Marketing strategy for indie and AA projects

Marketing strategy for indie and AA projects

Why they grow along different trajectories and how real games show the difference

If you look only at the trailers and launch beats, it is easy to imagine that the difference between indie and AA projects comes down to budget. In reality, their strategies diverge because the production environment, the available resources, the scope of systems, and the communication demands of each category are fundamentally different.

Indie teams work with extremely limited time, small pipelines, and products that rely on a single point of clarity. This is why starting marketing early matters even more for smaller teams. AA teams work with layered systems, dedicated marketing resources, and the ability to shape perception across multiple touchpoints.

This difference shapes everything about how each game should be marketed. Below is a deeper look at why their strategies cannot be interchangeable and how real games illustrate the gap.

Positioning: instant clarity vs multi layered identity

Some games communicate themselves instantly. Lethal Company is a perfect example. A single moment of chaotic co op panic is enough to explain the entire experience. This is not a stylistic choice. It is a production constraint. Indie teams do not have the time or bandwidth to build messaging around a nuanced set of systems. Their success depends on clarity.

Hellblade II, however, represents the opposite dynamic. Its value unfolds through sound, emotion, performance, pacing, and atmosphere — all elements that require space. An AA studio can sustain this through trailers, dev diaries, long form content, PR cycles, and platform partnerships. The game does not need to be understood instantly, because the studio has the resources to tell a layered story.

Indie positioning must begin with a simple, legible idea. AA positioning can rely on complexity and emotional depth.

TikTok: self generating clarity vs curated atmosphere

TikTok exposes how a game behaves outside controlled marketing. According to TikTok's creator guidelines, content that generates immediate emotional response performs best in the algorithm.

Megabonk thrives because the game creates its own content. Chaotic physics and slapstick failures appear naturally, without editing. Indie teams benefit enormously from this: they cannot invest in heavy content production, so a game that produces readable, viral moments on its own gives them an immediate advantage.

Alan Wake 2 plays a different game. Its TikTok presence is built around mood: lighting, tension, unsettling imagery, atmosphere. None of these explain the mechanics, yet they communicate the emotional identity of the experience. An AA title can support this because it has strong art direction and resources to craft and maintain visual language.

Indie TikTok succeeds when the hook appears organically. AA TikTok succeeds when the aesthetic is strong enough to stand alone.

YouTube: testing viability vs demonstrating depth

For indie games, YouTube is not a promotional channel — it is a viability test. The YouTube Creator Academy emphasizes that the first seconds of any video determine viewer retention. HoloCure exploded because its fun was visible instantly, even to a viewer who had never seen the game before. The game explains itself through play. If an indie game fails to generate comprehension in the first 20 seconds of a YouTube clip, the issue is usually with the concept, not the edit.

For AA games like Baldur's Gate 3, YouTube is about depth. Viewers watch to see how choices branch, how companions react, how systems overlap. Their interest is not "what is this game?" but "how far does it go?"

Indie YouTube answers the question "does this game make sense?" AA YouTube answers "how deep does this experience run?"

Influencers: simple retellability vs world scale storytelling

When influencers show Slay the Spire, they can explain the game in seconds a card based roguelike where every run surprises you

This clarity allows indies to scale through creators without heavy guidance. For teams building marketing without budget, creator partnerships become essential.

Starfield, in contrast, cannot be summarized in a sentence. Influencers retell stories about exploration, factions, ships, quests, and freedom. The scale of the game becomes the content.

Indies benefit from games that are easy to retell. AA benefits from games that allow creators to explore narratives.

Steam: one powerful idea vs a complete showcase

Indie Steam pages must communicate quickly. Dome Keeper needed only one GIF: dig, defend, upgrade. Players understood the loop immediately. This is why Steam page conversion depends heavily on immediate clarity.

AA games like Lies of P must demonstrate execution: art direction, combat feel, mood, effort. The Steam page becomes a curated gallery that communicates quality rather than simplicity. Steamworks documentation provides guidelines for optimizing these visual assets.

Indies sell a hook. AA sells confidence and craft.

Community: finding a voice vs maintaining an ecosystem

The Dwarf Fortress community effectively taught the game to the world. They created vocabulary, memes, explanations, entire narratives. This is common for indies, where the community shapes the identity.

Warframe uses community differently. It is infrastructure: feedback, retention, meta discussions, expectations management. It is not about discovering the game's voice but about sustaining a complex ecosystem. The GDC talk on Warframe's community management illustrates how AA studios approach this differently.

Indie communities often define what the game is. AA communities maintain what the game becomes.

Conclusion: strategies diverge because production realities diverge

Indie and AA games live in fundamentally different environments.

Indies win through clarity, speed, and ideas that survive minimal content production. AA wins through depth, atmosphere, and the ability to sustain multi layer communication.

Indie marketing grows from a moment. AA marketing grows from a system.

When a studio aligns its strategy with its actual production reality rather than copying other segments of the industry, the game finds its natural audience — and grows the way it was meant to.

Pavel Beresnev

Marketing Consultant for Games

I’m a marketing consultant helping PC and console studios build systems that grow wishlists and sales with clarity, not chaos.

I work with teams that want predictable growth across the full lifecycle of a game: Steam optimization, store asset improvement, messaging, analytics, creator strategy, and launch planning. My approach combines structured decision making with practical execution so developers can focus on building the game while the marketing foundation scales with them.

• Steam visibility, conversion and wishlist growth
• Store assets: capsules, trailers, messaging, positioning
• Analytics frameworks and marketing decision systems
• Creator and influencer pipeline setup
• Launch strategy for PC and console games
• Long term marketing systems, not one off tactics

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