INDIE Live Expo Letter vol.8 is now available for the public

The INDIE Live Expo Board has released “INDIE Live Expo Letter” vol. 8, a newsletter for indie game developers to promote and deliver information useful for game development which has just been distributed in September, on the official website.
We will continue to deliver useful information for indie game development to our newsletter subscribers.
Please take this opportunity to register for the “INDIE Live Expo Letter”.

INDIE Live Expo Letter vol.8

Thank you for subscribing to the INDIE Live Expo Letter.

This newsletter was created to provide useful information for developers on how to utilize INDIE Live Expo and tips that will benefit game developers.
In Vol.8 we would like to look back on INDIE Live Expo Winter 2022, introduce segments related to general submitters and a report on the promotional effects.

But first, a big announcement.

【INDIE Live Expo 2023 is now open for submission!】

The call for exhibitors for INDIE Live Expo 2023 has begun on March 1st 2023.
INDIE Live Expo is an information filled program that is streamed simultaneously in Japanese, Chinese and English, and introduces the latest information on indie games around the world.

The deadline is March 28th 11:59 AM JST. The period of the opening is shorter than usual, so please be careful of the schedule.
Entry：https://indie.live-expo.games/cms/entry

【How was INDIE Live Expo Winter 2022?】

Let’s take a look back at the last INDIE Live Expo Winter 2022. The last event was held on the 3rd and 4th of December 2022.

On day 1, we had a「Pre-show」which highly featured content creators & Let’s plays, for the first time. In the mainstream we introduced that have been released to showcase「Indie games you can enjoy NOW」
As for day 2, we focused on new information and showcased「Indie games you can enjoy SOON」
The viewers for the English and Chinese stream increased which resulted in doubling the views to a record high.

We introduced a total of 295 games. Below are the number of games for each segment.

INDIE Waves: 209
INDIE Live Premiere: 5
Game Pick-up: 7
Publisher Selection: 16
INDIE Live Expo Awards: 37
Commercial slots: 17
Indie Studios Around the World: 4

In the previous INDIE Live Expo Letter we reported on the promotional effect of the「Game Pick-up」plan which focuses on a single game.

In this issue, we present the figures for the effectiveness based on the responses we received from the participants on the 3 segments of the INDIE Live Premiere, INDIE Live Expo Awards and INDIE Waves where general applicants may be featured, as well as the effectiveness of the Game Pick-up introduced in the previous issue.

【INDIE Live Premiere（Premiere）】

▼Promotional effect

This segment introduces world premiere titles and games accompanied by first-public information that the INDIE Live Expo Board considers great information for the show.

Games introduced in the Premiere slot at INDIE Live Expo Winter 2022 have been found, by collaborating companies, to have increased their Steam wishlist registrations by 3,000-10,000 or more during the period. Some titles announced before the program also reported an increase of several hundred or more Twitter followers, confirming that this is a highly effective slot for announcements.

New information may not guarantee the Premiere slot, but if you have information brewing to be revealed around the time of INDIE Live Expo, we would like you to consider applying to INDIE Live Expo before you announce it publicly.

【Game Pick-up】

▼Promotional effect

This segment is to showcase a game picked by the INDIE Live Expo Board and media partners.
Titles introduced at INDIE Live Expo Winter 2022 have seen Steam wishlist registrations increase by 4,000-10,000 or more during the period, according to the cooperating companies.

The graph above shows the wishlist increase for 3 games from INDIE Live Expo Winter 2022.

Wishlists have increased for both days compared to before the show and on average days, and peaked at Day2 after the stream. The number of wishlists tends to increase and settle down from before the broadcast for about 20 days.In terms of overall effectiveness, titles with less exposure and eye-catching news tended to be stronger.

【INDIE Live Expo Awards（Awards）】

▼Promotional effect

This segment is to award fantastic indie games selected by viewer votes and media partners. The nominees process will be shown later.

For the titles nominated, it was reported that the number of Steam wishlists increased by around 300-3,200 during this time. Award winning titles and popular titles did tend to show greater growth (*This data does not include the grand prize winner, Unpacking), but many of the titles for which we received data showed an effect of growth in Steam wishlists, regardless of their popularity.

In addition, due to the fact that this segment deals with titles that have already been released, the impact of the Steam Autumn Sale, which took place just before INDIE Live Expo Winter 2022, is also in the report.

・Those that continued to be on sale from the Steam Autumn Sale saw their wishlists grow more than the number of sales.
・There have been reports of up to an ‘eight times’ increase in sales for games that were on sale to coincide with ILEs.

▼Selection process and other

The INDIE Live Expo Awards 2022 were nominated and selected by the INDIE Live Expo Board and media partners from games released as early access, official release between October 1st 2021 and September 30th 2022.

In selecting the nominees, especially for the Grand Prize, the spirit of “Creativity Unbound”, an indie spirit of force that enables what creators strive to express to reach players’ hearts.

【INDIE Waves（Waves）】

▼Promotional effect

This segment introduces a number of indie games in short videos, and at INDIE Live Expo Winter 2022, games were introduced in 15-second videos per title.
The effect of promotion was an increase as seen in mentions on social media such as Twitter and articles online, but at the same time, there were also some responses that showed no effect at all.

What was common of the titles that reported there indeed was an effect were,

・The concept is understandable in 15 seconds and looks fun.

For example, you can imagine that a video where the title logo or a character just walking around for 5 seconds (that’s 33%!) ) in the video will probably not attract viewers.
Making a 15-second video exclusively for the program is time-consuming, but if a video is made that conveys the fun, it can subsequently be used for other occasions such as Twitter announcements.
We hope you can give it a try.

▼Conditions for selection

Titles that are registered after the screening and not selected for the Premiere slot will be presented in this segment.

▼Other

There were developers introduced in the Wave that did not have an increase in wishlist even though the Tweet did well.
When a tweet or a comment goes viral, if you do not have a link of preorders or game page directly in the same tweet, it does not impact the numbers.
There are some devs that add an URL to the tweet as a mention, but the views on those are about 20% of the original and is not as effective.

As the game is announced/shown on INDIE Live Expo, tweeting the game’s title (it will be searched), Store URL hashtag「#INDIELiveExpo」all in one could help to boost your game. When you make the announcement, you should tweet with the store URL along with it. If you do not have a store page, you can tweet to encourage people to follow your account.

▼Closing

Thank you for registering to the INDIE Live Expo Letter.
We will continue to bring you more information on an irregular basis, so please look forward to updates.
And please remember to apply to INDIE Live Expo 2023.