Neon Noroshi’s indie game introduction request form, and tips on how to use it
This post is a translation of the original Japanese article.
Neon Noroshi’s original goal was to bring English-language games to Japan, and so our Twitter account was created to help English-language developers spread the word and introduce their games to a Japanese audience.
To our delight, this was well-received! And now we get an increasing number of requests from overseas, with people saying things like, “We want to test whether our project would be well-received in Japan, so we’d like you to post about it,” which also serves as test marketing. However, as of late the volume of requests finally became too large and we were overwhelmed. So now we’ve decided to set up a form to receive requests, with the disclaimer that we cannot guarantee any particular post.
If you want to introduce your game to Neon Noroshi’s Twitter or Bluesky followers, you can make a request using the form. Our Twitter account is @NNoroshi, and our Bluesky is @nnoroshi.bsky.social.
The content of the social media post is put together and posted by a person who is in charge of the account and has the time to handle it. This is how one of the posts looks! (Translation below.)
Just playing this game made me type faster.
On the Keyboard is a game where you roll a ball by using your keyboard to raise the keys of the in-game board.
Playing this game improves your awareness of the key layout and your ability to instantly press keys you don’t normally use. I recommend it as a brain training experience. Really.
There are many possible ways to put together a post, but if you can clearly describe your game and it resonates with the person in charge of posting, you can end up with an article like the one below. This one came when the president, who loves josei-muke games, had a moment of free time. Her unrestrained love for the game exploded out.
The results of the tweet were pretty great, too. (Translation below.)
Here’s the story of how a Korean student got hooked on Japanese otome games and made their own game.
Get hooked on otome games in middle school and started submitting novels.
↓
Start drawing illustrations in high school.
↓
Become a professional novelist (4 books published)
↓
Continue drawing and writing until the creation of their ideal game.
↓
Release the Japanese version to bring it to Japan (that’s here and now)
Now I’d like to share some tips on how to use this form, particularly about how to share your information so that the staff of Neon Noroshi can make a good post.
Tips for the submission form
You can apply twice per game
You can apply for an introduction twice: once before and once after the release of your game. Please use this to your advantage. However, to avoid our followers getting bored of seeing the same content too soon, please wait at least three months between your two applications.
Since we’re not game news media, we’re much less concerned with the “freshness” of a game than we are for how interesting it will be to our followers. So please apply if you’re interested, even if your game is no longer brand new.
However, as a developer it’s natural that you’d want your game to be introduced when it’s hot. If you’re not certain about timing, we give priority to games on or just before their release date. It’s best if you submit your game to the form a week or two before the release date and specify the release date in your submission.
Tell us specific details that make your game interesting
It will be easier for us to make a good post if you can be specific about the game’s highlights and share the details that make your game unique.
Not enough detail:
The illustrator also serves as the director, so the art direction is excellent.
It was inspired by my childhood memories and I drew on these personal experiences.
I studied in order to make the best otome game, and refined the story until I was satisfied.
Lots of detail:
The illustrator also serves as the director and that strongly affects the art direction. For example, at point X of the trailer, there are visual effects that are not seen in other games which make battles look different from other titles.
It was inspired by my memory of doing ___ when I was a child and ending up ___. I want to share the emotions I felt when I had this unique personal experience with players.
In order to make the best otome game possible, I honed my skills until I was able to make my debut as a professional novelist, and I focused on building my skills and refining my story until I was satisfied.
If we get a submission that tells us that art was a focus, we can introduce the game as, “A game with beautiful art!”, but it’s much easier to make a strong impression and highlight what you want the audience to pay attention to if you tell us about those details. Then we can say, “Because it’s directed by an illustrator, there are so many unique visuals! Look at how it pops at XX seconds in the trailer!”
We appreciate having a short bio of the creator
As the creator, your efforts to make a game are reflected in the project. It can resonate strongly with an audience if we can associate the game’s strong points to something about the creator: their education or career, their interests, their life experiences, etc.. Please only share information you’re comfortable with being posted publicly.
The more video, the better
Video is popular on social media, so it’s helpful to have well-edited video materials to work with. It’s especially important on social media to catch people’s attention early, so a video that’s packed with interesting content in the first five seconds is best. Please be merciless in editing out logos or text at the beginning.
We also accept information about events
We also tweet about indie game events. This is mostly done through retweeting, so if you make a post requesting retweets and we see it, we’ll likely retweet and mention the event, not the game. Please keep this in mind.
You may receive an email to your contact address
If the person in charge of posting wants to introduce your project but needs more information, they may contact you via the email you share to request additional information. If you don’t respond within a week, we’ll discard the request.
Please be sure your information is correct and complete
If there are any errors in the information you provide, it can be difficult for us to take the rest of the information as given and we will probably remove the game as a candidate to post. Mistakes in URLs are common, so please take extra care in ensuring those are correct. The person in charge of posting may try to correct incorrect links or information on their own time, but this is only at their discretion.
There is an element of chance
This is a volunteer job and most of the work is done due to the enthusiasm and passion of the Twitter staff — and in fact, we did not originally plan to be posting every day — so there is an element of chance involved in the timing of the post and the type of write-up it receives.
The first factor to remember is that there is a lot of competition for an introduction. Immediately after opening the request form to the public, we got about a dozen requests and this number is only getting higher. There is not enough time to introduce everyone who asks. Sometimes we have already planned ten days of posts and there is simply no room on our schedule if you come to us late.
We may also be unable to post if the staff is too busy with other work, or because no one on the team can fairly assess the submission (for example, at the time of writing we do not have anyone on our staff who is good at rhythm games and able to judge them fairly).
If our staff has the time and interest, we may be able to play a game or demo and share our opinions of the game from first-hand experience, but we may also share games with a text based on the information you’ve given and the game’s Steam page. This, as well as the timing of posts, is ultimately due to factors outside of your control, so please don’t feel disappointed or rejected if we cannot introduce your game when you apply.
I hope one day we will be profitable enough to hire a dedicated Twitter manager and be able to introduce every game that requests it, but for now this is the best we can offer.
