Few questions from new dev about promoting

[Deleted member 3168478]

Hello! Im making my first steps in development VN game and need advice from experienced developers.
im working on this project for a few weeks already. I spend 4 hours everyday and very serious about this hobby. I have already full plan for every episode, made girls and locations and even made 50 renders.
at first i thought that i will start promoting my game when first version will be ready(i aim at 1000 renders target for 0.1 version).
but now im not sure maybe i need to start telling my future patrons right now so when the game will be ready i will already have some fans waiting for it?
so my main questions are:
1. Do i need to start promoting game before first release?
2. if yes then how long before release should i do it?
3. what are the best ways to promote game? i plan to make pateron page, discord channel, and post here. Maybe i can do something else?
4. how can i catch interest of patrons? Tell them about story, girls, make some good pinups. What else?
i understand that these are very hard questions but maybe you will be so kind to share yours first expirience and what was good to your game and what not. I think it will be helpful not only for me but for every new developer

 

[Machinist]

From my point of view:

1 - Yes

2 - If you plan on 1000 renders for a first release start promoting when you have 800

3 - Before you first version those are the best ways, after releasing 0.1 look fot reddit, gamcore, fap nation as well

4 - The art is the biggest factor here

 

[Deleted member 3168478]

From my point of view:

1 - Yes

2 - If you plan on 1000 renders for a first release start promoting when you have 800

3 - Before you first version those are the best ways, after releasing 0.1 look fot reddit, gamcore, fap nation as well

4 - The art is the biggest factor here

thank you for the answer. i thought no one would reply.
Yea i also think that it will be good idea to start promoting for 1 month or couple weeks before first release. Im thinking now about making first release a little bit smaller. smth like 500 renders and make it completely free so people can try and pledge if they liked it.
150 renders already) but it is reallllly time consuming. im doing it from scratch. Never new about daz before. Just had some experience in novel writing. Hope that it will be faster after ill become more experienced)
and not sure about animations. I plan to avoid it completely. too hard for 1man team. but not sure how important is it cause myself i dont usually think too much about them in games. For me plot and render quality is much more important