Marketing Log #1 - Creating physical products for your new game!

Hello everyone! We`ve just released yet another short demo of our RPG/Shooter style game, "Quest of the Gummy Witch" this week. More updates are on the way as we speak as we are currently  working to implement a new play mode. The game is far from being completed, but we`ve already posted it on here in order to get general customer feedback and game testing done.

However, one good question that`s commonly asked is "When should I start marketing and promoting my game?" 

I think most new developers tend to want to reach a  certain point in the game process, like Beta Testing or some other pre-determined timeframe in the process to make sure that the game is somewhat stable and really able to be launched before starting to advertise and promote it. I think that`s probably best for larger and more complex gaming projects that are targeting a vast number of people. But in the case of tiny Indie games and just-for-fun projects, like this one, you may not necessarily need to wait so long to start promoting your game. As a matter of fact, you might even be able to make more money or get further financial support for the project by pre-promoting it!

Since we have our own online store here in Tokyo, the kids and I decided to go ahead and start promoting our project on our NerdyUrges Shopify store by creating cool and funny little apparel items based on the story line and characters! This was we can actually start earning money with our game while it is still under development. That also gives us a lot more motivation to actually create new levels, characters and to complete the game, because the more characters and artwork that we add into the game, the more store products we can create based on it - and the more products we can theoretically sell if people like the game demos!

This also gives us physical products to post on Social Media channels, such as Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, etc, for people who may not be avid gamers, but who might be attracted to our game-related apparel items. If store customers like the cute t-shirts and hoodies on our store, then we hope that they`ll be far more likely to stop by and play the actual game in order to see what happens to the characters that they are wearing.

So that`s out plan for now. What do you guys thing about the subject of pre-advertising and selling projects for your game even though the actually game may not be completed yet?

Thoughts and comments are always appreciated here!