As the delivery of Limit Theory draws closer, I thought it might be interesting to ask interested parties here: how would you publicize Limit Theory just before it launches and afterwards?

As a starter thought, I noticed a very interesting post at Gamasutra today from the folks working on the successful CodeSpells project. After an interview with Player Theory, they started to see an unexpected jump in pledges. It turns out the interviewer had posted images of the game to imgur. This led to $17K in pledges over a three-day period.

Obviously Limit Theory is past its Kickstarter. But this may still point to a great opportunity to show off the sweet visuals of LT at a place where visuals obviously get a lot of attention. Several of us here have expressed interest in seeing more screenshots and wallpapers of LT -- imgur might be a fantastic place to go with those when the time is right.

So in what other ways could Limit Theory be brought to the attention of gamers, and when is the right time for that to happen?

(Note: this is intended to be a constructive thread, not an invitation to complain about how Josh chooses to market his game, which is entirely up to him. Please contribute your thoughts accordingly.)

I'll chip in with the obvious: Normal visual-friendly media avenues. Tumblr, deviantArt, Twitter, YouTube.

I've noticed that not very many people really know about this game. I mention it whenever possible, but the main ones you hear about are ED and SC.

Word of mouth is usually the best form of advertising. Probably something using facebook would generate quite a lot of interest, don't use it myself though but a lot of people do. Not exactly sure how sharing works with fb.

First a question. Why publicize at all? It's already been paid for. If you build it, they will come. Without advertising, the people that will find it will be those already interested in it. The reviews will come, and more people will find it. Big names in the industry already support it, and share their enthusiasm with their own communities. It will spread just fine. Since there is nothing to pay back, Josh will just be raking in money.

Of course Josh could just go with a Superbowl Halftime Commercial

Hyperion wrote:First a question. Why publicize at all? It's already been paid for. If you build it, they will come. Without advertising, the people that will find it will be those already interested in it. The reviews will come, and more people will find it. Big names in the industry already support it, and share their enthusiasm with their own communities. It will spread just fine. Since there is nothing to pay back, Josh will just be raking in money.

Of course Josh could just go with a Superbowl Halftime Commercial

Speaking for myself, I wasn't thinking along the lines of any paid advertising, just us as customers/enthusiasts spreading the word ourselves. You know, geometric progression.

Poet1960 wrote:

Hyperion wrote:First a question. Why publicize at all? It's already been paid for. If you build it, they will come. Without advertising, the people that will find it will be those already interested in it. The reviews will come, and more people will find it. Big names in the industry already support it, and share their enthusiasm with their own communities. It will spread just fine. Since there is nothing to pay back, Josh will just be raking in money.

Of course Josh could just go with a Superbowl Halftime Commercial

Speaking for myself, I wasn't thinking along the lines of any paid advertising, just us as customers/enthusiasts spreading the word ourselves. You know, geometric progression.

Agreed. I am thinking of things like minecraft or banished... their popularity was mainly spread virally from word of mouth and in-game video advertising.

I know that the editors at themittani.com are very interested in this game. They have a write up about it every month.

Edit: We as fans could always ask other gaming websites for more coverage of LT, that would be more traffic for them and more free ads for LT.

On the front of the larger social media sites, I think awareness of the game could benefit by having someone dedicated towards maintaining those things.

Having Josh post the occasional update sharing a dev log video is fine, but having someone around all month sharing interesting things from the community and tidbits dropped in the forums by Josh is better.

Not something I would think is worth paying someone to do, at least not at this stage, but surely this community has more than a few volunteers whom would be interested in posting about Limit Theory via it's official channels on a semi-regular basis.

bwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa'xcited!

That's my PR-related inputs.

I plan to buy ten copies of the game when it's released (though the exact number is dependent on the game's pricing... I'm assuming $20-25 currently), and give five or more them away to interested YouTubers provided that they demonstrate proof of their interest in space games. Or I might do some research and determine the YouTubers myself.

Yeah, it's just ... ... ... and I assume that I'm not alone in this, but I just really, really, really need Josh to be making a ton of money off his efforts with Limit Theory.

Every agonizingly thought-concentrated moment he spends in his code-cave with that zany on his back will pay off in the greatest of ways, but not great enough.

Hyperion wrote:First a question. Why publicize at all?

It's a fair question.

You're right that I'm assuming that some amount of publicizing LT will be appropriate.

If this was just a personal mission, he could give away the game for free. As far as I know, though, that's not the case. Limit Theory (the privilege of playing a copy of it, anyway) will be for sale. That sale is a win-win for all participants -- they get a fun game, and he gets some financial reward for all his hard work. That being the case, making some effort to publicize LT is not unreasonable. That maximizes the win for everybody involved.

But that doesn't mean I'm suggesting Josh would want to do anything like hire some faceless PR company to fling copies of LT at "opinion-makers" per some highly calculated marketing plan. What I'm curious about here are some simple things Josh could do that wouldn't chew up a lot of his time (or that he's OK with us helping with) that would help ensure that more people who might like LT can find out about it.

I doubt many people would "Get" LT in any state besides 1.0. Sure there will be some streamers playing the beta. But it is still likely to be highly unbalanced for a few versions.

My opinion is the same. No action until 1.0 is out on Steam for purchase. (Or whatever you use. I state steam because it will be the biggest source of purchases.)

Flatfingers wrote: Obviously Limit Theory is past its Kickstarter. But this may still point to a great opportunity to show off the sweet visuals of LT at a place where visuals obviously get a lot of attention. Several of us here have expressed interest in seeing more screenshots and wallpapers of LT -- imgur might be a fantastic place to go with those when the time is right.

This is it.

Why didn't I think of this before, with Planetary Annihilation. WTF. *facepalm*

Well, I'm also going to be heavily involved in Shallow Space, so I guess....we need to take into account these sites. Imgur. Reddit, less so. Tumblr? Okay. I guess Tumblr (I'm not a fan ).

Here's an idea: Make a series of GIFs and images that showcase the things that make Limit Theory awesome. Not just the GAME part (massive fleet control, in-depth procedural generation of everything, etc), but the technical part. The majority of those browsing imgur are technically gifted in some way. I'm sure they'll enjoy something nerdy to read through.

We could (if Josh would give us some Fleet Control Stuff in Videos) make these images now, and start building up a library. I know it sounds kinda silly, but if some game can gain 17 THOUSAND backers in a few days because of a well-crafted post to imgur.....

Why not us? After all, most viral videos on Youtube are no accident. Why not use our Internet skills to make Limit Theory appealing and accessible to the general public of the Web?
Damnit, I already have two other projects. This will get interesting.

It's going on Greenlight, isn't it? Then there will already be publicity building, just from that. We could just tie in our efforts in a concerted push around that time, when it is most likely to grow in hype exponentially.