Hey there, fellow indie game dev! We know that making your own game is a lot of work, and often marketing is the last thing you have on your mind. We get that. But we also can prove that small changes in your go-to-market strategy can make all the difference and help your game to succeed. There's no magic formula; it's simple, in fact. You just need to get it in front of players!

We're here to help you with these 4 user acquisition strategies you should apply right now to reach your ideal players. Here they are:

1.Create your own website

We know, everybody says that! It can also take some precious time you may not have. But having a website for your game is a great way to establish a presence online. You might not need one of those fancy corporate websites full of sub-pages and extra fluff, a single page is enough to showcase your game, share updates, and even sell it.

Just make sure to deliver a visually pleasing and easy-to-navigate landing. You might give preference to high-quality images and videos that showcase your game properly. How about using the game characters to help bring life to your design? How about giving your players a sneak peek at your gameplay? Don't forget to include a call-to-action that encourages your visitors to download and play your game.

Examples of good call-to-actions (CTAs): Download Now, Buy Now, Buy this game. You can always look at what other people are doing for inspiration!

2. Reaching Out to Gaming Influencers

We’re in the influencer’s world, and surely you can find at least one that fits your game. You don't need to reach out to those influencers with billions of followers; they will probably be expensive and difficult to reach out to. So don’t spend your energy on them for now.

Influencers with a relevant number of followers can help you reach a wider audience by promoting your game to their followers. Look for influencers specializing in gaming and playing games similar to the one you have been developing.

Reach out to them and offer them a free copy of your game in exchange for a review or shoutout. If they like it, they may even become a long-term partner. It’s a win-win!

As a rule of thumb, anyone with over 1000 followers is considered a micro-influencer, and they will most likely agree to partner with you!

3. Participate in Gaming Communities

You would be surprised at how gaming communities can be great places to find potential players. Join forums, subreddits, and Discord channels that are relevant to your game. Game Jams, tournaments, Comiccons, everything is worth it for you to participate and connect with players.

If there’s something we noticed in our research and based on our own professional experience, it is that the gaming industry is powerful and engaged. You gain nothing but rewards for engaging in discussions with your own community and similar communities on Discord, social media platforms, meet-ups, and gaming associations (btw we’ll soon come up with some examples to share with you, there is cool stuff over there where you can get some support!).

Everybody likes to be included in the process, so share details about your progress, answer questions (some cannot even be related to your game), and provide valuable insights about your project. Just be careful with self-promotion in private groups. They might have their own rules that are important to cope with in order to be respectful and not spam the places.

I like to say that the secret is to tell a story and build a relationship with the communities. It’s also a good idea to look at how other people do it! The way they interact with their own community, or what is the story they are using behind their games.

People like to relate, so it’s always a good idea to make your game and even yourself more relatable.

4. Using Social Media to get noticed

You’ll see this here many times, you know what? Because it works! I genuinely believe that social media is one of the most accessible and powerful tools you could apply in your user acquisition strategy.

Platforms like Twitter (or X, I miss the bird!), Instagram, Tik Tok, and even Facebook (yeah, not dead yet) are excellent tools to share behind-the-scenes content, teasers, and release updates you may be doing to your game.

Engage with your followers by replying to comments, resharing their posts about your game (it’s always a nice touch, it’s like a celebrity is interacting with us!), creating hashtags and incentive them to use and tag you. Be extremely careful with comments on their reviews, embrace the feedback and make yourself open for discussions. You might get some rich insights on that.

Use your creativity and skills to make the most of video content; you already have it handy so why not give yourself a chance and use it to promote your game?

Certainly, there's no magic formula, but I promise you'll find insightful ideas to DIY your marketing strategies right here at your fingertips! Apply for an invite to our community and follow us on social media to keep yourself updated with fresh content!