How do people like their game marketing?

A real problem I'm having is how to market this game.  I have some ideas, but I'm still learning as I go along this process.  Game marketing is different than most kinds of consumer marketing.  Unless you have the best graphics, it won't work to simply give screenshots/grabs, etc.


Here's what I know:

-I know the kind of people I want to play this game.  They love a good story, and they love a game that challenges them to 'beat the next battle' so that they can get the next story sequence.  I'm that kind of gamer. I love a good story, I love the feeling of working for a couple interesting lines of text when a game really immerses me in its world.

-I know how big the market is.  It's big enough that I think I can be relatively successful, and even have some non-text-role playing game lovers play the game.  I'm aiming at a niche market, and I know this market, because I AM this market.

Here's what I want to know:

-How much time should I spend approaching app review sites and sending out press releases.  I work in PR, I know quite well how many press releases die in a spam folder.  Many of them.

-How does my niche market want to find out about this game?  On a game review site, through social media, through a neat contest, or through a video?  I'm not a fan of shotgun marketing, and frankly, I'm too busy for that at the moment, and this kind of stuff can wear on you if you don't enjoy doing it.  I do enjoy doing it to a certain extent, but there's a limit.  And also it's Christmas soon.  It's just NOT going to happen that I'm going to work on this during Christmas unless I'm bored to tears. (Unlikely.)

-Can I approach people individually and ask them to review and play it?  Random strangers and such?  Sigh, I have no idea.

-Should I do a Kickstarter campaign?  I have been researching this for a while, and this seems like my best bet for making sure the game is a financial success as well as a success for gamers.



I'm going to be pondering this is over the next week and a half.  The website URL has been bought, time to make a website this week. 

Did I mention I've never really done that before and that I'm going to make it from scratch pretty much for fun?

Vector graphics last week, website design this week.  Pretty soon I'll be the king of everything.  Booyah.