How to email streamers to get your game covered

Hi, I’m Oriol, and in February 2023 I launched The Ouroboros King (a chess roguelike). Its success allowed me to quit my job and become a full-time indie developer. The most important external factor for the game’s commercial success was getting covered by content creators, reaching over 4.5 million views on YouTube.

In this post, I’ll write about my approach to writing emails to streamers and youtubers to get them to play your game.

But before writing your email, make sure you’ve created the category for your game on both Youtube and Twitch, and that you’ve collected a list of relevant content creators.

Email Subject

What to keep in mind for the subject line is to keep it short and include something catchy about the game. Here are my tips:

• Include the game title.
• Explain the game in a few words, you can use genre or action verbs. For example, The Ouroboros King is a “chess roguelike”.
• Using emojis can help you grab the streamer’s attention. Use emojis that are either relevant to the game or to the streamer.
• If you’re including a Steam key (you should unless it’s a free game), you can say it in the subject.

An example subject for The Ouroboros King could be:
♟️ Chess Roguelike: The Ouroboros King ♟️Steam Key Inside 🔑

Body text

Most streamer outreach emails are structured as follows:

• Brief introduction:
  • Who you are.
  • What your game is about.
  • Why the game is relevant to the streamer. In my case, I mentioned similar games they’d played. And had a different template for roguelike streamers and chess streamers.
  • Some people recommend adding personal touches to the presentation. I mentioned being a long-time follower of some Hearthstone streamers who now play different indies (Disguised Toast, Amaz, …) but none of them covered my game. I’m not sure this is worth the time.
• Link to the trailer/steam page. Optionally a gif that conveys your gameplay.
• Steam key.
• Other relevant information:
  • Link to the press kit. Here’s an article explaining how to make your own. Here are a couple of examples. Make sure to include pngs of the main characters so streamers can make cool thumbnails.
  • Release date.
  • Embargo if there is any.

Here’s an example of the email I sent for The Ouroboros King:

I always sent plain text emails and it worked for me. Others send stylized emails with lots of images and colors, which are more catchy but may end up in the spam folder. I don’t have a clear stance on this.

Here’s a small database of outreach emails from other indie games that I’ve collected.

How to avoid the spam folder

Ending up in a streamer’s spam folder is a real risk, but there are steps you can take to reduce the chances. Here are some tips:

• Avoid using shortened links.
• Don’t overload your email with too many links.
• Don’t use words that are frequent in spam emails like “free”.
• Stagger your email sends. For example, I used to send about twenty emails a day, split into two different times of the day.
• Don’t send all your emails with the exact same text. I personalized the greeting and the reason for sending the emails, mentioning the similar games they’d played.

Here is a tool you can use to detect spam words before sending the email.

Conclusion

I hope the article was helpful to you. If so, you may also be interested in this other article on how to find relevant content creators.