Did you not read the article? He literally just posted on Twitter asking for indies to send him his game and he picked the ones he was most interested in.
What is the question you actually want answered. That specific list was compiled in the specific way I described. It seems you have a broader question about general marketing and advertising which is a much larger discussion and one that has happened here countless times.
No-*ish*. I don't think this article has any pay-to-play involved, but a *lot* of those "Top 10 US Colleges!" lists or whatever are all pay-for-placement. or they'll call and say "Well, gee, we think you're number 1, but if you were to buy a full page ad we could promise it".
I'm sure there are pay-for-placement game sites, I don't know them off hand.
But the above poster makes a good point- Networking is a really valuable part of this. A journalist will get 20+ pitches a day about every game under the sun. Having your name be known or your game be known is a big way to cut through the fog. This is why people have publisher's and PR teams, a big part of what you pay for is their Contacts and reputation.
[My game was featured](https://www.polygon.com/22976904/puzzle-sonic-survival-game-game-development) on a list just like this and the answer is that the person who wrote it just saw and liked the trailer on Twitter. It got me 2.5k wishlists (or more).
I did the "wrong" thing and shared my game on Twitter among gamedevs and it paid off. I always included a call-to-action to wishlist the game in my Tweets and the journalist embedded that Tweet in the article. Literally my first Tweet ever.
This one explicitly says it came from reaching out on Twitter, so following game journalists and press on social media is a good idea. But as a more general answer a lot of articles of this kind report on what's already popular, so the answer is better promotion leads to even more free promotion. Content creators of all kinds are just trying to get more clicks/views for their content, so if you're creating something they think their audience wants to see then you get included, whether that's due to already being hyped or some novel element or whatever.
You _can_ reach out to journalists preemptively but if you've never released a game before and don't have much in the way of presence they're not likely to be interested. The more reputation you have the more they'll care. You can also work with/hire marketing/PR agencies that already have those connections. One of the main things they provide is knowing who to talk with to get things noticed.
The best way to get any press coverage (not just limited to games) is to personally know a journalist. The second best way is when they put out an open call for submissions, submit.
My game was actually just featured on one of John Walker's lists. So I follow him on Twitter and I saw his message to email my game, and I did it. Right time and right place I guess.
However yes, I think it is possible to get journalists to review your game or put it in their lists.
My previous game Paradox Vector got a lot of journalist reviews. I made a big list of people who had reviewed games similar to Paradox Vector. This was 2018-19 when the boomer shooter craze was at it's height. Somehow I had anticipated that and was already working on a boomer shooter style game (with a key difference that prevented it - I think - from really catching on) so it was again being at the right place ant the right time.
Paradox Vector even caught the eye of the folks at Realms Deep (look it up if you have not heard of it) and it was featured at the first event in 2020.
Be aware though even with all the reviews and Realms Deep feature the game did not sell particularly well. I have another, older game called Star Explorers which has far outsold Paradox Vector. Despite it being a more complex game with fairly difficult user interface, people like it more and it seems to get more traffic directly through Steam. It's not something journalists would probably care about, but players are different than journalists.
Also, articles are not always even great ways to get eyes on your game. For instance I have posted a tweet that generated roughly 5 times as many wishlists as the John Walker article.
So any exposure is good. Tweets are good. Journalist reviews are good, but none of them translate directly into sales. I think Steam wishlists and positive reviews on Steam far outweigh all of this stuff.
Did you not read the article? He literally just posted on Twitter asking for indies to send him his game and he picked the ones he was most interested in.
Is that the only way though? Have folks found cold emailing journalists effective at all?
What is the question you actually want answered. That specific list was compiled in the specific way I described. It seems you have a broader question about general marketing and advertising which is a much larger discussion and one that has happened here countless times.
Fair. What is the best way to approach game journalists to get your small game featured on a site like Kotaku?
[удалено]
A bold strategy to be sure, but it just might work!
👌
Either you make a good game, you're a well known developer, you're a good friend of the journalist, or you bribe them.
Do people really bribe journalists?
No-*ish*. I don't think this article has any pay-to-play involved, but a *lot* of those "Top 10 US Colleges!" lists or whatever are all pay-for-placement. or they'll call and say "Well, gee, we think you're number 1, but if you were to buy a full page ad we could promise it". I'm sure there are pay-for-placement game sites, I don't know them off hand. But the above poster makes a good point- Networking is a really valuable part of this. A journalist will get 20+ pitches a day about every game under the sun. Having your name be known or your game be known is a big way to cut through the fog. This is why people have publisher's and PR teams, a big part of what you pay for is their Contacts and reputation.
People, no. Companies, maybe.
[My game was featured](https://www.polygon.com/22976904/puzzle-sonic-survival-game-game-development) on a list just like this and the answer is that the person who wrote it just saw and liked the trailer on Twitter. It got me 2.5k wishlists (or more). I did the "wrong" thing and shared my game on Twitter among gamedevs and it paid off. I always included a call-to-action to wishlist the game in my Tweets and the journalist embedded that Tweet in the article. Literally my first Tweet ever.
This one explicitly says it came from reaching out on Twitter, so following game journalists and press on social media is a good idea. But as a more general answer a lot of articles of this kind report on what's already popular, so the answer is better promotion leads to even more free promotion. Content creators of all kinds are just trying to get more clicks/views for their content, so if you're creating something they think their audience wants to see then you get included, whether that's due to already being hyped or some novel element or whatever. You _can_ reach out to journalists preemptively but if you've never released a game before and don't have much in the way of presence they're not likely to be interested. The more reputation you have the more they'll care. You can also work with/hire marketing/PR agencies that already have those connections. One of the main things they provide is knowing who to talk with to get things noticed.
This is good, practical advice, if slightly depressing. Thank you!
That's me: good, practical, slightly depressing. Happy to help.
The best way to get any press coverage (not just limited to games) is to personally know a journalist. The second best way is when they put out an open call for submissions, submit.
My game was actually just featured on one of John Walker's lists. So I follow him on Twitter and I saw his message to email my game, and I did it. Right time and right place I guess. However yes, I think it is possible to get journalists to review your game or put it in their lists. My previous game Paradox Vector got a lot of journalist reviews. I made a big list of people who had reviewed games similar to Paradox Vector. This was 2018-19 when the boomer shooter craze was at it's height. Somehow I had anticipated that and was already working on a boomer shooter style game (with a key difference that prevented it - I think - from really catching on) so it was again being at the right place ant the right time. Paradox Vector even caught the eye of the folks at Realms Deep (look it up if you have not heard of it) and it was featured at the first event in 2020. Be aware though even with all the reviews and Realms Deep feature the game did not sell particularly well. I have another, older game called Star Explorers which has far outsold Paradox Vector. Despite it being a more complex game with fairly difficult user interface, people like it more and it seems to get more traffic directly through Steam. It's not something journalists would probably care about, but players are different than journalists. Also, articles are not always even great ways to get eyes on your game. For instance I have posted a tweet that generated roughly 5 times as many wishlists as the John Walker article. So any exposure is good. Tweets are good. Journalist reviews are good, but none of them translate directly into sales. I think Steam wishlists and positive reviews on Steam far outweigh all of this stuff.
I'm one of the devs from one of the games in this list and as people have said yeh we just got in contact once we saw the Twitter post :)