Getting started with Bluesky and Twitter

In previous posts, we’ve recommended social media as a cheap and effective way to reach your game’s audience. Recently, Bluesky has emerged as a popular social platform within the game industry thanks to its ease of use and focus on discoverability and engagement. New opportunities for your game to strike it big on social media come with a new social platform. Understanding the correct approach, though, is critical to maximizing your results while minimizing effort. Whether you’re launching a new Bluesky page or need tips to increase engagement on an existing page, we have a few tips to help get you started.

Starting Your Account

If you’re beginning with a fresh page, updating your profile as soon as possible is essential. Add your logo as a profile image, and choose a stylish header to tie it together. Make sure your images fit the sizing guidelines. Otherwise, they’ll appear stretched or blurred, giving a low-quality look to your account. Spruce up your bio with a few sentences about your studio or project, and include your best contact information.

If you’re deciding between styling the account for your studio versus your game, ask yourself what you’d like to achieve with your page. If you’re planning to produce multiple projects, forming the account under your studio means the following will carry over to your next games. If this project is a one-off or the genre will differ significantly from future projects, then structure the page around your game.

Who To Follow

One of the most overlooked aspects of social media marketing is curating the accounts you follow. Applying a strategy to the accounts you follow can kickstart your profile with its first few dozen followers.

Consider who your audience is. Do you want your posts to reach content creators? Publishers? Journalists, or other indie game developers? Ask yourself these questions, and begin following these accounts from your profile. Each person you follow will receive a notification, often earning you a new follower! We recommend following between 400 and 500 accounts to get your page off the ground. You can always unfollow people you’re not mutuals with.

Gaining New Followers

Followers are a valuable resource for 2 reasons:
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ – They’re more likely to engage with your posts.
‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ – Higher follower numbers make your page appear more ‘legitimate’ or reputable.

Producing relevant and high-quality content is the easiest way to earn new followers. You can also gain followers by following new accounts, as stated above. The first 100 followers are the hardest to earn, so prioritize following new people and engaging with their posts to get the account off the ground. Moving forward, popular hashtags and healthy engagement will keep this follower number growing!

What To Post

The most challenging hurdle to overcome: what should I post? No two games are exactly alike, so that each strategy will differ slightly. Thankfully, there are a few common themes that apply to most projects:

1. Introduce Yourself
   Your first post should be an introduction to the account. Whether you’re promoting your studio’s backlog or a specific game, your first post should indicate who you are and what you’re working on. We advise ‘pinning’ your post to the top of your profile so it’s the first thing visitors see. This introductory post will serve to orient them to your brand. Twitter and Bluesky limit your character use, so this post should be short and effective. To save space, link your Steam page in the replies of your post.Here’s an example post for a fictional game titled Sea Glass:
   Introducing Sea Glass, a casual puzzle game coming to Steam! Collect sea glass along the shore and arrange these unique shapes to form a picture. Sell your creations in local shops to purchase upgrades for your business, like decorative frames, templates, and dyes to unlock new colors!
2. Leverage Assets
   Social media is highly visual, so leveraging assets is crucial to your post’s success. On text-based platforms like Twitter and Bluesky, it is essential to include an asset with every post you publish. Assets include video clips (trailer, gameplay, devlog), screenshots, concept art, GIFs, and photographs. Adding media helps your post stand out and gives people a taste of your project, even if they don’t read the text.
3. Follow Trends
   Thankfully for indie developers, trends are a huge part of promoting your project on social media, offering solid guidance on your posting schedule. A few trends happen weekly and rely on hashtags, so as long as you tag your post, you’re included!
   ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ – #trailertuesday: Post footage or a link to your trailer
   ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ – #wishlistwednesday: Encourage wishlists for your game through an original post, or by interacting with another #wishlistwednesday post
   ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ – #followfriday: Encourage new followers with this tag
   ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ – #screenshotsaturday: Post screenshots of your game
   Dozens more tags target specific genres (such as #turnbasedthursday or #turniptuesday), but the above represent an applicable list to any game.

There’s more strategy to social media, but the above paints a broad overview for success on the platform. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, try planning your posts using the Twitter or Bluesky scheduling tool. If you need more advice on getting started or reviving an old account, Starfall PR is always here to help. Contact us through the form below or on our contact page.

