Success without YouTube/Twitter/Social Media?

Social media isn't the most effective form of advertising by a wide margin, it's just the cheapest because if you're small enough you can do it for free. At bigger scale it's not as effective because the platforms limit how many people can see a given post unless you pay for it, even if you have more followers. Paid ads convert well, sponsorships are more reliable than cold emails to content creators, and so on.

There's no one size fits all answer to marketing and it depends on the game you're trying to sell and the platform. You can't guarantee a response from streamers but if you've got an awesome looking survival game or roguelike and can get a couple people to play it for their audiences that can make a big difference. If you're making a mobile game, on the other hand, literally nothing matters except paid ads.

Games that do well in the market are almost never made by one person without a budget. If you're in that position you're usually better off considering your game a hobby and not trying to overly monetize it or getting a marketing budget. Trying to sell a game you made yourself is starting your own business, and you'd probably never think about opening a restaurant without having worked in a kitchen and without a lot of money to invest into the business. Games are exactly the same way, it's still a start-up even if you programmed on weekends. Invest money from your other income sources into your business or seek out investment.

Marketing is part of it I'm afraid.

You have to think HALF of a Hollywood movie's budget is spent on marketing.

There are several things you can do with zero cost.

You could try and get streamers or youtubers to play it.

Social media costs time and effort (if you don't spend money advertising).

Try and contact media outlets to review it.

Post on reddit.

End of the day is, you have to let people know your game exists.

How would people discover your game? If you just hope and pray with Steam New Release, that is going to be tough.

The most important thing is steam wishlist. On release day you need 7 to 10 thousand. That will put you on the popular upcoming which explode your game’s popularity.

Being a Solo Game Dev myself, I'm in a similiar position.

But despite the MANY people who will try to deter you from trying to release a game Solo, bootstrapping it.. ignore them.

Social Media is their to bring awareness of your game. It's a tool for you to build a fan base, a community for your game over time. That way people are aware of it when it finally does release.

It's a lot like Twitch Streaming.. your new to the scene, you need time to build a following. It gives you an outlet to build up a fan base, show off the development of your game over time. Twitter, Twitch, TikTok, YouTube, Patreon, etcetera.. pick what works for you.. don't overburden yourself, an just stick with it.

People seem to forget all the games that were originally made by 1 person. Or the countless games made by small teams 20-30 years ago with almost no budget, that are now Triple A Game Devs.

But remember to build within your means, don't go all out.

Far as publisher's, it comes down to what they are actually going to provide you. Unless there willing to Advise you, in addition to Marketing/Money.. don't bother (in my opinion).. because a partner truly invested in you as a Game Dev.. is going to help you to be a better Dev in the end.

An as countless Game Devs & Streamers continue to prove, in the end.. your community will be your biggest supporters!

Not sure what the point of your question is, are you trying to determine if you can skip social media marketing and still find success?

I’m sure some have, though if you’re looking to get picked up by someone you’ll obviously want to invest in platforms that will increase your chances of being seen.

You can rely on Steam to give your game visibility. Focus on getting those first 10 reviews, a "Positive" score, and as many wishlists as possible. Steam will give you increased visibility for the first month or so after launch.

Having a YouTube, twitter, Facebook, Instagram and even reddit is a must, most of the game devs I met through discord online says this, if they knew how to market their game, they would not be doing a job but running their own business. You need traffic on your game and these social media platform and tools are the best way to do that.

What happened to me as a starter: I was making videos on webdev mostly and I was getting not more than 500 impressions sometimes near to 1k even with sharing them to all social media, lately I just made a tutorial based crappy one level game, made my own review video https://youtu.be/6idPN73nR-c over it to get some traffic, then I shared it in all fb groups, my gamedev teacher accounts on all social medias, I got a comment of somebody referring me to a game studio company, they were also indie, and agreed to share my game on their media as well. And voila my video got 5k impressions till now,

if your game is really really perfect, it'll be hard for people not to play.

Most people pour there hearts and souls into good, and even great games, but it's a hard pill to swallow when people just aren't interested.