When is a good time to announce a game release?

[cpcitor]

Hi!

(Mostly) in 2020 I wrote a game and released a limited beta version, to participate in a contest on a French Facebook group, "Amstrad CPC pour toujours and beyond".

It's a number-of-move-limited beta, I can't finish the game under the limit, so the game proper was not released in a completed state. Only a few close friends have been able to follow the progress.

I refined it with:
* an intro with a wink to another retro platform, which I released on its own on https://demozoo.org/productions/294779/ as it's worth it
* a proper splash screen,
* a nice compressed tape and disk loader,
* simple yet effective instructions for new players,
* a demo sequence with a recorded game,
* visual and sound effects that closely match game activity,
* a sound+visual sequence for when player wins,
* a teaser video (unpublished)
* and a number of other improvements.

Now the question: can you suggest some good practice or event to announce the game, for best visibility?

For example, it isn't eligible to participate on CpcRetroDev2021 because "An  executable  version  or  a  version  under  development  has  been made publicly available.", which is against http://cpcretrodev.byterealms.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/cpcretrodev_rules_2021_upd.pdf.

I can just put up a web site, video,and announce it on cpcwiki forum, on some discord and ping some sites (cpc power, cpcrulez, genesis8bit, etc).

CPC-related events and contests are good because it's a good time when people have their attention on the CPC, so better visibility and a time when people open their attention.

So, any site or event to suggest, for example in the next weeks, or simply any good practice?

Thanks!

[roudoudou]

i guess twitter AND a good network is the best way to spread
obviously the game need to arouse interest of the biggest retro website/users

[Targhan]

BTW, just know that we had a CPC-meeting this week-end, and a lot of people played Just Get 9, and loved it. Even Sylvestre, whose last game he enjoyed on CPC is Betiled, loved it (I think he finished it but the game stopped just before the end).

One good propaganda is to send the game to Xyphoe for him to test it, he's really good at that and at building a hype around a game.

[reidrac]

i guess twitter AND a good network is the best way to spread
obviously the game need to arouse interest of the biggest retro website/users

This is good advice.

Also make yourself a list of retro related websites that you like and send a press note by email when you release the game. Make it easy for them to copy & paste if they want to, include nice screenshots, etc. Also make a thread in this forum.

Re: timing, I would try to avoid releasing close to the CPC retro dev because a lot of new games get released at the same time and if you are not in the lot, you may not get much attention.

You know that making a game for an 8-bit may take you a few months, and there are so many things going on all the time. There are things you can't control (see: pandemic), and in general there's a lot of luck involved (often times I see people on twitter that didn't know one of my games was released, hah), so don't worry too much about it.

[Gryzor]

There's not a ton of Amstrad sites so you can cover these easily. Also do mention some guys on Twitter (I'm @krakout btw).

Oh, and of course, here

[genesis8]

I am always delighted when someone email me for something to post on my web site (especially if he write all the text and I just copy/paste !)

[Gryzor]

Oh also you can use the CPCWiki homepage, no sweat!

[Skunkfish]

@Gryzor

Is the CPCWiki homepage working? I seem to be getting an error at the moment....

[Gryzor]

@Gryzor

Is the CPCWiki homepage working? I seem to be getting an error at the moment....

Happens on mobile, turn on desktop view

[cpcitor]

@Gryzor

Is the CPCWiki homepage working? I seem to be getting an error at the moment....

Works for me.

Code Select Expand

cd /tmp/ ; LC_ALL=C wget -S https://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Main_Page

--2021-11-03 16:54:48--  https://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Main_Page
Resolving www.cpcwiki.eu (www.cpcwiki.eu)... 142.4.215.89
Connecting to www.cpcwiki.eu (www.cpcwiki.eu)|142.4.215.89|:443... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response...
  HTTP/1.1 200 OK