Video Game Marketing

Who's Your User?

2008-11-15T15:51:00.000-08:00

On the web a topic I really dont hear much chatter about is "who" is visiting your site. Not, specifically, in the individual sense, but the general demographic layout of a site.

For instance, which is better, to have 50% US traffic and 100,000 visitors or have 25% US traffic and 200,000 visitors?

Both have the same NUMBER of US visitors, and the second group has more traffic... and that should make them better, right? The answer: Maybe.

People reading this may have a diverse set of site types. A high bandwidth, low/no ad site may simply not CONVERT high enough to make the use of bandwidth worth crappy traffic, meaning foreign traffic actually costs you money to have. A high ad, low bandwidth site, on the otherhand, suffers from something different. Did you know that US % can influence your overall ad revenue? That's right, some ads dont run on sites where the overall US % is too low, meaning your eCPM drops because your demographics aren't up to snuff. Similarly special ad deals are always easier to negotiate when you can claim high US %. Special treatment can make a site with half the traffic earn more than twice as much... though honestly twice as much is pushing the limit I believe (but still, a pretty big boost).

Oh but it gets more complex boys and girls! Not only does that matter, but targetting matters too. What kinds of games are you posting? I'm becoming more and more convinced that targetting gender and (if possible) age are further keys to success on the web.

In the example where you are selling a product or retaining users its the same but slightly different stories. Lets use dress up games as an example, targetting young females. If you place DUGs on a general game site you end up with an item that interests some, and your site by mixing together content may appeal to everyone. On the otherhand if you ONLY target girls you'll lose half your traffic (the boys).

HOWEVER because your site is so full of RELEVANCE the return rate of the 50% may be so much higher that you actually grow faster than a mixed site. The cherry on top? By targetting demographically you ALSO are better able to SELL them games and/or sell targetted advertising (IE: Hasbro would be more likely to want a My Little Pony ad on a girl site than a mixed site; or some girly downloadable games would have a much higher conversion rate).

So could you WIN by targetting niches rather than the cookie cutter model of white lable one-stop game shops all carrying the same ecclectic mix? Could you win by trying to retain only USA users?

Beats me :) There are examples on both sides of the fence on this one, but I just wanted to bring the theory up that more traffic volume is not neccessarily more valuable. A counter intuitive theory that makes the internet go round.

What's a year without updates?

2008-11-03T20:54:00.000-08:00

I've said it before and I will probably say it again. Im going to try to keep this dang thing updated!

Someone actually commented to me, in person, about a blog entry; which made me feel really guilty for not keeping it up to snuff. Mind you, it was a compliment, but still.

News is I am going to have a few articles in an upcoming book from gamedev.net; i'll let everyone know where and when. No new material really, just some cleaned up articles I wrote for them ages ago.

Most of my time currently is spent on Fallout 3. Good? Bad? Well I am the most jaded of jaded gamers and I have to say it is overwhelmingly positive. Not perfect; nothing is... but gosh its been a lot of fun. #1 complaint is the game lacks that certain personality that #1 and #2 had. That sort of personality that can be described in the same sentence as Monty Python or... perhaps... Al Lowe (Leisure Suit Larry). Yes Fallout 3 traded whimsical post apocalyptia for a more hard nose stance of trouble in the wasteland. Or perhaps it's just that even in the post apocalyptic future the west is more laid back than the east.

I've got business deals brewing, for those that are curious what I am doing with all the time I am NOT spending writing blogs, books, or dime romance novels. I can't talk about ANY of them really, but suffice to say while some may have taken my absense as some kind of retreat from the perils of game marketing it is quite the opposite.

I'll try to remember to make a post on the changing landscape of the gaming world. There's a storm brewing people, don't ignore the signs of change.

-Joe

E Tu Mortus?

2008-06-13T11:59:00.000-07:00

Larva Mortus

From the creators of Jets N’ Guns comes a very creepy kind of shooter. This game is a non-stop action thrill ride! Parental Warning: Contains graphic bodily explosions and some serious splatter.

