IGN has about a 2-4 week lag between a new iPhone game coming out and publishing a review for it. Most are "indie" games, being developed and published small groups of coders.
Gamespot has always taken their time to release reviews. They like to give games a very good play before publishing something, making sure they get it right. IMHO they're the best game reviewers on the net.
I wouldn't fret so much. It looks like most reaction has been very positive so far. I betchya this will snowball after one or two star reviews pop up. Just help pushing it along and it'll get very big.
A few other idea's to help promote it:
- buy a banner ad on Fark.com, linking to the demo (
http://www.fark.com/farq/advertise.shtm ... dvertisers). I'd maybe start running it on a Thursday or Friday (peeps goofing off at work later in the day might try it - Fark is basically for people goofing off at work - ask their ad agents if this sounds like a good idea or not, when they have the most traffic, etc). I'd imagine a lot of casual gamers hang out there, and there hardly ever are any ads for games. Plus, they'll get L. Ron Hubbard references.
- PennyArcade.com has banner ads too. Usually indie-game shops. Give em a try too. Definitely a hardcore-gamer demographic that embraces the new, unique, and funny.
- If a bunch of YakYaker's have Digg.com accounts, perhaps start a thread asking everyone to Digg a link to the demo? Or, add a "Digg This!" button to the demo page?
- Same goes for Reddit. They like stories, so if you wrote up a 10min story about how you developed it as an indie shop and some of the unique and interesting struggles you went through, they'll eat it up. I'd make a formal webpage on Llamasoft (rather than a link to a forum post) and do it there. Makes it look more professional, etc.
- If you do buy some ads, definitely make a "landing page" for GRR. Like a quick overview of the game, with a few screenshots, a video, link to the demo, and link to buy it, all on the same page. It lets someone get a quick glance at what the game is all about, take a quick peek at it, and if they're enticed, download and try the demo.
Just some thoughts. I hope it all works out for you guys! Rooting for you hardcore!
