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[jackterror]

Hope you all find this useful and check out Albino Lullaby our horror adventure game w/ no jump scares or gore as you try to escape a psychological nightmare!  
If you have budget for a game trailer, pleas reach out to Cap And Cut, otherwise the class below also goes in depth on game trailer production.  
YouTube Link:








Learn how to market your indie game with little to no money, tips and tricks for getting press coverage and the best ways to engage with and create fans! Handout links below!!!

3 hour class with Jack Dalrymple from Cap And Cut http://capandcut.com and Albino Lullaby http://albinolullaby.com for Playcrafting Boston http://www.playcrafting.com, with presentation slides edited in.


Handouts

Presentation Slides: http://bit.ly/vgamemarketingslides
Film Production Handout: http://bit.ly/FlimProductionHandout
Game Marketing Checklist: http://bit.ly/IndieDevMarketingChecklist
Press Release Handout: http://bit.ly/PRhandout
Press Release Sample: http://bit.ly/PRsample


Class Description

Game industry veteran Jack Dalrymple gives an insider look at marketing video games, best practices for engaging through social media and tips and tricks on getting press coverage. With in-depth evaluation of how games are marketing at AAA companies and how to best market your Indie game with little to no money.

The class starts with the basics basic marketing principles, the difference between brand and marketing and leads into marketing specifically related to video games. Then with social media, you will learn how to best engage with fans and get fresh eyes on your game. With PR you will learn how put together a press kit, write a press release and the best approach trying to get editorial coverage. This is followed by an in-depth look at AAA practices and the difference between marketing in AAA and Indie. The class ends with a detailed look at the most important content for marketing your game, the trailer. Including tools that can be used to make your own trailers, the story arc, the trailer arc, the process, tips and tricks for making high quality with a limited budget and final delivery.

You can have the best video game, but without good marketing, it will be nearly impossible to find. There is a learning curve to marketing, PR and social media and the lessons don’t need to be learned through field testing, which can be detrimental to your games success.


YouTuber and Twitcher Lists Discussed in Class:

Good YouTuber List: http://videogamecaster.com
Amazing YouTuber List: http://youtubers.brightside-games.com
Amazing Twitcher List: http://tinybuild.com/twitch


About the Instructor

Jack Dalrymple is an industry veteran at producing trailers and marketing games, Cinematics Director at Bit Fry, Senior Vice President of Marketing at Ape Law, and owner of Cap and Cut a Boston based trailer house and creative design studio. As Lead Editor and Technical Director at WB Games’ Turbine Studio from 2004 to 2014, he developed and edited more than $10 million in marketing trailers and ingame cutscenes with over 9 million views online and built and managed one of the first live HD game capture cinematics studios in the world.

Jack mentors at MassDiGi, where he speaks and gives students direction and feedback on their game trailers. He dedicates his time as Boston City Manager for Playcrafting’s mission of empowering the game development community through education, networking, and collaboration. His all encompassing approach to design, presentation and consistency across brand is leading the marketing initiative to launch Ape Law’s first-person horror adventure game, Albino Lullaby. With Cap and Cut, Jack maintains the highest quality mobile capture rig in the Greater Boston Area and is available for game capture and game trailer production for indie and AAA studios across the region.

#gamedev #indiedev #indiegamedev #videogames #marketing

[Mark Mayers]

I watched most of this yesterday, actually; a lot of good advice.

[WildFactor]

Awesome video!

[jackterror]

Thank you both! Happy you got some good stuff out of it =D

[jeremiah]

Oh my! This was fricking amazing. This is a pretty good advertisement for your services. If I wasn't a hobbyist, I'd be all over it but it's like you said "I'd make the trailer myself!"

Right off the bat, the thing that got me was the honest perspective that some of these techniques are a pain in the ass. Every article on marketing is like "do A-Z everyday and it's so easy and you're an idiot if you don't". When in reality, you go on and try to make one post on reddit (exactly what everyone tells you to do) and you're immediately at risk for getting banned unless you already live in those individual communities. Same for doing cold emails and getting radio silence. But it's good to hear how you slowly climbed out of obscurity.

Only part that seemed off, if I'm understanding correctly, is leaving characters in Twitter. I think you can do replies using all the characters you want and you can even comment on retweets now.

Oh, and your iOS story is absolute nuts. Good stuff!

[jackterror]

Only part that seemed off, if I'm understanding correctly, is leaving characters in Twitter. I think you can do replies using all the characters you want and you can even comment on retweets now.

Thank you Jeremiah! Also, you are 100% right, you do have all your characters for replies now!!! I think that change was slowly rolled out and just finished up last week. Said like a lying marketer =P but I actually think that is true.

The other part that was a little off is the hashtags to use. Since the class I have done a daily check on them and they fluctuate so much it is crazy!
I now constantly checking and switch up which I use, depending on what the potential views are, unless I can fit including them all.
Currently #indiegamedev is barely on the chart, but once or twice a week it smokes the others. (no idea why)
I suggest checking them when posting important posts, if you can only fit one of them.
https://ritetag.com/best-hashtags-for/indiedev
https://ritetag.com/best-hashtags-for/gamedev
https://ritetag.com/best-hashtags-for/indiegamedev

Thanks again man! Happy you got so much out of it =DDD

[UnSeenProoF]

  Hey Jack whats up Bro great Post im Glad  u invited me to check it out. u have so much valuable insight in this man way to go. i love what you are doing for our future Devs they better eat   this up! Cheers  My Friend . We will be in touch soon.

