GDC 2025 Session Viewer
Independent Games Summit: A Marketing Double-Bill: Maximizing Your Game's Visibility with Online Festivals // Free During Development: An Unusual Marketing Strategy
Dana Trebella (Founder, Spoke & Wheel Strategy)
Derek Lieu (Creative Director, Derek Lieu Creative)
Walt Destler (CEO, Walternate Realities)
Location: Room 2009, West Hall
Date: Monday, March 17
Time: 10:50 am - 11:50 am
Pass Type: All Access Pass, Summits Pass, Indie Games Summit Pass - Get your pass now!
Track: Independent Games
Format: Lecture
Vault Recording: Video
Audience Level: All
Dana Trebella, Founder at Spoke & Wheel Strategy, and Derek Leiu, Creative Director at Derek Lieu Creative, will cover the importance of festivals and showcases as a part of your marketing campaign, how to choose the right festival for you, and how to plan your marketing beats and assets to maximize your chances of getting in. They will share some marketing timing tips to both help you get into your desired festival(s) and optimize your visibility if you do. They will also walk through the importance of considering festivals when planning out your marketing cadence and beats from the beginning, and how to do this effectively. Other topics covered include insights and tips to make your application stand out, what makes a compelling showcase trailer, how to prep for the showcase, and how to maximize the opportunity.
Walt Destler, CEO at Walternate Realities, will present on how "Cosmoteer: Starship Architect & Commander" launched in October 2022 on Steam Early Access and became an instant indie hit, selling nearly 200k units in its first month and over 450k units to date. But that success didn't come out of nowhere; it was the clear result of the unusual decision to let the world play Cosmoteer for free during most of its development. This talk will explain why that decision was made, the results of that decision, this strategy's general pros and cons, and why many game developers should consider doing the same.
Takeaway
Developers will walk away with a broader understanding behind the importance of festivals, how to plan out their marketing in advance to increase their likelihood of acceptance, what festival submissions are looking for, festival trailer do's and don'ts, and how to best prepare to take advantage of a festival opportunity.
Attendees will also learn about an under-utilized strategy for developing and marketing games (that is, releasing free versions of a game throughout its development) and will understand its major advantages and disadvantages so that they can make a decision about whether to use this strategy for their own games.
Intended Audience
This talk is for developers who are interested in learning more of the ins and outs about festival submissions and looking for strategies to improve their chance of success in today's insanely crowded market.
