作者：Robert Fearon

本文并非用于回答“我要如何展开公关”或者“如何确保我的游戏曝光率”。我不知道这些问题的答案，它是你的游戏，你应该比我更了解自己的游戏。本文也不是针对独立营销的全面指南。但无论你在RP上的表现如何，应该都能从本文建议中获得一些启发。

所以，你可以马上采取本文所列的五项措施，以此提升你的独立游戏销路。

public-relations-word(from matthewgain.com)

1.使用Promoter工具

Promoter可以帮你追踪所有相关媒体的信息。等下，什么？你没有任何渠道？好吧，Promoter还备有一个方便的网站及Twitter材料数据库。它还允许你轻松地编辑自己的新闻稿引用页面，它非常实用。

你不能通过列名单或者Twitter列表上的用户，向他们发送一些千篇一律的垃圾邮件，让他们试玩你的游戏。如果你认为这就是个好方案，那你还不如没有方案呢。

当我为最近的DRM预告片和早期宣传片邮寄广告时，我只邮寄了三个网站。我只想联系这些能够接受有点古怪的视频的网站，顺便说下，它们也是我平日里喜欢浏览的网站。接下来的那几周，我会不定时地邮寄更多的广告，我相信将会有更多媒体发布我的游戏新闻消息，但仍然要记住，发送邮件要有针对性——不要漫天撒网，寄希望于有人会替你作宣传。

以下为Anthony Carboni在这一点上的相关建议：

“如果你聘请PR公司，你就得知道他们向谁推广你的游戏。如果你通过错误的渠道发布信息，那么你的游戏可能永远不会受到关注。”

“太多的开发人员只关注PR公司的名头，但却没有注意其客户关系是否可靠或具有关联性。任何人都可以发布垃圾博客的。”

最近一位独立游戏PR行家开始向我发送一些垃圾信息，而对于这些内容，我甚至只需要30秒打开自己订阅的网站，或者粗略浏览我的Twitter动态消息，就会知道它不是专门发送给我的。现在我已经直接把它放进回收站。显然，他只是通过自己的联系列表群发了邮件。

如果你雇佣了也采用这种做法的人，那么他们的PR手段并不比你高明多少。你只是在花钱找人把你的公告消息送进回收站而已。他们也是那种会向RockPaperShotgun（只针对PC游戏的博客）发送新闻稿的非专业人士。

你其实可以省下这笔钱，让Promoter帮你搞定这些事情。

2.建立资料库

Presskit()是另一个简易而实用的工具。它是一个托管视频、截图、公司历史、联系方式等其他相关内容的一站式服务网站。

你只需腾出一个晚上来做这件事情。它还可以同Promoter服务完美结合在一起。

通过这个工具你可以快速收集整理所有信息，不至于因为这些重复的琐事而厌烦。这样不但可节省你的时间，也可以节省你的联系对象的时间。

3.多阅读材料

网上的建议太多了，其中有一些不是很好的建议。你会发现许多无用的建议，但有时候也能找到一些不错的东西。

我试着归纳了那些通用的建议。

多数营销建议中都有一个通用原因，那就是讲述一个故事，提供一些人们需要的实用内容。

任何宣称游戏市场营销具有明确原则的观点都是错误的，因为每款游戏都是不同的。每个新闻工作者的喜好都会有所不同，他们所推崇的PR内容也不尽相同，但也还是有一些你需要了解的通用原则。你可以自己花时间上网阅读一些相关文章。

4.截图

星期六上Twitter的话，你可以在Screenshot Saturday上贴一些图片。

Screenshot Saturday主要服务于开发人员与开发人员之间的交流，但也不仅局限于此。

截取最佳图片是也是一项值得掌握的技巧。我常常在自己的文件夹里放了10到100张左右我随时截取的图片。然后我会细细筛选出最佳的2-3张截图。这种PR截图方法已经被我用了好多年。

这不像截取、拼接视频那么困难，每个人都会截图的。

注意：没有人会在乎游戏的菜单屏幕。所以别截取类似的图片，当然也不能把它们放到“正式”的PR截图材料中。

5.不可过分依赖网络

你应该走出网络世界，在现实生活中为游戏找一些曝光机会。因为有些人可能没有读过你最喜欢的游戏资讯博客，你可以借此吸引他们的眼球。

在PR推广上，不要仅局限于游戏媒体。除非你只想向这些媒体兜售游戏。

如果你想让你的游戏为大众所知，就向他们展示出来吧。

通常，你也可以通过此途径了解大众对你游戏的评价。观看其它群体目不转睛玩游戏的经历，远比你自己做上千次游戏测试更有价值。

希望这些小窍门可以为增加你的勇气、让你更加了解如何推广游戏。有时PR和营销就像恶魔一样，有时它们又像一个谜团。可它们什么也不是。它们只是需要你多花些时间去了解。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Indie PR on a shoestring

by Robert Fearon

This isn’t a post of answers to “how do I get PR” or “how can I guarantee coverage of my game”. I don’t know, it’s your game, you’ll have a better idea than I do. It’s not a

complete guide to indie marketing either. It’s some things that anyone, no matter how good/bad they think they are at PR can use to take the weight off themselves a tad.

