Hi, I'm the solo developer for **Temple of Eternal Suffering**.

# A little bit of backstory:

I always wanted to create a game of my own, so after working for about 10 years in the games industry, I finally decided to just go for it and fully commit.

I worked on this project for about 7 months after work and on weekends. Then, after my studio had some financial difficulties and terminated most of the studio's contracts (mine included), I decided that this was the best time.

Over the years I have been saving up money, so I decided to use that now and go full time (8 months so far).

# Wishlists:

This is why you are here :)

I have spent $0 on marketing - I might spend some later when the game is more presentable and has a trailer that fully shows what the game is all about. My marketing so far:

* Posts on Reddit: I post in different subreddits that are more or less aligned with my game. As far as I can tell, this has brought me the most wishlists, some of the posts have had 40k+ views. I don't post that often - once every 2–3 weeks, depending on if I have something cool to show. As I launched my Steam page very early in the game's development, I have many chances to promote my game's features and even multiple updated teaser trailers. Each time, it sparks interest that converts into wishlists.
* Twitter posts: These result in way fewer wishlist conversions, but I would say it is in second place as a marketing tool for me. I’ve had some good posts there - one hitting 23k views and a few around 5k - but there is a huge gap between Reddit and Twitter in terms of wishlists and discoverability.
* Bilibili: I'm from Poland, but with the help of a web browser’s translate feature, I managed to set up an account on Bilibili. I have uploaded my game's trailers there, alongside some other short gameplay videos, and that has brought in some wishlists from China.
* Other social media (Bluesky, Mastodon): These have almost no conversion, but I just copy what I'm posting on Twitter. Since there is almost no additional work for me to post there, it doesn't hurt, maybe it will pay off someday.
* YouTube, TikTok, Instagram: I have mostly tried short form content, posting 3 times a week for 2 months - some gameplay, some edited funny videos, progress updates, etc. However, it’s just not working for me there. I'm hitting between 80 and 2k views with almost no conversions to wishlists. I will probably try again with a different approach, as I have seen many people be successful in promoting their games on those platforms. My game is more on the gory side, so that might be the reason why my videos are not being pushed by the algorithm, but it might also be the fault of my video format.
* Steam festivals: As I'm writing this post, I'm currently part of the Rogue Bots festival. I don't have all the data yet, but for these past few days, I did see a little spike in wishlists, so it likely has something to do with it.

# Conclusions:

This is only from my experience so far - POST EVERYWHERE and about everything that looks cool! You never know what or where can blow up and bring traction to your game.

Updates, cool features, reveals, teasers, trailers, a cool moment from your game, a funny bug, etc. - even if the numbers are low, promoting your game everywhere still has a chance to trickle in a number of wishlists.

I know that this will not work for some types of games because of their nature (like spoilers in a story game), but I'm sure there is always something you can find to post about.

That's about it. Hopefully, someone finds this information useful.

# Self promo :)

Here is my game if you are interested in checking it out: [https://store.steampowered.com/app/3844300/Temple\_of\_Eternal\_Suffering/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/3844300/Temple_of_Eternal_Suffering/)

Got 3000 Wishlist in 4 months with 0$ spend on marketing. Sharing what worked for me, after being Laid off and going Solo.