Creativity vs Marketing…

Disclaimer: This DevLog is intended to help anyone, who is in a similar situation we are in at the moment. Everyone has to make their own decisions. This merely is our own honest view and opinion, based on our experience. We would love to hear from you, what you think about it all. We wish you all the success and fun you deserve with creating and marketing your game! eXplore Studio

Some time ago, I heard someone explaining that even before coding the first element of our game, we should study how to market it and of course anticipate how it will sell upon release and beyond. These words stayed with me and made me wonder. Where is creativity in this process? Where are freedom and personal expression? How could we possibly express ourselves and convey our specific message if we are tied up to the fluctuations of a fast-evolving market? How can we ensure that the customers will have the same desires in a couple of years – or more – when our game is finally ready for release or that us, creators, artists, will not implement new ideas, concepts, designs, techniques in our game? 

Indeed, for many of us, creating a game is a dream come true, a dream we have been nurturing for a long time. A dream that is part of us. A dream we can describe with our eyes closed. The landscape starts to fill with charming colours, rustling leaves, chirping birds or whatever your dream is about. Characters become alive, octopi communicate with humans, strange creatures take us to enchanted worlds we never imagine existed… This dream is what will make our game unique and forever saved in the digital world.

That’s why marketing should evolve alongside our game and leave us, game developers, enough head-space to freely create a beautiful piece of art. Unfortunately, working with partners or large publishing companies is an opportunity given to only a small number of indie game developers, so we mostly work alone - or in very small teams - and must constantly juggle between different jobs for many years. That’s why, often, marketing is not a priority or only becomes a priority when the release date approaches. Panic! To be continued…

If you recognise yourself in this real-life experience DevLog, follow us for part 2 coming out on Sunday 13th August 2023 and check out our previous ones🙂.