"Valve knows it, I know it, and you need to know it": Steam expert tells indie devs to "give away" demos, because actually playing a game beats all other marketing

News
By Contributions from published

It's not until you get your demo that you get your visibility. So get that demo playable."

Minami Lane screenshot showing a street full of houses and people
(Image credit: Doot)

Indie games are having an increasingly hard time with discoverability; there are more great indie games than ever, but for every one that breaks out and becomes a Balatro-level success, there's likely 50 more that get passed over completely. At the GDC 2025, game marketing researcher Chris Zukowski posited that there is one thing that is absolutely necessary for developers to do to prevent this: demos.

"Here's the universal truth with interactive media [...] you need to give away something, because to play it is to understand it, and you really don't know how a game plays and whether you like it until you try it," Zukowski said. He added, "Demos have the biggest impact for fixing low visibility. That's what it comes down to, folks. Valve knows it, I know it, and you need to know it."

"You need to get your demo playable as soon as possible," he continued. "The longer you wait on getting your demo up, the longer that flat line where you don't get any visibility, despite posting on any social media platform – that doesn't really work. It's not until you get your demo that you get your visibility."

Scott McCrae
Scott McCrae
Contributor

Scott has been freelancing for over three years across a number of different gaming publications, first appearing on GamesRadar+ in 2024. He has also written for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, VG247, Play, TechRadar, and others. He's typically rambling about Metal Gear Solid, God Hand, or any other PS2-era titles that rarely (if ever) get sequels.

With contributions from

You must confirm your public display name before commenting

Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.