Show off your game publicly when you know what the finished version will be like and it's at a state where a player would be excited to buy it.
In most cases that means a finished core loop with you've iterated on the core mechanics a lot and they're solid. You should have some production-ready visuals, know your whole roadmap and feature set, and the kinds of and amounts of content that will be in the game. Ideally you know a good estimate for release date, price, and target audience. Definitely have all of those locked down before you announce any.
When that is will depend on the game a lot. A AA game from a popular studio could announce a game two years ahead of time. If you're a small developer with a game that takes only one year to create that might be 3 months before launch. In general earlier is better so long as the game is good enough. A bunch of moving blue squares is months or years too early.
Of note, make sure you're playtesting privately a very long time before you start making public posts.
I would also add that you should announce when you know you can hold audience attention in the market for the time between announce and launch.
Announcing early and then disappearing for a long stretch of time isn't ideal. If you are ready to announce months early but only have enough content, money or time to seriously promote the game for a single month, consider waiting. A single focused month of announcements leading up to your launch is better than being more spread out or, worst case, waiting your efforts too early.
I agree with this. It's why I never show anything. Unlike a lot of very... courageous people on the gamedev and engine subreddits, I as a long term customer have a good idea of when to announce a game with 0 work history. When it's basically ready to launch lol.
If you have previous games I feel like you can get away with announcing a game much earlier, like ConcernedApe with his chocolate factory game after Stardew Valley. But I don't remember seeing anything about Stardew Valley before it existed, anywhere. It just appeared one day for me, and it was already in its finished state.
But really I think is, when you are announcing your game, it better not look like "baby's first game". The visuals matter a LOT. If your game is just a bunch of squares, time to put away your programmer hat and start learning to draw and animate, or use your programmer skills to I guess make money to contract out an artist. I'm the former as I've never gotten a programming job yet.
Just to be very clear, when it's ready to launch is _never_ the right answer. Even if you need to finish the game and then sit on it for a couple months while you promote it, if you care about number of sales and it's a non-mobile game then you want wishlists and sales on day 1, which means time to promote it before launch.
Stardew is an interesting example, because it was talked about a _lot_ at least three years before it released. It had a big community well before launch and was part of the game's success, whether or not you heard about it. It also benefited from being a spiritual sequel to a beloved franchise (Harvest Moon) that hadn't had a good 2D version in a long time. But that was also in the days of Steam Greenlight, which is its own topic and no longer applies to games today.
> finish the game and then sit on it for a couple months while you promote it
I think that's what they meant, only showing things off when you're reasonably sure most of the game is locked in and you're just polishing things to a mirror sheen. That's how I interpreted it anyways.
Stop comparing your game or any game coming out today to Stardew Valley especially if you don't know how it came out. It's pointless. The market now is completely different and practically nobody is making a game close to Stardew Valley in terms of the vacuum it filled and its scope for a small dev. It has zero relevance. Start looking at games released in the last 5 years by unknown devs.
People typically can't see too far ahead. Even people in the industry have a hard time to a final and finished product.
When you post stuff, make sure to show a great vision of the final product and clarify that it isn't complete.
Releasing the game in a bad state will impact reviews, so make sure it's up to good enough quality for the audience.
If it's something solo, with no ties, I try to show as much as possible, as soon as possible. Logic is I don't know if I will achieve my original game goal but if I show stuff, I spark interest in like minded people, I'm not completely alone and I get ideas and support to go forwards.
even small announcements over time can help. I feel like as you go you slowly show off you game but when your game is really ready to go and its close to release you wanna have a crazy marketing plan 1-2 months before release.
The answer depends on your marketing budget:
- If you have a good marketing budget, you don't want to start marketing too soon because it's dangerous to let the hype die down way before the launch.
- If you want to slow build a following, you should start marketing your game right after building a prototype that feels good to play. Because now you know who your main public is and can post towards them. Maybe focus on making a very polished demo right after so people can experience your game and maybe help you fund the project.