Larva Mortus

A New Review

2007-08-14T09:24:00.000-07:00

My book got a new review recently. Thought I would post it.

http://www.spellofplay.com/node/65

Sorry for the extreme lack of updates, it's been an exceptionally busy summer; far more than I had expected.

Life goes on here. Arcade Town is about to break Alexa 1,000 (I take some of the credit for this upcoming achievement- the rest goes out to Brian and Tom).

I've been helping the game Galactic Melee with marketing advice
http://www.galacticmelee.com/

I'm also still giving some advice to the RTS/MMO/CCG Saga,
www.playsaga.com

Beyond that I am just busy trying to stay on top of the huge to-do list with keeping ArcadeTown and Heavy Games running smooth.

-Joe

GameDev Article on Portals

2007-02-26T17:13:00.000-08:00

I finally wrote an update to this blog! AND... I wrote another article for GameDev! First in a long time.

The subject is what portals want - or more accurately what we want at ArcadeTown. We only assume other portals think on the same lines, but obviously can't speak for them.

Enjoy it :)

http://www.gamedev.net/reference/business/features/arcadetown/

The Future of Indie Games

2006-12-18T21:00:00.000-08:00

I've given a lot of thought as to the ways the indie game "bubble" can progress into the future. It is some people's opinion that making predictions like this are foolish. As they say, better to say nothing and have people think you the fool than open your mouth and remove all doubt.

Lucky for me that in this case I don't care what people think- I'd rather say it now and be called foolish later than stay quiet and see even one person suffer when they don't respond to a changing environment fast enough.

So here is the scoop.

Rising production costs have been ongoing and will continue on into the future. The newest item entering our market space is agents. Agents represent your products, getting you better deals with the portals (and taking a cut for themselves).

The agents are going to be aided by two facts early on. One, they can actually make you more money than they cost. Two, CERTAIN portals require the use of approved agents to get your games on their site.

Ok, the cutting edge background is set here's the way things are going to come down:

As the number of games rise the need for agents will increase. Other portals will begin adopting agent-only policies. Eventually game makers will be forced to have an agent, and as the agent will require that only they may make the deals, even portals that do NOT require agents will end up dealing mostly with them.

As the number of agents grows the individual power of agents decreases. Eventually, since game developers are going to be forced to use them, agents will end up taking more than they are able to negotiate. The "confused" masses will say things like "Well, without the agent I would have gotten nothing." - And they are right of course.

This percent loss is going to come out of developer pockets. As rising production value = rising cost, the 'break even' point on indie games is going to get harder and harder to maintain. Eventually, most indie developers will be forced out of development; being unable to either get the capital needed to produce a competitive indie game and turn a profit when they are now getting LESS than 20% of a sale. Further, certain clauses in portal contracts are bound to exacerbate this bad percentage.

Probably on top of that some larger portals are bound to be acquired by other portals. Thus reducing competitiveness and further empowering those larger portals to give worse deals to indie developers.

When will this happen? It could be a year, it could be a decade. I don't know, but this is my current leading theory on the method that will cause the collapse of the indie developed games- though I have a seperate theory on something that could cause the collapse of the downloadable game market as a whole. But that requires game consoles to become household objects used by the entire family for entertainment in place of their PC.... Hey did you know what Nintendo's Wii's goal is? Hmmm...

I'm not saying we're all doomed, because frankly some people are going to make out like bandits. Just be aware of the potential path and hazard and recognize it when you see it coming.

Finally, a side note: So long as I am with ArcadeTown I plan on stressing to the upper management (read: Brian) we never require our developers use agents. Using them will be up to you guys. Sadly, that is all I can do to stem this potential endemic.

I hope this indie bubble lasts decades rather than years though, because I'm sure having a good time!

A Hamlet

2006-12-11T13:43:00.000-08:00

Many of you know my passing obsession with online games. I love to analyze them, I love to play them, and I can't ever seen to find one I want to play for more than a few months. Sad, but true.

I want to make a comparison between real estate marketing and game marketing in this "all to similar" world in which we live.

