Creating and releasing
games has never been so interesting or so scary. It’s well
documented now that Steam has around 200 new releases per week.
Mobile has been equally busy for some time now and console is also
seeing more developers release on Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft’s
platforms. Because of increased competition, planning for the launch
of your game is as essential as, well, making the game itself!
We’ve recently
announced a new title, Mars
Horizon (along with a podcast
about it) and we’re moving from that announcement to
the more detailed planning for the game’s launch. This links to
what I’m going to be talking about at Develop this year - surviving
the Steampocalypse!
So I thought this is a
good opportunity to share some of the research we’ve been doing
around planning our launches and some of what we’ve learned
(sometimes the hard way!)
Announce Early (But
Plan Ahead) - As an indie you’re always up-against it in terms
of resources. You don’t want to announce the game until you are
ready, but also you don’t want to launch without any lead-in. My
feeling now is that lead-in is key. So having time between the
announcement and the launch to gather interest in your title is
vital: you can use that time to court influencers, get wishlisted on
Steam, and build a fan community. However, if that gap is too long,
then you can’t sustain interest in the fallow periods and you then
have to put more energy to re-engage people.
An example of ours
where we did this was Dark
Future: Blood Red States, which we announced - with a
release date of 2015! - over three years ago, and it’s still not in
the hands of players. It will absolutely be worth the wait, but to
avoid making this mistake yourself, make sure you’re rock solid in
your release window, and do think about whether you can sustain
interest in your title between announcement and release.
Better
late than never - it’s Dark Future!
Pick a Good Date -
This is an eternal question - when should you launch? Okay, so you’re
never going to avoid clashing with multiple games, but to mitigate
this to some extent, you can think about the following: avoid
clashing with any major events or expos (use this
list to check), and note the couple of days either
side too. You don’t want to announce a game two days before a big
event as all the journos will be busy traveling there and won’t
have time to cover your game. Then check announced upcoming releases
(try here,
here,
here
and here),checking
for any titles in the same genre and platform as your project, and
avoid them..
Also avoid any AAA
title release dates if you can. That’s not to say you’re
necessarily competing with those AAA titles, but they can cast a long
shadow and will take up journalist and influencer time and attention.
Get Visual - For
the actual release, and in the run up, people want to see visuals of
gameplay!
Animated Gifs, short
videos, screenshots - that sort of thing. For example I remember this
gif
from Tabletop Simulator going viral a few years back and these
visuals that get across the tone or core ideas of your work really
are the things that do best online. If you’re lucky one of them
will go viral and then you’re rising to the top of many people’s
attention. This is doubly true on social media: Facebook and Twitter
data shows time and time again that videos and images work best. So
put the time in and make them look great!
Trailer, Trailer,
Trailer - I’m far from the first person to point to this. I’ve
heard lots of other developers note how key it is.
As well as videos and
images, you need - need - to have a strong trailer.
Out of all the
marketing assess you create, this is probably the key one. So do plan
time and effort into it and if you can’t do it then budget for
someone who can. For example look
over our videos and you’ll see the dramatic
difference in views, from the smaller bits of gameplay or
behind-the-scenes videos getting comparatively few views, to the more
important trailers which command many more views. Apply the same
creativity into planning your trailer as you do your game and test it
out with a small audience before you launch it worldwide to make sure
it hits all the right notes.
Repeat, Repeat,
Repeat - It’s very unlikely that you’ll have that one big
announcement and people will bookmark it and come back on launch day
and buy your game. One of the things with so many games being
launched is that the space is busy and audience mindshare is limited.
You’re either going to be able to be loud (if you’ve got enough
clout, like a Rockstar announcement of Red Dead Redemption 2, for
example) or you’re going to need to repeat your messaging. This
means that players need to be reminded of the message of your game
and its launch until you are sick of saying it. In that way you keep
it in their mind and that will hopefully translate into a paying
customer.
Best of luck with your
launch (oh and please don't schedule it on any of or launch dates -
k?)
Dr. Tomas Rawlings is
Design Director at Auroch
Digital, so he feels your pain about running your own
thing. He is an award-winning games designer who has both created
original titles and worked with well-loved IP such as Games
Workshop’s Chainsaw Warrior, Star Wars:The Battle for Hoth and the
multiple award winning Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land. He is a well
known speaker on video games and also a consultant who has worked
with major organisations. He can be found on Twitter
here and is speaking at Develop on Tuesday
10th July 11am in Room 4.
