I'm about to release a game on Steam, should I use giveaways to promote it ?

I honestly don't think a mass giveaway is a good way to promote your game. Your time and money is probably better spent in other ways, like through Twitter and Youtube and through reviewers.

I have no experience in advertising a game, but sure a few giveaways would help a bit to make the game more visible to an audience. ;)

Nah, we're all leeches here.

Instead, go the cool indie route. In other words, price your game low, but never give it away or allow it to go on sale.

I am basing this advice purely on my experience as a consumer.

Hi,

I can't speak for everyone here, but I know this site was setup for people to giveaway games - the main bulk of those games are bundled, and the majority of users on here are people wanting free games cos they were to choeap to even buy the bundle, while there is a much smaller base of users who are the gifters.

In saying that, there are new games I have seen on here that I haven't seen before that I've added to my Steam wishlist due to interest - whether or not I purchase on steam or in a bundle is debatable, but you will definitely have some, albeit limited, exposure by doing A FEW giveaways here - don't do a massive giveaway.

The only thing I can recommend not doing for your game on Steam is to discount it too heavily, because once a small indie game gets the big discount, a lot of people expect it to only buy it at that lowest price.

Does a bear shit in the woods?

I'd recommend against it - I think the conversion rate would be infinitesimally small, and depending on how many keys you give away you may just end up creating a market on G2A for the keys which you don't make anything off.

I mean just take a look at any given giveaway and see the comment to entry ratio - I reckon the engagement rate of the actual description of a giveaway is a small fraction of that.

I would say no to giveaways or bundles in the first year. The moment you do it, be expected for people to beg for your game in order to get it for free. Most people would not even play it, they would just collect it and let it sit in the library.

if you're looking to get feedback and build reviews on steam you could do a giveaway here. I make to sure leave reviews in such cases personally, but I'm not sure if everyone feels the same. Like doctorofjournalism posted above, we are a bunch of moochers :)

If you do giveaways, only do so for a very small number of copies, flooding the market with free keys will hurt your game more then help it.
Advertise on twitter, facebook, gaming forums, contact review websites and popular youtube/twitch gamers, etc.
Steam curators might also be something worth giving free copies too, but beware that many of them will turn around and sell/trade those copies instead of reviewing them (same goes for youtube/twitch gamers).

There's also no harm in giving copies to a few friends to review.

Under no circumstances should you pay for review services (as some small indies do) as it is considered review tampering and can get you and your game banned from steam.

Often times the first time I hear about or see a new game is on this very site because the developer made a giveaway for it. If I really adored what I saw I eventually ended up buying it later on (only at a discount though, I almost never buy games at full price, since a) backlog is already much too big anyways and b) prices drop really fast nowadays, I feel somewhat cheated when something I "just" bought is available for less not much later).

So contrary to what other people have said, I'd say it is a really good idea to host a few rather small giveaways on SG to get the word out, to make people wishlist your game and create general awareness of is existance.

Can we know what the game is, see the steam "coming soon" page and so on? Would probably do you more good than 50 copies lvl1 giveaway.

awesome thread.

i'd take a really close look at NB264, if i were you.

also: if you want something more "effective" take a look at Playing Appreciated group.

Giving away copies of your game may be of some benefit, but you have to consider what you're truly after.

• Giving away 50 copies will "headline" your game here on SteamGifts, and you can advertise the game inside your giveaway. Some people will stop to read the ad's, and some may follow through with Twitter, Facebook, et cetera, but this is just as easily done with a YouTube video (for example).
• Giving away many copies (1000+) will give you a player base, but that is only desirable if you need players before you can make money with the game (e.g. via micro-transactions).
• If your goal is make money from sales of your game, you want good reviews and an enticing price-point. A public giveaway for a single copy of the game is one way to "get the word out/" You can advertise the giveaway on social media, and you can include information about the game in the description of your giveaway. This is probably the most effective route to pursue sales, but you would negate it all with a "mass giveaway" or sale price of 50% off (or more).

wishlisted a lot of games i saw here on steamgifts first. but at the same time i've been simply going straight for the wishlist category so i only see a few games displayed in the "all" category (whom which there could be games i don't know about yet) each time i visit steamgifts

don't waste your time trying to promote your game here, you will mostly get people collecting stuff and never playing it.
you should also reconsider using curators, unless you trust someone a lot (same reason as above).

Well, for starters, you might want to update your steam profile, I don't think Prism is coming out in 2016. :P

Jokes aside, I think most has been said by others. Doing massive giveaways will likely only 'reduce' the value of your game. In multiple aspects.