What is the difference between a hamlet and a town? Well, there may actually be one in the technical name- but looking beyond the potential "Joe, a town is not actually a hamlet" mentality is that the perceived size of a game matters to the value of the product. A hamlet sounds cozy and friendly, a town is just a town. If you describe the place you live in that cozy and small villa motif the value of your place increases. Further, if it LOOKS like that (regardless of actual population) the value increases more.

What am I getting at? Too often I find all these games which are not cozy and not small villas. They actually try to market a quasi-metropolitan ideal. A HUGE world FILLED with people where you're actions are INSIGNIFICANT because there's always someone way higher level than you doing important stuff.

Ok, nobody actually describes it like that, but essentially that is what they are doing.

When determining your design of the game and the way you deal with community and interactivity consider trying to minimize the impact of having large populations. Sure, you want 100 million players, but you want each player to feel like they are a member of a bedroom community. Figure out a way to have both and you'll find yourself rolling in the riches.

The reason behind this is simple. People like to feel special. You can't feel special if you know how small you are. The community needs to build people up, even if it is in some small way. They don't all need to be kings of kingdoms, but to have something percieved as unique- the best blacksmith in a kingdom, the strongest warrior, the guy who can drink more ale than anyone else... WHAT it is doesn't matter. What matters is IDENTITY. People need identity in online communities; and the current cookie cutter designs never seem to deliver.

So give that one some thought. How do you give 1 million players an individual identity that goes beyond an avatar....

Good luck, it ain't easy ;-)

Credit Cards Declare War!

2006-12-04T14:54:00.000-08:00

I'm a little behind the times with this- and sorry for the lack of updates.

Ok, this one has little to do with game marketing directly. I promise a game marketing post next.

I have now seen numerous different commercials for credit card companies. There once was a time when they would battle each other, claiming superiority in a variety of ways.

Today the enemy of Visa and Mastercard is no longer eachother, but cash its self. Yeah, for those who haven't been watching TV there's been a blitz of "Anti-cash" advertising, attempting to persuade you that using credit is easier than using cash (which is true in many cases).

So for all of you making sci-fi games where people use "credits" and "cred chips" - the future is now!

I must admit, I don't carry much cash on me. Rarely more than 20 dollars (for anyone planning to mug me)... so perhaps there's a valid point in the ads; but beware that consumer spending trap!

I'll never forget you Washington, Lincoln, Jackson... and I wish I had seen you more often Mr. Franklin, may you rest in peace.

VGSmart No More

2006-11-13T17:13:00.000-08:00

Well, after 3 years of running VGSmart (Or possibly of VGSmart running me) I have decided to close down shop. The reasons are all personal decisions to aid my sanity. Neither lack of skill nor lack of interest, but the reality is I was really exhausted from doing it. Working 9 AM to 1 AM takes its toll after three years.

On the bright side some things will NOT happen:

1) This blog will NOT stop (despite what some would wish)
2) My book, www.indiegameguide.com, will still be there for you to purchase
3) I am NOT leaving the indie game industry. Instead I have joined forces with ArcadeTown to continue their tradition of excellent products, excellent service, and excellent coffee (that's part of my new job.) Seriously, I am doing business development- so if you always wanted someone at a major portal to talk to, here I am.

On a side note to this I would like to point something out that I posted recently.

I run my life on a variety of principals, and while I hope I never turn into Steve Pavalina's level of espousing his own philosophies, here's a big one.

The bigger the decision the faster it should be made.

I don't really know what drives this part of the way I operate. I don't even know if it is a good idea. I tend to think your instinct knows much more than your brain, and the faster you make that decision the more your instinct says and the less your arguing voices of reason, doubt, instinct, fear, ambition, ect. will play in it.

Anyway, I am reminded of several other decision I made abruptly. The two that stand out most in my mind are deciding if I should quit or stay at a job based on a coin toss (I stayed, but I would have quit had the coin told me to. The second was writing The Indie Developer's Guide to Selling Games, which literally was decided when someone said "You should write a book" and I said, "that sounds like a good idea!"

That is the same day I wrote the first dozen pages or so.

Anyway, this was one of those decisions. I had planned on downsizing VGSmart's operations over the next 6 months, but a single important personal revelation was all it took for me to compress that 6 month transition into a single day.

