How to publicize RimWorld

Tynan · April 15, 2014, 07:16:31 PM

RimWorld is really a sleeper success. There has been no coverage from any major bloggers and I think the biggest YouTuber who has done a video was Scott Manley. It still sells quite well, but I think that's mostly from word of mouth. Which I think is awesome. I love grass-roots- viral success. But obviously I'd like to get the word out as well in more mainstream ways.

Can anyone recommend ways to publicize the game? Do you know of a popular YouTuber who you think would do a good RimWorld video? Or a blogger or writer to talk to? Let me know here - I want to know who I should tell about Alpha 3.

And if anyone has ideas on publicity strategy besides just sending messages to community gatekeepers, I'd love to hear em!

And obviously, if anyone wants to send an email to a YouTuber or writer they know or know of, that's be awesome as well

Jotun · April 15, 2014, 07:36:19 PM

I posted it on the somethingawful games forum and it has been relatively well received, most people seemed to agree that the combat is solid and what's there is good, it just needs more content, they also seem to like monthly updates.

It seems to stand up to being played and discussed, which would fit with the word of mouth/grassrootsy approach, possibly your best method would be something like a big youtuber feature, though you may achieve similar effects with multiple, smaller producers doing videos.

Not sure if TotalBiscuit would be interested, he does his WTF is thing which covers less publicised games, and seems like he might have a taste for this sort of game, could send him a copy or something.

jamieg · April 15, 2014, 07:37:45 PM

WELL about 2-3 hours ago i noticed that sips of the yogcast has been playing prison architect atm (and i know there different) but i have posted on his wall already recommending Rimworld maybe you could offer him a free copy for them guys there to try? as i do not know if he will see my post. i know he would love it and they love mods too

and he has 1.8 mil subscribers roughly? chances are if we can get him to play so will shin ect and then BOOM everyone knows about it....

Jotun · April 15, 2014, 07:40:18 PM

Quote from: jamieg on April 15, 2014, 07:37:45 PM
WELL about 2-3 hours ago i noticed that sips of the yogcast has been playing prison architect atm (and i know there different) but i have posted on his wall already recommending Rimworld maybe you could offer him a free copy for them guys there to try? as i do not know if he will see my post. i know he would love it and they love mods too and he has 1.8 mil subscribers roughly?

This also, some of the yogscast crew do the colony/city management sims, some free copies to them might get one of them playing it a little.

I also wonder if the steam greenlight thing might help? The game did get greenlit, didn't it? Showing up on the frontpage can be a bit boost, though it may make the early access part a little high-stress for you.

jamieg · April 15, 2014, 07:44:13 PM

OHH pewdiepie isnt into this sort of thing really...but if he was to even do a 10 minute playthrough the views would be huge, and im sure he loves trying stuff he gets free?

Tynan · April 15, 2014, 07:45:12 PM

Quote from: Jotun on April 15, 2014, 07:36:19 PM
Not sure if TotalBiscuit would be interested, he does his WTF is thing which covers less publicised games, and seems like he might have a taste for this sort of game, could send him a copy or something.

I definitely want TB to do a WTF thing, but I think I'd rather wait until the game is more complete first. For this stage I was thinking it'd be cool to get the game to some of the mid size or smaller players. The big guys won't look at it a lot of times (or even more than once) so I want it to be nice and finished when they do. It's still only Alpha 3.

I think the best bet now is the kind of YTers who grab 5,000-50,000 views per video, in the Mathas/Scott Manley/Quill18 range.

jamieg · April 15, 2014, 07:49:56 PM

I've started keeping an eye on youtube vids of the modpack and linking them on the post blitz on there has around 5k subscribers

but i think alot of them know about the game already. im hoping some coll youtubers see that im linking and go make a great vids for me :p

And Ty your mad bro they would definitely play it more than once....

ousire · April 15, 2014, 10:11:32 PM

Personally, I found the game from watching GamersDissent. I agree that you'd probably get the most success out of having someone like Totalbiscut or one of the Yogscast to do a video of the game, but it might be better to wait till the game has at least a bit more content.

Yogscast Sips has done several similar games, like Banished or Prison architect where he does long multiple part series, and has been known to revisit games in the past, so you may want to see if he would be interested in doing a few videos now, and more in the future once the game has some more meat on it's bones.

