IF Seal: How can I make people aware of my game?
Question: I’m not really motivated to do marketing after I finish my game. However, I would like to make it as easy as possible for readers who enjoy it to tell their friends about it! What would be most helpful for this?
Dear Marketing Friend,
My strongest recommendation is to put your energy towards the things that bring you satisfaction.
While your game is in progress, marketing might look like writing regular devlogs, sharing little peeks at what you're doing, or putting up playable sections of the WIP.
IF communities are rather scattered in various directions but as well as the Choice of Games forums for ChoiceScript games, there are a fair amount of writers on Tumblr so you may like to make a blog for that, or an account on itchio where you could host a WIP. Accounts here on Tumblr such as @/interact-if often share writers' work; the @/neo-interactives discord is wider-ranging and focuses on a variety of IF genres, as does the intfiction forum.
(I note briefly that intfiction and neo-interactives are predominantly non-commercial-focused: jumping in with an eye to purely market a commercial product is unlikely to be much fun but chatting about IF craft and play will be much more fulfilling. This is good to remember across the board, actually.)
You may also like to create a mailing list or a blog with subscription capability to keep people up to date with what's going on with your work. This is also a good way to let readers know when your game is released.
In general, especially in this niche space, ratings and reviews are incredibly helpful so reminding readers of this is useful. You may like to review games that you've enjoyed and/or get in touch with other authors to let them know what you've liked about their work.
I hope this is useful, Marketing Friend! I will also point you towards a previous marketing question and answer here.
Best of luck with your project!