Hi there. Medium-term dabbler in game design (predominantly ttrpg/board game) here who has recently taken my first step into development and publication.  I've seen a few threads here and elsewhere that talk about getting you and your work noticed - now, I understand the context and challenges of game dev in the current climate, but one piece of advice that I'm trying to put into practice is landing ideas/concepts with your target community - whoever that may be.  I know ttrpgs for example can sometimes be quite niche, so I'm keen to learn from any advice or lessons you can share on identifying and engaging with your intended market.  For example, do you do this predominantly through social media? Are there tried and tested methods and platforms or, conversely, things to avoid? Any thoughts gratefully received. Thank you.

I'm hardly a marker of success but I can at least attest to growing slowly over time. I never had anything remotely viral/successful but I just sort of keep doing my thing, posting consistently and making my games and youtube channel for the past 3 years. Every now and then I get a new subscriber until it eventually went from 60 to 900+ on youtube. I still only get handfuls of views and maybe 1 comment on most of my videos. And the traffic I get from youtube still in a drop in the bucket to the natural traffic I get from itch.io (which is also a steady drip). Just focus on doing what makes you happy imo. Make things you're passionate about, try to use relevant tags and put your best foot (presentation) forward. That's what makes me happily keep doing gamedev anyway.

The thing that's worked for me, as simple as it seems, is asking people to follow/subscribe to you. E.g., when you make a post to social media, include a "call to action" like, "Click that follow button for updates on the project!"

Also, as coffee drip mentioned, post consistently. That's something that I struggle with, but I know that the algorithm blesses those who make regular posts/uploads regardless of the platform.

I've had some success with game assets, and the trick is to pick a single marketing channel where your audience is likely to congregate, and post to that channel consistently. More than that spreads you too thin.

For me that was Twitter, for you that might be something else. Tiktok is king, so if you have the time to create and edit videos, it's worth going that route. I'll be using Reddit in a future project.

Just be aware that marketing has a disproportionate impact on your success. I'd go so far as to recommend a 50/50 split between marketing and product creation.

I'll read through and respond to each of these in the very near future (ended up posting that thread at a busy time!) but just wanted to pin my appreciation for your collective thoughts and advice in the interim.  I'm really grateful!

There are endless articles on marketing advice you can google, but your game is unique to you, and that should be your starting point.

My best tip would be to ask yourself: if the game came out tomorrow put out by somebody else, would you know about it, and would you buy it? If not, why not, and what can you do about that? If so, great, expand on that.