What to put in your link in bio as an indie game developer

You post a 20-second clip of your game on TikTok. Someone watches it twice, taps your bio, and lands on a page with your Steam link, your itch.io page, your Discord, your Bluesky, your Patreon and a link to a game jam entry from 2022. They have the attention span of one tap. Which one do they pick?

If you make games on your own or with a small team, your bio link has one big job before launch, and a different one after. This guide covers what to put on it at each stage, in what order, and what to leave off.

What should be at the top of your bio link?

One button that says what you want the visitor to do right now. Before your game is out, that is almost always "Wishlist on Steam". On Steam, a wishlist is how a player says they want to hear about your game later. Steam's developer documentation says that when a game releases, any user with it on their wishlist at that time receives an email and/or mobile push notification. Wishlisters are also notified when you run a qualifying sale. The discount has to be at least 20 percent, apply to the lowest-priced package, and last more than 8 hours.

So a wishlist is a small promise from a player that you can collect on at launch. A wishlist is a better result than a follow, because it comes with a launch-day notification. Your bio link should make that tap as easy as possible. Link straight to the store page, not to your Steam developer page. Put the button above everything else, and name the action: "Wishlist Moonfarm on Steam" beats "My game".

If you are not on Steam, the same logic applies to whichever store sells your game. Put the one place you want the sale at the top.

What do you put under the wishlist button?

Three things, in this order.

A trailer or a short clip. Visitors who arrived from a post have seen thirty seconds of your game at most. Give them a way to watch more without leaving your page. Linky has a YouTube block that embeds a video, so a trailer can play on the page itself.

A way to try it. A free demo is the strongest thing you can offer a hesitant player. Link to it directly, with the platform in the label: "Play the demo on itch.io". itch.io's creator guide says everyone who follows you there will see public updates to all your projects in their feed, so a demo page also gives people a second way to keep up with you.

A way to hear about it later. Not everyone has a Steam account they want to use, and some people only want the news. Add an email form. On Linky, the Form block collects addresses, lets you view the submissions and export them as a CSV file. Linky doesn't send email for you, so you take that file to your email tool when you have news. A single email field labelled "Email me when it's out" is enough.

With the wishlist button, that is four things. For most games in development that is enough.

What should you leave off?

Most of the rest of your internet presence. A visitor with a trailer in hand and a wishlist button above it does not need a link to every account you own.

• Old projects. Link them from the page of the game they belong to, or from a single "More from me" button if you must.
• Every social account. Pick the one or two where you post the game. Someone who wants your Mastodon will find it.
• Press kit links on the main page. Journalists can find a press page if you link it in your Steam description or your email signature. Keep it off the page your players use.
• Tip jars and Patreon, before the game exists. They compete with the wishlist for the same tap. Move them down, or hold them until after launch.

If you use Linky's Free plan, this restraint is also practical. A Free page can hold up to 5 blocks, plus the header block every page has. Wishlist button, trailer, demo, email form and one social link adds up to exactly five.

How should the page change when you launch?

Swap the top button, and keep the rest. On launch day the wishlist button becomes a buy button: "Get Moonfarm on Steam". Move the trailer below it, and keep the email form, now labelled for post-launch news such as updates, DLC and your next project.

If you run a launch discount, put it in the button label for as long as it lasts.

Keep the demo link after launch too. A player on the fence may still want to try it first.

What do you do while the game is still in development?

Change the page whenever your stage changes. Here is a sequence you could follow.

• Announcement. Wishlist button, one short clip, email form.
• Playable build or demo. Add the demo link above the clip.
• Festival or showcase week. Put the event name in the demo button label, such as "Play the demo during the festival". Take it down after.
• Release window. Add the date as a line of text, and swap the clip for the full trailer.
• Launch. The swap described above.

If you also build tools or open source libraries as a developer, Linky has a GitHub Commits block that shows your commits over roughly the last 30 days from a username. It suits a developer page where your work in progress is itself the pitch. For a game page aimed at players, leave it off.

For a longer view of how a launch plan fits a bio link, the post on what to put in your link in bio when you're launching a podcast walks through the same before, during and after rhythm for a different kind of project. If your game has a newsletter, what to put in your link in bio when you write a newsletter goes further on the email side.

How do you know whether it's working?

Don't expect your bio link to tell you which button was tapped. Linky's analytics show views, unique visitors and top locations for the page as a whole, and Premium includes them. They do not break the numbers down per link.

The better check is on the other side. Steamworks has wishlist reporting for developers, and those numbers are the real result. Post a clip with your bio link, then look at whether wishlists moved over the next few days. Change one thing at a time on the page, such as the wording of the top button, so you can tell what caused a difference. Treat any exact conversion benchmark you read online with care. Published figures for how many wishlists turn into sales vary by source and by year, and they describe other people's games.

Where to start

Open your page this afternoon and look at what's at the top. If it isn't a single, specific button for the one thing you want players to do, change it. You can build the page on Linky for free, with the five blocks above, and there is a page for developers with more ideas on how to set it up.