Harpagia · B2C · idle RPG game
Share big game updates on Reddit every few months, within subreddit promo rules
Each post brought a jump in new players; revenue rose from $10K to a ~$18K/month peak
Workedcommunityorganic-social
What they did
Reddit became the main (only) marketing channel after year one. Many subreddits cap developer self-promotion at once a month, so he only posted major updates, once every few months. Posts that sparked the most discussion, especially the most criticism, performed best. Results varied post to post.
What happened
Almost every post gave a significant jump in new players; revenue grew from ~$10K to a peak of ~$18K/month with $0 ad spend
- Stage
- Early (After the first Reddit post, ongoing)
- Effort
- A post every few months over about a year
“Almost every single time that I've posted on there, I'd receive a significant jump in new players. While the results weren't consistent, Reddit has been my number one marketing tactic.”
“many subreddits don't allow developers to promote their product more than once a month. Because of that, I generally only shared major updates once every few months.”
“the posts generating the most discussion often performed the best, especially the ones that received the most criticism.”
“Over time, revenue grew from around 10,000 a month to a peak of roughly 18,000 a month just posting on Reddit.”
Related topics
Get tactics like this every Monday
New tactics from the week's founder interviews, each linked to where it was said.
More from this episode
- Harpagia: Post screenshots of your rough game on Reddit and stress it's free to playRevenue jumped from ~$1K to ~$10K a month almost overnight, despite harsh comments
- Harpagia: Price in-game purchases between $4.99 and $9.99Players buy readily in that band; above $9.99 converts worse. No test numbers given
- Harpagia: Make the game free and sell optional extras that speed up progress~6% of downloads pay (games typically 2-5%); over $3 per active user a year
- Harpagia: Launch after 6 months no matter what, and let real players shape the gameFirst $10 sale within days; ~$150 in month one, ~$1,500 total by month two
- Big 2 Wild: Build a tiny practice app in 6 weeks to learn launching before the real oneTaught AI-assisted building and app store approval; lessons fed the main game
- Harpagia: Focus on keeping players coming back before worrying about making moneyFounder credits it; no separate numbers