Indie developers often overlook the announcement as a news hook, assuming they’ll handle marketing later. We saw it as a chance to test our idea’s virality early on and make tweaks before the release.
We created a demo version of Snow Town Geek Store so that its content could be used for the trailer and Steam page. Even in the early stages of development, we planned several triggers to boost the game’s virality—humor, atmosphere, style, references, memes, and partnered shoutouts all played a part.
Our audience is made up of people who, like us, want to escape life’s heaviness and relive the warm, lamp-lit days of the 2000s youth and childhood. Our team includes both 30-somethings and 20-year-olds, and everyone put a bit of themselves into the game. That sincerity really matters. When developers try to jump on a trend just for the hype, the audience can tell, and they react negatively.
Some examples of triggers we used:
1. Using nostalgic brends references. For example “Chipsos Krunchy” chips – a nod to Cheetos Сrunchy. This is a product often mentioned in
snkd’s (popular russian geek YouTuber) videos. We love his content and feel it’s pretty close to our game, so we hoped he would notice our trailer and give it a repost. (spoiler: he did).
2. Popular voice actor and platinum meme. We got in touch with the legendary Andrey Gavrilov (his one voiced film dubbing was a huge thing in 90-s/00-s in post soviet countries) and invited him to do an authentic one-voice narration for our Russian trailer. Naturally, we couldn’t miss a shoutout to his
signature meme phrase.3. Licensed track by popular band Mumiy Troll. We used (and licensed) a track by the well-known Russian and CIS band Mumiy Troll. The track “Vladivostok 2000” is a real hit: it was used as the introductory song when the Russian version of MTV launched and is loved by people of all ages.
4. Cat. Somehow it's really important to have a cat (or any cute animal) to pet in a game. So we made that possible!
Some indie developers think such collaborations are too expensive and don’t even try to set them up. That’s a pity because if your game’s content doesn’t offer these media hooks, the trailer becomes your main marketing tool. With the trailer, you can take more risks — like using music from a genre that isn’t even featured in the game. Reach out to contacts, write, and ask around. You might find someone willing to support you for free, or the cost may turn out to be quite manageable.