My game is 70% done...what to do while finish it?

Hi there guys.

My game is about 70% done. It is an arcade sidescroller planned to have 40 stages grouped in 4 themed worlds. By now 3 worlds are complete.

My question is: Is there anything that I should being taking care of, besides working on the game? Building a website? providing a demo for some indie game blog/forum/etc?

What is the experience of you guys in this situation?

Any advice is appreciated.

Kind regards.

Most advice you'll get will depend on the source, so I'll give you some from the perspective of a games journalist - assuming you want to get your game out there and have people playing it, possibly giving you money ;)

• Yes, build a website. On that site you should have (in order of importance): A great opening page that briefly describes your game, includes a screenshot/concept art gallery, a gameplay video with minimal fluff, link to download a demo and/or pre-order; a dev blog; forums for player feedback.
• Build a press pack. This must include a well-written press release made up of a short and extended description of your game, contact details, a bit of history about you or your studio. It must also include full-res screenshots with no watermarks, and a downloadable version of your trailer (mp4 format preferred). Make the press pack downloadable as both a single file and split into individual files.
• Contact gaming websites - all of them, from AAA to indie-focused. Include a link to your website and press pack. Write a generic email body but tailor the opening paragraph to each website.
• Make a demo. Give people something to play while you get your game finished. Ensure the demo explains the controls (possibly with a tutorial - don't assume people read manuals or text files) and the story (maybe have your intro cinematic done by this stage), and includes a decent slice of gameplay with glimpses of things to come. Don't make the demo too big or too small. Anywhere from 15-60 minutes, depending on what sort of game it is. 15-20 minutes should be fine for a platformer.
• Set a release date. Give people something to look forward to and stick to it.
• Set up a system for taking pre-orders and full purchases when the game is done. Humble Bundle offers a payment gateway that a lot of indies are getting into.
• Lastly, if you're developing for mobile, get set up with all the right developer accounts now, so you can start testing. (This is more generic advice than any of the above).

Take heed of the advice above.. I was a noob and still am, but its not enough just to make a good game, app markets are flooded, unless people KNOW of your game to search for it or direct link to it, they won't find it among all the crapfest out there.

A. Make a good game.

B. Be good at advertising it. If its not released, then generate hype via the above suggestions.

Both are equally important.

Many thanks for those valuable tips. Surely I'll look for put them in practice!

What GeometriX said.

Great post! <img src="smileys/smiley32.gif" border="0" align="middle" />

GeometriX: Good stuff! Will keep for future reference.

Sorry my english is poor, im spanish.

An important thing to consider if you are going to publish your game in major markets.

You have to think about the following :

1 - Before having reviews and position in the rankings you need to have visibility into the store.

2 - The size of these stores and the amount of apps that are posted each day, make being in the New Zone has very short duration .

In short, the initial visibility in these stores is very short and therefore it is difficult to have a good initial pull of downloads .

An option to have some amazing results is to plan a protocol to try to access the "new and noteworthy " zones , " Favorite Team " or dream " featured app "

There is no exact science to get it. It's complicated, but it is possible by following a few steps:

• As has been said before you need :
• A good Web .
• A package full press release and in different formats.
• Social Media : Twitter , Facebook (at least)
• Dissemination in specialized blogs

Etc.

Now that all this work need to be seen by the publisher (eg Apple) . If they are not aware of this work will not be considered. Insists sending all new documentation referred to the review team.

Also, you should schedule a date for global launch market. If you want to fall in favor of Apple, believes that if you plan to release on June 15 , you can post to the exclusive June 10 will advance versions of OSX, iOS (iPhone , iPad) .

Think they value at least one month from the date you request the review to date of publication ( Time in which you show all those commercial activities ) .

Before sending the application to review , make sure there are no silly bugs and everything works correctly in the latest version of the operating system to publish (Eg. 10.9 Mac App Store , App Store 7 , etc. ..)

The icon and the name of the application are critical at this point, if you do not like to the review team , FORGET BE HIGHLIGHTED .

Therefore, if your game is good follow the steps above, you will be considered. If you are lucky you will be featured .

I can assure you that if you play this in a Featured area , multiply the initial shock x 100 - x 500 downloads.

Finally , when you go to publish the app , if you're going to follow these points and you need help , feel free to tell me. At least I will try to help.

Regards.