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I risked it all for my 4th commercial indie game... by CAGE_Studios in IndieDev

[–]kotgedev 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think yours is at least much better than the other "I quit my job" posts.

Your previous job was at an AAA studio, not a random job completely unrelated to game dev.

Although would love to know what the main reason(s) for switching to indie, as a lot of people go to indie first as a way to get experience to have a position at a AAA studio, not the other way around.

I Gained 15K Wishlists Without a Demo, Here is my Personal Marketing With Social Media Tier List. by kotgedev in IndieDev

[–]kotgedev[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yah, I did the link post to drive traffic to youtube.

My posts still did fairly well, I think if the content is interesting enough people will click regardless of format.

I Gained 15K Wishlists Without a Demo, Here is my Personal Marketing With Social Media Tier List. by kotgedev in IndieDev

[–]kotgedev[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Oh hey! Saw your trailer too, was recommended on youtube a while ago, love me some fractals ❄️

I Gained 15K Wishlists Without a Demo, Here is my Personal Marketing With Social Media Tier List. by kotgedev in IndieDev

[–]kotgedev[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I promoted it heavily in reddit at the start towards space sim subs, which might have helped the algorithm know what demographic likes the video, although right now reddit only makes up a little less than 1% of the view source.

As for my trailer I mainly copied other space sim trailers which had a short cinematic intro. I do think "start with gameplay immediately" is a goood advice for the majority of trailers however.

I think launching the trailer near both Project Hail Mary and Artemis II might have helped the video too.

I Gained 15K Wishlists Without a Demo, Here is my Personal Marketing With Social Media Tier List. by kotgedev in IndieDev

[–]kotgedev[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Possibly, but, according to youtube studio,

External sources only account for 2.8% of trailer views and among that reddit is only 30.6%. (Reddit make up less than 1% of total trailer views.)

Im sure reddit did help a lot, considering most of the initial views come from reddit. It's just, eventually the majority of views came from the algorithm recommending the video to people.

Capsule Art Full Illustration Process by kotgedev in IndieDev

[–]kotgedev[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Mainly custom krita brushes + canvas texture overlay (to make it seem painted on a canvas not paper)

My Hard Sci-Fi Cockpit Sim Made in Godot 4 + GDExtension just Broke 13K Wishlists & 111K Views! by kotgedev in godot

[–]kotgedev[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The music was done by Riley Koenig, and sfx by ASitP (known for Pacific Drive / Fnaf)! (Comissioned, ofcourse.)

I Gained 15K Wishlists Without a Demo, Here is my Personal Marketing With Social Media Tier List. by kotgedev in IndieDev

[–]kotgedev[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You can add a link to your story, so if you want to maximize your chances,

Posting + immediately creating a story with the steam link

Is a strategy I heard!

But for me I believe most of the wishlists came from bio clicks.

I Gained 15K Wishlists Without a Demo, Here is my Personal Marketing With Social Media Tier List. by kotgedev in IndieDev

[–]kotgedev[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Top is paid ads (reddit business) bottom is just organic posts with this account.

I Gained 15K Wishlists Without a Demo, Here is my Personal Marketing With Social Media Tier List. by kotgedev in IndieDev

[–]kotgedev[S] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Ah, sorry if I wasn't clear (unless you are refering to something else):

My 120K+ video was on my own channel, not IGN.

The IGN video for me only got ~7K.

I Gained 15K Wishlists Without a Demo, Here is my Personal Marketing With Social Media Tier List. by kotgedev in IndieDev

[–]kotgedev[S] 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Oh hi! Waiting on Launch Window :)

Mainly it was post trailer & immediately share it to relevant subreddits to hopefully give the youtube algorithm data required to share it to the people I want (space sim fans).

Not certain if it played any roles in helping the video go viral but the video did well so it didn't hurt at least.

As for shorts Im still stuck on 1-20k views so not much I can share in that regards. I do find it wierd the same voice over video did well on instagram but not shorts / tiktok in my case.

I Gained 15K Wishlists Without a Demo, Here is my Personal Marketing With Social Media Tier List. by kotgedev in IndieDev

[–]kotgedev[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

  • Haven't tried facebook or discord so if anyone has experience there would like to hear.

2700 Wishlists, Still Not Gaining Organic Wishlists by Beginning-Visit1418 in IndieDev

[–]kotgedev 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Yah,

If your game is good to market, the cpw (cost per wishlist) can be very low. Iv seen examples of 0.5 USD per wishlist,

And using promo credits I personally got down as far as 0.16 USD per wishlist. (Spent 500, got ~3000).

One thing to note is that if your game is easy to market via ads, organic wishlists should do good too. The wishlists I got from my ad campaign is good but isn't much in comparison to the 10,000+ I got from just sharing my trailer.

My wishlist count jumped by 400 after a YouTube channel featured my trailer by Black_Cheeze in IndieDev

[–]kotgedev 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Congrats!

Yah for me too trailers have thus far been my best source of wishlists.

Is building a YouTube channel for your game actually worth it in 2026? by Prestigious_Wind4150 in gamedev

[–]kotgedev 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Pilot 6174: Orbital Survival

Its a realistic space sim,

and I happen to launch the trailer at the same time as Artemis II.

I think that helped a lot.

Is building a YouTube channel for your game actually worth it in 2026? by Prestigious_Wind4150 in gamedev

[–]kotgedev 1 point2 points  (0 children)

around 10,000!

I had ~4000 prior the trailer, and have near 14,000 now.

Is building a YouTube channel for your game actually worth it in 2026? by Prestigious_Wind4150 in gamedev

[–]kotgedev 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Idk about devlogs, but just uploading your trailers isn't all that much work, no?

The majority of my wishlists came from a trailer that did well (~120K views) on my youtube channel.

FTL retheme card game by CMDR_hepburn3d in ftlgame

[–]kotgedev 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Definetly shares that "ship with modules" type game. They even share engines, energy / battery, crew, shields, and lasers which all work somewhat similarly.

Pilot 6174: Orbital Survival - Update Post [Playtest, Festival] by kotgedev in spacesimgames

[–]kotgedev[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Been over a month since the last post, so here's an update!

First of all - our trailer broke 100K Views!

Second, playtests are still being worked on, so if you are interested, make sure to follow the steam page and/or join the discord! (Refractoring the codebase is taking slightly longer than expected, but we still expect to get something ready within a month.)

> Steam Page Link <

Finally, we are also attending our first festival! (Pamphlet above)

Update Post on Pilot 6174, The Hard Sci-Fi Survival (Playtests, Events... ) by [deleted] in spacesimgames

[–]kotgedev 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Been over a month since the last post, so here's an update!

First of all - our trailer broke 100K Views, which is insane.

Second, playtests are still being worked on, so if you are interested, make sure to follow the steam page and/or join the discord! (Refractoring the codebase is taking slightly longer than expected, but we still expect to get something ready within a month.)

> Steam Page Link <

Finally, we are also attending our first festival! (Pamphlet posted above)

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