Discoverability is probably the second biggest hurdle when it comes to developing a game (the first is actually having something to publish)
So, title question. I know I could try to throw money at Instagram, TikTok and Youtube (know your target audience), but I think using their built-in advertising is more likely to miss than hit. Youtube is even more problematic, as a significant portion of people smartly avoid their ads (either with extensions or watching from piped or invidious).
Maybe paying to be on top of itch.io might work somewhat? I’d like to know from someone who did that, what was the turnout (number of sales/downloads per number of clicks)
One thing I think about is getting in contact with a number of small-ish (2k or less followers) content creators and work out a deal - free copy of the game, make a video being honest about it, leave a referral link for viewers to buy.
A problem of mine that I’m aware of is that I don’t have much of a social media presence, not even Discord servers, thus I completely lack any sort of “organic digital voice”.
I really want to know what are some decent strategies that a solo person could attempt to get some attention for their own game, and maybe the prices/budgets needed.
Ad buys do not guarantee anything and are truly only effective (unless you drop millions and brute force your way with an expert) when coupled with some other efforts on your part. I have a lot more to say on the matter but unfortunately I’m pretty busy at work. Suffice to say, don’t waste your money spending a few hundred dollars or even thousands of dollars on social media platforms that you and your game are not even present on.  if you are already on these platforms and have a presence/community following, then there are strategies available to you. But you can’t just walk onto TikTok and buy your way to the top without significant investment and connections. The kind that large corporations can do.
I would recommend getting involved on social media platforms that you think you can actually enjoy engaging in. Yes social media can be very toxic, but you don’t have to be, and a lot of people will flock to somebody who is just doing what they love and talking about it in an open, honest way. Start there, find your community, then build out ad buys and partnerships.
Seriously. I’ve tried so many games that people post about on indie developer communities.