[xier]

Great content, thanks so much for this really appreciate your work!!

[jackterror]

Thank you xier and UnSeenProoF.
No prob at all... happy to help

[del]

This was amazing! Thanks so much for posting!

[jackterror]

This was amazing! Thanks so much for posting!

Happy to help!
=DDD

[mirrorfish]

Just want to say that I've been watching this and it rocks. Full of great, specific, actionable advice as well as some more experiential detail stuff that was good for me to here.

One of my favorite details: after sending hundreds of emails to press with limited success and feeling disheartened and de-motivated a quick email to a freelance writer resulted in a Rock Paper Shotgun article that started a press snowball, bringing many other outlets on board.

This kind of stuff is a great motivational reminder to just keep chipping away at it, throwing spaghetti at the wall and giving yourself more chances for something to hit and stick.

Thanks very much Jack for doing this, it was just what I needed right now. Best of luck with your project!

[jackterror]

Erik Nordeus's [ https://twitter.com/eriknordeus ] takeaways on the class, from his blog post [ http://blog.habrador.com/2015/06/video-marketing-for-indies-pr-social.html ]

Key points

• He sent out around 1500 requests for people to cover the game Albino Lullaby on YouTube (and other services like Twitch), in articles (including bloggers), or through podcasts. In general, it was the smaller YouTube accounts that responded to the requests. He didn't get any response at all when sending requests for people to write articles about the game. At one point, he even gave up trying. But he continued to send requests to around 4 big (popular) people each week, and in the end 1 big people wrote an article about the game. Then other big people followed because they saw that article and were now also more interested in writing articles than before. But he argued that you will need both popular accounts and less popular accounts, because the popular accounts will Google the game and find articles and videos by the less popular accounts. If they hadn't found those articles, they would have ignored the game.
  
  
• You should know what the rules are, but also be ready to break them.
  
  
• Getting noticed is really hard.
  
  
• You will need a press kit. It should include:
  1. Description: Make sure you can explain your game in 1 sentence, 1 paragraph, and 1 article (each should describe the entire game). Make sure you test it on real people and notices how they react
  2. Press Releases: Anything that is significant can become a press release. Most people who write articles will copy-and-paste the press release, so write a good press release, but most will not care about press releases - they want to play the game itself
  3. Trailer
  4. Screenshots
  5. Demo
  6. Links
  
  
• Use a spreadsheet to keep track of the requests.
  
  
• Interact with popular accounts on Twitter, so the popular accounts will recognize you when you reach out to them. But don't spam, because he was kicked out from Reddit for spamming.
  
  
• Above everything, you have to make an amazing game.
  
  
• Be open with what you do, have a blog and stream the development process (some stream their entire day). People love to read behind-the-scenes and stories about the little guy vs the evil big company.
  
  
• Ask yourself: What can I do to make it easier for someone to write an article about my game?
  
  
• Marketing of the game begins before the development begins. Start a Twitter account and a blog today and start getting recognized.
  
  
• When on Twitter, use the hashtags #indiegamedev, #videogame and use the website RiteTag to find other hashtags that you might use.
  
  
• Be 100 percent data driven - opinions don't matter!
  
  
• 99 percent of the players will not play your game, but they will watch your trailer, so make sure the quality of the trailer is 100 percent.

[BC92]

Truly Outstanding

 This video delivers insightful details, brilliant key points, and efficient case methods.
 If you are going to attempt to market an indie game, this is a must watch !

[jackterror]

Truly Outstanding

 This video delivers insightful details, brilliant key points, and efficient case methods.
 If you are going to attempt to market an indie game, this is a must watch !

Thank you BC92. super appreciate you saying so 

[RinseWashrepeat]

Wow - 2 hours and 45 minutes. Think you covered everything!

Thanks for this. 

[jackterror]

Wow - 2 hours and 45 minutes. Think you covered everything!

Thanks for this. 

Haahahahhaahahah
That is a 2 bag o popcorn movie =P
Thank you for well wishes!!!

[MBSGames]

The game is looking really solid.  Keep up the great work.  Definitely intrigued by a horror game that does not rely on jump scares and gore.  I also realized I am now scared of giant white thumb creatures.  Thanks 

[jackterror]

The game is looking really solid.  Keep up the great work.  Definitely intrigued by a horror game that does not rely on jump scares and gore.  I also realized I am now scared of giant white thumb creatures.  Thanks 

Super appreciate that!!! Yeah, it is a talented team of guys and girls.
If you want to play, here is a demo: http://albinolullaby.com/AlbinoLullabyDemo.zip
Share it with anyone you'd like 
Full game is launching in late August!!!

So others know what we are talking about:

[DjeeGames]

Just wanted to say thanks for the video, very thorough and informative. Very refreshing to have good info that is non-biased. (we are talking about marketing here). I've mentioned the video on my blog, people agree that it's fantastic!