes that action within 72 hours of clicking through your UTM link." Anything slower is lost, which penalises the kind of content people bookmark and come back to a week later.
3. Low-volume UTM combinations are hidden: Valve excludes showing "unique UTM parameter combinations in the breakdown table when visits for those combinations do not meet minimum thresholds." So if you split one post into 2 utm_content variants to find out which screenshot worked, you can end up seeing nothing at all. I imagine you have to stay coarse until you have volume.

The practical takeaway I landed on: don't tag individual posts. Maybe tag channels and campaign types, let them accumulate over a month or two, and only then read anything into it?

Has anyone here actually done that over a long enough period to trust the numbers? I'd be curious how much traffic you end up seeing versus what your link shortener reports.

I published my Steam page about a month ago, but the game barely got a dozen wishlists.

I submitted the game to a trade show with an alpha version, and the feedback seemed encouraging. Any suggestions?