Does the indie retweet group really work?

I've tried it. I'd say it was good for making yourself known to other developers and possibly contacts if you wanted to go down that route. Other than that, because their's so much information on twitter, any announcements you make I feel tend to get lost in a sea of information and I didn't see that much of a difference in downloads.

 

It's good for some things, like getting enough likes on your facebook page to get your own custom URL.

 

Yeh it had a weird impact at first. Still lots of people/devs whose twitter account consists of nothing but these retweets

However I must say that the only times I used it for engaginggames and expected something out of it, the views on the youtube videos kinda raised significantly - which was nice for a tinytinytiny dev like me and blake, which kinda was the goal.

Still as every other retweeting business, you tend to not reach the "right" people, since those who can take you places, don't use it for a reason
I tried again 1-2 weeks ago for a latest Droppin' Bombs video and it didn't have the same "impact" as the initial one.
Basically the one who gets best outcome is the inventor. I mean it gives a handful of more exposure but nothing dramatic, afterall. Which is good.
If it was actually bringing supermany downloads or purchases I doubt it'd be a free service for too long. That's just how it works, right

 

I tried it but no effect was measurable.
Later I unfollowed most of it users and banned the tag because it was just too much spam.

 

Just spam...not really worth it!

 

Generally agree with the group here. Your feed fills with the IDRTG tag and you just ignore it straight away. And therefore you can assume the others are ignoring yours. If you're spamming your wall constantly you're going to scare away your actual fans, people who are genuinely interested in your products.

 

It's still usefull for a social proof when you start your twitter account.
(people will be more willing to subscribe to a twitter with 200 followers, than a twitter with 3 followers)

 

I find any useage of Twitter is far more geared towards schoolyard tactics. In other words, unless you're an active 'popular' person with your own cliques established, then you're not really going to have an impact on anyone. Basically they become commercials on tv that no one gives two nipples about...

It's tough to build a community on Twitter unless you're quirky, people really want you to notice them(ie: you're a popular person who ignores anyone but celeb response), or you're already super successful and people just want to see what's happening next.

Otherwise it's a giant stream of nonsensical info that people skip through looking for the popular voice.

Popularity, celebrity, and dull witted public really do ruin a system that could definitely work.

That's more or less my experience.... However I will say this. There are a few people that just LOVE indie game development and will give themselves to the promotion and community as long as it's recognized and appreciated. But even then it gets difficult to get noticed because once one person says hey check out my stuff!, there's 40,000 more people that want that attention as well.

I have a friend by the tag @Doomfan who runs his own indie promotions called Appalooza or #summerappalooza, code giveaways, etc. on Twitter. It seems to have a small, but strong communal following that is growing. Great person to hit up.

Cheers!

 

Hey James, you should update your signature. I've been following you for a couple of weeks now, and no follow back! It's all lies!

I've never seen this dev retweet hashtag thing, guess it's for the best, or I might have been tempted to try it.

Also, no offense, but how does an app with such great graphic design have such a terrible icon?