Josh Barton, Producer of Project X at Ralem Productions.

Is it worth paying the $50 USD to get reviewed on those indie game sites?

We're having difficulties promoting our game, it's in pre-production and it's a big jump.

Our last games were for XNA/Xbox Live and were novelties. Now we are trying to enter the big leagues with a 3D game and decent budget. The programming and the progress on the project are going well, but currently we are having trouble getting buzz.

Is it worth the money for the press, or is there a better way to generate feedback and a following? We eventually want to get "greenlit" on Steam.


http://ralemx.wordpress.com/

www.ralemproductions.com

1. Is it worth paying the $50 USD to get reviewed on those indie game sites?
Is it worth the money for the press,
2. or is there a better way to generate feedback and a following?

1. On the one hand, you're worrying about a measly fifty bucks?? And on the other hand, why does it cost anything to get reviewed?
2. Of course there are better ways. But I'm not a marketing guy.

My last words make me realize this is a marketing question (thus business, not production). So I'm moving the thread to Business.

When I read the question, I immediately ask: "What review sites?" There are some sites that just look at the game and post a review. That is all they do. Their site is just thousands upon thousands of paid reviews, one after the other.


I would start with a different question: How do your target players hear about their games?

Then perhaps follow it up with another: How do you hear about games?


If your target audience only picks games from the top ten list, or only picks games to try after they have been in the news for months, you might consider aiming for a different target audience.

Is it worth paying the $50 USD to get reviewed on those indie game sites?

This probably depends on the specific sites in question, but personally I'd lean towards trying other options first.

You've said that you're having trouble promoting the game, but what have you tried so far? If you're early in the process, are you ready to start building community yet?

We eventually want to get "greenlit" on Steam.

Be aware that Valve "want to make Greenlight go away".

Well this is the trouble we're having.


Our past work was niche comedy games like Ovary Overload, an asteroids clone pitting an egg vs sperm. Now we want to make quality games (non console) but having to market outside of Xbox Indie arcade is difficult.

This is a roguelike Xcom.... what forums or blogs should I post on?

Is it worth sending emails to tech sites now?

This is the video we have... pretty much covers everything that we've done so far, which is a lot, but it isn't really "demo ready" and it's not so pretty. Is this too early to start promoting?


I'd feel horrible promoting something without "meat" if you know what I mean.

Thank you for your help so far everyone, this is good information.


Josh

And the review forum in question was indie game magazine