How Eric Barone Made Stardew Valley Go Viral With a Zero Marketing Budget
Recently, I read Blood, Sweat, and Pixels by Jason Schrier. The book chronicles the stories of ten popular games, from role-playing to action-adventure games. But the story that stood out to me was of Stardew Valley.
If you haven’t heard of it, it’s a farming simulation game. But here’s the twist: it was developed by just one person, Eric Barone. Yet, it’s sold over 30 million copies and is still popular seven years after release.
Usually, games require teams with hundreds of people and large budgets for marketing. So, how did a solo developer on a shoestring budget create such a successful game? Here’s the lesson I learned from the book.
The Importance of Pre-Launch Marketing
What stood out to me about this story is that although Stardew Valley took four and a half years to complete, Barone launched a website for it a year into development.
To drive traffic to the website, he started talking about his project on Harvest Moon fan forums, a series of farm simulation RPGs. At the time, the series was dwindling in popularity, mainly due to a decline in quality.
Thanks to this, there was an opening in the market for a game like Stardew Valley, which had the core of what people loved about Harvest Moon but promised a more high-quality and fresh experience.
Barone found many people on the Harvest Moon fan forums who jumped on Stardew Valley, ready to purchase it at launch. These people also voted for the game on Steam Greenlight, a program that would grant it entry into the Steam platform, making it available to millions of players.
Here’s the blog post Barone made when Stardew Valley earned enough votes to win approval on Steam Greenlight.
This set the stage for further promotion of the game. Barone signed on with Chucklefish Games, which sent download codes to journalists and Twitch streamers. For almost a month, Stardew Valley stayed on the front page of Twitch, creating tremendous hype leading up to its launch.
Since then, as mentioned above, Stardew Valley has sold over 30 million copies across various platforms and keeps getting regular updates. It also has an active Reddit community.
Although Stardew Valley’s story is quite inspirational, the truth is that this is a one-in-a-million success story. But if I were ever to launch a video game, here are the steps I’d follow.
3 Steps to Get Started With Pre-Launch Marketing
So, what are the lessons that we can take from this story? It’s important to remember that Stardew Valley went viral due to two main things: social media and community building. Many other games have succeeded using similar methods.
For example, Among Us by Innersloth is a game that has gone viral through social media. It gained popularity in 2020 due to its addictive gameplay and people sharing their clips using #AmongUs.
Secondly, Minecraft by Mojang Studios is a good example of a game that has gone viral through community building, since the developers engage with players through social media. It also has a modding community.
So, the lessons learned from Barone’s approach are still applicable whether you’re marketing a video game or any other product or service. Here are three steps you can take to do what he did.
1. Create a website or blog to post updates
Even if your product or service is in development, create a website for it. Barone launched his website in mid-2012, with hundreds of people leaving comments on his blog posts about new features by the end of 2013.
These days, it’s easier than ever before to create a website or blog. You can use platforms like Wix and Squarespace to do so. Once your website is up, you can post content about your product or service.
These can be development updates, screenshots, the story behind your idea, and more. Once you have a good website with content, follow the next step.
2. Find your target audience and interact with them
To drive traffic to your website, go where your target audience is hanging out. For Barone, that meant the Harvest Moon fan forums. For you, it depends on the niche of your product or service.
Barone used the organic approach to acquire players for his game. For this approach to work for you, always remember to be honest and open. The people you’ll be reaching out to have the ability to smell dishonesty and marketing-rich narratives from a mile away.
The goal in interacting with your audience should be to provide them with value. If your goal is only to sell them your game or have them sign up for your email list, your interactions will be too spammy or too promotional, which is why many others have tried and failed to do this.
The reason Barone’s interactions on the forums resonated with other members is because Barone was naturally a member of the community. He built Stardew Valley because he wanted a better farm simulator RPG. So, Barone’s and the community members’ interests were aligned.
3. Show them the next step
Once they are on your website, give potential customers the option to sign up for a waitlist and follow your social media profiles for updates. By doing this, you already have customers waiting to buy and review your product or service when you launch it.
The lesson I’ve learned from the Stardew Valley success story is that you should never work in isolation. Even if you’re working on a long-term project, develop a community around it and try to get people involved. Don’t wait until your product or service is ready to share it with the world.
I hope you enjoyed my article; to explore more of my writing, visit my website, www.devanshkamdar.com.
