"I Thought That YouTubers And Press Would Help Me Increase My Wishlists, But I Was Completely Wrong"

...that's the most common issue I hear when talking to small indie game devs who have had "success" with the press and content creators.

For instance, I'm helping a small indie game dev who got featured on 80LV... had a streamer with 9 millions followers play his game... that streamers vod got over 21,000 views... and had a reddit post that went viral with 600,000 views... and yet they only have under 2,000 wishlists and very few sales at launch.

How is this possible!?

And don't get me wrong, this strategy of getting a lot of buzz from press and content creators does work. But only when you're a big studio. It works because bigger studios have more resources and more reach to make sure the player is constantly seeing the game. They can keep pumping money and time into making sure that momentum never stops.

But when you're a small indie game studio, your resources and reach go only so far. You'll get a spike in attention. Then your momentum stops. And then because your resources are low, it's hard to replicate that attention again.

So let me explain this issue in more detail. And then I'll show you how to fix this issue...

Argument #1: Inconsistent And Easy To Lose Momentum

If you ever had a YouTuber play your game, you know that you'll get a spike in Steam page visits, and a spike in wishlists.

But the peak of that spike doesn't hold and stays there. It drops right back down, really fast. And then there is no growth after. It's just a flat line.

And yeah, it's possible that maybe another content creator finds your game, or you get more press, and your momentum continues.

But what often happens is, that peak drops. Your growth line stays flat. You get a bit of anxiety because you don't want to lose momentum. Your hope fades that other press and content creators will find you. So then you decide to get back out there and find a YouTuber, or streamer, or game journalist to get another spike in wishlists.... to keep that momentum going.

But as a small indie game dev without a big following, it's easy to lose that momentum because getting featured by the press or by content creators once or twice or even three times, is not enough.

This is why they say in branding you gotta get a person to see your stuff at least 7 times.

But as a small indie game studio, branding isn't a good marketing strategy. Not yet at least. When you're this small branding doesn't help your small indie studio get off the ground.

And I'll explain how to get your studio off the ground and get consistent growth soon... but first I want to talk about...

Argument #2: Their Audience Isn't Your Audience

The reason why this strategy is so inconsistent for small indie game devs is because a content creator's audience is NOT there for you.

Remember that vod got over 21,000 views? It didn't get all those views because of the indie game itself. The indie game did not draw that crowd. That crowd was there because of the streamer's personality and ability to entertain.

Once that vod was over, so was the interest for that game. And that audience just moved on, waiting for that streamers next live stream or vod.

And yes, some of that audience went to that dev's Steam page and wishlisted the game. That caused that spike in his wishlist numbers.

But there was no growth because that's not the nature of online content. With online content, you are only as good as your last video, article, or post. If you stop, then the algo won't feature you. And the algo favours new videos over old.

And because new content is often shown more than old, the chances of other people seeing that vod months after it was published is very slim. It's possible. But the algo favours new content.

So that's why there is no growth after being featured by a big YouTuber, streamer, or press. The algo pushes new content more than old. And once that new content gets old, less people see it. And so momentum stops, and so does growth.

Basically, if you want consistent growth, you need to consistently be seen and heard by your audience. If you rely on a content creator's audience, you'll only have that audience for one video or story. And once that video or story is old, then that momentum stops because their audience moved on.

This leads me to...

Argument #3: You May Win Attention, But Not Valuable Attention

Most people you attract through press and content creators have no interest in your game. And the ones you do happen to attract will be low quality.

This is why you often hear about a small indie game's postmortem where they did manage to hit that magical number of 10,000 wishlists... yet their launch was still a failure.

Those 10,000 wishlists failed to convert into sales because those people never had any interest in that game anyway.

Yes, at that moment, when that person saw the game on their favorite YouTubers channel, they had interest. And through impulse they went to the Steam store, and wishlisted the game.

Then fast forward 3 to 4 months later, that person who impulsively wishlisted that game, will look at their Steam wishlist, and see that game, and forget why and when they wishlited the game in the first place.

