Steam Next Fest!

If you’re like me, you didn’t get into game development because you were interested in marketing. Like it or not, constant marketing is what is needed in today’s world if you want to be a successful indie game developer. There are thousands of games released each year on Steam alone. Unless you want game development to be hobby, you have to market and sell your game somehow. It’s what I want to do and why I started Valles Games. I’ve been working on video games as a hobby for several years, but without a real plan for how to do it full-time. And if I don’t do it full-time, how can I continue to justify carving out the time away from family and friends?

Without regular, engaging posts on Twitter and Instagram along with videos on TikTok and YouTube, no one other than your team, your family and your friends will know about your game. The days of “build it and they will come” are long past.

Marketing is like exercise - you just need to do it!

There are a few ways to get a game sold. There is Steam, the Epic Store, Itch.io, and GOG to name the most popular. Each has their pros and cons. I’ve chosen Steam to start with. The PC game market is arguably the largest market and certainly is the most accessible for being able to actually sell an indie game.

Which brings me to the title of this post. Since the pandemic, Steam has started hosting a virtual event a couple of times a year to help game devs promote their games. It’s called Steam Next Fest and is an answer to game devs not being to attend physical events such as Pax. Steam Next Fest allows game devs with a valid demo and Steam Store page to live stream and have it featured on the main Next Fest page. I’ve registered Star Jet Alpha and will be live streaming on Friday, Oct. 7th @ 6:00 PM MDT.

This will be my first foray into live streaming and so far it’s been a real learning experience.

In my next post I’ll be summarizing what I learned from the entire Steam Next Fest experience.

As always, comments are welcome!