When to Start Marketing Your Indie Game: A Timeline

Many indie developers start marketing when the game is nearly finished, then discover that wishlists, followers, and press interest take months to build. Marketing works better as a series of moments spread across development, each giving players a reason to notice your game and a place to act. Use this timeline as a starting point: the phases are fairly universal, but the durations are rules of thumb to stretch or compress for your project.

When should you start marketing your indie game?

Start as soon as you can show footage that looks like the game players will eventually buy. Valve's advice is to put your Steam Coming Soon page up once you're ready to start talking about the game in public, and it observes that a long-lived store page doesn't seem to carry a real downside unless the game changes significantly along the way.

A common guideline among indie developers is to have the store page live at least several months before launch, and many aim for a year or more. The phases look like this:

1. Early development: build in public and collect footage.
2. Announcement: reveal the game with a trailer.
3. Coming Soon page: start collecting wishlists.
4. Demo and Steam Next Fest: let players get hands-on.
5. Pre-launch: lock the date and build momentum.
6. Launch week: concentrate everything.
7. Post-launch: updates, sales, and ports.

Phases overlap. Many teams announce the game and open the Coming Soon page on the same day, for example.

What should you do during early development?

Early development is for groundwork, not a big reveal. Focus on assets and habits that pay off later.

Checklist:

1. Claim the same handle for your game on every platform you might use.
2. Start a clip bank: save every visually satisfying moment, placeholder art and all.
3. Write your one-sentence pitch and test it on people outside your team.
4. Identify similar games and note where their players talk about them.
5. Share small development posts, such as GIFs, art progress, and mechanic experiments, to learn what sparks reactions.
6. Open a small community space, such as a Discord server, for your earliest fans.

For platform choice and content pillars at this stage, see how to market an indie game on social media.

When is the right time to announce your game?

Announce once your art direction and core loop are stable enough that the trailer won't mislead anyone. Valve gives similar advice: hold off on showing the game publicly until the art style and core features feel settled.

Checklist:

1. Cut an announcement trailer that leads with gameplay and ends with "Wishlist on Steam."
2. Have your Coming Soon page approved and ready to publish at the same moment.
3. Prepare a press kit with your pitch, screenshots, trailer, logo, and platform list.
4. Cut three to five vertical clips from the trailer for short-form platforms.
5. Email press and creators who cover your genre with a short, personal pitch.
6. Pin the announcement on every profile, and update your bios with the store link.

For turning trailer footage into vertical clips, see TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and Instagram Reels for indie games.

What should happen once your Coming Soon page is live?

This is the long middle of your campaign, where steady posting becomes steady wishlists. Once the page is public, players can wishlist the game, and your Steam Community Hub opens for announcements and discussion.

Checklist:

1. Keep a weekly posting rhythm of short gameplay clips.
2. Add tracked UTM links to your bios to see which platforms send traffic.
3. Refresh the trailer, screenshots, and capsule art as the game improves.
4. Share development updates on Steam using events and announcements.
5. Run a Steam Playtest if you want feedback from players who sign up on your store page.
6. Review your wishlist graph monthly and note which posts lined up with jumps.

Store-page polish and wishlist calls to action are covered in how to get more Steam wishlists with social media.

When should you release a demo or join Steam Next Fest?

Release a demo when it represents the game well and you can support it. A demo isn't mandatory, but you'll need one for Steam Next Fest, a week-long showcase of upcoming games with playable demos that Valve holds several times a year. Valve's demo documentation notes that a pre-release demo is especially useful when players need to get their hands on a game to understand it.

Valve allows each game a single Next Fest appearance, so timing matters. According to Valve, there's no universal right answer: some developers join early to learn what players enjoy, while others pick the edition closest to launch to build interest shortly before release.

Checklist:

1. Choose your Next Fest edition and register from your base game in Steamworks.
2. Polish the opening minutes, since that's where every demo player starts.
3. Submit the demo build for review well before Valve's deadline, which falls several weeks ahead of the event.
4. Add a feedback link to the demo's main menu, as Valve suggests.
5. Check your tags, because Next Fest uses your categories and tags to place your game.
6. Plan clips for before, during, and after the festival, plus a livestream if you can.
7. When the demo goes live, use Steam's one-time option to notify your wishlisters.

What belongs in the pre-launch phase?

Pre-launch is the final stretch, roughly the last two or three months for many teams, when you lock the date and build toward it. Everything you publish now should point to a specific day.

Checklist:

1. Announce the release date with a dedicated trailer.
2. Set your price, and plan for a launch discount rather than pre-orders. Steam supports pre-purchases only in rare cases, and Valve suggests most games run a first-week discount instead.
3. Line up creators and press with keys and, if you use one, a clear embargo.
4. Build a short-form content calendar that counts down to launch day.
5. Prepare launch-day assets: an "out now" trailer, social posts, and a Steam announcement.
6. Double-check Steamworks requirements and review lead times so nothing blocks the release button.
7. Add outside reach, such as creators or promotion networks, for the final push if your budget allows.

Launching on PlayStation, Xbox, or Nintendo Switch too? How to market console games on social media covers platform messaging and store links.

How do you plan launch week?

Launch week is when your earlier work pays off. When you release, Steam notifies players who have the game on their wishlist, so give them plenty to see when they arrive.

Checklist:

1. Release at a time when your team is awake and ready to fix problems.
2. Publish your launch trailer and "out now" posts on every platform.
3. Post a Steam announcement and, if you can, livestream on your store page.
4. Share creator videos and press coverage as they go live.
5. Reply to reviews, comments, and bug reports quickly and politely.
6. Ship fixes for critical issues fast, and tell players what changed.
7. Keep posting short clips all week, not just on day one.

How do you keep marketing after launch?

Marketing doesn't stop at release. Valve advises staying engaged over time, noting that many players wait for a reason to buy, such as an update, a discount, or a friend to play with.

Checklist:

1. Plan content updates, and announce each one with a trailer and clips.
2. Join Steam seasonal sales and themed fests that fit your game. Wishlisters are notified when you run qualifying discounts.
3. Share player creations, speedruns, and highlights, with permission.
4. Consider console ports, and treat each one as a new launch.
5. Celebrate milestones such as anniversaries and major updates.
6. Review what worked across the whole campaign, and carry it into your next game.

Key takeaways

• Start marketing as soon as your footage represents the final game.
• Announce and open your Coming Soon page together so interest turns into wishlists.
• Each game gets one Steam Next Fest, so pick the edition that serves your goals.
• Spend pre-launch counting down to a confirmed date, with a launch discount instead of pre-orders on Steam.
• Launch week is about presence: posts, replies, fixes, and steady clips.
• Updates, sales, and ports keep giving players new reasons to buy.

Where GameDiscovery fits in your timeline

GameDiscovery can help at any phase where you need more players to see your game: an announcement, a demo, Next Fest, launch week, or a port. We turn gameplay into short vertical videos, subtitled and closing on a "Wishlist on Steam" prompt, then share them across our six channels, from TikTok and YouTube to Instagram, Facebook, X, and Threads. Message us on whichever platform you use most, or use the contact form to tell us where you are in your timeline.