u/JaphetDev

Three weeks ago, IGN exclusively revealed the announcement trailer for my game. I want to share with you all how that actually happened, and what you can expect from the process and the results if you manage to hook them too!

Bit of context: I'm (or was, i guess?) a professional online marketeer/entrepreneur turned solo-dev. I've never created a game before, but have run several marketing campaigns including socials/PR/Influencers and outreach.

1. The game

I'm making Scream Operator: Haunted House Manager, a management sim where you operate a haunted house dark ride from inside a claustrophobic control booth. Think RollerCoaster Tycoon meets Papers, Please, inspired a lot on classic ride simulators.

Steam page

2. The trailer

I've been building this game solo for the past year, and it was time to announce it properly. I put the announcement trailer together myself and I was genuinely unsure about it at times, especially the pacing. I must have rewatched it a hundred times, second-guessing every cut. At some point I just told myself to trust that I had done a good enough job, and promise me not to re-open the editor again 😆.

3. The pitch

I sent the trailer to the known IGN pitch addresses, hoping for any response at all. Two things I think genuinely helped:

- First, Rock Paper Shotgun had already covered the game earlier, which I mentioned in the pitch, I suspect that did a lot of heavy lifting for credibility.

- Second, I included a well-stocked press kit: colorful screenshots, GIFs, key art, the works.

I pitched several other major outlets too. IGN was the only one that replied, but they came back asking for a 24-hour exclusivity window, a few days before my planned launch date. I said yes. (Obviously.)

A nice detail: the editor mentioned feeling personally connected to the theme, which I think is a real factor people underestimate, as I know I did: you're not pitching an institution, you're pitching a person.

4. The nerves

The days leading up to the reveal were nerve-wracking. I had no idea whether the trailer would end up only on the GameTrailers YouTube channel, or also on IGN's main channel. There's no confirmation email that spells out the scope, and I still had to wait a couple of days between the confirmation and the actual reveal online to find out...

5. The reveal

At the exact agreed date and time, to the second, the trailer went live on both the main IGN YouTube channel and the GameTrailers channel. On top of that: a genuinely great article on the US IGN site, which got picked up by many of their local editions (Nordic, South Africa, and others), plus posts on IGN's X, Facebook, and Bluesky etc. The spread was far bigger than I'd dared to expect.

6. The aftermath

The response has been wonderful, genuinely kind comments and a real wishlist bump. I'd never imagine that what I was creating in my dark little room (and what I thought was solely a nerd-project I wanted to play myself) has already reached such an amount of potential players and happy receptions even before the public demo is out.

Right now I'm heads-down finishing that demo, with which I will be participating in the Steam Next Fest of October.

One unexpected side effect: after the IGN reveal, several publishers reached out. I'm currently sending them the demo and mapping out what they could actually bring to the table.

That said, I'm seriously considering keeping marketing in my own hands, as landing IGN and RPS independently feels like it validates that the skills transfered to the game-marketing world too. I cannot really expand on that as I'm currently simply not quite sure yet what a good publisher is able to offer in terms of help vs reward.

Thank you all for reading this huge amount of text. I'd love to chat in the comments below or in private if someone has a question or some advice regarding my publisher dillema, or just want to spit'n share, hit me up!

Ps. Scream Operator starts its first closed beta playtest this week. You can sign up via Discord: https://discord.gg/fDBtEkhnMp