So. Here’s 5 things you can do RIGHT NOW to help yourself promote your indie game.

1. Get yourself Promoter.

Not a promoter, Promoter. Promoter helps you keep track of any and all press mentions. Wait, what? You don’t have any? That’s ok, because Promoter has a handy database of sites and twitter handles also. And as a bonus, it also allows you to easily compile your own press quotes page. Fabulously useful.

Do not make a list or follow everyone on the Twitter list and proceed to spam them with a generic message to try your game though. If you think that’s a good plan, you should probably stop having plans.

When I was doing mailouts for the recent DRM trailer and initial announcement, I mailed out 3 sites and 3 sites alone. I only wanted to contact the sites I knew would be receptive to a slightly weirdy video, conveniently they’re the same sites that I truly love to read. At some point in the next few weeks, I’ll mail more and I’m sure there’ll be more press done for me once it’s out of my hands but still, target – don’t be scattershot and hope someone picks up your press.

Related, courtesy of Anthony Carboni.

“If you use a PR firm, get reports of who they’re pitching your game to. Sending a release to the wrong outlet will get you ignored forever.”
“Too many devs get excited by the size of a firm’s rolodex without seeing if those relationships are strong/relevant. Anyone can spam blogs.”

There’s an old hand at indie PR who has recently started sending me PR guff and it’s clearly stuff that even 30 seconds researching the site I contribute to or a cursory browse of my Twitter feed would reveal is not for me. I just put it straight in the recycle bin now. It’s obvious that he’s just got a list and he’s working through the list sending mail to everyone.

If you pay someone to do this, they are not better at PR than you. They’re really not. You are effectively paying for someone to have your announcement binned.

They’re the same sort of folks who’ll mail an iOS game to RockPaperShotgun, a PC games and only PC games blog.

You could save yourself that money. Promoter helps you make your start there.

2. Do PressKit.

Another easy tool for your arsenal. Presskit() lets you quickly and easily set up a port of call for the press. A one stop website to hold videos, screenshots, company history, contact details, pretty much everything you might want a member of the press to see.

Set aside an evening to do it right. It also (handily) integrates nicely with Promoter.

Do this and you have a port of call for all the information you’ll soon tire of repeating. It wastes less of your time and less time of the folks you’ll end up contacting.

3. Read Things.

Ok. There’s a video in there too but shush. Point still stands.

Read things.

I’ve only chosen articles where anyone can get something from them. There’s so much advice on the internet and some of it is bad advice. You will find lots of it is useless advice.

Sometimes you’ll find good advice.

I’ve tried to pick the pieces that have universal advice.

There’s a common thread running through most of these, that of having/being a story, having practical things that people will need and supplying those things.

Anyone who claims they have a definitive guide to how to market your game is wrong, each game is different. Every journalist wants certain things, prefers different things, likes their PR differently but there’s some common things you can learn, most of which are contained in the links above.

It’ll take a few hours to read and digest these articles. You can start that right now.

4. Take Pictures.

Take pictures.

When on Twitter and when it’s a Saturday, post pictures to Screenshot Saturday. If you’re not on Twitter, why are you not on Twitter? I’m on Twitter. Be on Twitter.

Screenshot Saturday is mainly dev to dev, that’s an inevitability but it’s not solely dev to dev either. Something intriguing will find its way out of its Twitter hole. Recently, John Polson has been running Screenshot Saturday round ups on indiegames.com. Interesting things escape.

It’s good practice in learning to take good screenshots too. I usually end up with a folder containing anything between 10 and 100 screenshots of whatever I’m screenshotting at any one time. I then work through them until I have the 2 or 3 best screenshots and I use them. This is the same method I’ve used for PR shots for a number of years now.

Unlike videos which can be tough to pace, cut or just put together in general, everyone can take screenshots.

Take screenshots.

PS. No-one cares about your menu screens. Don’t screenshot them and certainly don’t include them in “official” PR shots.

5. Don’t just rely on the internet.

Get yourself out there. Or out here. Or somewhere. Maybe there’s an event or some space local or somewhere you can set up camp. Find it.

Why Game City? Here. Here’s why. Why somewhere near you? Because these are people who might not read your favourite games news blog and you might just catch their eye. All for the sake of some busfare.

For PR, don’t limit yourself to just the games press. Not unless you only want to sell to the games press.

If you want the public to see your game, show it to the public.

Often, it’s one heck of a way of finding out what people think of your game too. My experiences of watching other people just play unhindered, complete fresh eyes to the work has been a thousand times more valuable than a thousand play tests. So it’s a double bonus!

Hopefully, these tips will help you feel a bit more comfortable, a bit more bold and a bit more informed about what you can do to help yourself when it comes to plugging your games.

Sometimes, PR and marketing seems like the devil, sometimes it feels like  a mystery. It’s neither. It’s just something that requires a bit of time and a bit of knowledge.

So, y’know, read then go forth and get plugging. I look forward to reading about your game soon.（source:gamasutra）