TOWERPUNK Reveal Rundown
I revealed TOWERPUNK to the world on September 1, 2026. With no marketing, no publisher, and no press, “world reveal” meant I made my trailer public on YouTube and dropped a post on Reddit. I had hoped for a couple hundred wishlists in the first week, purely for some validation that TOWERPUNK could have an audience. By September 7th I had over 3k, and as of this post TOWERPUNK has over 4k. Here are a few things I did that helped, and general recommendations for other solo developers.
Plan
Timing: By the time I was ready to reveal TOWERPUNK, gamescom was around the corner, so I held off until the week after the show. I figured folks were primed for more gaming news, and I’d be revealing into a vacuum.
Expectations: I’m still months off from a full release, so I would’ve been happy with 100 to 300 wishlists and some engagement across channels.
Channels: With no marketing spend or social presence, I figured my best hope to get things moving was to post to a few hyper-relevant subreddits like r/BaseBuildingGames, r/CityBuilders, and r/SimTower. I customized each post per Reddit community and stayed engaged any time someone commented. Loved the engagement!
One asset: Outside of a series of screenshots and GIFs I prepped for the Steam page, I knew the reveal trailer would carry the most interest. Between OBS screen capture and DaVinci editing, it took me the better part of a day to compose the trailer. I cut it against a 75-second track I’d picked in advance, one that builds in intensity toward a final reveal of the whole tower, so every shot had to earn its place. I’m rather proud of it!
Outcome
Cold page did nothing. I had a live Steam page and a custom website, but that’s essentially invisible. Expected, but it confirmed everything was wired up.
Reddit started building traction. My initial posts really resonated with each community, validating that TOWERPUNK had good bones and was different enough to capture interest. Staggering the posts meant I could stay engaged with each community, and the interest built steadily rather than peaking quickly and falling off.
Then the reveal trailer accelerated interest. In the first 48 hours, the trailer’s view count increased from a few dozen (mostly me, friends, and family) to a few hundred. Then the view count accelerated into the thousands, then tens of thousands through the weekend. Active commenting and replies helped keep the trailer in other folks’ feeds, maintaining it as a key channel for Steam page visits and wishlist conversions.
Lastly, the US Labor Day weekend really stretched out that acceleration. I didn’t plan on this initially, but by the sixth full day, daily wishlists peaked at about 1k on Monday alone, with over 3k total by the end of the day.
Key findings
Put your trailer on YouTube, and stay in the comments. Most views came from YouTube recommendations, and consistently engaging with and replying to comments helps drive more folks to the conversation.
Point early traffic at Steam, and let Steam take over. Early on, most page views came from direct navigation, meaning people came to the page from Reddit or YouTube. Within a few days, Steam search was bringing in as many visitors as every outside link combined, as people looked the game up by name. That happened much faster than I had hoped for.
Use Reddit to start things, not to sustain them. It’s a great way to capture interest from whoever is on a specific subreddit that day, but it isn’t as consistent as YouTube.
Plan for localization sooner than you think. International interest is stronger than I expected. Early interest in Germany, coupled with Japan now accounting for 12% of wishlists, made it clear to me that localization is a higher priority. I’m already working on Steam page localization, and I’ll prioritize localizing the game in key markets during Early Access.
Final thoughts
Revealing your hard work to the internet is scary stuff. After years of designing game systems, getting my hands dirty with GDScript, and building a game I knew I wanted to play, I wasn’t sure what the initial reaction would be. I mostly feared there would be little or no reaction at all, so I tried to go about my first week online in a planned manner to make the most of it.
The timing, the trailer, and the posting schedule all helped, and I would do every one of them again. But I don’t think any of them is the real reason this worked. I think a lot of people my age have been quietly waiting for someone to make a tower builder again. About half of everyone who landed on the Steam page wishlisted it. The concept set the ceiling. The execution decided whether I reached it.
A closed playtest is planned for November, and that is the next thing worth measuring.