How to market indie game with zero budget?

How can I attract players and create hype among people and make them download or play my game? Any ideas or personal experience?

Social Media(Twitter) and Youtube showing WIP vids. I say more twitter because you can connect to people the promote on there. Demo on Gamejolt, Kongregate etc.

Reddit wont let you self post, so make throwaway account. Try it in /r/webgames about a week after you actually release it or they get sort of suspicious. There have been quite a few success stories from a good thread on Reddit.

Steam wont let you trade free game keys for good reviews, but you can do it on Desura still. Desura's front page is a great starting place for an alpha funded game.

Entering your game in competitions is cool too. If you win you get all kinds of free publicity, and a trophy!

Don't create "hype" create and market an experience. Hype is a lie that most people don't have the budget to do.

Social Media depends on how relevant you are, so ask or hire someone with a higher relevancy then you.

Make a press release to give to game journalists who cover indie games. Have the press release available on tumblr or your website so you can post a link to journalists or people of interest on twitter to read it.

I just watched this video which should help you ask some hard questions about yourself and the game you want to market--

And here is my playlist for marketing indiegames

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... 4K_QEzR4dv

building a "hype" isn't a one day job, it is something you should do waaaaaay before your game is released. Tweet something with #gamedev or #indiedev every few days, and don't forget to post your #screenshotsaturday every week, to get people to notice you.

if you want to make a presskit, make it as clear as possible so that journalists don't need to ask you questions, and don't forget to include high-res images too, the press love it.

Create a press kit (as Daggio says) - there's a good example here:

http://press.gingearstudio.com/sheet.php?p=open_bar

Include a factsheet about the game including pricing in various countries, and information about yourself as a developer. Make sure you've got at least one decent gameplay video, and a good handful of screenshots. Put that on a website attached to the game, and make it easily discoverable. You might also want to package static assets like text and images into a .zip as well - that way when you email journalists you can give them the link to the website and attach the press kit too.

And you DO want to contact journalists - go round your favourite review sites and find out who to email for a review. Send them the press kit, along with a personal explanation of why you think THEY should cover YOUR game. Think carefully about the target audience of the website, the kinds of games they usually cover, and use that to conjure some blurb for why your game deserves coverage.

The old ways are still the best - the press are the people that create 'hype', they're an industry dedicated to nothing more than getting the word out there - all you need to do is provide them with the content!

If you have a good game, people will help you to market it.

If you are aiming to get sponsored, then you don't even need "hype".