Compared to previous gens, indie (and AA) games and studios are on the rise nowadays. But that's not always a good thing to have. With more games being developed and published, there will be more competition in the market. The problem is, indies and some smaller scope (AA) games don't really have the means to promote their games the same way as blockbuster AAA ones with commendable marketing budgets. Besides budget, they also don't have well-known brand identity. Unlike AAA games, most outlet and gaming sites won't rush to write articles and videos every week to talk about indie and lesser known games. It's up to us.
But why?
Many successful businesses, including video game studios, started from the bottom. Some indie devs show promising prospects, and if they can continue to grow with one successful game after another, they might be the ones who will provide us AAA games in the next few years. Moreover, many AAA devs are straying away from traditional game design and philosophy nowadays, everything is open world and service games. You wouldn't want that, right? Meanwhile, indies and smaller games still offer the traditional gaming experience, single player which you can finish without having to worry about microtransactions, weekly updates and such. They might be the ones who will replace today's AAA studios sometime in the future.
What can we do?
Obviously, you can buy their games. This is the most direct but not really a budget-friendly way to support them. But worry not, there's another way, which is the power of the Internet. There's 2 kinds of marketing that I know of, paid and organic marketing. Paid is what most big publishers do (though some smaller ones, even indies do this too). But the 2nd kind of marketing is what we can do. It's simple, when you find an interesting indie/unknown game, share it everywhere. If you have a social media account(s), you can share the game there. The more followers you have, the better. If you have accounts in various video game boards (like Era), you can also post a thread about any news the game had. Yes, basically it's like we treat AAA games here regularly.
You saw some news about new trailer of some game, you create the thread about it. If there are some impressions or previews being posted online, you post a thread about it to compile them or share them on your timeline. So, why can't we do the same for indie and other smaller games? Yes, there's very high chance that your post will be ignored. But that's fine, as replies and activities are not the main goal of your post. What really matters is the impressions. For example, your thread might only get 5k views, but what if 1% of those ended up buying the game? That's already 50 copies you contributed to support the devs. And it doesn't stop there, someone who saw your post might re-share the game on their timeline or other sites, which will lead to more impressions. Every little action you make to support the game may help the devs one way or another.
Basically, I think it's the time for us to be more positive and supportive towards indies and smaller games and promote them however we can, even if you ended up not buying them. Every little thing we do would mean a lot to them.
But why?
Many successful businesses, including video game studios, started from the bottom. Some indie devs show promising prospects, and if they can continue to grow with one successful game after another, they might be the ones who will provide us AAA games in the next few years. Moreover, many AAA devs are straying away from traditional game design and philosophy nowadays, everything is open world and service games. You wouldn't want that, right? Meanwhile, indies and smaller games still offer the traditional gaming experience, single player which you can finish without having to worry about microtransactions, weekly updates and such. They might be the ones who will replace today's AAA studios sometime in the future.
What can we do?
Obviously, you can buy their games. This is the most direct but not really a budget-friendly way to support them. But worry not, there's another way, which is the power of the Internet. There's 2 kinds of marketing that I know of, paid and organic marketing. Paid is what most big publishers do (though some smaller ones, even indies do this too). But the 2nd kind of marketing is what we can do. It's simple, when you find an interesting indie/unknown game, share it everywhere. If you have a social media account(s), you can share the game there. The more followers you have, the better. If you have accounts in various video game boards (like Era), you can also post a thread about any news the game had. Yes, basically it's like we treat AAA games here regularly.
You saw some news about new trailer of some game, you create the thread about it. If there are some impressions or previews being posted online, you post a thread about it to compile them or share them on your timeline. So, why can't we do the same for indie and other smaller games? Yes, there's very high chance that your post will be ignored. But that's fine, as replies and activities are not the main goal of your post. What really matters is the impressions. For example, your thread might only get 5k views, but what if 1% of those ended up buying the game? That's already 50 copies you contributed to support the devs. And it doesn't stop there, someone who saw your post might re-share the game on their timeline or other sites, which will lead to more impressions. Every little action you make to support the game may help the devs one way or another.
Basically, I think it's the time for us to be more positive and supportive towards indies and smaller games and promote them however we can, even if you ended up not buying them. Every little thing we do would mean a lot to them.