Photo by Pixabay: https://www.pexels.com/photo/like-printed-on-brown-wooden-scrabble-267355/

Pitching Your Game to Creators:
A Guide for Indie Game Developers

Once your game is in a state where you believe it is ready to be shared with the public, you can consider content creator outreach. Pitching your game to creators can help expand your reach, introduce it to wider audiences, and connect it with more targeted communities. Before you start this process, ensure that your game build is stable, free from critical gameplay interruptions, and offers a smooth, memorable experience overall. When you’re ready, here are some best practices to effectively market your game, allowing for better engagement with content creators and their audiences.

Build a Strong Target List

Identifying the right creators is crucial. Finding relevant targets will increase the likelihood that these creators will bite and cover your game. When choosing which platforms to prioritize, we always recommend YouTube over Twitch. Content posted on YouTube is considered evergreen, meaning that viewers can discover and revisit the content well after it is first uploaded. Getting a streamer to cover your game is still beneficial, as they may post VODs and clips on YouTube later, but it can be a bit more timing-dependent. To determine who qualifies as a relevant target, consider the platforms they use, their size, and their activity.

Here are some things to consider as you build your list:

• • Identify which games the creator’s target audience is familiar with. Creators who have already shown an interest or have been following your game are great starting points. However, make sure to expand your search to include creators who cover games similar to yours and align with the overall theme or niche of the channel.
  • What are the creator’s recent videos about? Take the time to review the creator’s uploads to understand the current state of their channel. In your initial search, a target may seem like a good fit, but after a closer look, you might discover that their channel has shifted focus.
  • Have they maintained a consistent posting schedule and viewership level over the past few months? Include larger and smaller channels in your outreach list based on your marketing goals, but always double-check their recent view counts. Avoid creators who have been inactive for months, as you’re unlikely to see coverage, let alone receive a response from them.

Writing Your Pitch

In your pitch, it’s essential to make your intentions clear by starting with an introduction of yourself and/or your studio. Always state the purpose of your outreach, whether it’s to invite them to try a demo, experience an early preview build, explore major updates, or write a review. In the subject line of your email, highlight the offer and dial in on the key selling points of the game, such as the genre or notable features, and incorporate relevant keywords to attract the intended audience.

Keep the following in mind as you write your pitch:

• • Create a Mutually Beneficial Connection (Most Important): Look for ways to connect your offer with their interests through your hook. How can your offer personally benefit them? Maybe similar games have performed well on their channel. Maybe there are certain features that really resonate with them. You can even make it exclusive if you can offer an early build before a public release.
  • Keep your pitch short and sweet: Follow your introduction with a 2-3 sentence paragraph that gives creators an idea of what to expect from the gameplay loop and some of its most exciting features. Creators receive a lot of pitches, so it’s always smart to keep your pitches brief and straight to the point.
  • Include resources: Always hyperlink to the Game’s Steam page and a press kit they can use for video assets like thumbnails. To grab their attention, include the logo or banner of the game with a trailer link, but avoid including too many links to prevent your pitch from being flagged by spam filters.

Focus on Earned Coverage

We recommend prioritizing earned coverage with your pitches. A well-targeted and well-pitched game will receive interest from creators and result in more authentic reactions and engagement. We only suggest paying for opportunities if you have the budget for it, the creator is highly relevant for your game, and is very popular, or if you are struggling for responses from pitching. If you receive requests for paid sponsorships, be honest that it’s not something you’re looking for, but express enthusiasm in still wanting to share your game if there’s interest. More often than not, they’ll still accept a key, which could lead to coverage later.

Key Distribution

Instead of shooting out keys with every pitch, we suggest you ask in your pitch that they respond if they’re interested. This short back-and-forth helps you understand exactly where your keys are going and sets an understanding that this creator is likely to produce content or, at the very least, try the game. That said, this extra step can deter some responses, so it’s up to you how you’d like to approach this. Finally, always include any disclaimers and notes about potential bugs players may encounter or embargo details when you hand over the key.

Following these steps will give you a solid start in pitching your game to creators. Don’t be afraid to follow up and try again whenever you have new updates to your build. It’s possible they missed a previous email, or a new feature really piques their interest. Happy pitching!

If you’re looking to enhance your game’s visibility and market it effectively, Starfall PR is here to help. We can provide hands-on guidance throughout your campaign, assisting you in building your media list and pitching your game. If you prefer to focus on development, we can also handle all the outreach for you. Do you have a media list you would like a second opinion on? Feel free to contact our team through the form below. We would be happy to review it for you.