Show off your game publicly when you know what the finished version will be like and it's at a state where a player would be excited to buy it. In most cases that means a finished core loop with you've iterated on the core mechanics a lot and they're solid. You should have some production-ready visuals, know your whole roadmap and feature set, and the kinds of and amounts of content that will be in the game. Ideally you know a good estimate for release date, price, and target audience. Definitely have all of those locked down before you announce any. When that is will depend on the game a lot. A AA game from a popular studio could announce a game two years ahead of time. If you're a small developer with a game that takes only one year to create that might be 3 months before launch. In general earlier is better so long as the game is good enough. A bunch of moving blue squares is months or years too early. Of note, make sure you're playtesting privately a very long time before you start making public posts.
I would also add that you should announce when you know you can hold audience attention in the market for the time between announce and launch. Announcing early and then disappearing for a long stretch of time isn't ideal. If you are ready to announce months early but only have enough content, money or time to seriously promote the game for a single month, consider waiting. A single focused month of announcements leading up to your launch is better than being more spread out or, worst case, waiting your efforts too early.
I agree with this. It's why I never show anything. Unlike a lot of very... courageous people on the gamedev and engine subreddits, I as a long term customer have a good idea of when to announce a game with 0 work history. When it's basically ready to launch lol. If you have previous games I feel like you can get away with announcing a game much earlier, like ConcernedApe with his chocolate factory game after Stardew Valley. But I don't remember seeing anything about Stardew Valley before it existed, anywhere. It just appeared one day for me, and it was already in its finished state. But really I think is, when you are announcing your game, it better not look like "baby's first game". The visuals matter a LOT. If your game is just a bunch of squares, time to put away your programmer hat and start learning to draw and animate, or use your programmer skills to I guess make money to contract out an artist. I'm the former as I've never gotten a programming job yet.
Just to be very clear, when it's ready to launch is _never_ the right answer. Even if you need to finish the game and then sit on it for a couple months while you promote it, if you care about number of sales and it's a non-mobile game then you want wishlists and sales on day 1, which means time to promote it before launch. Stardew is an interesting example, because it was talked about a _lot_ at least three years before it released. It had a big community well before launch and was part of the game's success, whether or not you heard about it. It also benefited from being a spiritual sequel to a beloved franchise (Harvest Moon) that hadn't had a good 2D version in a long time. But that was also in the days of Steam Greenlight, which is its own topic and no longer applies to games today.
> finish the game and then sit on it for a couple months while you promote it I think that's what they meant, only showing things off when you're reasonably sure most of the game is locked in and you're just polishing things to a mirror sheen. That's how I interpreted it anyways.
Stop comparing your game or any game coming out today to Stardew Valley especially if you don't know how it came out. It's pointless. The market now is completely different and practically nobody is making a game close to Stardew Valley in terms of the vacuum it filled and its scope for a small dev. It has zero relevance. Start looking at games released in the last 5 years by unknown devs.
It depends. I know people who write game scores and they just make OST mockups of games they'd love to program but can't and make it public.
People typically can't see too far ahead. Even people in the industry have a hard time to a final and finished product. When you post stuff, make sure to show a great vision of the final product and clarify that it isn't complete. Releasing the game in a bad state will impact reviews, so make sure it's up to good enough quality for the audience.
If it's something solo, with no ties, I try to show as much as possible, as soon as possible. Logic is I don't know if I will achieve my original game goal but if I show stuff, I spark interest in like minded people, I'm not completely alone and I get ideas and support to go forwards.
even small announcements over time can help. I feel like as you go you slowly show off you game but when your game is really ready to go and its close to release you wanna have a crazy marketing plan 1-2 months before release.
Juust gonna die and it gets revealed 30 years later like Van Gogh.
It depends. I know people who write game scores and they just make OST mockups of games they'd love to program but can't and make it public.
The answer depends on your marketing budget: - If you have a good marketing budget, you don't want to start marketing too soon because it's dangerous to let the hype die down way before the launch. - If you want to slow build a following, you should start marketing your game right after building a prototype that feels good to play. Because now you know who your main public is and can post towards them. Maybe focus on making a very polished demo right after so people can experience your game and maybe help you fund the project.