I recently stumbled upon an interesting post made by "superLED" from our forums. He asked a pretty interesting question that I think is extremely important for indie developers who are looking to self-promote their projects, especially if these developers are looking to eventually crowd-fund:

"I am curious about what you guys think is 'too little' or 'too much' to share when it comes to your projects.
Do you want to share everything to the public, or do you try to keep everything a secret? Or somewhere in between?"

He then goes on to mention the trade-off between allowing people to rip off his ideas by releasing project information too early, but also missing out on potential publicity by releasing it too late. The truth is that there is a temporal "sweet spot" for showing your project off to the press. As someone whose project has been broadcast to thousands of viewers on YouTube since its very inception, who ultimately became crowdfunded on Kickstarter, I feel as though I can offer some insight into this question from the perspective of an insider.

No matter what, do NOT show it off too early! If you show off your game too early, nobody is going to take you seriously. How many kiddies do you see posting "concepts" and "design docs" of games that they have no experience, expertise, or resources to create? Take a look around a few forums, Facebook groups, or Twitter streams. They're everywhere, yet obviously only a very small portion of indie games actually see the light of day... The truth is that game ideas are a dime a dozen... Everybody wants to be a game developer, and everybody has an idea for the "perfect" game. I can't tell you how often I get private messages on Facebook from people trying to recruit me for "The next Minecraft." Ideas are completely worthless until you have developed them far enough for people to grasp your creative vision, and that usually isn't until much further in the development process. If you only have concept art and a rough idea, you're better off waiting.

Our team pulled it off on YouTube, because our VLOG was the "Adventures in Game Development," a bunch of guys getting together in their mommy's attic trying to program and develop a game together--it was not marketing a product or even focusing on a product that had yet to exist. Hell, we didn't even have a name for the fucking game until AiGD Chapter 13... It was a wild ride that nobody knew would ever lead anywhere, and viewers were simply invited along to spectate. It's more of a documentary or reality series than a genuine marketing attempt.

Now back to releasing your project... Yes, people can steal your ideas... But do you really care? I'm going to be honest here. This used to be one of my biggest fears with showing off so much on YouTube... Look around you and see how many clone 2D RPGs we have inspired who have blatantly ripped off just about every innovative idea we have introduced... I even see "Adventure Logs" and "Lua Debug Prompts" on these projects. It used to bother me, but then I took an honest look around me... Even with all the rip-offs, we still reign as king. Why? Because we make the ideas, the ideas don't make us. We are the minds that innovated these features while everyone else blindly copied them, and we are the ones who will continue to do so, leading the way, as the others trail behind us, staying in our shadows...

It's not about just being the only guy with the idea, because trust me, if it's good, after your game is released, it will be copied. It's about doing it the best. Just like Apple products have generally not introduced anything "innovative" or "groundbreaking" technologically, yet they implement features in the most user-friendly, intuitive manner, which is why they are flourishing.

Then finally, who are you competing against? They're your ideas. You are ultimately just competing against yourself and your own ideas, which is arguably an insanely useful tool for self-motivation... It quite literally forces you to stay on top of your shit and to make sure that you are the best of the best. I have grown to welcome the competition and embrace it... Yeah, plenty of people steal our shit, but nobody does it quite like we do.

Early marketing is also very useful for building pre-launch hype. If Elysian Shadows had not been introduced to the world through "Adventures in Game Development," there is no way in hell our Kickstarter would have been successful. It's not about how good your product is, it's about the audience you have built up, ready to push the "donate" button the second your Kickstarter launches.

Unfortunately most developers don't understand this, as they believe their clock starts ticking once the project goes live... Successful Kickstarters generally have a years worth of legacy built up from the gaming press and social media exposure before they even begin. They do not enter the fight blindly, expecting to rally an entire army and take the world by storm in a mere 30 days.

So when the hell do you market? Even in the case of the Kickstarter pre-hype, you still aren't going to build any hype up with just concept art. I believe that kind of marketing and exposure should come once you have at least a bit of gameplay implemented, highlighting exactly what it is that sets your product apart from the ocean of wannabe indie developers and indie games out there... because only then are you contributing content to social media and the gaming press that is truly interesting and innovative. Until then, keep your head down, keep your eyes focused, and keep working.