Introducing Press Kitty: Plus — and how I got here!

Today, I’d like to announce a big bunch of impress.games marketing toolkit updates, including Press Kitty: Plus, but first some back-story...

I started this IMPRESS project back at the start of 2021.

I’d been running a lil Discord coverage bot since 2019 through Patreon after adapting some prototype tech I’d made for my old games studio originally around 2015…

It’s been 3 years of dedicated hard work so far, but in reality, this idea has been bouncing around in my head for a lot longer. 9 years is quite a timespan!

It’s been a long road to getting here today, and to understanding my place and purpose in the games industry, and I’m happier than ever to be supporting your games marketing efforts with my tools and articles. There are almost 500 of you now!

But here’s the thing, I went all in on IMPRESS about 12 months in, quitting the full-time work I held through the Covid-19 pandemic. There was some very promising early-stage growth, and with reasonable projections, I had enough savings to see it through.

And I did – I really did…

But then came the games industry bad news that we’ve all been seeing lately: mass layoffs, publishers closing up, funding running dry, budget cuts across the board, and loads more I’ve likely forgotten.

I’ve also been heavily affected.

My revenue from Coverage Bot started going in reverse, and has dropped over 30% in the past 5 months. Cue existential panic!

So alongside the following new product/feature announcements, I am also asking for your help, if you are in a position to do so.

😸 Press Kitty is still a completely free service — but it now has a few extras for Plus supporters!

🌍 Multi-language Press Kits

You can now add a second language to your press kits – this is free for everyone. If English isn’t your first language, I recommend doing this for your native tongue: this will help communicate your game/message in your domestic markets, e.g. for local press/creators.

With Plus, you can add as many languages as you like!

Massive thanks to members of the community who have contributed translations:

German: Phil Strahl from pixelprophecy.com

French: Evian from eternaltwin.org

Dutch: @MrPeanutBelly who is working on SCP-087: Staircase 55

Ukrainian: Andrii Raboshchuk from unlocteam.com

Croatian: Leo Tot

Japanese: Kazuya Numajiri from linktr.ee/studio_asahi

Simplified Chinese: Rick Zhang from nlentmt.com

Polish: Michał Gembicki from remote control productions

Please be sure to check out their projects, studios, conferences or services too. And if you’re able to localise to any other languages not listed here, please hit reply and reach out!

🔗 Custom Domain Support

With Plus, you can now set up your press kits on your own domain / subdomain. This provides an extra layer of professionalism and credibility to your brand, as well as a few extra SEO-related benefits. I'm keen to receive feedback on this and keep progress going!

🌚 Dark Mode

A few folks asked about press kit customisation options, and this is the first step on that path. More font and colour options will be made available soon!

🎨 PSD Support

This isn’t technically a Plus feature, I just forgot to announce it, ha! I want to make sure that creators get everything they need from you to play and promote your games, and layered thumbnail templates are really helpful time-savers for that, so here you go. It’s a freebie!

🚀 Increased Limits

If you support the project with Plus, you’ll have your Press Kit limit increased from 4 to 10, and your Cloud Storage limit increased from 100MB to 1GB. You’ll also be able to upload large assets up to 50MB each.

There’s still a lot to smooth out; from improved onboarding, image gallery views, pdf export options, and other remaining feature requests from a survey I sent out last November, not to mention Coverage Bot updates (saved for a future post). I’ll keep doing my best to support you where I can, and I only ask for a little help in return.

🏷️ How much?

Press Kitty: Plus will be ordinarily $9 / €9 / £8 monthly or $90 / €90 / £80 annually for two months free, but as an early supporter, here’s a code for 25% off for life, redeemable until May 1st: PLUSFORLIFE

✈️ GDC?

If you’re headed to GDC next week, please think of me and consider spreading the word. I won’t be there unfortunately, but my calendar is open for anyone for the week and the week after, whether you’d like to chat for the first time or it’s long over-due:

I think that’s everything from me. I hope to strike the line between “amazingly free” and “even better with your support”, or “simplified perfection for indies” and “advanced greatness for established outfits”.

You can find Press Kitty – along with some reviews & example press kits – here:

https://impress.games/press-kitty

Best wishes, many thanks, and onwards!

Ashley