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“YouTubers and Twitch players are a necessity,” says indie game dev Koen Deetman
As the indie game market has continued expanding at a breakneck pace, it has become harder and harder for developers to get the word out about their games, and according to Koen Deetman, game director at KeokeN Interactive, that is exactly why YouTubers and Twitch streamers are so important.
“Today Youtubers and Twitch players are a necessity if it comes to the ‘discoverability’ of your game,” Deetman wrote in a blog post on Gamasutra. “Especially if you are a small independent developer trying to reach out. But not only indies know about this phenomenon, also AAA studios like Ubisoft or Activision know they exist and their usefulness.”
“It comes down to a fight of ‘visibility’ and its one of the biggest problems we face as developers today.”
Deetman’s studio is currently running a Kickstarter PBC campaign for an adventure game called Deliver Us The Moon, and he explained that some early attention from German Let’s Player Erik “Gronkh” Range, who livestreamed the game on Twitch, gave the campaign a significant boost.
“During his live stream he and his community played our Deliver Us The Moon demo and they decided to start a massive following on our (KeokeN’s) Twitter account because they liked the game so much,” Deetman said. “We went from 300 to 12,000 followers in just a few hours.”
“It’s insane how much positivity and motivation you get from them”
Deetman explained that KeokeN immediately started interacting with Gronkh and his community, forming a relationship with them that continued building support for the Kickstarter campaign.
“We continue to communicate and most importantly have fun with our new community,” Deetman said. “Not only on our own channels, but everywhere we become featured we leave a comment or start talking.”
Deetman stressed the importance of taking immediate advantage of the attention given by a popular streamer’s community, saying that maintaining communication with them and keeping them engaged will pay off in a big way over time.
“We are extremely fortunate and thankful to what Gronkh and his community (LaFamilia) have done for us,” he said. “It’s insane how much positivity and motivation you get from them.”
You can read Deetman’s full blog post on Gamasutra, and you can find out more about Deliver Us The Moon on the game’s Kickstarter campaign page.
Screenshot via Gronkh Livstreams | YouTube
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