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Hello everyone,
Well, wouldn’t you know - we’ve made it to 2025. Sure, we’re still some years away from flying cars and skateboards, but it’s hard not to feel that things have “changed”. Be it the gaming industry, gaming culture, or in the overall mood.
Over the past few months, I’ve had some moments that completely shifted how I think about marketing. From standing at a booth and meeting the people behind the stats, to curating a Steam festival and sifting through hundreds of games, here are three recent marketing thoughts that made a bit of a dent on me.
Let’s dive in!
Thought no. 1 - I saw the algorithm
Back in September of last year, as UNIKAT Label I attended a gaming event as an exhibitor. Between you and me, I haven’t manned a booth in years. And as we were there showing both POOLS and Dystopika, speaking with all the wonderful folk in Perth, I had a few people come up to us saying “OMG, I have your game on Steam!”, “I bought your game in a bundle ”, and “This is on my Wishlist!”. I also had one person take out their phone and show me how they got all the Steam Achievements in POOLS, just to prove they're not lying! To me, that broke my mind. I’m used to seeing stats and graphs on the Steam backend, seeing how many sales we got from which region, when, etc etc. But they were all numbers. Anonymous numbers. Until I saw these people.
Seeing their faces and their emotions to our games made me realise this one thing. Don’t promote to the algorithm. Promote to the people. If the people like what they see, the algorithm will follow. Chris Zukowski’s recent post also discusses this very topic. And I know that stats matter - hell, I love stats as any other marketer around. But don’t make “breaking or figuring out the algorithm” your be-all and end-all marketing strategy. It’s not. Conquer the people’s hearts and minds, and the algo will follow.
Thought no. 2 - Looks matter
I’ve recently announced my first Steam sale event - the Minimal and Chill Steam Fest. This is the first time I'm organising a Steam festival and I'm having a blast. In a space of two weeks, we got just under 300 submissions. That’s a lot of games to filter through, especially for all those games that are using the fest to gain more Wishlists before release (at least with released games I can use the number of reviews as a judge of quality).
The one thing that I will say is being the one that has to curate the line-up, being on the other side of the barricade so to speak, your screenshots and key art are crucial. It's the first thing that I see. Visuals matter. Hard. I always tell my clients to make sure their screenshots sell the game’s USPs and tell a story, and that the key art shows a degree of professionalism and a thought behind it (the idea of features vs vibe vs art in a key art is a topic for another time). Don't listen to your parents - looks do matter. And I’m just a curator for a Steam festival. I don’t have to spend money on your game. Imagine how your potential clients/players will feel when looking at your screenshots and key art thinking “Will I buy this?” when they stumble upon your game.
Key arts. Key arts everywhere.
Thought no. 3 - Video is king and it’s all connected
Ok, writing the phrase “Video is king” in 2025 feels hella retro-nostalgic - it’s like I went back in time to circa 2014. But hear me out. The game of marketing/selling games is becoming more and more competitive. And when you promote your game, be it on socials or digital showcases, you’re no longer promoting your game just to players - you’re promoting your game to journalists and content creators as well. They too spend their time scrolling social media and they also watch showcases to know what is worth looking out for. It’s almost like a case of curators looking for curated content.
I feel that the days of wooing by simply sending out a press release to the press and emails to content creators are slowly over. It helps when they know who you are before you arrive in their inbox. The mental state of “Oooo, this is the game I saw on my fyp/last showcase” is better than “What is this game, I’ve never heard of it before” when someone with an audience opens your email. And remember - they get a ton of emails a day. So invest in video this year - be it for socials, showcases, exclusives, or anything else adjacent. Woo the curators where the curators spend their time.
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I hope that this “three bite-sized marketing thoughts format” works for you. Really keen to hear what you think - hit reply and send me your thoughts.
And you still have time to apply for my Minimal & Chill Steam Fest. You can apply for it right HERE.
May your Wishlists be plenty and converting,
Michal
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