Does my long term plan make sense and is it feasible?

I am an indie game developer, who as of now quit freelancing and will begin a long and hard road to developing the game I've always wanted to create..........it's finally time.

Now maybe you're wondering why am I here in BlackHat to begin with, well simply put thousands of new games are released every year on Steam and it's only going to get worse. The market is beyond saturated, as a result long gone are the days of, "build it and they will come...." type of marketing.

Game development is a long and hard process. I won't be finished with my game for a minimum of 2 years. As a result, I've recently thought about what would happen if I actually started marketing before I even began development?

The plan is to start my marketing efforts years before my game is finished. But the key thing here is that I will not be marketing my actual game, instead, I will be trying to integrate myself within my game's niche community.

So alas, I am on this magnificent board, learning as much as I can about SEO and blogging.

My plan is to start a blog, youtube channel, social media in the niche that my game will be in. And then build that blog, yt channel, socials, web 2.0s over the next 2-3 years. I won't monetize or sell anything on these streams. Instead, I will be building authority and good history with Google.

Then when my game is complete or at least at a stage that it can be demo'd. I would leverage all that built-up marketing and my following to advertise my game.

Keep in mind, I will not be even mentioning my game or that I am building a game on these channels. Instead, I will try to become an authority figure within the game niche my game will belong to. Almost like poise as a critic within the niche.

My question to anyone here is do you think this plan is feasible? In that, I can grow a following over the next 2-3 years within a niche without pandering or selling anything to the audience and instead just giving content consistently?

My thinking is since I will not be trying to monetize any of this, I should get more success getting a larger following, right?

Any advice is appreciated. Keep in mind, I am in it for the long haul and just want to know what route to go in from the start.

One thing i can really advise you to do is video. Why? Because video is huge now and only going to get better.
Setup a youtube channel and then talk about the game you are developing. People will relate with you and follow your progress. So when your game is ready, a lot of people will be ready to buy.

Hope this helps.

It’s a great idea. The big thing will be content though; if you’re not promoting your game, what content and you going to provide? Maybe reviewing existing games within the niche? Industry news?

I agree with @Donald Kwame as well - video is really important.

I think it makes sense. I followed a guy on Twitter for a while who was in the process of building a game that was a spiritual successor to a computer game I used to play as a kid. He would poke fun at his lifestyle through moderately self-deprecating jokes about how he never slept anymore and whether or not anyone was ever going to care about his game. I ultimately bought a copy.

Just be genuine and don't come off as spam. Maybe post a lot of art or screenshots from your game to incite some interest. Ask for input. Get people to care about your game and root for you to develop it.

Then your fluff can be niche content for your genre or for indie-game dev industry news.

I think what you're doing is really awesome. I've always wanted to design a computer game but I think it's beyond my skill set and I don't have the time anymore.
Good luck!

It also seems to me that this is all possible. You have a great plan, the main thing is to paint it in stages to understand what you need to do. And why don't you develop a plan or strategy and come up with a proposal for a Kickstarter for your future game, funding is never superfluous.

If you make a video channel, how many times will you mention own game after it is launched ? You can instead tie up with other channels.

krishnaverma said:

If you make a video channel, how many times will you mention own game after it is launched ? You can instead tie up with other channels.

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Collaboration between bloggers of the same thematics is nice networking.

its a good plan, but i would still work on pre-marketing the game