One of the ultimate goals of a game designer is to have people actually play your game. What better people to offer your game to than people who already love games.
Twitch
Several months ago, I was looking for some entertainment and went to Twitch. For those of you not familiar with Twitch, it is a service that allows gamers to stream themselves playing and build up a following of people who can subscribe and give them money to watch them play.
I happened across a streamer named Cohh playing Fallout 4 which had just been released. I found him to be really entertaining and building a great community so I started watching his channel sometimes while I was working.
Come to find out, he is a game designer and has a game studio that was making his game for him. And he is streaming on Twitch full time to build an audience and a community that enjoys games like the one he is making.
This January he ran a kickstarter campaign for his game and got it completely funded fairly quickly.
It was genius.
So for those of you who like to play video games in addition to designing them and making them, which I am going to assume is all of you. Consider using your time to play as dual purpose and possibly stream on Twitch or make Youtube videos. Both would probably be good. This way you build an audience who already likes you and are willing to try things that you make and possibly even be your beta/alpha testers.
And remember, start as simple as possible. You don’t need a $300 podcast mic or super fancy equipment to get started. Use what you have on hand.