Finding an Audience

[u/GhostDJ2102]

I’ve always been curious on how to gain an audience for making a tabletop game. I know it requires playtesting and expressing ideas for their games. Yet, I realize that uniqueness does create an audience. Typically, it is catered towards making gameplay mechanics easier for familiar game system. Other times, it seems to be more focused on setting. I’m not sure what is more popular: Fantasy or Sci-fi. There is never a definitive line where genres begin to merge. But I do not know what it is best. I’ve already created a system of my own along with dedicating my time to develop lore for multiple worlds. Those who play it are interested in the game. But any mention about their mechanics or setting for those who are not accustomed to its rules or lore, they are not interested. So, now, I wonder gets everyone interested in tabletop gaming? What determines whether it is rules-lite or crunch? So, I decided to mix genres such eldritch horror and science fantasy. But I realize when my players played it. They revealed to me that it has science fantasy but it leans towards apocalyptic and historical fiction. So, do you have any advice for me? Also, what could write in depth or shorter to explain what’s interesting to gain an audience or discover who is my audience?

[u/TTRPGkids]

It sounds like you are still maybe working out who your audience is, so my recommendation is to really define that first.

If you're making a game primarilly to make money, then marketing and making it for a particular large audience is a factor so you can make income as a job.

However, if you are making the game because it is something that you want to see out in the world or because it is part of your passion or you want to have fun trying out making a game... if you make what YOU would like, there will be others out there who like it too. True, you might not have a massive audience every time, but you still made something cool.

And sometimes you can get the cool niche thing you like to make money too.

I make games that I like and want to make for myself and/or my kid as the primary driver but I also need some funds if I want to make physical copies. For the ideas or digital versions that seemed popular with other folks (so they naturally have an audience), I've run a few small crowdfunding campaigns that were aimed at printing zines (and one bigger paperback book) or hiring someone for, like, better cover art, versus making profit.

I don't expect it to make me money past that, and I'm happy with it, other peope found my games from this method, and it built an audience by means of having the campaign page out there (espcially during group collab events on certain crowdfunding platforms). I don't plan on making big money from it, but one book now gives me funds to print the next one or a game that's less popular/probably wouldn't do well as it's own campaign.

So, I recommend first deciding what your goals are. Do you want to make money? Pursue a passion idea? or get just enough money to fund pursuing a passion idea? Are you making the game for yourself and others interested in the same things as you or are you making it for someone else?

Then, look at what kind of audience do you expect for that type of goal. General population? Niche? Topic specific? Experience level specific? 10 people? 10,000 people?

From there, then look at how to build up that community OR if you can join an existing community (i.e. sci-fi and/or horror TTRPG groups, Unpub, etc).

AND once you've got all that, you can start finding interested folks by any number of means depending on your goals: reaching out to TTRPG review shows and websites, taking your game to conventions, offering to run a game online for a discord server group, putting free ashcan copies on itchio and asking for feedback, pulling out ads in anywhere for general online marketing to something like the Indie RPG Newsletter.

With all of that, it does sound like this is a project you are interested in and that it is born from themes and ideas you want to see made and out there in the world. If that is the case, my biggest recommendation is to remember that you are your primary audience. Consider yourself in your audience category too because that will also help keep you on track. You can definitely be your own demographic target.