Best Free Press Kits for Indie Games

Whether you’re completely new to video game promotion, or are a PR head-honcho, you’ll very likely have heard about press kits, and how important they are in your game & brand communication.

(But just in case: press kits are a place for media & creators to learn about and digest your game in the quickest and easiest way possible. For a full recap, or to learn what a press kit should include, who it’s for, and how to best utilise it, read our Press Kit: Master The Basics guide.)

If you’re looking to set a new press kit up, and are looking to compare the available options, you’ve come to the right place. All of these tools are completely free, however, each of them has limitations or drawbacks, and of course advantages and benefits, which we’ll get stuck into.

We’ll compare features & metrics we think matter – from analytics, hosting, downloadability, as well as whether press kits for your company/studio are also supported! Let’s go!

 

#5. presskit()

Created by Rami Ismail of Vlambeer, The Habibis and gamedev.world fame, presskit() is considered the de-facto industry-standard press kit structure. And it’s for that reason that we mention it first!

To use presskit(), you download a ZIP file and modify a set of XML configuration files. You include your game descriptions, release dates, team credits, and all the standard media materials such as logos, screenshots and trailer links. You then self-host it online on an environment that runs at least PHP5+.

This is simple enough if you have a can-do attitude or a little web development know-how, but with the rise of popular “no-code” tools, and a number of things that can do wrong along the way, it cannot be considered best for everyone.

Name:	presskit() (pronounced "do presskit")
Price:	🟢 FREE!
Analytics:	🟢 Google Analytics
Hosting:	❌ None provided – requires separate PHP hosting
Downloadable:	🟢 Image Assets (ZIP)
Supports Company Press Kit:	🟢 Yes
Multi-language Support:	❌ No
Developer Experience Required:	🟠 Medium – XML, FTP (manual)

 

#4. presskit.html

An offshoot from the above, presskit.html by Pixelnest Studio takes the XML configuration files from presskit() and compiles them into a set of static HTML pages.

This extra step adds some installation complexity which again is not for everyone, but there is an advantage over the original presskit():

Once it’s built, you do not need a web service that supports PHP! You only need somewhere that can serve HTML such as Dropbox or any website hosting — great!

Name:	presskit.html
Price:	🟢 FREE!
Analytics:	🟢 Google Analytics
Hosting:	❌ None provided – requires separate hosting
Downloadable:	🟢 Image Assets (ZIP)
Supports Company Press Kit:	🟢 Yes
Multi-language Support:	❌ No
Developer Experience Required:	🟠 Medium – XML, Command Line, NodeJS, FTP

 

#3. presskittie()

Here’s presskittie(), from indie game developer Juan Uys. This one takes the standard presskit() configuration files, and adds another big convenience: hosting them for free on Github Pages!

Aforementioned warnings about potential installation complexity aside, it’s neat! Just don’t accidentally leak your Git access keys! 👀

Name:	presskittie
Price:	🟢 FREE!
Analytics:	🟢 Google Analytics
Hosting:	🟠 Github Pages – requires understanding of Git & Github
Downloadable:	🟢 Image Assets (ZIP)
Supports Company Press Kit:	🟢 Yes
Multi-language Support:	❌ No
Developer Experience Required:	🔴 High – XML, Docker, Command Line, NodeJS, FTP
Example Press Kit

 

#2. IGDB

If open source isn’t your cup of tea for some reason, or if you prefer a simpler editing experience on web, there’s IGDB, which is owned by Twitch – you know, the streaming platform!

The downsides of IGDB are surprisingly numerous. It doesn’t support zipped asset downloads, company press kits or analytics integrations. But it is easy to edit. Swings and roundabouts.

All that said, setting up on IGDB is something you should definitely do. It will create a category for Twitch streamers to tag your game with, and it will surface your box art and game description directly into Twitch and many other discoverability platforms.

If you fancy batching your work and adding a presskit while you’re there, go do it!

