Marketing Strategy for Gossip & Potions: Tales from the Witch Shop

Marketing Strategy for an Indie Game

Hello, I’m Hector Pulido, a data scientist but right now, I am developing the game, “Gossip and Potions: tales from the witch shop.” In the game, you have the chance to create magical potions, interact with various characters, listen to their stories, help them or even cause a little chaos in their lives. It’s your decisions that will determine the outcomes of these tales. Add now Gossip & Potions to your wishlist on Steam

Gossip and Potions is the first-ever game that I am releasing independently, without having the backup of any established company. Yet, I am hopeful that this game would bring me some honest revenue…

We all know, however, that most game developers do not make any money off their games.

Image that shows percentils of steam game vs revenue

Image from gameworldobserver

This begs the question: Why? Could it be because their games are just downright awful? That might or might not be true. But there is one determinant of your game’s sales that is even more significant than the game quality. It’s the marketing strategy you follow. In this blog post, I am going to lay out the strategy and plan for Gossip and Potions and how it might help me afford a Ferrari and a mansion 🤔.

Inside the working of game development

In this blog, we will uncover the ways my partner and I have been striving to develop not just a game that would please us, but one that aligns with the sales metrics of Steam perfectly. Shall it sell millions? Will I finally be able to buy a Ferrari or a mansion? Let’s delve into this together!

Examining the metrics of steam, our game comes under a genre that registers commendable sales, that of graphic novels. This was our first strategic step - choosing an idea that not only interests us, but also has good sellability.

Venn graph with the intersection between games i can do, games i want to do and games that are sellable

As a part of our strategy and to satisfy Steam’s sales metrics, we focused on building a game that fits into one of the best-selling game genres - Graphic Novels.

Image that shows a graph with Genres vs revenues on Steam

Image from How to market games

Importance of Wishlists

Next, let’s talk about Steam wishlists. Wishlists are king in Steam. Our target is to achieve 10,000 wishlists that would effectively increase the game’s visibility upon its release. Wishlists being the most crucial metric in the development of an indie video game.

Here’s why - the time of release, Steam would showcase the game to those users who have added it to their wishlists. Math timeee.

Between 5% and 20% of these wishlist users end up purchasing the game. Therefore, with 10,000 wishlists, we are looking at sales of about 500 to 2000 copies. Assuming a $10 price tag for the game, we are potentially staring at revenues of about $5,000 to $20,000. Considering these are launch dates, that’s pretty impressive! And that’s not it - Steam’s added promotion will prevent the game from falling into oblivion.

Strategizing Wishlists

So then, how do we plan to collect these wishlists? Our plan is to release a public demo soon, which would be sent to streamers as well as the press - a tactic proven to increase visibility, interest, and potential Wishlists. We also hope to maximize our social media presence and get some feedback.

This is what will predominantly fuel our wishlists. Further, we plan on increasing our social media presence on platforms such as Twitter and TikTok. Apart from this, we plan to present the game at multiple virtual events for gaining more traction and wishlists.

Kickstarter Campaign

Our plan is to schedule a Kickstarter campaign around February or March. This is in a bid to gain more visibility and pre-sell some game units. To be honest, we don’t plan on getting rich through the Kickstarter, but we definitely aim for more visibility and wishlists. But hey, if we do manage to raise some capital, why not?

Countdown to Launch

With everything in line, we plan to release this game around April or May of 2024.

And that’s it, folks! That’s our strategy. Not etched in stone, we will continually adapt to capitalize on new opportunities such as seeking a publisher or initiating a Kickstarter campaign in collaboration with another studio. Until then, this is the gameplan for the launch of ‘Gossip and Potions.’

If you’d like to support the project, please Add now Gossip & Potions to your wishlist on Steam