WHAT
Getting ready to ship and looking for advice to spread the news? Wondering what you can be doing now to get yourself noticed? Sr. Marketing Manager Dana Cowley returns to the livestream (we know you’ve all missed her!) along with Head of Licensing, Americas Joe Kreiner and Marketing Manager Amber Sharif to talk about game sales, business negotiations, advertising, and how to market your team and game.
[QUESTION] When should you start marketing your project? I’ve heard people say anywhere from the moment you’ve got a project to when you have a demo or a trailer to show off.
[Question] What’s the best way to balance self promotions and marketing tactics without exposing too much of our games or events that take place in the game. As indies we are at a huge disadvantage and in order to get followers and people interested in our game we have to consistently be promoting new development of the games progress, features, events etc. Being transparent during development is good but it can also be harmful.
I would say there are a ton of quality motion graphics artists / video production people here. If you need some help with creating marketing videos, reach out in the help wanted.
How to market to people without direct buying power?
For example, a kickstarter or steam campaign might be virtually useless if a game appeals to elementary or middle school crowds. Larger companies that have a proven history, capital and cash flow can reach out to TV, cartoon networks, etc. that connect with the younger crowd. But on a bootstrap budget, this seems unrealistic.
It’s not uncommon for indie devs to build games for their kids or nieces/nephews, but have difficulty with game exposure beyond word of mouth or local communities.
Epic Mega Games! (It was just Tim!)
Clean, simple logo
Think about one color printing
Being easily sized
Have a vector version that can be modified for print, web, etc.
Should not look like a Heavy Metal band logo from 80’s (it was cool when you were 14)
Focus test it with friends and family!
Have a business plan EARLY
understand the $ needed to go to market (dev cost + PR + marketing + operations)
budget for marketing
Don’t “hope it works out”, cause it won’t
Marketing 101
Community, Community, Community
Forums, Twitter, Twitch, Youtube, Facebook, etc
go where your community is! do everything, see what gets the best response
Instagram is taking off, some folks are experimenting with Snapchat and Periscope
Build a game personality, or in marketing speak “A Brand”
Talk about what that means
Look at what other successful indies have done
Torn Banner, Tripwire, Coffee Stain
Identify your most active community members
consider hiring them, or giving special access
Finish Smart
Target the best platform for your kind of title
console is an open market (no barriers!), not enough content right now!
mobile scary
Steam crowded, but rewarding
Kickstarter is a great marketing tool. Terrible funding source.
If your Kickstarter fails, it should tell you the market doesn’t want your game. (Yes, it’s that brutal.)
If any of your are out there with the sole plan of using Kickstarter to fund the entire dev budget of your title - there is a high likelyhood of failure.
If I don’t know you, or your IP - Kickstarter probably not a good idea.
Steam Early Access can be a great way to earn a little $ to bridge the gap to launch. It also can be a great marketing tool.
Treat both of the above as product launch - with huge effort in marketing/awareness/push
Lean on partners for help! Epic, nVidia, ID@Xbox, Sony, Apple, Google, Amazon, Logitech, Razor all have opportunities to leverage for marketing/tradeshow presence/contests/etc
Sony is being particularly friendly to indie devs! PS Plus opportunities!
Go to tradeshows. Raises visibility + gets you in front of the press. PAX, Indiecade, etc. Yes, it’s expensive.
Youtube/Twitch reviewers(players?) are worth their weight in gold, try to get one excited about your game.
Focus on a platform at launch, but if success - have a plan to port to everything else. Build a long term income stream to fund future activities
Have a plan for post launch regular, frequent updates. Each update = more sales.
Watch your metrics.
A slow rise in # of players is actually good, will hit momentum at some point. (SMITE is a great example.)
Know when to walk away.
There are some small publishers that can help with marketing/PR (and some funds). 505 Games, VS. Evil, Sierra Online, etc. May be right for you, may not.
Making the game is the easy part. Don’t discount good marketing/PR/biz dev!