Hey everyone, So I have been doing some concept art for my game. I am just playing around with different looks and variations of lighting, color, layout etc… Some of the concept art is shaping up to look pretty good. I’m making a few renders of the game that I think pretty much sum it up in a single frame.
Is releasing concept art to social media venues a good way to get your in-progress game noticed, and build some attention early on? Or should I wait until I have some gameplay footage?
I’ve found, most the time, people want gameplay footage as it shows a product, rather than a promise/idea of a product.
Yeah I would try to put some of that concept art into the game and make sure the basic functionality of the game is working smoothly then start talking about it. I have seen so many potential games that had what I would call rather professional looking demos that still didn’t go anywhere. Plenty of discussion and a community of supporters and a lot of shared demos and art etc but the game just doesn’t manifest in the end. Not saying this is what will happen to yours but this is the reason we need to provide something really solid before making the project super public. It’s fine if you have groups of people who you talk to that you want to discuss and share progress with but make sure you have a solid thing going on before taking your project public to everyone on social media.
Agreed. You need provide something solid, because showing just some concept art will rather give you nothing. Today, with so much info available about upcoming mobile games, not many people would like to see unfinished things.
Yea you know it never occurred to me that the game may not pan out. Good thinking. I guess I’ll wait.
It depends what you are building and who it reaches. If it connects, just a simple picture will spark interest in some
I have to disagree with the others. I personally love concept art (being an artist / designer myself, that’s probably the reason), and if I see some great concept pictures of a project makes me definitely interested in it, even without seeing any real gameplay.
If nothing else, it inspires me and gives me ideas for my own projects, or just makes me feel good by looking at something cool.
Obviously, I will not spend every day going to that projects website, share and talk about it a lot, but if the concept art is amazing, then I will definitely subscribe to the newsletter. I mean, it costs me only a few seconds and if it goes nowhere, I won’t lose any sleep over it.
However the website needs to look very professional, to convince me you have the talent (or better said the will to take the effort) to pull it off. And the accompanying text must show you have a solid concept, that is more than just an idea for - let’s say for example “a multiplayer, zombie survival game with cool features”. 
Furthermore, I would only go public in a big way (like spreading the news about your new project on social media, sharing the website, etc.) if you are absolutely sure you will continue with it.
What you can always do though is to publish the concept art on some digital art communities, like artstation. It will get you some comments and first feedback for the ideas, and perhaps even some followers.
Also: When can we see the concept art here? 