At lot of people here are doing puzzle games, or other games for the casual gamer. My latest game is .Starship Tycoon (http://www.starshiptycoon.com) , which is management game aimed mroe at the traditional gaming market (SimCity kind of player).
I don't have that much luck getting real coverage in the big game sites, by which i mean bluesnews, gamespy etc. Is it impossible to get covered on these sites?
With there being so many large games portals, all showing exactly the same screenshots of exactly the same games every day, you would think they would relish the opportunity to showcase a game nobody else was covering? or is my game just too low quality to get a mention by the big boys?
Thanks

Well, I get mentioned in many game sites quite often. Never blues news, but gamespy is easy.

You just have to have the time and professionalism to contact them in the right way.

Terin

Could you elaborate on contacting them in the right way? Some examples of what you do?

Anthony

A good way to start is to create a professional-looking press release. It doesn't have to be long, it just has to convey information that these sites are going to consider "news". Your press release needs to consider *their* needs: what are they looking for? What have you got to say that they will consider of interest to their readers?

Also, make sure you send the information to the correct email address.

-David

Well, apparently you have been mentioned in Blue's News (http://www.bluesnews.com/) today. ;)

DavidRM is right on this one. Sending a professional press release is a good way to start. If you send it to enough people and it's well written it will almost guarantee a couple of people pick it up.

I'd say the next step is to try and establish some contacts and relationships in the sites themselves. This can be done by sending them a nice letter explaining who you are and what you do and whether they could give you the email of the "strategy and sim" reviewer. Then you could mail him and ask if he'd be willing to at least look at a copy. In other words Schmooz.

If all of the above doesn't work then you could always lie and say John Carmack worked on it with you because of his interest in rockets.

Originally posted by svero
If all of the above doesn't work then you could always lie and say John Carmack worked on it with you because of his interest in rockets.

You made me spurt coffee on my keyboard.

Sorry for the short reply, I was in a rush, figured someone would pick up where I left off.

The way that I work is I try to establish contact first. Tell them who you are of course, and most important, find out who they are. Some companies like this, some don't. Most will appreciate the gesture and certainly not hold it against you.

Then, of course, you want to send them a professional style press release. Check online for examples (I dont have any bookmarked).

That is pretty much all there is to it. Sometimes it is a process that takes some time to establish a good rapport, sometimes they post it and never write back to you. Sometimes they NEVER post it... so, go fig.

PS: If you have anything to do with Blue's News Dave, I would love to get you on my release list. We have some big stuff coming real soon ;-).

(See, its all about schmoozing. lol)

Joseph Lieberman

Originally posted by Terin
PS: If you have anything to do with Blue's News Dave, I would love to get you on my release list. We have some big stuff coming real soon ;-).

Joseph Lieberman

Lol, no, I just happened to catch that today. However, in the past I have just sent Blue an e-mail with a link and a short description for things and more times than not he'll put up a link.

I've gotten some links up there as well. I think it's more a question of what he finds relevant than anything else.

Thanks for the insight folks!!

Good information here!

Anthony