I've now released the full edition for my 2D game. However, the only way I can seemingly get sales is from my website only and since my website has almost no traffic (one unique visitor every two days on average, barely 250 MB bandwidth per month if avatars on forums and posting screenshots for forums and E-mails are taken out). This is a very unworthy way to selling my 2D game. What methods, short of paying a huge fee for advertising, can I use to help generate more sales.

There are plenty of websites for free games out in the web,
put your free edition onto them, so possible customers can
check out the demo and buy the full version later if they like.

And search for a thread from Romac, he had some good points
about how to get attention without having a large budget for
advertising.

old_bill

I'd do these things:

1. Write up a press release announcing your game (check out the articles at http://www.dpdirectory.com/3newsltr.htm ). There are PR distribution services, but you can distribute a release yourself by gathering e-mail contacts for editors of magazines and websites.

2. Read up on marketing ( http://www.dexterity.com/articles ).

3. Make sure you submit your demo everywhere (e.g., have you hit all the big sites such as Tucows and download.com? The indie sites such as GameTunnel?) Learn about the PAD format ( http://www.asp-shareware.org/pad/ ) and submit your game to all the shareware sites you can find.

4. Place DOWNLOAD and BUY buttons prominently on your website.

And last, but not least:

5. Get honest feedback about your game, improve on it for a month or two, and release a sequel. The feedback should be somewhat painful but constructive. Ask enough people what they want to see more of in your game, and you should begin to see a consensus.

The iterative process in #5 is, IMO, the most important -- many indies seem to get discouraged and dump a project rather than finding out which parts to improve and improving them.

I looked at your link and it's mentioning of paying $129 - forget that as it's too expensive. Plus, what is this "press" thing?

Again, you don't need to pay for the distribution service; you can do it yourself if you want to save the money. But the articles on that site will tell you most of what you need to know to write and distribute a press release. That's an important step, as it's one way to get your game mentioned in magazines and on larger gaming websites.

I was told not to use download.com and to use Regnow instead. I often don't think of Tucows as I almost never go there.

I think we're talking about different things. You don't need to sell though these services; most download sites (and there are many good ones) will allow you to list your product there for download, for free. Download.com and Tucows are large sites with lots of traffic. We always upload there.

(BUY/DOWNLOAD) What do you mean by this?

Check out the articles at Dexterity that I mentioned. But in particular, conventional wisdom suggests that you should have big, bright buttons for the two most important actions -- downloading the demo and purchasing the game.

I really agree with Ichiro. Honest feedback and watching real people test-play it is a good idea. Buy some pizzas for gamers you find on craigslist, watch them play and get feedback and make adjustments. Though this is pretty standard for releasing a game, maybe you've already done this step.

Some tactics for low budget game marketing: It might be worth buying some ad banner time on a website community that uses games like yours. Send free promo copies to game magazines and websites. Try to get an exclusive. Get people talking about it.

Hi, Uli!
I looked at your site. Sorry, but I think, it isn't market place. It was good while you posted your shaderwork and your dreams . But to sell something you have to change site style totally or open new website for your product only.

if you look at morbious i believe he is offering free banner ads on his site, not sure how much traffic it gets , but also i would like to say, if this turns into a formal list, we might want to have it stickied

I've not looked through this thread, so I'll just say it.

Submit to all the casual game portals. I've made a post in this forum with a huge list of casual games. You'll have to search for it.

Submit to every shareware site. I did this back in June and I'm still getting "acceptance" letters now. You'll have to search for it.

Use Regnow, it's 20 bucks to join but it's worth it, i've got 30 affilaites through them and only 5 through Plimus.

foxhound, how is your game selling, im not sure if you feel comfortable answering, but if you do, how well is selling, because im thinking of trying to make a game will the arcade feel to it, but im not so sure how well it will sell.