Indie Game Development and Marketing

Abstract

The goal of this thesis was to create a simple game using Godot 4.4, market it by using social media such as Bluesky, YouTube, and TikTok, and publish it on Itch.io. The aim of the thesis was to understand how a beginner indie game developer can benefit from publishing a free simple video game without any ad revenue, in-game purchases, and additional paid content. In addition to that, the purpose was to learn the challenges of self-publishing a video game, as well as what content type creates most engagements on social media. The thesis sought to analyse the anonymous collected data from the engagements of the social media accounts of the author. As a marketing goal, it was decided to aim for 10 people to play the game.

The thesis was practice and research oriented. The theoretical part was done through independent research using materials from Google Scholar and HAMK Finna. Online materials such as forums, learning videos, and documentations were used to assist with the practical part of the project. Concepts related to game development and marketing were explained. The author had prior knowledge in game design and development, background in digital art creation, and had previously created a video game using Godot 4.3. However, social media had not been used for marketing. To reach the goal, marketing and development plans were created. Kanban board was utilized for project management. The data was analysed by utilizing charts in Excel.

The analysis indicates that the game did not receive much attention. Marketing strategy on Bluesky resulted in 24 gained followers, whereas on YouTube and TikTok 0 followers were gained. Based on the analysis, it can be suggested that the people might not be interested in short video games with simple mechanics, notably from an unpopular indie game developer. However, the developer can create small video games to gain experience in game development and receive followers by creating posts regarding the development process on social media. It can be recommended that the video game developers should not only create marketing and development plans, but detailed plans for the content that will be posted.