The primary concern for most developers is that no one really desires to play their games. This is a pretty big drag, you spend a lot of time and effort making a game, and get nothing in return.

The common response is to simply blame BYOND Anime. Those monsters, infesting our BYOND with their filth. Unfortunately, that's just incorrect, BYOND Anime simply has a much easier time because their audience is vast and collected in BYOND Anime. Believe it or not, there are people interested in playing your games (which is evident in the constant barrage of "there's no good games!" forum and blog posts we see day in and day out), you just have to find them, lure them in and trap them. Just like dating... or Pokemon.

Airjoe has already posted about finding audiences outside of BYOND, asking if people would be interested in the classic SNES games being multiplayer, the response was fairly well received, so we know there's people interested outside of BYOND, that's all well and dandy, but who's going to come play an empty game? We need the audiences already in BYOND first, and yes, they are there.

There are several methods one can employ to gain interest in their game pre-release. The simple and most effective I've found is to simply blog about it, a lot. Every day you've made progress on the game, tell the people of BYOND what that progress was. People who see active development tend to stick around.

The second method that's shown positive results, is to release small demos of how the game-play will work. If you're using a modular programming method, it shouldn't take long to setup a test scenario, zip it up and ship it out. People who can interact with the game prior to it's release will get a feel for it's game-play and be more inclined to play the game if they enjoy it. Anyone who purchases PC Power Play and other such magazines are more than familiar with the concept of trying games before you buy them. Granted you wont actually be buying a game on BYOND, but lets face it, the idea of clicking on a download link and waiting the time for the game to download, psh, you might as well be charging two million dollars, I want to know it's worth my time!

Screenshots and game-play videos. Need I say more? Oh, okay, I will. Previews to the game mechanics are good, but they're not the game itself. I want to see the game, I want to feel the game, hell, I want to be the game. The only way I can do that, short of playing it, is observing it. Silkgames has been releasing many screenshots on their upcoming RPG NEStalgia. They also released a video of the game. I don't know about you guys, but all of this has me wanting to play it. And no doubt, it has sparked the interest of several others around BYOND.

Making a video about your game isn't difficult really. Whether you're doing lone development or in a closed alpha/beta test. All you need is the right tools for the job, and a YouTube account. The added benefit here is, any casual YouTube goer who isn't a BYOND user, might just register a BYOND account to try your game, so be sure to put a link to your games hub at the end of the video. Remember, BYOND has a YouTube Group, be sure to submit your video to it.

Another thing not many people (if any) don't think of doing is simply to release the game manual prior to the release of your game. Game manuals, if written correctly, will have tips, tricks, screenshots and provide detailed information on how your game works. People who are interested in your game will then learn to play your game prior to it's release. The bonus is, people will give your game a shot, rather than jump in, die and leave 'cause they don't know what they're doing. Unfortunately, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink (you can drown him, but that wouldn't be good publicity for your game), so there is no guarantee that they'll read the manual if it's released. But every little bit helps.

Use your target guild to it's full advantage. I can't stress this enough, if I tired to, my head would explode and pieces of my brain would end up in your morning cereal, I don't want that, and I'm fairly sure you don't either. The guilds aren't there to be ignored, they're there to generate interest in your game (preferably post-release, but pre-release works too). The guild masters are nice guys, just be sure your post is well written, spell checked and shows an attempt to use good grammar (it only servers to benefit you anyway. People are going to take you more seriously if you put in effort in your posts appearance). And to counter the general argument "the guilds are inactive", well, they're only inactive because no one bothers to use them, it's a double edged sword.

It should be noted, that all of this stuff should (and mostly can) only be done when the better most of your development is finished and in a crunch, you have something to release. This is in accordance with The BYOND Theorem: "Never announce something you have not yet done. Try, and you will be instantly robbed of the determination to do it. 100% guaranteed!"

Remember, the players are there, you just have to work for them. Once your game is out, you should continue to do things like this as more updates to the games are made. Sneak Peeks are always good!