How to Promote a Game on Steam? Need Advice!

[geghamyan.hrachya]

Hi everyone! I recently released my game PathUp! on Steam and realized I have no idea how to promote it. I’d really appreciate some advice on what steps to take to attract more players and make the game more visible.

What methods work best for indie developers? Is it worth investing in paid ads, or are there effective free ways to get noticed? Also, has anyone tried participating in festivals or streaming their game?

I’d be very grateful for any tips or personal experiences!

[hugo from bunnings]

youtube shorts or tiktok (its surprisingly effective)

[Mad Scientist]

youtube, X, other social media, relevant places that allow advertising games.

gameplay trailer on youtube would likely help, using only relevant tags.

[Subsonic]

(Free)
There's a lot of gaming forums and discord groups out there with many users, get all your media up and running first off, try target groups that would potentially play your game, offer out free access to leaders/mods of groups and streamer/reviewers, and hope the game is enjoyed by players.

(Paid)
SEO systems to generate visibility in web searches, paid for streamers, reviewers, youtubers, tictok, etc...

As you push to release try to build communities on various social media platforms, competitions, information and interact with users to keep them engaged.

Steam wishlists can give you an idea of the potential people, and a demo is quite good these days.

[Chika Ogiue]

Originally posted by geghamyan.hrachya:

Is it worth investing in paid ads, or are there effective free ways to get noticed? Also, has anyone tried participating in festivals or streaming their game?

I’d be very grateful for any tips or personal experiences!

If you have the money for it, look at some of the PR companies that specialize in indie releases. They will then handle everything for you, some even have their own platforms (Evolve PR for example) for easily getting promo keys into the hands of legitimate streamers / reviewers. I've worked with them in the past as a reviewer.

Do be aware that if you choose to handle PR yourself that people will try to con you out of keys. Always make sure that the person is who they say they are and will cover your game.

[geghamyan.hrachya]

Thank you for your advice.

[Thiesen]

wouldn't a dev know the Steam rules and guidelines???

[Brian9824]

Originally posted by geghamyan.hrachya:

Hi everyone! I recently released my game ###### on Steam

I just looked and your game doesn't appear to actually be released...

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

The moment you mentioned the title here and didn't ask to join the Steamworks group for game devs to ask how to market your game properly, I hard ignored the title on the store page.