And finally...

Learn about the media avenues available to you and attack as many of them as possible. Bordeu mentions how, even after hiring a professional PR company to do their promotion in the US, they still resorted to a lot of raw indie legwork to draw in audiences. "We depend a lot on word-of-mouth and good press in websites and game magazines (mostly in the form of interviews and reviews). We approached any PC videogame site we could, from Destructoid and Rock Paper Shotgun to IGN, PC Gamer and Eurogamer."

Reading and research are key here, and often communities are great sources of compiled lists and the like. For example, this TIGSource forum post outlines a lot of press release services including the free Games Press, a service which is (intentionally, mind) kept fairly low-key outside the professional arena. Although there is a deluge of mainstream titles that get announced on this site on a daily basis, a lot of indie companies slip in regular updates on their projects to garner extra attention. Similar repositories of knowledge and marketing sources exist on places like wikis.

Do your best to send out those tendrils to every corner of the earth, because you can be sure that every bit of marketing will matter. After all, a 1-in-100 success rate is a lot easier to deal with if you make those hundred attempts instead of just one or two. Again, don't be rude, but be assertive about where and how you can promote a piece of work that you've put the time and effort into.

It has to be restated that the subject of game advertising is broad, and many different developers have their own unique approach to the matter at hand. It is hoped, instead, that these general guidelines can point you in the right direction if you're not sure where to go – or at least bring your focus to a few people who've done things correctly.

Go forth, make games and do your best to become the centre of attention.