Effective Marketing Strategies for Video Games

The video games industry is massive, with many recent reports putting its global market at close to or even over $200 billion USD, surpassing other popular forms of entertainment like books, film, and music. The industry only continues to grow as gaming becomes more mainstream, with the increasing popularity of mobile games making gaming even more accessible. Over 18,000 games alone were released on Steam in 2024, with 2025 already on track to surpass that. If you’re an indie developer, you may be wondering how you can still attract attention and build momentum before launch with so much competition. Digital marketing, social media, and press outreach, to name a few, are tried methods that you can use to achieve impactful results. Let’s explore these effective marketing strategies for video games, among others, that you can implement yourself.

Digital Marketing

Digital marketing is a broad field encompassing multiple techniques from paid advertisements, and search engine optimization (SEO), to content marketing, and more. The former, paid advertisements, work especially well for video games due to the already online nature of the target audience. Meta, TikTok, YouTube, and Reddit ads serve platforms frequently utilized by gamers and can lead to guaranteed results if you have the money to spend. With careful monitoring and adjustments, you should aim for a conversion rate of $1, ideally lower, per wishlist.

Social Media

In the age of virality, social media is an effective marketing strategy that has the potential to make your game truly take off. Even if monitoring popular meme trends isn’t your thing, it’s good practice to have a social media presence; parking your information for people to find is better than being completely invisible. With a little more effort, you can develop a weekly schedule and participate in popular hashtag “events” like #TrailerTuesday, #WishlistWednesday, #ScreenshotSaturday and many more. Social media is all about visibility, so keep your information up to date, use tags, share often, and engage with others in the community. P.S. If you haven’t already, get on Bluesky!

Press Outreach

Social media and paid advertisements are popular tactics to bring exposure and drive wishlists, but reaching out to the press is something that should not be overlooked.  Integrating yourself with the media and gaining coverage on outlets is a way to “legitimize” yourself in the industry and look “official”. This may seem daunting, but starts with writing a press release. From there, look for journalists who have written about similar games and share with them the news. The more interesting the beat, the more likely you’ll catch their attention. Press previews, interviews, and review campaigns are additional ways to involve the press and achieve coverage.

Gaming Influencer Marketing

The rise of content creation has developed gaming influencer marketing into an effective marketing strategy for video games. With billions of gaming hours watched across both YouTube and Twitch, having your game played by the right content creator is a great way to gain visibility. Sponsoring a video is an obvious way to guarantee coverage, but we also recommend trying for earned coverage, this means giving out your key to relevant creators for free. Success here focuses on finding the right creators that will click with your game and the correct messaging to seal the deal. Unfortunately, an accepted key isn’t a promise for coverage, but ensuring that your game is in a stable state, (game-breaking) bug-free, and suitable for your targets will help increase your chances that they commit. 

Participate in Events

The proper visibility generates interest and hopefully a wishlist. An amazing opportunity for visibility are digital festivals or events within the gaming space. Every month, there is an event, often multiple, happening somewhere aimed at sharing games with a wide audience. A great place to start if you’re releasing on Steam is Steam’s curated fests. Broken down by genre, participation in relevant fests puts you in front of gamers who are already looking for new games to play. In addition to Steam’s own fests, there are many third-party events on Steam, often hosted by organizations and publishers, though they usually require submitting an application, or in some cases are invite-only. Showcases are great for visibility as well and operate similarly to fests, and if you have money to spend, attending in-person events gets your game in the hands of players for real-time feedback and insight.

Community Management

Community management differs from the previous marketing strategies as it focuses less on raising general awareness for your game, and instead serves to capture and maintain interest from your now aware audience. Using a platform like Discord to build and maintain your community is highly recommended, as many gamers are already on the platform. Discord’s native capabilities and third-party bots offer incredible functionality that will allow you to completely tailor your server’s experience. Don’t discount this marketing strategy as keeping your community invested will help increase conversion and player numbers at launch, during sales, and in response to major updates. It’s also a great way to collect bug reports and feedback to help improve your game.

These effective marketing strategies for video games are possible to implement yourself and are proven methods to increase awareness and generate wishlists or sales. They will take a bit of elbow grease to get started and require tweaking to get right, but results are possible if you follow through and keep at it.

If you aren’t interested in taking on this additional work, are worried you won’t be able to achieve the right results, or simply don’t have the time, a PR or marketing agency may be for you. Starfall PR has successfully executed each of these strategies for our indie clients at an affordable rate. Check out our case studies and partners to learn more about what we’ve accomplished for others like you, and contact us using the form below.