I recently made a game using Twine and I’m about to put it up on itch.io, but I’m terrible at networking and ensuring it gets any attention. Anyone know a good place to post announcements of new games?
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This is as good a place as any to start. What is your game?
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It depends on what sort of social media you use. Facebook groups and Discord servers related to interactive fiction come to mind. Twitter, Mastodon and others may be appropriate.
However, if it’s a paid game, I’d strongly discourage any promotion on these platforms unless you actively contribute to these communities in some other way, otherwise you get a bad name as someone who only shows up to advertise their games. This practice is frowned upon and may even get you banned in extreme cases.
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I see it’s a paid game, and I think it’s really difficult to get anyone to pay for an IF game unless you have a great reputation and a following already. There’s a crapton of great IF for free, as that’s the general practice of most IF writers (here, at least).
My recommendation is to write some games and put them in the many IF comps that happen every year and build a following through the regular community, as this is a small but devoted and ready-made audience who write reviews, post on social media, and generally promote your games for you. If your games are great and do well in some comps and you build a name, then you can maybe start successfully charging for them. Maybe. Some of the best IF writers with devoted followings have had trouble with charging for games. Everyone’s used to it being free. I’m guessing this is disappointing advice for you, and perhaps someone with some experience with charging for games will chime in here. I’ve never even thought about trying to make money off my games.
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I just decided to charge $1 for it since that seems to be what most IF games go for on the iOS App Store and Steam and such. I know literally nothing about this market or how to navigate it, so all advice is appreciated. Thanks!
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Tumblr has a considerable community of fans of choice based IF. You can also send a message to this profile. They have a huge catalogue of games and from time to time they post compilations (like sci-fi games, fantasy games, games from black authors, game from women, short, long, etc). It’s good for discoverability. For some reason there’s not a lot of overlap between this forum and the people on tumblr.
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Welp, since I’m a mod of that blog, just adding my two cents 
We do have some guidelines in what we will accept to share, and we tend to focus on projects promoted on Tumblr (aside from recommendation lists).
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You’re doing God’s work.
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despite the amount of free games on offer, $1 isn’t a lot to ask. But at the same time, people need to know what they’re getting for their money.
with a free game, you can just try it, otherwise you need to provide a lot more info about it.
Consider making a free demo version to try.
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This is a solid suggestion. Like they do with books when the first 3 chapters are free.
$1 isn’t alot, but I’m much much more likely to part with it if I’ve gotten a taste and I like what I’ve had so far.
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My two cents as a Twine/Itch/Tumblr user:
The Tumblr community for choice IF is pretty large and active, but has a strong preference for romance games, or at least games that include some sort of romance feature.
Itch has pretty good discoverability on the website, as long as your game is tagged appropriately. I definitely agree that free games have more traction than paid games. Your listing might benefit from making some “curb appeal” improvements: an attractive game logo for its listing image, and a snappy tagline to go beneath it.
I was gonna say the same thing. A demo of the first chapter or two (or whatever makes sense for your game) will draw a lot more people to buy the completed thing, whereas people are a lot less likely to buy without being able to see a sample or at least a handful of positive reviews.
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You could also go the patron, buymeacoffee route. They subscribe to your patron for your ongoing development of the game. Make the story good and you will get people willing to pay to see how it ends.
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I’m thinking that instead of free, maybe charge one cent? Or is that such a wide gulf that shouldn’t be crossed?
My thinking is that with a penny, at least I can confirm payment method works so there wouldn’t be any surprises down the line regarding payment.
I’m also open to occasionally run 100% discount on stuff, assuming the work is in series.
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It’s a friction point, but whether you would lose too much wheat trying to separate it from the chaff? I have no idea. I’d suggest A/B testing to compare the two and let reality sort out which is better.
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As someone who’s been on itch(.io) for a while, the general consensus is that you earn more with a pay-what-you-want game. Or if you must set a minimum price, definitely add a free demo. People not being able to try your game before buying is a recipe for losing sales. In other places the audience will have different expectations and tastes. Sometimes very different!
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I’d like to recommend this article to anyone reflecting on the viability of commercial IF.
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I haven’t tried this, but I believe the lower limit on Itch seems to be $1. Itch splits revenue and they’re not going to do that on a penny.
I have considered offering a free demo and “rest of the story” for $1 - not necessarily to make money, but to see if there’s any market for stuff. It may depend on how well the demo shows and how much of a fanbase the creator has.
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It’ll be the 30c min transaction fee.
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