Getting your indie game featured by gaming media can be a game-changer. Press coverage boosts your credibility, awareness for your game, drives wishlist growth on Steam, and puts your project in front of milions of players you might never reach on your own.
Here's a 6-step guide on how you can get press coverage for your indie game!
1. Conduct market research about your niche
Before you pitch, do a little research on where your game fits in the current market. Which outlets cover your genre? Who recently wrote about similar titles? What trends or angles are journalists currently excited about? In other words – you should already understand who your potential target audience is.
The more you understand your niche and the journalists covering it, the easier it’ll be to tailor your pitch and make your story stand out.
2. Prepare a killer trailer
To get journalists interested in writing about your game, you need to give them something concrete that lets them know what your game is all about. And the best way to do this is through a trailer. That way, they will get a solid impression of your gameplay mechanics, music, and graphics. And so will the readers once the press release goes live. And, who knows? Your trailer may get picked up by some gaming influencers and get a free feature on their channels.
Pro Tip: For a bigger boost, schedule a press release for every major milestone in your game development process. For example, after the release of your trailer, after the launch of a demo version, and when you have a date set for your game launch. In terms of how many trailers you should have – that really depends on your budget and time limitations, but a general rule of thumb is to have at least four trailers. One for Steam page announcement, one for release date announcement, one for your demo, and one for your launch.
3. Give journalists something worthy to write about
Before sending out the press release and contacting the journalists, it's always good to step into their shoes. Writing news, articles, top lists, etc. is their job, and the more views they get from their piece of coverage, the more money they get. Think of any potential marketing bits you have up in your sleeve.
Maybe you have a really great demo that is already trending among the content creators? Or maybe you have a brand-new DLC that will be coming to your game soon? Think of any potential topics that might bring additonal traffic to their website – that will highly increase your chances of securring a coverage from high-traffic sites.
4. Come up with a great hook for journalists
You need to sell your game to the journalists right from the headline. Why? Because they probably receive hundres of such requests each day, and it’s not feasible to publish each and every one. So, they need to pick and choose. To make sure that your request gets picked, you need to pique their interest with a great hook.
Think about how your game differs from that of others and turn it into a catchy headline. Does it have a feature that everyone’s been clamoring for in games? Have you done something unique with the gameplay mechanics? Draw attention to it and use words that get people excited about your game.
5. Write the press release
Now that you have the trailer and headline, it’s time to actually write out the press release. Make sure to include all the necessary details, including any numbers that show off the buzz around your game (such as number of wishlists so far, views on your trailers, or newsletter sign-ups).
Prepare a press kit along with the press release. This should include all the details that journalists would need about your game to give you some press coverage. In general, good press release should include:
- Catchy heading – for instance – Game X meets game Y in this new rougelike deck-builder coming this November!
- Game overview – 3-4 sentences about what your game is.
- Key features of your game – bulleted list works best
- Easily accessible links – Store Page, trailer, press kit, social media
- Developer quote – it's good to have that but not necessary. It adds a little bit of human voice behind it.
- About your studio section at the end – that's really good to have especially if you're thinking about building your brand. It's even better if you have a cool story to tell (game made by students, game made by husband and wife, etc.)
And last but not least, do not forget to include your press kit as well. You can either send it as a downloadable or hosted folder which includes:
- Trailer Video – mp4 format should be enough. The higher the quality, the better.
- 5-10 different high-res screenshots
- Fact sheet (platforms, release date, price, developer name, etc.)
- Game and studio logo
- Key art with and without game logo – remember that most of the sites will need to create their own cover image for their coverage, so it's important to give them good-looking key art without any logos. If you want to be super nice, you can include editable key art as well (in .psd format for instance).
- Contact info and review key request form
6. Reach out to journalists
Once everything is ready, make a list of journalists who publish news about indie games and collect their contact information on a spreadsheet. Consider statistics like readership rate and reach of the media outlets. Start reaching out to them via email with your request for press coverage. If you don’t receive a response, don’t hesitate to follow up once or twice.
Keep in mind that these journalists will receive hundreds if not thousands of email before something really important (like Next Fest for instance), so try to send out the press release way in advance. Usually 3-4 weeks before should give them enough time to prepare a coverage, and you leave yourself some space for potential follow-up message. You can always include embargo information if you fear that the coverage might go live too early.
Think of your press outreach like you think of your game: it’s all about creating an experience people care about. Give journalists a great story, the right assets, and an easy way to share your work and you’ll see the results in both wishlists and headlines.
Or you can simply contact us at Campaign Cooperative and let us take care of creating a stunning press release about your game.
.png)