The Tough Challenge of Marketing Indie Games
There is a good article on GamesBrief looking at the challenge of telling people about your indie game. As an indie developer, I can totally relate to the problems and issues it raises. Making the game is just part of the journey:
There are increasingly many developers launching games into the indie space. The rise of free-to-access marketplaces with limited gatekeeping – the iOS and Android app stores, the web and portals such as Kongregate and Facebook – mean that it’s never been easier to release a game. In fact, without this I probably wouldn’t have been able to operate as a one-man studio at all.
Unfortunately, this also means that if players come into the marketplace browsing for new games, they’re increasingly less likely to stumble across your work. You’re going to be less visible to the games press for the exact same reason: if you’re sending out promo codes and press releases to promote you’re game, you can be sure there’ll be plenty more developers doing the exact same.
It offers a few bits of good advice, but in general there is no magic bullet for marketing. It’s just hard work and you need to start as early as possible and not stop (as we have been doing!)
The Future of Motion Control
There is a good article on GamesIndustry.biz about motion control. Here’s a quote:
As joypads became ever more involved and complex, Nintendo pared its own controller back, reducing the principle form of interface to a remote – and everyone knows how to use a remote, right? The add-on nunchuck controller added the requisite analogue controller required to make core games feasible and the rest, as they say, is history. Wii succeeded because it was immediate, original, enjoyable – and everyone could understand it and join in. Pack-in title Wii Sports fails as a comprehensive game with lots of depth, but as a sampler for motion control, it is a work of genius.
I agree with the jist of the article. The wii control was a major game-changer (lol) in terms of opening up gaming. Imagine 2 scenarios of showing a newbie how to play a golf game. With a controller it might go something like, “Press X to start the aim bar then X again to stop it once it hits the center, then press X to start the power bar and X once it reaches the red zone.” For a wii game, “Just swing the controller like a golf club.” Those of us who’ve been gaming a long time often forget there is a body-language and culture to playing that we’ve acquired over the years. For people who are new to games, it can be a lot to try and pick-up. Motion control games short-cut that process.
Cthulhu Thursday: H.P.Podcraft, the Literary Podcast
One of my favourite podcasts is the great hppodcraft.com, its a fun show where the 2 hosts Chris Lackey & Chad Fifer (with guest readers and commentators) read from and talk about H.P.Lovecraft’s works. They’ve been working their way through his works in the order he wrote them and are almost at the end. Which leaves a huge legacy of over 100 shows you can work back though – and I recommend you do!
I’ve written a post about the show for the Red Wasp Design site and how it relates to the subject matter of Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land…
- Herbert West: Reanimator (Part 1 & Part 2) – The show also features Stuart Gordon, the director of the great 80s film version of the story.
- Call of Cthulhu – The title of the game, the RPG and what many consider (including me) to be Lovecraft’s finest work. The HP Podcraft version is in 3 parts; Part 1, Part 2 &Part 3.
Please do check out hppodcraft.com!
Game of Phones: Nokia’s Burning Platform
It’s been a year since the boss of Nokia issued a now famous memo to staff describing their position as being on a ‘burning platform’ and the need to act now. The action he took was to drop Nokia’s own platforms (Symbian & MeeGo) and to announce an alliance with Microsoft, putting Nokia’s manufacturing capacity behind Windows Phone 7…
The response was varied from those saying it was a good thing, to those saying it was a sign of lack of direction to those saying it was not a good thing. My feeling? A year is not yet a long enough time to see how the cards will fall…
Cthulhu Thursday: Kick Back with a Packet of Dunwich Horrors…
Back in Lovecraft’s time everybody smoked, heck even doctors where used to advertise ’em as some kind of beneficial thing. …
Though I don’t belive that Lovecraft himself smoked. However if he did I have no doubt that the brand he would choose would be the sublime Dunwich Horrors (don’t confuse with Dunhill!) which are just the thing to enjoy as the stars become right…
There is a great PDF here of the packet, which you can print out and make your own! (Great prop for games of Call of Cthulhu.) However remember kids, smoking isn’t cool…
image from mindlessones.com
Ok? Good.
(Cthulhu Thursday is a dose of Mythos to brighten darken your week. More on the idea can be found here and a list of posts thus far, here. Also for more Cthulhu news, sign up to the cthulhuHQ twitter feed. Enjoy!)
Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land Spawns onto an Unsuspecting World
Along with my colleagues at Red Wasp Design, we’ve spent about 1 year of work time in total (probably a bit more…) working on the game, Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land. If you’re new to the game and the concept, it’s a paper-RPG game based on the novella ‘Call of Cthulhu‘ by cult American horror writer H.P. Lovecraft. We’ve reworked the ideas, combined with a mixture of turn-based strategy and RPG gaming elements and released it onto a unsuspecting world…
At this point comes the scary bit. While you do show works-in-progress to people as you go along, friends and family are unlikely to tell you its a bit rubbish and it is hard to find objective outsiders whom you could ask. You’re also a bit trepidatious about sharing it because what if people hate it? What if they start suggesting stuff you can’t change? Easier for a large developer, but for a smaller one it’s very hard. So anyway the game came out and…
“The best strategy game on the iPad yet.” DigitallyDownloaded.net
“Joyously thoughtful…” PC Advisor
“Is a must have…” ipadblogs.nl
“What this boils down to is isometric turn-based combat at its finest…be sure to visit The Wasted Land as soon as possible.” mobot.net
“I’ve been playing this for the past couple of days and it is brill… Lovecraft would be proud.” liveforfilms.com
So far it’s been doing really well. It did go to No.1 in the UK RPG chart (the chart I’ve looking at waaaaay too much), which was a huge buzz!
