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TIGSource ForumsDeveloperBusinessHow do you find your audience as an experimental developer?
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Omiya Games
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« on: October 03, 2014, 06:57:33 PM »

Hey, guys and gals.  I could use some marketing help.  As the common advice goes, it's easier to market and spread the word when you know what niche you're targeting at, and where to find them.  I'm finding the "where" to be a bit difficult.

As you can probably tell from my tagline to the left, I call myself an experimental developer.  Which is a broad term, so to clarify, I personally like experimenting with different ways of playing games (unusual control schemes, objectives, method of telling narrative, etc.).  I don't mind making fun games at all, and in fact, I frequently make games with absolutely no narrative to speak of.  Needless to say, that makes it difficult to categorize my focus into any specific game genre.

Where can I find some enthusiastic like-minded gamers who like to try these new, experimental (and hopefully genre-defying) things?  Links to forums, websites, Twitter hashtags, or heck, even meetups would greatly help.  I've attempted to Google this for a while, but it's proving to be unhelpful.  Thanks in advance!

Edit: As temp mentioned below, perhaps I have an image problem here.  "Experimental" may not be fitting for the games I have created so far.  Is there a different tagline I should use that better fits with what I previously made?
« Last Edit: October 04, 2014, 11:41:42 AM by Omiya Games » Logged

rj
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« Reply #1 on: October 03, 2014, 11:18:06 PM »

devlog here

twit

screenshot saturday

be very not afraid of social media

people will find you eventually
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temp_56778
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« Reply #2 on: October 04, 2014, 12:46:47 AM »

They don't look very experimental.

Shrug
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Omiya Games
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« Reply #3 on: October 04, 2014, 07:33:47 AM »

devlog here

twit

screenshot saturday

be very not afraid of social media

people will find you eventually

Hmm...Devlogging here is something I'm not doing!  I'll do my best on the other suggestions as well.  Thanks for the help!

They don't look very experimental.

Shrug

Actually, that's excellent feedback.  Perhaps I have an image problem here.  Is there a different tagline I should use that better fits with the games I have made already?  You can basically expect more of the same from me in the near future.
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hagbardgroup
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« Reply #4 on: October 13, 2014, 02:40:44 PM »

Hey, guys and gals.  I could use some marketing help.  As the common advice goes, it's easier to market and spread the word when you know what niche you're targeting at, and where to find them.  I'm finding the "where" to be a bit difficult.

As you can probably tell from my tagline to the left, I call myself an experimental developer.  Which is a broad term, so to clarify, I personally like experimenting with different ways of playing games (unusual control schemes, objectives, method of telling narrative, etc.).  I don't mind making fun games at all, and in fact, I frequently make games with absolutely no narrative to speak of.  Needless to say, that makes it difficult to categorize my focus into any specific game genre.

Where can I find some enthusiastic like-minded gamers who like to try these new, experimental (and hopefully genre-defying) things?  Links to forums, websites, Twitter hashtags, or heck, even meetups would greatly help.  I've attempted to Google this for a while, but it's proving to be unhelpful.  Thanks in advance!

Edit: As temp mentioned below, perhaps I have an image problem here.  "Experimental" may not be fitting for the games I have created so far.  Is there a different tagline I should use that better fits with what I previously made?

I was going to suggest the Experimental Gameplay Project, but it looks to have died last year.

Perhaps you could contact the 2D Boy people and ask if something similar is running? I remember that's how World of Goo got started back in the day. I played their prototype before the real game came out.

The closest alternative that I can think of is Ludum Dare. That's more about rapid development, though, than experimental games. The Something Awful forums run similar contests on their games forum, but I haven't kept up with that lately.

The contest format is the only one that I've really seen grow a proper audience for these types of games. As a player, it's fun to download a bunch of weird minigames in one go. It doesn't really make sense to hunt them down on a one-by-one basis. It's also easier for the press to write about when they're lumped together in a bigger event.

There's a bigger game jam community, but most of them have some kind of theme in addition to being experimental and time-limited.

