All this info is not from me btw – this is all advice gather from attending sessions at Quo Vadis and also from conversations with people who’ve been there, done that and got the t-shirt (or at least are having the t-shirt printed as tier gifts…)
Preparation
- Originality is key. Don’t do what others are doing, seek your own clear blue waters.
- Look at people who’ve done well in this area, not to copy them but to see how they make it work for their ideas. Amanda Palmer is a great example of this. In general, musicians have been doing this longer to see what works for them.
- The video is absolutely, totally key. For games there is now a push for demos too, but it is still the video that makes it happen. Great examples of this include Project Clang and Broken Sword. Don’t make it more than 2 minutes, be creative, let the emotions show – convey to people why this project matters. Music is also key, so get it right!
- Prep Time – The more you’re asking, the more time it takes to prepare. In general expect to put at least 2 months into prep for your pitch. This needs to include getting all the materials and press ready and lots more. While some assets may need to be released in response to questions and comments, prepare as much as you can (art, demos, videos) before as you can. The better the assets, the better the response.
- Some genres of game work well and others not so. Casual games have not done well whereas RPG, strategy and adventure have done well. So far the original, hardcore gamer and ‘anti-app store’ vibe has been what’s been working. However just because it did (or didn’t) work before does not mean it might not work now…
- Do share the biographies of key people; funders want to know who they are giving money too.
- Do create interesting tiers of gifts. They help to define the creativity of the project as a whole. Physical goods are popular but so are quirky things. The high-end tiers really need to be a talking-point; something really cool. These can also help to create coverage.
- While being original helps – having a name also helps. If you can get support from somebody with a rep and/or get an IP that people know and love, that can make a huuuuge difference to how the campaign will be received and promoted.
- Don’t do the campaign during Mid January, Mid July, End August or when major games events are on GDC, E3, Gamescom etc. You need the press to cover it and they won’t if they are away.
‘Cthulhu Wars’ Kickstarter Art
The Process
- Don’t go for 60 day campaigns. Most of the money is raised during the first few and last few days. The middle matters much less and all the longer campaigns do is sap your energy.
- The first few days are crucial. Very few campaigns do poorly here and recover. Make them count!
- Don’t do Steam Greenlight before; do it after when you can lever your fan community to help.
- Expect to be full-time for the duration of the campaign. You need to have people answering comments, responding to questions and all that, 24 hours a day. Just because you’ve gone to bed, does not mean the community has – if you can’t organise enough people to be online for the duration then hire community managers who can.
- You can keep selling after the event; some projects are making 15%-30% of the total income after the deadline selling tier-related goods.
- Ideal currency is the dollar; currently all the major projects that have succeeded have done it via a US facing approach.
Promotion
- It goes without saying that you need to be all over Facebook and Twitter – with the latter piggybacking of popular hashtags can help as well as creating your own. Repost on popular Facebook communities, hassle famous people to RT you and all that.
- Keep your page active for the duration – be on it with updates, stretch goal, new art and videos. It needs to look like a buzzing thing that people want to be part of. Aim for one press release per week and also weekly asset drops on the site linked to these. Do relaunches around 10 days in and also last 2 days, as it helps keep the momentum.
- Use your quirky high-end tiers to promote the project; they are great news-hooks.
- When you are ready to announce, go to the community first and the press second. Get the buzz going first.
- Don’t make the press about ‘We’re doing a Kickstarter’ as everyone is – make it about an amazing new concept or project.
- If there are opportunities to talk in person; do it. If you can get on the road and tour some key places to speak and promote it; do so!
The Demons of Discoverability
I’ve written before about the problem of getting seen online. It’s a major issue and every success story such as Clash of Clans pulling in $1 million per day:
On December 21, it hit a new high: Supercell’s two games are now bringing in more revenue than all of EA’s 969 games combined, according to App Annie.
(Wow!) For for each of those stories here are many, many times more stories of gloom among developers. Take this comment I saw posted on LinkedIn on a gamedev forum:
I developed an Indie game with XNA for Windows Phone, I have done a lot of code with this technology and I consider that my game is really good, even it’s not very original.
I published my game on windows phone market to the lowest price. Almost two months later I got only 2 sells.
After a lot of work, to me, this is the end of my indies projects.
