[DAY 268]

DAY 268 - January 11, 2012

What were their duties on it?

CEDE, do more of these

Okay! I just need the next candidate. So far I did that one and one for Piq.

The latest Hessle Audio podcast from Rinse.fm

http://podcast.dgen.net/rinsefm/podcast/HessleAudio050112.mp3

Another mockup, changed the bg pink to the exact complement of moonmans green, decreased contrast of bg, added water, changed some other colours ... all just experimenting at this stage ...

Holy. Shit. 

Yeah super bizarre. I randomly found that on a post-it note on my wall. I figured I would take a picture! 

Send me a PM sometime if you want to chat! I tend to cover the art and design side of things.

@thatshelby

So its a matter of working around a bug? Or you need to learn more about something before continuing?

Have you pinned that to your wall? I always put my todos up. Having them stare you in the face is a great motivator.

A lot of scrambling. I have a few ideas which make sense on paper, but the prototypes aren't coming out as well. Still looking for a golden goose.

Yeah I have about 3 - 4 prototypes in various stages of experimentation right now. One of which I am toying with starting a Devlog for.

And outside of those I have 2 'real' projects that are in the writing planning stages. But its still not really like work work yet.

I think what happens is you get to the last 10% of a project (that is 90% of the work) and you are working constantly and seeing real progress and then you finish and feel kind of lost.

I learned that I feel depressed/useless when I'm not making a game.

It's absolutely normal for creative people like yourself to feel depressed when they're not outputting stuff.

Yeah that post project phase. It can feel hard to shake. Im just zoning out and then 'oh yeah gotta stay busy'

This looks cool. I like that underwater mock up image.

Tonight I am going through old records and ripping them to MP3. I am in the Calibre section right now. Damn he had so many goods tunes.

I am reading 1Q84 as slow as possible. I have no idea when we will see the next Murakami books. Probably 5 years. I need to savor this one since I usually finish a book in a few days!

The best marketing tip I ever got went along these lines:

As developers we're always concerned with adding features to our games. We place a lot of value on our features and so we tend to want to tell players about our features thinking that they will see the value in those features. This is wrong. Players want benefits and experiences. As a developer you place a lot of value in the fact that you have 100 levels, as a player you don't really care how many levels they are but you do value the experience of a large game world. Don't sell your game on the fact that you have a bunch of levels, sell your game on the fact that it's a large and rich game world (for example!).

Likewise it's a feature that you have an epic sword in this game. The benefit that is relevant to players here is that they can feel powerful as they destroy heaps of enemies.

tl;dr:
Don't sell features, sell benefits and experiences.

Don't spam forums telling people about all your features, interest your audience by showing off the benefits they will get from playing your game.

I think I see what you are saying. Its like having two ways to write about one thing and one says it better than the other.

From your perspective could you give two examples (right and wrong) about how you would tell a potential player about having 100 levels?

You basically need to realize that as soon as you finish the game, marketing the game becomes your day job.

I would suggest for starters outlining and scheduling your marketing plan day by day. You are starting completely from scratch so being organized and having a road map will be a huge help.

Here are some basic things you should cover or try out:

• Write a great press release, something that says the most in the fewest words possible.
• Make a trailer video for your game, and before doing so look up some tips online for the best formula for creating a trailer.
• Make sure that the video is posted to the right places like youtube, vimeo, gametrailers (user uploads), etc.
• Lock in your social networking urls (Facebook and twitter)
• Set up a basic website - either dedicated or a section of your game studio
• Set up a hosted press zip. Make it easy for people to download a package for your app that has written details, screen shots, icons and anything else that will make it even easier for people to write about you or talk about you.
• Figure out what areas you can target - gaming sites, pixel art sites, communities, reviewers, etc. Any place that could realistically feature your game.
• Set up a basic newsletter. Make it easier for people to sign up so they can stay up to date about your game. It will be slow going, but over time you can develop your own list organically if you are making the right stuff and promoting it a positive way.
• Go to Barnes & Noble or your local book store. Grab some coffee and a stack of magazines and start compiling contacts
• The same as above, but online. Browse around and collect as many contacts for sites and reviewers who would realistically talk about your game.

Once you have all of these materials set up then you can start contacting people. Some you may want to write personal emails for. Others could be part of a newsletter blast. But be conscious of writing messages people will WANT to actually read and do not spam people. Keep in mind that most people get loads of emails and can't always get back to every one. Contacting them every 5 minutes won't help much.

Also have a plan for how they can review your game. Promo codes, demo, gifted whatever method you have available.

A lot of this may amount to common sense, so its really just the tedious busy work at the end. Be willing to do that tedious work and cover all the ground you can. Its often said that the time spent building the game should be equal to the time spent marketing it. They are both mutually important for a game to be successful.

cede you have my official approval 

I think this is the closest representation for a bow on here.

Siriusmo - Idiologie

dedicated to sinclair <3

Ah! I was on a Siriusmo kick earlier in the week! I mean seriously why is he not a lot bigger?? So much good music.