The more time I spend with Indiepocalypse (the monthly game anthology that this post will argue you ought to know about) the more I find myself trying to figure out exactly how to promote it. Because despite my deepest desires as someone who hates Marketing, unfortunately it's existence itself does not work as promotion.
New releases are flashy. There are 10 new developers, they are new, they are A Thing to rally around in a moment. But the goal of Indiepocalypse is to build a timeless catalog where the oldest and newest release are equally important. It's how I generally approach art, as something to endlessly explore where works are discovered, rediscovered, recontextualized, reevaluated, revitalized, and so on and so forth. I also (perhaps more importantly) realize that it's also fun to be able to talk to about art with other people. Or at the very least have the sense that at least someone else knows about the thing you like.
Which is where the strangeness* of promoting Indiepocalypse comes in. There were a good number of articles that helped the zine establish itself but only so many people can write about the zine, explaining what it is. (which I think(?) is the only viable angle until it either has a spike in popularity or ends completely) It's similarly a weird entry for events/festivals given that it's a collection of games (plenty of Indiepocalypse entries are accepted individually) while at the same time neither the zine nor I are notable enough to appear as A Speaker. (though i suppose i don't have the budget to travel around as an unpaid speaker anyway.)
So like with any other problem, I looked for someone else who has an ever-growing and increasingly daunting library of art they need to promote as a whole and found myself "borrowing" the Criterion Top 10 lists. This year I started publishing a new 10 Indiepocalypse Picks every month with all sorts of game adjacent people giving their 10 (optionally ordered) picks from the Indiepocalypse catalog. It's important to have someone besides me telling you these games are good. Of course I think they're good (they wouldn't be in the zine otherwise) but I think it's probably nice (if not more convincing) to hear it from someone that isn't the person running the whole thing.
I'm interested to see how the lists develop with time. Will some games start to appear more frequently? Will there start to be commonly grouped games? Will clear "intro games" appear? Don't know but I'm excited to see!
I also want YOU to write about these games! If you want to write for a future list let me know! Ideally thorough email (indiepocalypse@gmail.com) but whatever works really. (also like with all indiepocalypse work, this is paying work. both in money and issues of the zine)
*This strangeness ignores that games in Indiepocalypse tend to be shorter, alternative, not-video-gamey games that are gasp Not On Steam (or even a console). also that it's likely harder to justify featuring a thing that is not already a known quantity or able to easily reduced to being described as an amalgamation of known quantities. publications, events and the like are businesses as well after all.
