u/Careful_Vanilla_4571

Hi all, I recently built and launched my first mobile game, Paw Fusion (a merge-style puzzle game with physics).

This is my first real attempt at game development. I come from a data / tech background, so most of this was learned by doing.

The part I expect to struggle this much with was distribution and my expectation is reality now 😞

I have:

• Limited marketing budget (spent most of it on ads for social media, did not work out well)
• No prior audience
• Very limited knowledge of mobile game marketing

Right now I’m trying to figure out how people actually get their first players. For those who’ve shipped games:

• How did you approach early distribution?
• What worked for you at the very beginning?
• Anything you tried that was a complete waste of time & money?

Would really appreciate any insights, especially from other solo devs.

Thanks!