My dev team and I have recently finally set up a game project after developing it in the dark for over a year now, and we’re so close to finishing it and releasing it to the public. We had made a pre-alpha version playable and public like 1-2 months ago, however we recently closed it so we can focus on the full release. The problem is…
We got no community.
We don’t have anyone pretty much aware of the game’s existence (besides a lot of our friends who we have shown it to) and therefore nobody really caring about this game project. Yes, we have made everything that’s necessary for a game project. We made good thumbnails and icons, badges, social links, a group, and even an OST! So, since we have put so much effort into it, I find it a complete shame that it will probably release without anyone playing it.
What can I do to create a small community atleast? We can’t advertise it either. We got no funds.
You can try to use social media to gain a following, or spread the game by word of mouth. You don’t need a lot of CCU for a game to start growing, you just need a starting point to get impressions in home recommendations and friend activity. It’ll be slower than sponsors, but you can try making posts in Discord servers and putting the game in your Discord status and bio. You can also get some friends to play the game and give it a starting point so that their friends can join them, and so on (make sure you have an invite friends reward). It’ll be very slow growth, but it can work if you have very good average session time, retention, etc. Those types of stats are critical for success, and you’ll get nowhere if they’re not good.
One thing to note is that your game title is actually grammatically incorrect, and I’d recommend fixing that before release, as it looks sloppy and unprofessional to a potential player. “How Waking Up at 3AM Feels Like” should be changed to “What Waking Up at 3AM Feels Like” or “How Waking Up at 3AM Feels.”
Well, the title is kind of satire and is subject to change.
Also, I might be good at game development but I don’t have a good idea of how retention, session time etc. works. I’m not sure how to handle that part of developing a game.
(edit cause I forgot to mention this)
not putting the game private would be a start to grow a community… just release it like this and keep working on it, you have no following anyways, there’s no hype no nothing, just release the playable build and work on the full game behind the scene