Do you have ideas, suggestions, that you think could realistically help Thimbleweed Park to increase its visibility on the web and among people?
Personally, I´d find a way to piggyback on the current hype over stuff like Stranger Things or the upcomming Twin Peaks Revival.
Also other indie 80s throwback games like Shovel Knight or Broforce.
And that is 99% of reason really good marketing people make a ton of money.
Did I say I was one? I think the formula includes both directions and connections and the latter is something most people don´t have here.
I’m just saying that it’s way harder then i seems, almost impossible without a ton of money. The reason everyone was talking about Stranger Things was a lot of money was put into the marketing of that show.
Notice how you’re hearing about the new Twin Peaks season all over the place? That because of marketing money being poured into it. All that hype around Star Wars wasn’t because there was a new Star Wars coming out, it’s because Disney spent a ton of money.
What you’re suggesting is a good idea, but it would take more money that it’s worth. How exactly do you “piggyback on the current hype over stuff like Stranger Things?” I talked about Stranger Things and Twin Peaks in ever press interview I did.
Maybe there is a clever way to do it without spend very much money, that is the important part.
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Ron, have I come across like I knew it better than you? I know I don´t. If I did, I´d do it. I´m sorry if I gave that impression.
I know just as well as you do that there is a general direction but that “certain something” is rarely discovered, either you put a lot of money in marketing (and that can still fail) or you just stumble on something (like all those viral hits that had no money behind them).
I believe the thread was opened by someone who thought that maybe the community can contribute, without money, by word to mouth or something. I certainly didn´t mean to give you any directions.
I’m designing a very large megaphone but it might take 4 years to complete. It will have a global range. We should brainstorm meanwhile however and we’ve got 4 (four) years to do it. Let’s get cracking.
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Not at all, I apologize if my comment implied that. I don’t know crap either. Marketing is all voodoo to me (and most indie devs).
Kickstart it!!!
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No problem, in reality I don´t think I can do much more than wish you all the best. I always say in my perfect world people like you or David would be too famous to talk to people like me, I´m still happy you do though as I love the stuff you do.
Warning: excruciating boring stuff below.
Well, if we are talking about a real “viral” phenomenon or something near a viral phenomenon, I’m sad to say that it will not happen.
Virality implies that people want to spread the news, it’s a spontaneous, instinctive and irrational process. You can “kickstart” this process and help the virus spread but most of the result is up to the people. If you need to help this process too much, investing a lot of money to make the word to spread, then it’s not correct to call it “viral”.
If Thimbleweed Park hasn’t already become a viral sensation, it’s safe to conclude that there are one or more reasons why it didn’t happen.
But let’s put apart the concept of “viral”, and let’s see what things a game developer can do to increase his/her chance of selling more units.
First and most importantly, thinking about “tactics to apply” would be a wrong approach. The fact that we are here thinking about “ideas” reveals that we don’t have a f… marketing strategy nor have a clear definition of what we want to accomplish. 
Basically you first set the goals (which are not generic “I want to sell stuff” goals but more specific objectives, defined by numbers) and only then you start selecting the activities that would help you to approach those goals. It’s useful to do brainstorming sessions where everyone is not limited by any constrain, but later you select only the ideas that are compatible with the goals that you had formally defined. Also, you should take into consideration the fact that this whole activity cannot be performed by anyone but only by those who have internal information about the company and its status.
Doing brainstorming without having set clear number-based goals or at least specific objectives is not just useless but it’s even harmful, because sometimes an idea seems cool and smart but in reality you don’t have a way to establish if it is really useful for the goals that you should have set.
There are some exceptions to this rule, for example some forms of “bate-and-switch” marketing tactics or “growth hacking”, but I’m not an expert about them, because I dislike their philosophy and I have never suggested them to anyone.
So, to make this story shorter, I’ll tell you what Terrible Toybox can do assuming that my understanding of their situation is more-or-less correct: 1) they can spend money to analyze why things didn’t go better and extract from this analysis the information needed to plan a medium-term marketing strategy, 2) they can fix a long-term goal and invest their personal time to build a gaming community that could be “used” in the future to sell more game units, and 3) they can spend money in more traditional forms of marketing (that is: advertisement) on selected channels and targeting selected audience of people.
Please notice the “assuming that” above. If my assumptions are wrong, what I just wrote is garbage.
Yes, my intent is both to incite us users to spread the word among friends and people we know, and also to wonder if there are clever ways that can help without spending very much money, as Ron said.
I remember there were wallpapers released on the blog. They are beautiful, and if it’s true that many people got attracted by Mark Ferrari’s art, a link to the site of TWP could help, as it did then.
Wallpapers for many devices (with different resolutions and aspect ratios, for tablet, smartphones, monitors…)
Also, banners for social media, ringtones…
A thing that would be really nice would be a tool to build your own Thimblehead! (or your own whole Thimbleweed park - like character, to be used in social networks…)
And the nice TWP emojs that I have not learnt to use yet…
We could do a contest to create the best meme, or the best image like “Keep calm and…” based on TWP art style, characters, and story, something that could be retweeted or shared via social networks…
Something that spreads a generic content using the world of Thimbleweed Park.
Also, a playable demo. I don’t know if I’m too old, or if it would cost too much but, back in the days, it was very useful to taste the atmosphere of a game…
And the other idea that I said on the blog, that is to ask famous youtubers to do a gameplay video with the best moments of the playtrough…
I know, I know, please don’t blame me, they are ideas from someone who doesn’t know pretty much about marketing but… anyway I think that something useful can come from this thread.
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I’ve seen some relatively famous youtubers in the past be handed games very early as to do a Let’s Play series for them to drum up more hype and excitement for those games. I don’t recall which games they were at this point in time, nor how much it helped. I should imagine though that it’s a potential avenue to go down. Thimbleweed Park is one of the better ranked games for 2017 thus far (I think it’s still top 10 on Metacritic) so it might be possible to get a prominent youtuber to play the game. A prominent enough youtuber would then be introducing the game to their vast fanbase, and even if only 5% of that fanbase pick up the game it could lead to quite a substantial sales boost. It’s a way to infiltrate the more mainstream audience and get them to open their eyes to a new experience and get TWP on their radars… at which point they can decide for themselves whether or not they’re intrigued.
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I believe that a game of such excellence transcends just being an adventure game. No game is for everyone but this game is certainly for more than have currently been exposed to it. There are many being left in the dark The game has been well received and that should serve it well in the next months. Naturally, I’m recommending the game to who I can.
I think so as well and, regardless of my view on this, I share your hope. 
Word-of-mouth on TWP is very good, it didn’t blow the doors off on launch, but I suspect it will have a very long life. The game is in the top 5% of Steam games released last month. We’re only disappointed that it didn’t exceed our expectations, but it did matched our expectations. It’s just not enough money to turn around and immediately do another one.
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I suspect the same albeit without the data and details you’re privy to. The very good reception and reviews will only further help it be a steady seller with plenty of legs. Hopefully, it lives up to your forecast.
Each backer buys a(nother) copy of the game.
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To me it’s kind of sad that a game that received such a good response from critics didn’t sell more. I mean really there aren’t at least 200,000 people who love adventure games? Perhaps we need to come to terms with the idea that people just don’t like those games anymore, though it would be a really grim conclusion.
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But the game is good enough that every backer would be happy to back another game with the same promise. Don’t be afraid to crowdfund another project, if that’s what it takes.