Social media is, without a doubt, the biggest tool in the arsenal of any indie developer when it comes to marketing their game. Sometimes it feels like screaming into a void, but with daily hashtags and some luck (or skill), there’s a huge number of potential players just waiting to see their posts.
Now, in the hopes of gaining some much-deserved attention, a group of indie developers have gone rogue in the most hilarious way.
Social media sites can make us question everything daily. They’re filled with far too much negativity that we start to think that maybe that’s enough internet for the day. Possibly the entire week. But sometimes, something happens that feels like a shining beacon of humor and hope, and it’s one of those moments that we’re about to discuss.
So, where does Wendy’s fit in with all this? Let’s find out.
It began with a meme
On July 13, the developers of LUCID, a stunning metroidvania that’s still in development, shared a post of their key art with a twist: The main character had the signature and recognizable bright red Wendy’s pigtails.
Then, others started joining in. Shade Protocol, another glorious metroidvania, stuck those pigtails on their main character:
Layers Deep went one step further by not only putting the pigtails on their strangely adorable onion-headed main character, but also crossing out the ‘Layers’ and changing the name of the game (albeit just in this one image) to ‘Burger’s Deep’:
Sojourn Past was next, adding the back of those iconic Wendy’s pigtails to their moth-esque main character as it gazed off into the distance:
Then William Davis, developer of Age of the Deep, added them onto one of his original characters as well:
To top it all off, Digby from Cozy Holes got a hair transplant, and there was even a glorious and adorable white cat named Stinky who joined the roster – I may or may not be responsible for that last addition. I can neither confirm nor deny.
Regardless, this has become a thing.
So why Wendy’s?
Wendy’s is a veritable powerhouse on social media platforms, with 3.6 million followers on Twitter alone. They post constantly, regularly with viral posts that reach mainstream news, and they’re now a globally recognized fast food franchise. Honestly, hats off to the social media manager at Wendy’s, because I’m not sure I could do their job.
A post quoted or even replied to by Wendy’s is likely to get a lot of eyes on the original poster.
So it should go without saying that any indie game developer would jump at the chance to get their game out to millions of eyes, and that’s what LUCID, and by extension those who joined in, are hoping to do. Perhaps it’s a blind hope, the kind that goes nowhere beyond making their own followers smile, but it’s a glorious kind of hope that we could do with more of, to be honest.
LUCID combined all of the replies to the original meme post in one collage image and shared that, tagging Wendy’s in the post. Now, Wendy’s probably gets thousands of mentions a day, so is it likely that this group of indie developers, however incredible their games are, will get seen by them? Not hugely, but if there’s even the smallest chance at anything in life, you have to reach out and grab it.
You miss 100% of the chances you don’t take, after all.
And yes, I’m aware of how cheesy I just became. What can I say? I like some cheese on my burgers.