Since we're on SG, let's focus on that. If you do smaller giveaways, it will feel more exclusive to people if they win it, which will lead to them being more likely to play it (and thus recommend it to others/write reviews). Of course there's still a chance they never will and it's just a +1 to the game count.
But if you do a massive giveaway, and especially if it also appears in bundles a month after, for me at least I am quick to think, hey look, another one of those games. Seems kinda desperate and makes me think the game is trash (doesn't have to be of course). Also, I don't really feel 'pressured' to play a game if I won it in a giveaway of hundreds of copies.
Doesn't help that most of the 50+ games I see given away here (and getting a spotlight place) these days are games I wish weren't on Steam in the first place.

Keeping the focus on SG, if a game hasn't been bundled and hsn't been massively given away, it creates a nice gem to give away. By either getting full CV for it, getting spotted by people who do giveaways for games you like on their whitelist and added to their whitelist for giving away something nice, or simply for the fact you know not many people have it (giving away a game that not half the userbase already has is more satisfying).

But, this is just the SG side of things. I have no idea how the money is for selling your game through a bundle for example. And even there, what bundler might be a factor. Even though humblebundle isn't exactly what it used to be anymore, it's still a far stretch from some of the bundlers that bundle anything that goes.

I could rant on for a bit more, but in the end, it's all hypothetical. I think it's not a bad idea to get some exposure through this site. Maybe some copies public, some through some groups you're part of (I never really check public giveaways, just wishlist and group, as group often has nice gems too, but that might be dependant on which groups you're in of course).

Edit: maybe groups like playing appreciated (no idea how big they are) could be something. As they really intend to play the games they win as far as I know. But publics? My idea is always people just hoard pretty much. Oh icaio already said so above while I was typing this.

If the game is good enough then there's no need for future promotion, if the game isn't good enough then do your best.

I'm sorry I don't want to bring you down, I'm in a shit hole myself at the moment but if the best you could describe about your game is "nothing spectacular or super huge, just a small scale game with a basic gameplay and nice additions that, I hope, players will enjoy." then it won't be anything big, just make sure you don't make yourself believe in grand illusions, be realist. If you're an artist and you just want your work out there enjoyed by at least one person then Steam is the right place for you but if you want bigger things for yourself, money and fame then there's a long impossible road ahead.

I dare say I've wishlisted a lot more games only because I saw them on SG and thought they look like good/fun to play. If that's your goal here, that is to generate some sort of interest for your game, then I'd say giving away a few copies on SG might be helpful :)

I almost exclusively find new games here because I don't look anywhere else.

I don't see why you wouldn't, it's not like it's a big investment You don't have to do a massive giveaway, you could just give away 1 copy and thousands of people will see it. A large majority of those people will go to the Steam page to see what the game is about. If they are interested, they may add it to their wishlist. I only enter for games I am interested in, but I wouldn't count on the winner playing it and giving feedback because a large percent of users here just want to collect any game they can to +1 their Steam account.

This website is basically free advertising and every user that sees the add is a gamer. I really don't see why anyone would not want to give their game away here. If you are a big dev that has already made a name for yourself, your game will probably spread by word of mouth naturally, but as an indie dev, I would think this is one of the best ways to advertise your game.

I would do a few GA's however I'd do it for certain groups on here who actually play their games.
IF you were to make GA's otherwise, I am afraid the winners won't play it.

So, the thing is, giveaways are a decent idea within reason. However, what you want to avoid is the situation where people would write off the game as a "giveaway trash" game that wouldn't be worth buying. So, a modest giveaway isn't a bad idea, but a 10k key giveaway might cheapen the appeal of the game.

That said, I'm not an expert, so I could be wrong.

A good game doesn't require any promotion, and a shitty game will not get any benefit from the promotion because it's shit.
So i guess it won't work anyway.
But if you want to have your sales going good, keep up the price lower. Some devs set like 10-15$ for their game, which is a joke to me and most of other users.

A massive giveaway is probably a bad idea. But giving away one key at a time, in 24h giveaways, on steamgifts and indiegala will be like placing a small advertising banner for 24h on these sites for free (or at least for the cost of only one key). Do that 2 or 3 times per week for some weeks and it will help to make your game more visible without having to drop many keys...

I've had no experience in such things, but I know for a fact that people who enter public giveaways care far more about getting a free game, no matter what it is, than actually learning about a game/developer.

With that said, promotion via Steamgifts is not out of question, I suppose. Personally, if I ever were to release a game, I'd make giveaways directly on the forum since I much prefer a more personal and community-driven approach where I could actually communicate with people to get feedback, opinions, but most importantly, get people who actually read to enter the giveaway rather than people who blindly enter everything (as public giveaways tend to often see).

However, I'm not sure of the exact specifics for anything, even if remotely, related to promotional activity on Steamgifts. I am aware that you can promote your game via giveaway descriptions, but I'm not sure if that would extend to the forum as well, as long as you provide said giveaway. I've seen it being done in the past, but it's not that uncommon for the SG support to prohibit a certain action when it was allowed in the past (and I blame poorly written out rules both support-side and user-side for that). You'd have to check with support beforehand to be sure.