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Getting press coverage for your indie game is an underrated way of tapping into an undiscovered audience. You get to nurture relationships with gaming journalists and get more eyeballs on your indie game. Moreover, there’s always the chance that an influencer will read the press release, fall in love with the premise of your game, and make a video about it, giving you more free PR!
Here's the how and when of indie game press releases.
How to find the right journalists
The first step is to identify the media outlets you want to get your press release published on and make a list of the journalists to reach out to. Look for places that cover other indie games in your genre to reach the right audience i.e. players who like your genre and stay on top of new indie game releases in that space. Once you make the list, get the journalists’ contact emails.
Pro tip: Reaching out to 5 journalists/ creators who consistently play and write about indie games in your genre will give you more success than sending out mass emails to 20 general journalists.
What to include in your press releases
Now, it’s time to write the press release. Here’s what it should include:
- A title/ hook that grabs the attention of the journalists (and the readers) right away. Think of something interesting/ unique about your game, and make that your title. For instance, something like “Genfanad got its Kickstarter fully funded within 24 hours!”
- Information about your game, including its main storyline and what it offers to the players. Think about the unique details of your game and really hammer in on them here. Is your game pioneering a new kind of feature? Does it make players feel like they’ve entered an immersive fantasy world? These are the kind of unique selling points that your press release needs to contain.
- Quotes from the developer (you) about the creating process and/ or some early testimonials from users who have gained early access to the game. This gives your game some social proof and credibility.
- An “about” section at the bottom where you include details about the game, such as genre, developer info, contact email, website link, launch date, trailer, or a link to the demo version, if available.
When to send the press releases
Players aren’t just interested in reading everyday updates about which indie games are currently being developed. They want to know about the interesting things that are happening in the indie gaming space. This could be a new game reveal, a trailer release, or a demo version launch, or an influencer live stream play-along! So, if you don’t have any buzz-worthy news to share, media outlets probably won’t run your press release.
This means you need to time your PR outreach right. If you’ve got something planned, start contacting journalists a couple of weeks in advance. This gives them enough time to time the publication so that it creates a lot of hype. It also gives you enough room to follow up and seek alternative outlets if you don’t hear back.