I think the issue with a lot of the game james is that they tend to be more for the developer community than player communities. That's not a totally bad thing (especially, say, if you're trying to drum up contract work), but it does make it a little harder to sell directly to consumers. It might identify a concept that can be developed into a consumer product, but in general, normal gamers tend to have high expectations for stuff that isn't free.

Kongregate and other similar free sites are probably the best places to bring experimental games direct to consumers outside of the contest framework, though. This is particularly great if you like making games for kids, who prefer free games that they don't have to bug their parents for.
« Last Edit: October 13, 2014, 02:46:29 PM by hagbardgroup » Logged
Omiya Games
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« Reply #5 on: October 14, 2014, 02:49:02 PM »

I was going to suggest the Experimental Gameplay Project, but it looks to have died last year.

Perhaps you could contact the 2D Boy people and ask if something similar is running? I remember that's how World of Goo got started back in the day. I played their prototype before the real game came out.

The closest alternative that I can think of is Ludum Dare. That's more about rapid development, though, than experimental games. The Something Awful forums run similar contests on their games forum, but I haven't kept up with that lately.

The contest format is the only one that I've really seen grow a proper audience for these types of games. As a player, it's fun to download a bunch of weird minigames in one go. It doesn't really make sense to hunt them down on a one-by-one basis. It's also easier for the press to write about when they're lumped together in a bigger event.

There's a bigger game jam community, but most of them have some kind of theme in addition to being experimental and time-limited.

I think the issue with a lot of the game james is that they tend to be more for the developer community than player communities. That's not a totally bad thing (especially, say, if you're trying to drum up contract work), but it does make it a little harder to sell directly to consumers. It might identify a concept that can be developed into a consumer product, but in general, normal gamers tend to have high expectations for stuff that isn't free.

Kongregate and other similar free sites are probably the best places to bring experimental games direct to consumers outside of the contest framework, though. This is particularly great if you like making games for kids, who prefer free games that they don't have to bug their parents for.

Thanks for the excellent reply, hagbardgroup!  I've found that the niche most comfortable with playing my games were developers, so I do think this advice is very relevant.  Perhaps that's the best place to start.  Who knows?  Maybe some big-name developer might find my game and make the recommendation.

Shame with Experimental Gameplay Project being dead.  I knew Tower of Goo was born from that Jam (and World of Goo is frickin' awesome!), so I have visited it on and off, but I think it was dead by the time I looked at it.

If this helps anyone else who's also in the same situation I am in, I have found a few game jams to be useful in getting a game out towards the open crowd.  The two that comes immediately to mind are Ludum Dare and Global Game Jam.  For Ludum Dare, I had a mention on RockPaperShotgun for The Sentient Cube, while on Global Game Jam, Ichabot Crane got a mention on PCGamer.  As far as I can tell, these 2 game jams gets the most publicity.  I'll be trying Reddit's Bacon Game Jam this weekend, but I don't expect much spread from there.

I have tried releasing games on Kongregate with the Unity Webplayer, but I haven't had much success with it.  In comparison, when I released a few old games on Itch.io, within the first day, String Theory got a mention by WarpDoor.  And GameJolt consistently surprises me with their vibrant Let's Player community.
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hagbardgroup
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« Reply #6 on: October 15, 2014, 11:09:51 AM »

I have tried releasing games on Kongregate with the Unity Webplayer, but I haven't had much success with it.  In comparison, when I released a few old games on Itch.io, within the first day, String Theory got a mention by WarpDoor.  And GameJolt consistently surprises me with their vibrant Let's Player community.

Cool. I didn't actually know about GameJolt. What is their revenue share like?
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Omiya Games
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« Reply #7 on: October 19, 2014, 04:44:40 PM »

I have tried releasing games on Kongregate with the Unity Webplayer, but I haven't had much success with it.  In comparison, when I released a few old games on Itch.io, within the first day, String Theory got a mention by WarpDoor.  And GameJolt consistently surprises me with their vibrant Let's Player community.

Cool. I didn't actually know about GameJolt. What is their revenue share like?
If you make more than a dollar, you can deposit it directly to your PayPal account.  In regards to actual conversion, it's not much (to be expected from ad revenue), but it is currently the most popular avenue from all the avenues I've played around with.
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