Case Study
1047 Games
Empulse - From announcement to 260,000+ Steam wishlists in one month.
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Our Analysis
When addressing the pre-launch for 1047 Games' EMPULSE, a Titanfall-style 6v6 movement shooter, the primary hurdle was an exceptionally compressed timeline. The entire pre-launch cycle was squeezed into a single 30-day window. The conventional indie playbook of a slow, multi-year community build was structurally impossible. Our analysis focused on engineering an "efficient burst" that maximized discovery and carried momentum straight into launch. Because modern players discover games fragmentally across Steam, creator platforms, and Discord, relying on a single, isolated announcement was not viable. Winning the month required stacking every marketing channel to fire simultaneously on key, consecutive beats.
Our Strategy
The central move was mapping an aggressive, full-stack marketing campaign precisely timed to four major consecutive beats: the initial announcement, the PC Game Show, Steam Next Fest, and the Early Access launch. PR and cinematic trailers carried the initial reveals, while localized paid ads across Google, TikTok, Meta, and Reddit bought top-of-funnel reach, driving 31 million impressions at a highly efficient ~$1.7 CPM. To transform this reach into conviction, we mobilized over 500 short-form creators to reinforce the game's hooks in a trusted voice. Simultaneously, a Medal.tv auto-clipping campaign turned players into distributors, while targeted Discord Play Quests put controllers in hands. By targeting communities around comparable titles like Titanfall 2 and Valorant, we incentivized 15-minute minimum sessions that converted mere attention into active, dedicated play.
The Result
The framework drove EMPULSE to over 260,000 Steam wishlists in exactly one month. By concentrating discovery, the coordinated burst secured EMPULSE's position as a Top 6 most-played demo during Steam Next Fest. The strategy's efficiency proved exceptional: the full-stack campaign achieved a gross cost of roughly $0.35 per wishlist add. The proof of engagement landed on June 14 with a surprise demo drop, synchronized with creator and clipping campaigns, producing the single biggest daily wishlist spike of the cycle. Underpinned by over 8 million short-form views, 105,000 player-generated clips, and 5,800 completed Discord Play Quest sessions—representing over 1,500 hours of demo playtime in a 7-day window—this overhaul concentrated massive visibility into a tiny window, handing a highly primed audience directly into the premium Early Access launch.