Building an Art RPG is a lot of work, but the work doesn’t stop when you’ve figured out your mechanics and assets. Players are the heartbeat of every Art RPG, so how do you jumpstart the pulse? In this article, I'll share 10 tips for attracting players to your Art RPG. Most of these tips can apply to both Art RPGs that are just launching or have been running for years.
These are in no particular order. What will work best for you and your game depends a little on luck and a little on skill. Choose something that feels approachable but don’t be afraid to explore all of them!
If you don’t see immediate success, don’t worry too much about it. Community building can take months or even years before you see significant results. It’s an investment, and you’ll have to keep it up until you get where you want to be.
#1 - A Playable Game
While this might seem obvious, many Art RPGs only launch with a handful of mechanics functional, if any. Other mechanics are usually teased as “coming soon,” but never happen. Make sure that your game has functional playability before launching it. If a player shows up and is interested but can’t actually play the game, you’ve lost a potential community member. They might come back later, but why miss that first chance?
All of the central parts of your game should be up and running when you’re bringing in new recruits. You can leave some room for future development, but don’t put vital functions behind closed doors.
#2 - Clear Onboarding
The biggest barrier to entry for most Art RPGs is too much information too soon. Some games have a wall of all of their links and others have a starter guide, but few take the time to walk their players through the game step by step in bite sized pieces.
Make sure your getting started guide is approachable. It should be as clear and concise as possible and introduce your players to the world and the mechanics with optional deeper information hosted on other guides. Consider building a walkthrough or a mentorship program for your game.
#3 - Newbie Events
Offer new players an opportunity to get a free character or gift basket of items. Offering free characters or predesigned characters reduces the barrier to entry for new players. Choose giveaway items so that they’re things that can be used early in the game, or give the new players access to an important high value item or two that they can look forward to using.
You can even incentivise existing players to invite their friends in order to earn rewards for both themselves and the new player.
#4 - Eye Catching Art
Invest in the look of your game. Banners, item art, NPCs, import base art. All of these and more are where people are likely to draw their first judgment of your game. The more professional and polished the art in your game is, the more likely people will give it a longer look. Make sure to establish a cohesive style for your game to set the tone.
Consider commissioning artists or bringing them onto your team long term to create event art and new assets as your game moves forward. Don’t cheap out on this– it can get pricey but it’ll be even more difficult and pricey to have to replace the art later on. Make sure to have use agreements in writing, particularly if you’re planning on selling the art as merch.
#5 - Paid Banner and Video Ads
Word of mouth is the primary way most Art RPGs bring in new players, but there are an enormous amount of artists out there who haven’t even heard of the genre. Banner ads on sites that artists and creators frequent, particularly artists and creators your game targets, can help bring in new players. Look into targeted YouTube ads that show up on videos by creators whose audience matches yours.
#6 - In-Person Events
Does your town have a local fan convention? Do you table at an artists alley? Is there an artist meetup group you can plug into? Get involved in your in-person community and keep links on hand to show people about your game. Consider printing flyers or business cards to hand out to other artists you meet in the wild. Get in touch with convention staff before the event, some conventions offer specific tables for creative advertisers who aren’t actually selling merch.
#7 - Active Events and Developments
Some Art RPGs are fairly static, but most have seasonal events and new releases to keep players engaged. Consider putting together a roadmap for your game so you can time the creation of assets and mechanics for a regular release schedule. The summer tends to be a high activity period for many Art RPGs, and summer events can bring in new players as well as excite and engage existing ones.
#8 - Social Media
Social media posts keep your players updated, show how active your game is, and provide quick, snappy information for new players. You can feature art, events, spotlights, and much more to show people the very best of your game. Pick only one or two to focus on at first– social media can be overwhelming and different platforms often require different styles of content. Look into social media scheduling tools to help keep your social media active and on track.
As of the time of this writing, we've seen Art RPGs have the most success with the social platforms Discord and Instagram.
#9 - Healthy Community
While internet communities are made up of many people who have many different styles of communication, there is a lot you can do to shape the atmosphere and expectations of your community. Make sure you have very clear rules about behavior that you enforce consistently and fairly. Talk to your team to make sure everyone is on the same page about how they handle both positive and negative situations with the community. Reward players who engage consistently and positively!
#10 - Connect to the Larger Community
There are hundreds of other Art RPGs out there. Many of them have affiliate lists or Discords where they allow advertising for other Art RPGs. Connect with other leaders and see if they want to work together on anything from swapping affiliate links to building crossover events between games.
Do you have more tips for growing your Art RPG that we missed? Let us know in the comments.
About the Art RPG Forge
The ARPG Forge is a new series of articles to help ARPG owners grow their communities and build their games. We're looking forward to contributing more articles like these to help you build more awesome ARPGs.