Festivals, Reddit, and demos: how Mind Scanners got almost 40,000 wishlists by launch

Brave At Night, known for its simulator Yes, Your Grace, has launched its first game as a publisher. The studio shared its experience of promoting Mind Scanners, a psychiatry simulation from indie studio The Outer Zone.

On June 3, Brave At Night shared a thread on Twitter, detailing its marketing strategy. Here are the key takeaways from it:

• Brave At Night understood that wishlists could be a key factor in the game’s success, so they made a few marketing steps to get almost 40,000 wishlists by launch.
• “If we had a spike in wishlists because a weird marketing idea did well — we did more of it,” the studio explained.
• After noticing that Mind Scanners has been well-received on Reddit, the team started experimenting with the platform. It included regular posts and Reddit ads.
• Beta was also an important step, as it not only increased daily wishlists numbers but also allowed the team to see the community’s feedback.
• Participating in Steam festivals was probably the most efficient thing in terms of wishlists. Brave At Night made a playable demo, did Q&A sessions, and gameplay streams.
• The graph below also shows other notable spikes in wishlists, including coverage from PC Gamer and YouTube promos.

• These efforts resulted in what Brave At Night calls an “amazing launch.” Mind Scanners got into “New and Trending” on Steam after being in the “Popular Upcoming” category for a week. The game was also featured on GOG and has been reviewed by major outlets.

“We’re super proud of the work our team did for Mind Scanners and we will definitely be publishing more games in the (near) future,” Brave At Night wrote.

The whole thread can be found here. You can also read our interview with The Outer Zone game director Malte Burup about Mind Scanners, the psychotherapy of the 1800s, and game design choices.