I'm telling you, the hype about hype is not overrated!
What is hype? (Baby don't hurt me, don't hurt me, no more!) Hype is contagious excitement. Hype is created when you get a ball of excitement and anticipation rolling down the hillside. Why do you need to know about hype?
As a board gamer designer you need to think of hype as a tool. Hype can help you turn something or someone into a product, which is a thing you want happening. You can turn your name into a product by something simple as being active on social media. You can take Joel of Drive Thru Review (which I recommend watching!) that said in a recent interview that he has a game (or 2) being prepared and he already talked with publishers. If you are a publisher and you get an email from someone who has 18k+ subscribers on YouTube asking from you to look at his game, you are going to look at his game. The hype around his YT channel turned his name into a product, even though he is not known for his designs. Would you reject Tom Vasel of Dice Tower coming to you with a mediocre game?
How is hype created? Content. Every person I know that created hype, started out and continued with creating content. The first person that comes into mind is Jamey Stegmaier from Stonemaier games. He creates non stop content about the board game business, Kickstarter tips and some other topics. I don't believe for one moment that the hype around his last game Scythe would have been as high as it is if he wouldn't have created high quality content. I didn't play the game yet, so I have no idea, but the wait for the game was as if it was coming from a giant well proven company that already had several amazing games. Stonemaier games is a good company the way I see it, but that's their 5th game, and it crossed 1.8 MILLION DOLLARS! And why? HYPE. How? Constant creation of high quality content.
What are you still doing here?
Go create content and create your hype!
In the picture you can see the white player hording metal. "Say hello to my little bear!"