Think about it yourself. How many games do you have on your wishlist that you forgot that you wishlisted -- let alone why you liked it in the first place?

So if you do happen to win any attention through this strategy, it won't be valuable attention. Your wishlist will be full of low-quality potential customers. That's because when that potential customer saw your game on some YouTube video, it was an impulse decision. And it wasn't a decision based on liking you and your game. It was based on because they liked the YouTuber or streamer or game journalist.

Again, if you're a bigger game studio, and you have fans, and you have momentum, then YES this is a good strategy. But if you're small, and you have very little traction or fans, and you're just trying to get off the ground, then this strategy is inconsistent because you're not really attracting your core target.

So what do you do?

A better strategy is to figure out who your target player is, find out where they hang out, and reach out to them.

Let me show you exactly how, next...

How To Get High Quality, Consistent Wishlist Growth

Look, everybody wants to have a game like Undertale or StarDew Valley where attention just keeps growing and growing -- with very little marketing and sales.

And everybody wants maximum growth with as little effort as possible. Like hacks. Productivity protocols. Simple Three Step Formulas.

But don't ever underestimate how hard it is to start from scratch, with no fans, no customers, and a game nobody has heard of before.

It's like a rocket. To get off the ground, it uses up 80% of its fuel.

Same with business. The only way to get maximum growth is through maximum effort.

And yes, that means spending hours and hours talking to potential customers, building relationships, slowly growing your Discord or Steam page Community Hub.

And yes, this is tedious.

And yes, there is a chance you might fail even after all this effort.

And no, results won't be quick and easy.

You will spend 80% of your time trying to get your game off the ground.

So the only way for true, stable, consistent growth is that you can't rely on other people to build your wishlist for you.

You have to figure this out yourself. And yeah, I'll give you a framework that worked for me when I built my first startup... and now I use this framework to help my clients.. But consistent, hard work, patience, and not giving up is the only way to grow your wishlists and maintain that growth.

Remember, there is MORE supply than demand for small indie games. You're competing with hundreds and thousands of other games for attention. And yeah, once in a while an Undertale shows up. But for 98% of the rest of us, this means that we need to put in the effort to find customers.

So here's what to do...

Your Challenge To Start Learning How To Find Players And Building Your Own Audience

If you made it this far, then you're a badass. And If you're serious about growing your wishlists and getting your game studio off the ground, then you gotta start burning 80% of the fuel. So here's what to do...

1. What's your game's genre? Go find a subreddit for it
2. Find a recent post, and go into the comments
3. Find a user, and right click their name, and send them a Chat / DM
4. Ask them, "Hey I'm making a (your genre here) game. Do you mind checking it out and giving me your thoughts? Here's the Steam link (your link here)
5. Commit to sending out 3 of these a day
6. And keep a spreadsheet of all the users who replied to you and you started a short convo with
7. When you've updated your game or have new content, send them another message telling them about your news
8. And don't be afraid to ask, "hey if this game is your jam, then join my Discord and check out my Steam Community Hub for more updates"

What you're looking for is, you're trying to discover your game's biggest appeal that resonates with players. Because once you discover that appeal, you can use it in your marketing to find more players.

So, that's your challenge. And I promise you that as you start talking to potential customers like this, you will slowly build your audience.

And yeah, it's slow, it's tedious, rejection sucks. But there are no short-cuts in business. If you want to grow, you need to put in the max amount of effort to get the max amount of growth.

And if you want me to grow your wishlists, then click the link below. But I highly recommend you do this because learning how to find customers is a skill as important as art, code, writing. Because you can't have a game studio without customers.

That's it my friend! Thanks for reading. And good luck with game dev and growing your wishlists with high-quality potential customers -- so that your game launch will be a success!

Hey Dev, What's Your Goal?

Launching soon, need wishlists? Click: Get Wishlists

Game sales low after launch? Click: Get Game Sales

Later!

Dariusz Konrad
Email: dariusz at mainquestmarketing dot com
Discord Username: dariuszkonrad
LinkedIn: My entrepreneurial successes
Work: Game devs I've helped so far