Indie game website with trailer, wishlist and press kit

Does the game need its own site?

Does every indie game website pay off? For many small games, the store page and a social account are enough at first. A website for your game earns its keep once you're contacting press or creators, showing at events, or building a mailing list for launch day. Journalists in particular expect a press kit at a stable address; a store page doesn't give them downloadable screenshots, a fact sheet or a contact.

The first screen

The game's name and a one-line pitch that names the genre and the hook: "A cosy fishing game where every fish remembers you."
The trailer. YouTube can't be embedded on Anticode pages and uploaded video files don't play on them, so show a strong still with a clear link to the trailer.
The wishlist button, linking straight to your store page. Say the platform on the button.
Release window and platforms, stated plainly. If you don't have a date, say the season or year rather than nothing.

Below that: three or four short features with a screenshot each, a newsletter sign-up, the press kit link and the studio's contacts. Resist the long lore page; players who want lore will find it in the game.

A press kit journalists can use

Fact sheet: Developer, publisher, release date or window, platforms, price if fixed, languages, a website and contact address.
Description: A short and a long version, written so a writer can quote them without editing.
Screenshots and logos: High-resolution, uncropped, with the logo on transparent and dark backgrounds.
Trailer: A link to a downloadable file as well as the online video.
Team: Who made it, in a line each.
Contact: A named person and an email address that someone checks.

Forms on Anticode sites don't handle file uploads or downloads, so keep the full-resolution asset pack in a shared folder and link to it from the press section. The press kit website guide covers the format in more detail.

A playable teaser built as an app

A tiny playable piece, such as one mechanic in a single room or a minigame from the world, gives visitors something no store page does. Anticode can build that as an app: the model writes the whole thing as one HTML document with its own JavaScript, and it runs in a strict sandbox. Afterglow Run, the synthwave arcade game in Anticode's template gallery, shows the scale that works, and the browser game maker page covers what these builds can and can't do.

It's a teaser, not a port. It's written fresh from your description, not from your engine's code or assets.
No network. No leaderboards, accounts or multiplayer; high scores can be saved in the player's own browser.
No outside scripts or images, apart from Google Fonts, so use art you've uploaded to the build.
It's a separate build from the landing page; link to it with a "play the teaser" button.

Wishlists depend on the store; a mailing list is yours. Add a newsletter form (it asks for an email only) and connect it to Mailchimp or Kit, which receive sign-ups as they arrive; Mailchimp uses double opt-in. Send rarely and with news: a demo, a festival, the release date, launch day. The page views per day by source in your dashboard show which posts and events are bringing people to the site, counted without cookies.

Building it

Describe the game and the tone: "a game landing page for a cosy fishing game coming to Steam next spring, with trailer, wishlist button, features, newsletter and press kit". Upload your key art and screenshots so the model can see and place them, and give it your trailer's link. Pick a design system that suits the game's mood: Playful for cosy, Brutalist for punk, Swiss for a clean puzzle game. A domain matching the game's name works on a paid plan.

Limits

No embedded store widgets, YouTube players or Discord widgets. Link to each.
No downloads or game builds hosted for players. Distribute through your store page or an indie storefront.
No sales on the page. For direct sales, a payment link from your provider, such as Gumroad, Lemon Squeezy or Stripe Payment Links, can go on a buy button.
English only. If your game ships in several languages, the site won't.

Questions people ask

Should the wishlist button or the newsletter come first?

The wishlist button. It's the one action that helps a store algorithm. Put the newsletter second for people who don't use that store.

Can the teaser use my game's real art?

It can use images you upload to the build. The sandbox blocks images from anywhere else.

Can I post devlogs on the site?

Yes, as a CMS collection with a page per post. There are no comments or RSS, so cross-post to your usual channels too.