Other than that, the only thing that pops to mind is to try and spread it around on forums for similar sort of games. Make a thread about it on forums for stuff like Minecraft, Banished, Prison Architect, other base building games like that, maybe see if you can find youtubers or blogs who focus on Indie games to take a look

renwold · April 16, 2014, 02:47:36 AM

I also support the idea of getting Sips on board with this, I love his work and I think he would have a fantastic relationship with this game, just from his past enthusiasm for similar titles. His style also lends itself to the more flavorful aspects of RimWorld's world-building, like the individual colonist traits and the narrative formed by the events surrounding the colony.

That said, the strategy of going for some mid-tier content creators during these early builds of the game is a good one, because you'll get the most benefit from them doing the videos sooner than later. Give it to someone with over a million viewers and you'll immediately cheapen the value of a lot of the smaller players just by the virtue of shared audiences.

But seriously, the sooner Sips makes a series on this the better

Peacekeep3r777 · April 16, 2014, 04:19:48 AM

Very true Tynan, this game needs to be much more popular. I personally dont think, that youtube can do all this job done only by uploading rimworld videos. It can give people idea of what this game is about, however when there is curently no endgame content, loads of people will just wait imo. However there is something you can improve Tynan and its video posted on Rimworld. Make it more creative, perhaps use help of someone else who can do it, make a contest about it here, so people can do their videos and give an ideas what to do better. Also with alpha builds growing up, game itself has new content which people should see, also there are many great mods out there, so show people perhaps. This is just an idea, however one thing for me is better video showing Rimworld in more creative, more "wow" way.

Also you can make something like a contest for youtubers, that if they reach some number of viewers you will give him one free copy of Rimworld so he can do contest about it or just give it to friend, which might tell others... Thats it for youtube, but still there are ways to get there.

Another thing is that you might want to write to game portals, which can also give some boost to sold number. Dont have more ideas right now.

Col_Jessep · April 16, 2014, 06:17:42 AM

Quote from: Tynan on April 15, 2014, 07:45:12 PM
I definitely want TB to do a WTF thing, but I think I'd rather wait until the game is more complete first.

Yeah, about that. SplatterCat did a LP of Rimworld but I could tell that he was running out of things to do around episode 8 and I can't shake the feeling that he let the raiders kill his base in 12 to end the LP. Building the 'perfect base' is fun for the player but it's not very interesting for an LP imo. I agree with Peacekeeper, some form of endgame goal would really help Youtubers.

And more varied incidents. If viewers see two eclipses, a solar flare and an exploding circuit every episode it paints a rather bleak picture of Rimworld.

A couple of Youtubers I would imagine might be interested in Rimworld:
Aavak 8k, plays Dwarf Fortress, Gnomoria and XCOM
ChristopherOdd 38k, covers lots of games, loves XCOM; might like Rimworld
Danny2462 79k, almost exclusively Kerbal Space Program; if he likes Rimworld you can expect some hilarious videos of bugs though; he finds bugs like nobody else.
HOCGaming 99k, KSP and other indie games; might be looking for something new.
LeGoldFish 9k, covers indies frequently, played Banished
OperationDx1 18k, KSP, Space Engineers...
ZaphodX 13k, covers Planetary Annihilation mostly; might be worth a try though
ZombieCleo 33k, covers lots of indie games
and last but not least:
5thHorseman Only 500 subs but I know for a fact that he is interested in Rimworld. In case that counts for anything.

But Ty, why don't you use the search on Youtube? Look for LPers who covered Banished, filter by channel, sort by number of views.
That's the complete list of people who 'will make LP for free game', I guess?

Celthric Aysen · April 16, 2014, 06:39:01 AM

May i suggest Pewds

AikidoDaniel · April 16, 2014, 07:06:51 AM

You could try NerdCubed on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKab3hYnOoTZZbEUQBMx-ww

He's done stuff on FTL and a bunch of other indie games.

joshwoo69 · April 16, 2014, 07:11:14 AM

Wonder if direwolf20 would be interested.

Tynan · April 16, 2014, 11:27:47 AM

All right, thanks everyone. I'm going to send some emails.

And if anyone has any other ideas please post em!

How to publicize RimWorld

joshwoo69