Hey, I came across EcoBeasts: Island Manager and saw that you’re currently looking for first-time players for the playtest. I help indie developers with game promotion and player outreach, and I think I could help get more people interested in trying the game. Would you be open to hearing a few ideas?
Thanks for reaching out! I'm open to hearing a couple of specific ideas here. The priority at this stage is finding people who enjoy ecosystem management or creature games and would try a short first session, return the next day and share honest feedback. The Windows beta is free with optional support.
Which communities or channels would you suggest for that audience, and how would you approach reaching them? An example of your work with a similar indie project would also help. If you're offering a paid service, please make that clear upfront and outline the scope and pricing. For now, I'm just exploring options for this small playtest.
Thanks for the detailed response. For EcoBeasts, I’d focus on communities where people already enjoy creature-collecting, ecosystem/simulation, and management games rather than broad gaming groups.
I’d approach relevant Discord communities, Reddit communities, indie game/playtest groups, smaller creators, and also run targeted email campaigns to reach people who are interested in simulation, management, creature, and ecosystem-focused games.
The goal wouldn’t just be to send traffic, but to find people who are actually likely to play the first session, return the next day, and give useful feedback. I’d handle the outreach, promotion, and email campaigns while keeping the messaging focused specifically on the playtest.
For the small playtest, I’d suggest starting with a $50–$100 test run so we can keep the scope focused and see how well the audience responds before doing anything larger. I can also show you some previous promotion work/examples so you can see how I approach indie games.
If that sounds reasonable, I can put together a specific outreach and email campaign plan for EcoBeasts, including the type of players I’d target and how I’d approach them.