Name:	IGDB
Price:	🟢 FREE!
Analytics:	❌ No
Hosting:	🟢 Provided on igdb.com
Hosting on Own Domain / CNAME:	❌ No
Supports Company Press Kit:	❌ No
Downloadable:	❌ No
Multi-language Support:	❌ No
Developer Experience Required:	🟢 None – WYSIWYG editor
Example Press Kit

 

#1. Press Kitty

Developed by the team here at IMPRESS – yes, that’s us – Press Kitty is our bespoke solution for indie game press kits. It’s not the only cool cat on the block (looking at you, presskittie() 👀), but we got a good feline about this one! 😻

Hear us out: We identified various sticking points in the above solutions, and decided to build our own into the IMPRESS toolkit. You get WYSIWYG editing, team collaboration, analytics integrations, and we’ll eventually cover all of the other points in the table too.

As for downsides, it’s not as customisable & themeable as the first 3 options, as you cannot edit the raw template code, but we’d argue that the standard form set by Rami is ones that content creators and media are familiar with, and deviating from that could make the experience for potential coverage outlets worse. Not something you want!

Lastly, Press Kitty is a living product with regular updates. Want new analytics support or something else? Just let the team know in the Discord.

Name:	Press Kitty
Price:	🟢 FREE!
Analytics:	🟢 Google Analytics
Hosting:	🟢 Provided on impress.games
Hosting on Own Domain / CNAME:	🟠 Coming Soon!
Downloadable:	🟢 Image Assets (ZIP)
Multi-language Support:	🟠 Coming Soon!
Developer Experience Required:	🟢 None – WYSIWYG & Markdown editor

 

#0. General Alternatives

It’s worth giving a quick overview of the more generalised, less bespoke options for creating a press kit.

 

Dropbox & Google Drive

If you’re using presskit.html, perfect! Dropbox can serve your HTML, and make your assets easily downloadable, with a small caveat*.

Look, publishers and agencies really like the ease of use of these, and that makes sense. Google Drive has a built-in permissions system, and that can allow as many team members as they like to collaboratively upload and edit files and folders. However it’s not-so-good in a few key areas.

Does a recipient of this drive link know, near instinctively, where to find a certain asset? No – because everybody lays out their uploads/file structure differently. That’s a negative.

Can a recipient of this drive link decide to download ”just trailers” or ”just screenshots” or even ”just English language screenshots”? Yes, if organised neatly, but with a little difficulty.

Here’s the caveat*: unless those folders are pre-zipped (i.e. compressed by you, and then uploaded), it could take a while for the end-user.

Both of these tools create temporary ZIP files on the fly when a user selects the files they wish to download. This can result in long-wait times, at which point a creator or media outlet might simply give up and move onto something quicker and more fruitful.

Tools are so important, so choose wisely!

 

Notion Templates

Lastly, a quick shout-out to Notion templates, in particular this one by Future Friends Games.

If you’re invested in the Notion ecosystem, it’s a no-brainer – collaborative editing, nicely organised, etc. Very flexible too, you can embed anything you like: Tweets, sales widgets, key distribution widgets, mostly-anything on the web provided by third-parties. But yes, bear in mind you might have the same download issue as above. Just work around it! Mix and match tools if you have to!

 

Conclusion

By now, you should have an overview of the freely available tools for creating a press kit for your indie game – great work getting through that! A special thanks goes to Rami Ismail for his pivotal role in laying the foundations for the all work thereafter.

As for final recommendations? It depends primarily on your level of development experience, secondarily on your usability preference, and lastly on… morality?

If you’re a developer and are comfortable with web technologies (or fancy getting your hands dirty), any of the first three will do the job for you just fine. But remember, you may have to spend on a third-party hosting provider.

If that’s not you – or you prefer the better user experience with “what you see if what you get” editing – we’d recommend either of the latter three; IGDB, Press Kitty or a general alternative.

As for how morality fits in: do you prefer to support huge multi-national conglomorates (i.e. Amazon) or the fledgling independent upstarts, the underdogs (us)? Well, that’s your call! (Shameless – I know!)

Are there any other press kit tools that you know we’ve missed? Let us know over in our Discord Community! We’ll be happy to hear your thoughts! 🙂

---

Interested in bespoke marketing tools for indie games? Or want to be notified of more insightful resources like this post? Sign up for a free impress.games account today!

You really won’t regret it! 😎

- Ashley