This week’s topic is all about helping your potential audience to find your game. To get started, let’s reflect on how we find new games to play ourselves.
Think back to a favourite indie game. How did you first discover it? Was it through social media? If so, which platform or channel?
It's difficult to choose one indie game, but The Dreadful Whispers (2019), developed by Blackthornprod (see figure 1), stands out as a particular game I discovered through the developer's YouTube account. I have been a subscriber of Blackthornprod ever since I started my undergraduate degree. Noah provides excellent Unity tutorials that are often beginner friendly.
Figure 1: The Dreadful Whispers (2019)
I was interested in his upcoming game at the time (TDW) as I felt I could relate more to his work. I first came across The Dreadful Whispers when Noah advertised it himself during a Unity tutorial in 2019.
Source(s):
Do you find new games via the games press, YouTube, Twitch, old-fashioned word-of-mouth, or somewhere else?
In my experience, the easiest way to find out about a new game is if it's directly tied to a franchise you like (e.g. sequels or prequels). However, finding new indie games can be challenging. Word of mouth, bundles, deals, activity searching through particular genres and general popularity generally how I discover new titles to play. In addition, I find 'Let's Plays' and influencers often compelling.
Building Awareness of Your Game
The first lecture was on how to build awareness of your game by Iain Lobb. This lecture targets indies on a zero budget, in addition to developers who require a publisher or are willing to spend money on advertising. My notes are as follows:
It's no longer a case of "if you build it, they will come" for indie games.
There is a lot of competition, with the market often oversaturated with games.
Pre-launch marketing is very important.
Regarding Steam, more external promotion means more Steam promotion. Essentially, the more marketing, the better.
Sales Funnel (Awareness, Interest, Desire, and Action) by Elias St. Elmo Lewis.
Steam Wishlist's are good for getting your game on the front cover of the store page.
Email journalists when you are ready to offer a press release (which should include a press-kit).
Social media can be a great way to build awareness for your game (create images, concept art, gifs and videos).
Experiment with other platforms, but take notice of their formatting (TikTok, Reddit, Tumblr).
Content marketing (such as Blackthornprod and The Dreadful Whispers) takes a long time to develop.
Building your name and brand as a game developer can drastically help sell your game.
Create a Discord server so that it is easier to push content.
Paid promotions, but consider the return on investment.
Conferences and Expos can be a great place to show off your game!
Figure 2: Building Awareness of Your Game by Iain Lobb (Slide 4)
Figure 3: Building Awareness of Your Game by Iain Lobb (Slide 9)
Figure 4: Building Awareness of Your Game by Iain Lobb (Slide 25)
Building a Marketing Strategy
The second video this week was on building a marketing strategy by Chris Zukowski. He recommends creating a funnel based on your target audience and personal preference. In addition, Zukowski strongly advises including a call to action (be careful what site you promote a call to action because sites like Reddit will downvote you). Lastly, Zukowski encourages you to set up a mailing list with autoresponders. My notes are as follows:
Itch.io is good for community building.
Spy on competitors (game-stats.com, steamdb.info, socialblade.com, steamspy.com)
Figure 5: Selling Your Game Without Feeling Sleazy (2020)
Source(s):
GDC Talks & Other lectures
Unfortunately, due to time constraints and the length of the videos, I will be watching the other talks on my own time.
Challenge Activity - Marketing Plan
I cannot post the marketing plan as it is currently a work in progress. Therefore, I will upload it after the module has finished. Nathan kindly provided a link to a marketing plan template: https://www.rengenmarketing.com/blog/indie-game-marketing-plan/
Gun & Camera Updates (Unity)
Date: 30th October 2022
Figure 6: Camera Perspective (Unity 2021.3.10f1)
I have now adjusted the camera from orthographic to perspective so that the view does not appear so strict (see figure 6). The solution was not as easy as switching perspective modes because the player movement required the camera to be set in orthographic (thanks, Brackeys!). However, with some tinkering and added ray-casting, the player can rotate toward the mouse position when the cursor is ray-casting on layers tagged with the word 'ground'. The player can even hit elevated enemies. However, I have frozen the Y-axis on the bullet so that they travel on a single plane.
Figure 7: Gun Script (Unity 2021.3.10f1)
I implemented a weapon script (see figure 7) from one of my projects, 'FPS Sci-Fi'. This script is inspired by a YouTube tutorial called 'Shooting with Bullets + Custom Projectiles || Unity 3D Tutorial (#1) by Dave/Game Development. I plan to develop a drop and swap feature and integrate scriptable objects for multiple guns.
Comments