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Three Indie Games You Should Follow on Twitter

Posted on by travistaborek

Intro – These Indie Games do Social Media Marketing Right

It’s tricky to say how I feel about social media. I feel like I don’t like it as much as maybe I should for a career marketer.

On the one hand, social media platforms are a cesspit of toxicity, narcissism, self-aggrandizement and misinformation. It’s often stupid, and in many ways it’s insidiously evil. And that kinda sucks.

But that’s not to say that social media doesn’t have value. 

Connecting with people with shared interests. Bonding in mutual support over a cause. Forming online social groups around a topic. 

Stuff like that is cool, and social media is good for things like that. I mean, the internet is built on niche communities like this. 

And you know what else social media is good for? Promoting your indie game!

Building a social media audience is like growing a garden, or raising a virtual pet. If you nurture it, it will flourish. If you neglect it, it will die.

It’s also one of the best free ways of promoting your indie game, no matter what stage of development you’re in.

It’s pretty tricky though. Social media marketing is a protracted investment that takes time, energy, consistency, rigorous testing and experimentation, and months or even years of consistent effort to fully pay off. 

Getting traction in the indie game space, in particular, is very difficult because the indie game Twittersphere is so oversaturated with content that getting any visibility at all is almost impossible.

To make it happen, you need to not only do the above but also think creatively and use some out-of-the-box thinking.

I’d like to talk about a few indie games that have managed to make it work. These are indie games in various stages of development who have managed to stand out in a sea of content, and kudos to them for getting the system to work for them!  

Here are three indie games you should be following on Twitter.

Potionomics (@potionomics)

I once met Nick Popovich (@NickPopovich) at a Halloween Party hosted by Monomi Park (@monomipark), the creators of Slime Rancher.

In his GDC talk about “Making Games that Stand Out and Survive” one of the pieces of advice he gives is to “share it with a GIF.”

He emphasizes the importance of being able to show off everything you need to know about your game in a bite-sized, easily shareable image to help your game’s virability through social media.

This is something that Potionomics (@potionomics) does better than any indie game I’m familiar with that’s currently in development.

Here, take a look at some of these GIFs they made and you’ll soon see what I’m talking about.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO just LOOK at those! They get my italian chef kiss mwah!

Italian chef giving an OK sign.
Mmwah! Now that’s a-good a-agme!

Look at how much emotion, expression, and energy is put into every single frame of animation. Everything you need to know about their personality is written right in their faces. It makes the creatures and witches in Potionomics feel like real people.

Also, the fact that they loop is a great touch. Twitter loves shit like that.

The character models themselves are pretty great too. Smooth rendering. Vibrant colors. Whimsical character designs. Both that and the hugely entertaining looping GIF animations themselves come together to bring Potionomics to life.

Gaming public, follow (@potionomics) and keep an eye on them. Something tells me you’ll be hearing a lot more about them soon.

And indiedevs, pay attention. THIS is how you do social media marketing for your indie game!

Alright, onto the next one.

A Juggler’s Tale (@ajugglerstale)

Here’s a game that caught my attention a few months ago. It’s called A Juggler’s Tale, and I found it one #screenshotsaturday as I was browsing through Twitter.

A Juggler’s Tale is a physics-based, side-scrolling platformer. 

The premise is that you play as a string-puppet named Abby. Or rather, you don’t play as the puppet. You play as the *puppeteer* controlling her. 

What would you even call a game like this? Second-person perspective? Idk. But it has a pretty interesting little thing going for it.

A Juggler’s Tale’s landing page states that it’s the recipient of multiple game festival awards, including the story award from Gamescom in Cologne, Germany.

Each level begins on what looks like a traditional puppet theater stage complete with floodlights and cardboard cutout stage props. But as you progress through it, your surroundings slowly merge into a real-world setting with real trees and buildings. 

The darkly whimsical atmosphere in the video clips give this game an almost Burtonesque-like feel to them.

It’s a nice way to merge fantasy with reality, and that’s the sort of vibe A Juggler’s Tale brings with its aesthetic.

At 1,939 followers, this game is building a well-deserved audience for its unique premise and setting. Follow them at @ajugglerstale and you’ll soon see what I mean!

Mongrel (@Fischmell)

Dear or dear. Mongrel is an odd little number and no mistake. That’s no bad thing either.

Mongrel is an off-beat, side-scrolling platformer by Norway-based @Fischmell.

This game is most closely inspired by Conker’s Bad Fur Day, one of my favorite games of all time. It has a bizarre plot involving an invasion of poo-monsters.

It has some rather…off-kilter voice acting, but it’s odd in a way that adds to the game’s appeal and charming. It also has genuinely fun side-scrolling gameplay.

It’s been a few months since I checked this one out at time of writing. I recall that some of the controls and platforming mechanics took a little getting used to.

Once I started getting the hang of it though, I was really starting to have a lot of fun.

A free demo is available here on their Kickstarter page! 

Give it a shot sometime. It’ll take you 30 minutes, maybe an hour tops to complete. I don’t know whether you’ll like it or not (I’m betting you will). BUT, I can promise you, you won’t forget it!

You can follow them on Twitter here @Fischmell.

You can also join their Discord at: https://t.co/E44oB96c7Z?amp

Conclusion

These are indie games that do social media marketing right. They do it by leveraging social media to highlight what makes their game special, by differentiating themselves from the competition, and by being genuinely fun indie games to learn about and look at!

What indie games do you follow now that you first learned about on Twitter? Let me know in the comments!

Check out my review of Prey too, if you’re interested.

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