@Nezuyaki Advertise your business directly to an engaged audience.

@GeneralJist

Thank you for contributing so much to my topic!
You brought a lot of good suggestions to the table:

• Networking:

I personally utilize LinkedIn for networking as well! I was hoping there was a specialized site for game dev/designers to connect since LinkedIn expands to all different disciplines, but that it definitely a good place to reach out for more professional/In-industry connections. As for influencers, that's where a lot of elbow grease will need to be applied-reaching out can go 50/50, with either no response or a collaboration. Definitely, having a budget in mind for the paid press to market the game is essential for indies.

• Press kits & Exposure:

I actually never knew larger organizations had a “press wire”! It does make sense, but I only just recently learned about press kits and such since my background isn't in marketing & business. I might start researching how to make an effective press kit for future games to hand over to game reviews & news websites.

• Steam Key Distribution:

As I'm going through the process of launching my first game on steam, I learned about this as well in the last 2 weeks! It is fairly easy to attain keys as you request them from steam or your distributor platform. I discussed with my team how many keys should generally be made to make the most impact without making it too excessive (after all, making too many keys if you are monetizing your product isn't good for your business). I think perhaps dedicating batches for giveaways (for influencers), press reviews, and other is a good start!

Tadstergames said:

No matter what kind of game your going to make, imo, the best market strategy is to make at least a demo web version of it.
A free web game can bring new users in, and can also be easily packaged for android and apple phones.

Tadster, this was such a great suggestion! Thank you!

I really appreciate the time you took to explain the process, and I wholeheartedly agree with you: I believe demos are really underrated, as many games I've seen on steam don't have a playable demo for players to try out. More recent releases have started to do so to capitalize on that opportunity to share the game early before the full release.

Just to sum up the points for future reference (I may end up making a post for starting to market your indie games):

• Make a demo of your full-release game → Post on every game portal platform avaliable
• Demo at least 1 month, ideally more before release
• Build up a network/reputation on Reddit or Discord
• 2D and Isometric Games can run in every web browser or smartphone → recommended engines/tools Construct and Game Maker
• Locate Indie Let's Players and advertise with the demo to get exposure

@Nezuyaki Yep, you've got it.
Also note worthy, is that for the demo if it's 2D one doesn't really need webgl.
So it's not just the engine used, but also to note that developers will actually have an easeir time and the demo will run better with using just a standard 2D canvas with no webgl, or to export/configure from whatever tool/engine without webgl. Post 2018 browsers/phones will run such games just fine. Webgl is for 3D.