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Rupert's avatar

I'm not sure this answers your question specifically, but this is a cool related thing:

https://dopresskit.com/

Alp's avatar

+1 on this - I used to look at a lot of indie games, selling ads for Rock Paper Shotgun, and as soon as I saw this press kit I saw that the devs probably knew what they were doing. I'm sure that journos feel similar... Rich 👀

Rich's avatar

100%, and I would recommend that it prominently feature an excellent, illustrative clip of game footage, followed by some screenshots, a one-or-two-sentence elevator pitch, some details on your company and any previous accomplishments/credentials (Steam wishlists are also a good thing to brag about if you have them), plus an email address that looks like it's attached to a person rather than an unmonitored "info at" inbox.

When I was in the media most indie games came my way via email pitches. The volume of such emails I used to get was terrifying but I - and most editors I know - always tried to at least look at them all. A link to a presskit with all of this information prominent (or better yet putting it in the email) makes you that much harder to overlook. If you're approaching this way, another tip is to dig into the site a bit and figure out who to target; at bigger sites you probably don't want to cold pitch the EIC, but rather a features editor.

Ric Lumb's avatar

have heard of this, will check it out properly. Thanks! ;)

Rupert's avatar

And this is by far the best retro games site out there...

https://www.timeextension.com/

Ric Lumb's avatar

will check it out. I have heard of it. It's easy to lose track of what's out there. Cheers!

Alp's avatar

IndieDB has always been pretty cool.

It's not quite as big as it used to be, and its design is pretty old school, but their team is lovely and normally supports indies however they can.

If you're UK based, EGX Leftfield Collection and WASD Curios are both free, and there's PAX Rising in the US.

Also, Just About Video Games is a place to post about new stuff that's coming out! Don't feel like you can't talk about your own projects there - if it's news and about gaming, there's a good chance it's suitable for Video Games!

PY

I am working with an indie dev at the moment and it's an area we will have to tackle next year. I must have read thousands of indie emails when I was a games journo and it was overwhelming. You really do need to put together something that will stand out. Make sure you got some good video too, video is so much more important these days.

Also, be bold, don't be afraid to reach out to any press contacts you have and see if they can help you out with press coverage. You might be surprised and get some good column inches if the game ticks the right boxes.

Ric Lumb's avatar

Have already had some press coverage in Retro Gamer and Debug as well as smaller publications like Crash mag (we're doing spectrum games at moment) got a few good contacts. So will definitely doing more of this. Cheers! ;)

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