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[True Valhalla]

@True Valhalla: cool article, u just made a new follower 

Thanks

[ColeyWoley]

Everything I've read seems to say that going free temporarily (for a paid game) is a waste of time, ups your downloads but actually decreases sales, it was interesting to see that sales had a similar effect for him.

It sucks that $10 is a lot to pay for a game these days.

[Majestic]

In response to PaulEres, I think the focus should be about how many of those gamers are coming back to play your games again and again, not transient game-buyers who come and go.


I still think the best marketing and promotion are these 2 points:

Making a great game and building brand loyalty.


How do you build game developers brand/company loyalty?

1.) Provide excellent and human customer service ( connecting with customers/gamers via twitter, etc. )

2.) Taking customer suggestions

3.) Listening and responding to customer feedback

4.) Maybe even providing merchandise

5.) Rewarding customers, etc.


These loyal customers are the ones who will support and buy a game(no matter the price), promote it for you and even recommend other people to buy it

All the bigger companies like Rockstar are doing this

Social media is too revolutionary to overlook. People don't want a faceless brand



Here's another article that may interest Indie developer trying to market their game:

http://blog.raincastle.com/bid/85510/3-Steps-to-Building-Brand-Loyalty-Using-Social-Media

All this is just food for thought, I'm by no means an expert but just providing ideas

[Majestic]

I think the big picture here is to build a community of people who love you and your games

[theweirdn8]

Nice read.

[Muz]

I love Jeff Vogel's games. He's got a great blog too. One of the most insightful I've ever read.

There's no "tricks" to it. Just be honest, be sincere, make good games. They don't have to be perfect. They're not AAA games, just recycled old games with a continuation on story and gameplay. The demos are fun, the games themselves are even more fun.

Personally, I've noticed a very clear correlation between quality software/games and sales. It's funny. I had a product which I didn't advertise.. did a little tweak, didn't announce the update other than changing the screenshots. Sales increased noticeably.

You can 'scrape' sales with ads, advanced marketing, whatever. All marketing does is increase awareness, which will increase anyway if you have good stuff. But I find that quality products always mean more sales. Always.


Oh and I agree with Paul Eres here. Discounts are bad in the long term for indie developers. It's different for a medium sized studio; the sudden boost in income gives you enough to hire a few people and kick the next game out a little faster. If you're going near solo, you'll be relying on long tail sales. Loss leader strategy - it's the leading way to make a loss.

..
That's why I think social networking is so important.

...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOIk0-z38Sw

Uh, no.

Social networking is a bubble. Everyone's rushing towards it. Advertising on Facebook/etc is a poor idea now because everyone's overestimating it and ads are excessively expensive. Facebook's P/E ratio was over 90 in a field where 10 is considered high. Goes to show how overrated it is.

Not that it's 'bad', but you're kinda missing the point of the article. Take it easy, be a bottom feeder, don't bother riding the trends, because it takes a lot of resources you don't have.

Social media will work itself out. People will "share" your games. Spend less time on marketing, more on fixing bugs or improving graphics, and I guarantee that you'll make more money (though if you have a marketing guy, of course make him handle all the social media stuff).

[True Valhalla]

Advertising on Facebook has always been exceptionally expensive, but I consider it to be one of the best platforms to advertise niche products. Being able to target extremely specific types of people is where its value lies. And that's what you pay for.

[Majestic]

Social media will work itself out. People will "share" your games. Spend less time on marketing, more on fixing bugs or improving graphics, and I guarantee that you'll make more money (though if you have a marketing guy, of course make him handle all the social media stuff).

This is what I've been saying the whole time lol

[John Hutchinson]

There's truth to both schools of thought.  You can't market a crap game and a great game that no one knows exists won't get played.  It's important to work on both throughout the entire process.  At least, that's how I see it.

[ANtY]

There's truth to both schools of thought.  You can't market a crap game and a great game that no one knows exists won't get played.  It's important to work on both throughout the entire process.  At least, that's how I see it.

this

Ppl won't share a game that they don't know about.

[Muz]

Social media will work itself out. People will "share" your games. Spend less time on marketing, more on fixing bugs or improving graphics, and I guarantee that you'll make more money (though if you have a marketing guy, of course make him handle all the social media stuff).

This is what I've been saying the whole time lol

Oh, lol, I thought you were going to say make a big facebook page and twitter, spend $10,000 on buying likes from people, and put up little QR code graffiti everywhere that links to your Facebook. (like every other marketing guy has said, with a little hyperbole added in there)

Followers, friends, likes... just doesn't translate into sales. Sincere sharing does. I know blogs and interviews are great for building hype, if you've got a good product. Heck I used to blog about fairly crappy stuff but people get excited when they can empathize with the game.

I do agree you have to market your game to a level where it does go viral. Hit a few key spots. Like with Spiderweb Software, they've already got a decent brand, so people will go on and talk about them when they've created something new.

[moi]

before 2014, facebook will be dead/dying

[bateleur]

before 2014, facebook will be dead/dying

What do you mean by that? FaceBook's IPO is over now and it's been getting worse from a usability standpoint for a while, so in most senses it's already dying. However, 2014 is much too close for it to have become noticeably less influential by then.

[Muz]

Have no doubts that Facebook will go the way of Yahoo, but not anytime soon. It still needs a competent opponent.

[Paul Eres]

Followers, friends, likes... just doesn't translate into sales. Sincere sharing does. I know blogs and interviews are great for building hype, if you've got a good product. Heck I used to blog about fairly crappy stuff but people get excited when they can empathize with the game.

it's true that the absolute number of likes or followers doesn't matter but even so nobody can 'share' it if they don't see it first. i think it's a bad idea to launch a game when there is absolutely nobody looking forward to it, building up anticipation is important. if nobody wants to buy your game when it isn't released yet chances are nobody will want to buy your game after it's released either