I am garbage at marketing.

It's been a constant all my life: when it comes to selling my stuff, I want to dig a hole, lay down and wait for death to come release me from this mortal coil. But there's only so much that kind of attitude can get you, right? And I'm very proud of this game. I worked really hard on it. I would even say it's pretty damn good.

So something has to change. Here's what I tried so far:

I tried a launch sale, but I'm not sure it did much for my sales. Out of the 26 purchases, a lot of people actually chose to pay full price or MORE, for which I am incredibly grateful.

But I'm guessing these people were family and friends or people who already follow and support my work. They're not the ones I need to convince to give my game a try, they already believe in me. As long as I don't disappoint them, they'll be behind me (ain't that something? Just... thank you, you don't know how much it matters to me).

I tried doing a key giveaway with a dev friend of mine, but that didn't seem to garner much interest either.

I tried looking at youtubers who were doing videos on the same genres as MB9T5 (horror, comedy, visual novels...) and I mailed two so far, offering them keys. Neither answered yet but it's not even been a business week, I'm not too worried. I should probably contact more creators, but I'm not exactly a social butterfly and I'd rather take the time to check on the creator's account and make sure I don't cold contact people who have no interest in my kind of games. It'd be a waste of time for all of us.

Two vtubers friends of mine said they'd review it at some point, but they already have other videos scheduled, so it won't be quite yet.

Right now, what seems to be working best are posts on tumblr and bluesky, but there's only so many times I can post before it turns into annoying spam. 

I'm wondering if a different thumbnail would work better? Something more eyecatching. People have joked about addind a cute girl on to lure people in... And while the game HAS  a cute girl, the main focus is on a middle aged guy, I feel like it'd be false advertising.

I could reuse the art I made for the sale?

I could remove the text and add the logo instead...? You get the elements of humour and middle aged vampires, and it's red so it's more striking. Maybe I'll give it a try.

 I don't know what else I could do to get more attention for my game. Maybe join a bundle?

Much to think about.