This seems like the ultimate talk on this subject for indie devs. It covers it all, gives example structures and plans to follow and even when it doesnt go deep into something its still mentioned and contextualized so you can research it on your own. Its a high level professional consult on a subject small devs struggle with, from macro to micro, and for free. Thank you very much, Michelle.

The topic was covered so well. I'm impressed! It is sad that so many game developers handle marketing as an afterthought. 😥 Michelle speaks very well and the practical tips were amazing. Thanks Michelle for the content, and the GDC team for bringing it here. You guys rock!

Ive been making games for 3 years now and ive literally never marketed, so this is will be really useful for my new game

As an indie game developer, Michelle Lega's GDC talk on "No budget marketing" was incredibly valuable. I've worked as a narrative designer and writer for years now but have little experience with the hands-on aspects of game development. Michelle's emphasis on building a community around your game and engaging with your audience is exactly what I needed to hear. Particularly her advice on using social media to connect with players and using player feedback to improve your game. I mean, I "get it," intellectually, but it's the weekly, Monday-Friday workload that I needed to hear more about. Michelle's talk was full of practical tips and strategies that I will absolutely implement in my own marketing efforts. Thanks, Michelle!

Best talk from this year (of the ones I've seen so far) 🎉 Thanks and greetings from Argentina ❤

We all should thank Michelle and GDC for sharing such a rich content. This has been helping me greatly along with talks like the one from Jared J. Tan. Amazing work from all of you.

This is so nice. Marketing Bible for indie devs! Thank you Michelle Lega and GDC for bringing up this important topic in a such a great way.

I cannot thank you enough for this talk, and all the tools that just filled my toolbox. Absolutely amazing.

This is such a great video on a complex topic that changes subtly every couple of years. Thank you!

I just started creating my Steam Page today for my first game. At least first official released. This is super helpful!

Excellent talk, thank you very much!

I screenshotted that hour a day marketing plan so fast. It was like BAM! Anyways, great talk. One day I'll start marketing it 😅...

This is one of the best guide for Indie teams. Thanks a lot !

Thank you I needed all these :X

As an Indie Developer myself, currently working on The Tale of Two Nekos. This is really helpful

Insanely valuable information here! Great talk. 🙌🏽

This is a useful GDC video, for sure. There's actual useful tools in here.

Thanks for the nice video. 👏🏻

Excellent talk, well structured and actionable advice!

Super interesting talk. Thanks a lot for it

Amazing talk! Perfect for hobbyist game devs that create games with low-budget or no-budget.

Great video!

While taking notes for this video, I amended your "story details" pitch example this way: The beautiful town of Horseburg has been overrun by evil horses with a penchant for stomping crops…especially carrots. Only one hero can save them…a special cowboy with grit. Are you that cowboy? Do you have the grit? *grins* I feel very proud of myself.

now that was some precious info

Super informative talk especially for Solo Devs. Worth watching more than once indeed

Anyone have a link to the Ana Opara twitter thread about Tik Tok strategy mentioned at 21:40?

This was great!

One of the most useful and informative talks I've ever watched here.

One of the best talks I've come across so far, especially for no-budget starters like myself with no marketing background. There was one thing where I have heard different advice, and that's in the area of giving out free keys to friends and family. The advice was exactly not to do that if you're still very small, as usually those people will be more eager to support, both with a purchase and a review. Not only will you lose some of the sales which Steam uses to judge whether you're on a good track or not (although admittedly you need more than those to get some extra Steam traction), you're also losing out on x reviews, since reviews from free copies don't count towards your 10 Steam review treshold. Currently I'm still thinking it's better to reach out to friends and family asking for help with a purchase (and review if they want to go the extra mile), and use the free copies to try and get some streamers/youtubers to play your game. (So asking help and reciprocating through other means rather than using the free keys to build some positive reciprocation balance.) From the talk I really liked the schedule, putting the asset preparation on Friday to kind of look back on what you did that week and also to have everything in place to make your monday posting easier and make for a smoother start of the week.

this is some Top Tier advice . nice one

45:37

Pitch: Buy some eggs, train your team, and battle your friends in this turn-based monster battling game! Well, I hope it works.

Amazing talk, thank you so much for making this available to folks. Any recommendations for board games? A lot of this applies, but the emphasis on channels like steam and de-emphasis on social media like Instagram (Facebook, I can understand not using) leaves me floundering a bit on where to start. Are the eyes really only on TikTok? As someone in graphic design and social media, it feels like a blind spot to only be using one channel for promotion.

That was interesting!

good talk

The comments about twitter haven't aged well.

Common Michelle W

Marketing your game is now almost more expensive than developing it. In today's world, without good marketing, you usually won't be successful with your game. A good video on a really important topic😀👍. Maybe I will also make more videos on the subject.

🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤😊

very good, even tyler the creator asked a question

"make JIFS..." uuugghhhaaa

Question about TikToc. I develop wargames. Would TikToc be worth it for this style of game?

What if my game is 15+? (violence) and I want to post on TikTok? Can I have my posts age restricted?

Was that Tyler the creator that asked the question around the 46 min mark?? lmao

Game is like football

It's hard to make a video about your game when you're the one who made it. I find I always come of cringy af cos my brain is too conflicted knowing too much about the game in general while trying to be cool and not care like 'what up fellow kids, this ol game thingy i made in 3 days (def not 3 years) check it or don't ya know its kool...' wtf do I say!!!!😂

Twitter is still alive and kicking, I wouldn't write it down. Especially now when the algorithm has been published, and you can abuse it to make your tweets more visible.

>hates current twitter >loves tiktok like clockwork

If you're a no name dev then do NOT focus that much on social media. I promise you'll be disappointed. Social media only benefits you if you already have a sizable following, but to get a sizable following you need to release a good game. See the issue? Better to spend time on a good demo, hire an artist to make a good steam capsule (thumbnail), and reach out to streamers and KZfaqrs, then put the demo in as many of online festivals as possible (steam next fest being the best). To summarize: only things that work for no name devs is streamers/KZfaqrs and online festivals. But to make those work you need a nice steam page and good demo. Edit: her 1st point is still valid though, need to come up with good messaging which can be communicated through your trailer and steam page.

And again concentrate only on Steam games like rest of videos. I'm making games myself, never playing any game from steam. There is web browser games, mobile games, normal installable PC games. But no one absolutely no one is talking about anything else. Just a steam. 😂

Downvoted for saying yiff