Its a shame to hear that, I know what it is like to pour all your life and time into a project. There is an article on Games Brief that puts some new numbers to that:
As the marketplace for mobile and casual games has become larger and ever more crowded, it has become increasingly difficult for publishers and developers to get their games noticed and overcome a growing discovery problem. For just the month of March 2013, Xylogic counted almost 31,000 new iPhone apps and over 22,000 new Android apps in the US app stores alone. (Of these new apps, 18% and 22%, respectively, were games).
With 1.5M mobile apps already available in the US, and the number of game app downloads projected to grow from 21 billion in 2012 to 64.1 billion in 2017 (Juniper Research), it’s no secret or surprise that the sheer volume of different games that makes it hard to attract attention from consumers.
So that means that in March 2013 there were 1000 apps per day released. Of those 180 were games. On Android 709 apps per day released of which 155 were games. Over the two platforms 335 games were released. So what is the fate of these games? Most are destined to die in penury: From these stats, 251 will make less than $3000. From these stats 221 will not see a single download.
It’s a tough market and it’s going to get worse. One of the big issues in addition to this is that it’s not like quality alone is what separates the games that makes some money from those that don’t. I’m betting that plenty of the 200-plus un-downloaded apps are good games, some will even be great ones.
It’s unfortunate that producing a good game, or even a great one, is no longer enough to stand out from the crowd and be discovered by enough prospective users. Even some critically-acclaimed games go largely unnoticed by consumers – a disappointment to many in an industry that prides itself on innovation and creativity, and where the hope is that the commercial success of a game ought to correlate somewhat closely with its quality. In short, the combination of the vast number of releases and the rising cost of marketing has turned discovery into mobile gaming’s thorniest problem.
Getting players to see your game really is a major challenge, certainly one I spend a lot of time dwelling on…
State of Play Radio 4 Documentary
I was featured in a recent Radio 4 Documentary, State of Play. This was about how games can use used to try and achieve social change. If you want to have a listen, the documentary is here.
We talked about a couple of games as part of this doc. One was Endgame:Syria…
…and the other was the newly released NarcoGuerra:
New York! New York! Speaking at Games for Change
Very, very excited to say that @DebbieCo and I from Auroch Digital are off to New York next month for Games for Change. We’ve been invited to take part in a panel with a fascinating bunch on people:
THE REJECTED: CENSORSHIP OF SOCIAL IMPACT GAMES
PARTICIPANTS: Ian Bogost, PHD, Alex Jansen, Clay Ewing, Tomas Rawlings
Games that tackle controversial issues have a giant chip on their shoulder: censorship. Whether a game is banned by a distributor or pulled by a sponsor, the effects can be chilling. This panel will discuss games that broached topics deemed unacceptable for consumption with a mixture of first hand accounts and perspectives on using games as means of persuasion.
I especially like the title ‘The Rejected‘ as it makes us all sound part of some cool western from the 1960s or a new-wave punk band.
But also – it’s NEW YORK! I’ve never been, but it’s one of those iconic places we know so well from our consumption of media…
Talking and Playing Endgame Syria
I was invited by a student looking at serious games to be interviewed while he played though Endgame:Syria – I thought this was a really good idea of how to explore the game, so was happy to take part. Here’s the result of that, though because I was on Skype I do sound a bit like I’m a Cylon for a lot of the interview…
Gamify BioDundee
I’m going to be speaking at BioDundee, talking about Gamify Your PhD and games and science in general.
Gamify Your PhD Expereince – Newton Game
I’m doing the lunchtime talk at the PM Studio in Bristol – it’s 1pm on 17th and is free, so why not join me?
Endgame: Syria
Friday, 17 May 2013 1:00pm - 2:00pm
Tomas Rawlings, Creative Director of Auroch Digital and the GameTheNews.net project, will be joining us to talk about his company’s recent dealings with Apple, who controversially rejected their real time strategy game, Endgame Syria, an unflinching interactive exploration of events unfolding in Syria today. The game and Apple’s refusal to publish it in the app store made global headlines, from the BBC to Wired, The Guardian to Russia Today, provoking a worldwide debate about the ethics involved in using games as a way to call attention to and talk about real world issues.
GameTheNews.net has to date released Endgame:Syria on PC, Mac and Android but not on the App Store due to Apple’s apparent restrictions on allowable content in games. Tomas will tell us what really happened, what GameTheNews.net did in response and what the issues are when large platform holders have the final say about what content goes on their media channels.
