Reddit Marketing for Indie Game Developers

Who this page is for

Solo developers and small studios with a PC or console game, a store page already up and a launch still ahead. The buyer here is a player, and the number that matters before launch is the wishlist. If your game is mobile only, the page for mobile app developers fits better: its players come through an app store, not a wishlist button.

Why wishlists are the number to watch

Steam emails or push-notifies everyone who has your game on their wishlist when it releases, whether in Early Access or as a full release, and again when it leaves Early Access. It also notifies them about a discount of at least 20 percent on the lowest-priced package that lasts more than 8 hours, and lets you send one notice within two weeks of a demo release. Valve's wishlist documentation says wishlists can be an important factor in where a game appears on Steam, and that there is no minimum count before Steam starts showing a game.

So a Reddit post is worth what it adds to that list, not the karma it earns.

Keep Reddit in proportion. The presskit.gg field guide, drawing on Chris Zukowski's research, names Steam's own traffic, then Next Fest, then content creators as the bigger wishlist drivers for most games. It still calls Reddit a high-quality channel, because the people there are looking for games.

Developer communities and player communities

The most common mistake is posting a game where mostly other developers read. Developer subs are good for feedback and for contacts in the trade; they bring few wishlists. In 2022 WN Hub reported what the developer of the puzzle platformer Boris the Sloth learned from four months of posting: r/gamedev and r/Unity2D brought few players, large subs such as r/IndieGaming and r/Games gave no traction, as posts got lost there, and small subs about his game's animals, plus r/AndroidGaming and r/playmygame, worked best. It was his first game, and he expected results to vary with polish.

Rules differ inside each type. Read the sidebar and pinned posts of every community and lurk for a few weeks first, as the presskit.gg guide advises. Our guide to Reddit's self-promotion rules separates what Reddit says site-wide from what each community adds.

What to post, and how often

• Show the game moving. A short gameplay clip beats a capsule image with a Steam link. The presskit.gg guide puts clips under 60 seconds, 30 to 60 for r/IndieGaming, uploaded as native Reddit video rather than a YouTube link.
• One post per community per month. The same guide treats weekly posts about your game in one sub as a quick route to a ban. A trailer, a demo or a sale can justify an extra post, as long as there is something new to show.
• Stagger, do not crosspost. The guide calls the same GIF in four subs within an hour crosspost spam that leads to removals and possible bans. Spread posts across the week instead.
• Use the weekly threads. r/gamedev runs a recurring Screenshot Saturday thread for progress updates, where weekly posting is fine. Post early, include an image or GIF, and answer the comments you get.
• Do not dress a promotion up as a question. Asking what people think of a mechanic when the goal is wishlists reads as misleading, and moderators remove it.
• Mostly not about you. Guides from IMPRESS and Cinevva repeat a rough ten-to-one rule: about one post in ten about your own game, the rest useful to the community.

Account gates come first. Many communities set a minimum karma or account age; IMPRESS calls about 20 karma and a week-old account typical, not universal. An account made in launch week is the weakest kind to have. Our guide on Reddit karma requirements explains why there is no single number, and warming up a new account covers the weeks before you need it.

Answering "games like X" threads

Players ask each other for games constantly: a roguelite that does not take 100 hours, a cozy base builder with no combat, co-op horror for two without jump scares. These threads let a developer help without a post of their own.

1. Answer the request first
   Name the games that fit, including ones you did not make. If yours fits, add it with one line on why.
2. Say you made it
   In the same comment: "I'm the dev of this one, so I'm biased." Reddit's rules ask you not to intentionally mislead others, and FTC guidance says an owner should disclose the connection when it is not obvious. Wording that works is in our disclosure templates.
3. Be exact about the state of the game
   Say whether it is released, in Early Access or a demo only, which platforms it runs on, and the release window if one is set. A wrong answer about handheld support costs more than the wishlist was worth.
4. Skip what does not fit
   If the person asked for turn-based and yours is real-time, leave it out. Another thread will ask for exactly your game.
5. Come back for follow-ups
   Reddit does not notify you when someone names your game unless they tag your account, IMPRESS notes, so revisit the threads you answered.

Where Agent Agency fits

The slow part of all this is reading: dozens of genre subs, their rules, and recommendation threads that go cold within days. Agent Agency is built to do that reading. You paste a link, we read up to five public pages from it as static HTML without running JavaScript, and we write a Product DNA that you approve. A Steam store page shows its description and user tags in that HTML, so the link can be your store page or your game's own site.

The agents then look for the communities where players ask about your genre and read each one before writing. In Approve mode every post, comment and DM waits for your OK. On Autopilot the agents post on their own inside the rules and limits you set. How a reply discloses that you made the game is your decision as the operator, Reddit's rules forbid intentionally misleading others, and advertising law such as the FTC's Endorsement Guides expects a material connection to be disclosed.

• It does not count wishlists; Steam's own reports do, as the next section shows.
• Reddit and X are live, and YouTube is in testing. The Reddit platform page has the details.
• If a platform restricts an account, we don't swap in a new one.
• It cannot stand in for your experience of making the game, which is what players trust in a developer's reply.

Measure it in wishlists

Steam's UTM analytics records visits to your store page that arrive with UTM parameters and counts wishlists, purchases and activations by logged-in visitors within 72 hours of the click. A link needs utm_source or utm_campaign. Conversions settle 4 days after the visit, and the report hides rows that fall below a minimum number of visits.

1. Give each community its own tag, for example utm_source=reddit with a campaign named after the subreddit and the post.
2. Use the tagged link only where links are allowed: your own post, your profile, or a reply in a community whose rules permit links.
3. After the 4-day window, compare wishlists per tag and decide which communities get next month's post.

Read the numbers as a floor. Only visitors signed in to Steam in the browser where they opened the link can convert in the report, and few people are signed in inside a social app's built-in browser. A player who later opens the Steam client and searches for the game is not counted, and neither is one who switches browsers.

Questions

Do I have to say I made the game when I recommend it?

Yes. Reddit's rules ask users not to intentionally mislead others, and FTC guidance says an owner should disclose the connection when it is not obvious from the post. One plain line in the comment, such as saying you are the developer and biased, is enough for most readers.

Are Reddit ads worth it for an indie game?

The presskit.gg field guide calls them probably not worth it for most indie games because of the cost per click and how Reddit users react to ads. Its one exception is boosting an organic post that is already doing well. If you test ads, judge them by wishlists in Steam's UTM report.

Can Agent Agency read a Steam store page?

The link you give is read as public static HTML, up to five pages, without running JavaScript. A Steam store page shows its description and user tags in that HTML. You approve the Product DNA written from it.

Join the waitlist and tell us which communities your players read. Join the waitlist