App Store UK RPG Games (30th Jan 2012)
Then we got hit with some bugs from the v1.1 update, which was lots of development and testing to fix and talking to players to keep them in the loop. It has been hard work and stressful, but we all pulled together as a team and go on with it! (And v1.2 is now out! yay!) And so this tweet (we RTed) made my day…
https://twitter.com/#!/redwaspdesign/status/166123227419119616
Global Games Jam Bristol – The Aftermath
So the Global Games Jam has come and gone 😦 At the beginning of a jam, the theme for the games made over the weekend is sprung on the participants. For Global Games Jam the theme was Ouroboros. (I notice with interest that there is a rash of edits to the Wikipedia page about this around the 27th January when the theme was revealed.) In Bristol we had a packed studio and produced a wide range of games that came at the theme from different angles. The standard was high and the atmosphere fun, as you can see from this video about the event (by Elizabeth Sardari-Kermani):
I was in Team Swimwear and we did a reverse-take on the traditional platform game. In our version ‘Death Wish Zero‘ the game character is sick of the cycle of death and re-birth it is in, and wants out!
The game is about a character who wants to die. Trapped in life, and trapped in an existence it does not wish for it endless tries to die, only to be reborn in a new level. It’s hope is that if it can die fast and often enough, it will die for ever… Can you break the cycle of death and rebirth? The game is a reverse of the traditional platformer, where normally you aim to stay alive and collect health power-ups. Here you try to die and avoid them. The game is a side scrolling platform game where the player controls a character with movement and other functions. They have a health bar that they must get to zero before the time ends.
Here is the opening intro/instructions screen from the game:
The event was a huge success and we had a great mix of people and skills involved. As well as the theme, there was a second challenge – the Accessibility Challenge – to make games for a wider audience. The Guardian wrote a bit about this part of the jam:
This year, however, entrants are being invitied to consider meeting another requirement: accessibility to gamers with disabilities. “It was all kicked off by Tara Voelker, the chair of the IGDA’s accessibility group, as part of our ongoing efforts to raise developer awareness,” says Ian Hamilton, a veteran designer and accessibility consultant, overseeing the implementation of the Global Game Jam’s accessibility strand in the UK. “The reason for doing it via GGJ is that a competition is a good way to reward people for taking an active role, while letting everyone else there learn something about accessibility.”
In Bristol the winner of this challenge was the amazing Super Space Snake (in Space) and they deserve a special mention for hitting loads of the Accessibility criteria and making an amazing game. I urge you all to play it!
Some other links I’d also strongly recommend:
Some photos from the day…
Games Jammers in Bristol get to work. (photo by Jon Cooper)
Showing our effort, "Death Wish Zero" (photo by Jon Cooper)
The jammers doing a show-n-tell at the end (photo by Jon Cooper)
European Mobile Stats
The mobile games market in the EU
(Source: Jeremy Copp, Commscore)
- Over 40% of the total EU5 audience now use mobile media.
- Smartphone ownership has now reached 94 million – that’s equal to 40% of the population
- 59% of phone devices sold are smart phones, and that number is growing
- Android’s market share has increased from 8% in September 2010 to 26.2%, while iPhone ownership has stayed at around 20%
- Meanwhile, RIM’s share of the smartphone market plummeted between September 2010 and September 2011, from 81.8% to 33.9%
- Smartphone owners are 237% more likely to use mobile media, though Microsoft and Symbian OS users are less likely to do so.
- The most installed app type is arcade games, and the most purchased are card and casino games.
- 25% of mobile phone users (62 million consumers) have played a mobile game in the past month. 13 million play every day. Most games played are pre-loaded onto the handset. Browser game play is in the minority, but still accounts for 4 million players.
- 60% added two games in a month. The heavy users downloading 5 or more made up 12%.
- Chat and gifting are not popular ways to engage socially in a game compared to leaderboards, invites and multiplayer modes.
- 15% of players have made an IAP in their entire history of app use. 42% of the IAP sold are virtual goods. Does 15% seem low to you? Read about power laws and learn why you will still make money.
Music Industry Bails Out Bricks’n’Mortar Record Stores
This story caught my eye. UK record and other stuff chain HMV is struggling. The collapse in the physical music and film sales has it it hard over the years and it looked like it was all over. However it looks like the major music companies need HMV to survive and they are willing to help it out…
The retailer plans to hand 2.5% of its equity to major suppliers in the form of warrants. Other terms of the alliance are to remain confidential but they are believed to formalise a switch of risks to suppliers at the store chain.
As the last remaining nationwide music and DVD specialist, a collapse of HMV could be more financially damaging for film companies and record labels than for the group’s shareholders. Shares in HMV, which lost 90% of their value last year, doubled by Friday lunchtime to 4.75p.
Global Games Jam Bristol Gets Going! (an update)
Bristol’s part of the Global Games Jam has got going and it’s looking good so far. We’ve had a huge turnout for the event and I was a bit worried we’d not all find space to work in the PM Studio, but thankfully we’ve just about all squeezed in. We’ve got the theme: Ouroboros and development has started. For my part, I’m in a great team along with Dan from Thought Den and we’re working on a game that subverts the traditional platform game: Death Wish Zero. The idea is that rather than trying to complete a level, you are trying to die. You control a video game character trapped in game world and tired of the routine of living and dying. It wants out and so the aim of each level is to lose a life by dying before the time is up. We’re just at the beginning stages but our tech people have found a great open source 2D level tool called OGMO and there is a help guide here. So using that, here is my first stab at a level using OGMO…
OGMO Level for game in Global games Jam
A Great Becoming... 
