The annual Steam Next Festival features hundreds of upcoming game demos – a great opportunity for indie studios to get eyes on their games, but it can also be easy to get buried in the noise. February 2022 also saw one of the busiest months in gaming, with the launches of multiple highly anticipated games. When our friends at Sold Out came to us asking for our support pitching three of their upcoming games’ demos featured in the event – Core Keeper, Silt and Imp of the Sun – we knew we needed to be strategic to find media and influencers who would fall in love with each game’s unique charm.

We knew that in order to have all three games to stand out in and get influencers and media to take time away from their busy schedules to play the demos, we needed to compile a list of hyper-specific contacts: journalists and streamers with a passion for pixel art, 2-D platformers and hand-drawn indie horror.

For Core Keeper, a co-op mining pixel adventure, we immediately recognized the influencer Let’s Play potential and began our hunt for streamers with a love Stardew Valley, Terraria and the like. Our efforts paid off, and we secured coverage with major gaming and tech outlets Gameranx and TechRaptor, as well as influencer channels SplatterCatGaming, Z1Gaming and Relyea, whose videos each racked up thousands of views. Following Steam Next Fest, Sold Out’s team saw the game’s wishlist numbers and demo downloads skyrocket in North America.

Meanwhile, with Silt’s eerie underwater setting and Tim Burton-esque art style we knew we needed to identify and lockdown coverage from horror-loving outlets and influencers. We drafted a pitch emphasizing the game’s hauntingly beautiful gameplay and design and soon secured hits with major horror outlet Bloody Disgusting as well as a number of influencers including Relyea and CJUGames.

What stood out to us most about Imp of the Sun was its gorgeous art design, inspired by Peruvian cultures. With a developer team based in Peru, the game also had a unique authenticity to its portrayal of these underrepresented cultures. We went to work researching Latin American journalists and influencers as well as those with a love for diverse and colorful action platformers. Our outreach efforts resulted in positive preview coverage with American and Mexican outlets Noobfeed, Kopodo and Sintesis del Golfo.

Check out some of our demo coverage highlights below: