In the previous instalment of “The Dreaded”, I explored the problems of self imposed deadlines and how in my experience, they have ultimately failed the majority of the time. I also claimed to have a solution, that not only solves deadline problem, but in doing so, also solves the problem of promotion… I wasn’t lying.

Out there in the ever growing, ever changing, ever more mental internet there are so many things. Some of which are brilliant, brilliant games. Most, if not all of which, you will never have heard of. This isn’t surprising, as there are quite possibly more web pages than there are ants in the world these days, so it’s all a little cluttered. Creating yourself a web page with your super-awesome game on and hoping people will find it is a bit like flicking a bogey on the London Gherkin and not only expecting all window cleaners from here to Australia to hear about it, but come over and give it a damn good cleaning as well. It’s very unlikely.

So how does one promote their creation? Well, start by making that website I damned in the previous paragraph. True it’s not going to attract the masses on it’s own, but you need a place for said masses to descend on. Game development forums are the place to start. Sign up to some as you are developing the game. If you start spamming forums with messages about your finished game straight away, you are likely to be ignored no matter how mind blowing it is. If you join these forums earlier on, you can get feed back and generate a fair bit of hype as your game gets nearer to completion. This is all well and good, but why are you actually going to complete your game? Because you are entering it into an indie game development competition, that’s why.

Game development competitions are great for wannabe game devs, not only do they give you that must have deadline, but they also bring more publicity than you could hope for. There is also the bonus that people have to play your game in order to judge it. The down side to this is there will be criticism, but the knowledge that so many people have been engaged and drawn into your game to play it should be gratifying enough to offset any bad press. Grow from it and try to fix the bugs ready for version 2, which will be so much easier than version 1 ever was. You now have fans, drive, promotion and that pesky deadline is no longer an issue. See, easy!

Indie developer competitions

IGF: http://www.igf.com/
IndieCade: http://www.indiecade.com/
Indie Game Challenge: http://www.indiegamechallenge.com/home/
2beegames: http://www.zoogamesinc.com/splash/splash.php
Intel: http://software.intel.com/en-us/cont…0/contests.php