Youtubers and Let's Plays are one of my biggest sources for finding games recently.

yes, that's one of the newer marketing methods that i definitely DO plan to use in the future.

Its not a simple thing to achieve but if Pewdiepie plays your game, its going to start selling. Its crazy the influence one person can have.

Its not a simple thing to achieve but if Pewdiepie plays your game, its going to start selling. Its crazy the influence one person can have.

The amount of cash that publishers are throwing at youtubers now to try get them to play their game is reaching ridiculous levels...

Even if you are far from pewdiepie-level (maybe "just" around 100k subs on youtube and a couple of k simultaneous viewers on Twitch), I've heard of people getting 5-digit offers...

Wow, I did not know it was at that level. The thing is though that it works. I find it the most honest way (which is obviously questionable with the money but still) of evaluating the game before buying it. It's the thing that Nintendo are failing to realise.

Yeah paying youtubers to promote your game is not realistic if you are an indiedev without a lot of cash to spend on marketing. To be honest all promotion channels requires some sort of money or really epic game that goes viral.

If you want your game to get viral on youtube, your game has to be funny or somehow entertaining. I mean yeah all games are entertaining but would people watch you play that game and enjoy the game as much as you do? Probably no. All big youtubers that have hundreds of thousands viewers are usually playing games that are funny like Goat Simulator or Prop hunt etc.

Ever since I started using that web site (can't say name or it would be spamming), I've found some interesting games to play that I wouldn't usually find and it is surprising how many good games are not getting any recognition because they can't afford the marketing fees. With so many gaming companies competing over keywords and ad spots, it is almost impossible to get your money back that you put into advertising. This is why I personally have been using that website I previously mentioned for game discovery and advertising games that I personally know who made them.

I wish the advertising fees would be lower so we could find out all those interesting games but I guess that is not happening... ever :D

Yeah paying youtubers to promote your game is not realistic if you are an indiedev without a lot of cash to spend on marketing. To be honest all promotion channels requires some sort of money or really epic game that goes viral.

I'm not sure that this is entirely true: While I don't know what might have happened behind the scenes, and this likely doesn't happen for a great many games, I've seen a number of interesting indie titles turn up on the channels run by Jim Sterling, TotalBiscuit, some of the Yogscast (more seldom), and others besides, I believe.

In addition, I seem to recall that the Yogscast set up a "discovery" program which allowed indie developers to get their games played on a Yogscast channel in exchange for a percentage of sales over a short period following the video's release. I haven't heard much about this for some time, and recall that there were some objections voiced when it was announced, so it may have proved unpopular with indies; a recent post on Reddit (see the reply by Turpster) seems to imply that it's still available, at least. Nevertheless, it seems like an approach that should be affordable for most developers: if the game sells poorly, they pay less.

I'm not sure that this is entirely true: While I don't know what might have happened behind the scenes, and this likely doesn't happen for a great many games, I've seen a number of interesting indie titles turn up on the channels run by Jim Sterling, TotalBiscuit, some of the Yogscast (more seldom), and others besides, I believe.

Definitely.

The youtubers who have build a name around good game reviews also have a reputation to uphold.

If they started to review too many games for the cash, they will lose in credibility, and in the end lose the position they worked so hard to get to.

They are also often very outspoken against payed reviews, and if doing them, are open with it.

It's another matter with the "silly youtubers", building a name around making entertaining stuff.

Most of the games are likely games they just want to play, because they are "in the buzz" right now, and it is therefore likely to draw viewers, but I'm convinced there is more and more payed content.

RockPaperShotgun covers a lot of smaller PC games you might not otherwise hear about. They cover the big ones too, but it's nice to find out about smaller indie games I might not have otherwise noticed.

RockPaperShotgun covers a lot of smaller PC games you might not otherwise hear about. They cover the big ones too, but it's nice to find out about smaller indie games I might not have otherwise noticed.

It is hard to get your game n RPS though. How many people has been able to get on RPS without a lot of hard work. I mean yeah you need to put a lot of hard work into your game and marketing if you want to gain users. I persnally think that with a platform where people could sign up and register their game for others to see, that would help a lot smaller studios.

I persnally think that with a platform where people could sign up and register their game for others to see, that would help a lot smaller studios

I'm not really sure it would work like that. I mean already desura, itch.io and indiedb do just that. You sign up and your game is visible to other (who knows those sites). The problem is just in your proposed solution - anyone can do it, so anyone does. As a result there is flood of games and still no easy way to pick the ones that interest you.

You still have to make an effort to have your game noticed.