Appologies to anyone who got left out in the cold because of this, I'm happy to do what I can to alleviate your burden caused by it.

NetFlix, Communism, and You

2006-10-23T19:22:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the delay in posts, I will explain what went on lately another day.

Today's post has little to do with marketing beyond understanding spin. It's more a clever observation brought on by a very auspicious ad.

Karl Marx basically said that Democracy is the first step to Communism. At least I think it was him... someone important wrote it... I digress.

In the video rental world we can actually see the microcosm of an advanced governing system. Allow me to illuminate:

When video rentals started it was not dominated by Blockbuster and the very idea of NetFlix would have had people laughing in your face. I will admit that Block Buster was a major player since the get-go; but for now lets just suspend that fact.

So early on many video rental stores were the only stores in town. They were local owned and operated. This is basically a democracy, each store's selection and availability based on personal knowledge and supply and demand. It offered some interesting benefits (and since I live in very small town with just ONE movie store where they literally rememebr your name, I can say this from experience) - the owners and workers could help you select good movies and special ordering movies is a breeze. The downside was selections were limited as well as having limited quantities available to rent. Yes, our democratic system worked, but it didn't last too long.

It wasn't long before major chains, lead by Block Buster, really kicked it up a notch. With improved selections and centralized corporate structure you gave up a certain level of personal service for improved quantities and selections, and sometimes even lower prices. Yes, this socialst form of half-central and half-local governing is pretty snazzy.

And now NetFlix is ready to overtake Block Buster. Doesn't anyone else find it not-surprising that NetFlix is nothing more than a centralized warehouse that literally dishes out pre-destined portions of what movies you CAN and CAN NOT watch? Sure, you make a list of the movies you want, but ultimately you're not even the one selecting them anymore. What if NetFlix decided nobody would rent the movie Shop Girl because it was so bad nobody should ever want to (it is, trust me, don't rent it.) They have the power to do that, we gave it to them.

NetFlix is a communism, with all the pros and cons of a communism. It isn't a good thing or a bad thing. I'm not a 1950s anti-soviet flier; I just find it really strange that such an advanced concept of governing can be so simply explained through the evolution of movie chains.

Democracy leads to communism. That's what some important guy said, and in this case he sure was right.

Oddly, NetFlix does have an outstanding track record; and comes reccomended from every single person I know who uses it. I'll stick to my local store for now though; they give out free popcorn with every rental- made in a real popcorn popper!

A call from Claria

2006-09-13T15:37:00.000-07:00

So I was surprised to see an e-mail from the marketing gal down at Claria asking to discuss the PersonAL web (I made a typo in that post) product and factual errors that occur in my anti-dangerous ads posts.

Unlike most bloggers out there, I am not afraid to give a fellow marketeer (heh) a call. And so, I appreciate Kristine and the thirty minute exchange we had before I was so rudely interrupted by another client.

So here are the errors I admit to have made in my post.

1) PersonAL web is the name of the product (DOH)
2) It is NOT a social networking tool. It is only a homepage that displays ads and internet (RSS fed) content tailored to your surfing habits.
3) It does not at this time do any browser hijacking of search engine results.
4) Gator was the only previous name of the company. GAIN and the Gain Adserver were basically product networks within the Gator company.

2 and 3 can, in theory, change, but Kristine said that she is not aware of any current plan to change them.

I have changed my blog post to reflect these factual errors.

The quote from the Wiki is true, Kristine says that it was a misguided and failed experiment. I say "Why didn't anyone figure that out before they slaughtered their reputation?" However, hindsight is 20/20.

Do I trust Claria? Despite the call, which I really do appreciate and has pulled Claria's reputation from "Gutter Trash" to "Possibly on the road to recovery" in my mind, I still am uncomfortable saying I trust them.

Is Personal Web dangerous? At this time, after my call with Kristine, I do not believe it is. However, one change to a set of Terms of Service that they know 99% of their customers won't read and it could BECOME dangerous, just like Gator became dangerous.

I appologize for the factual errors presented in my blog entry though. I hope that Claria and Personal Web proves me wrong over the next few years and they become a front runner in smart advertising solutions that MAY someday help independent developers by providing extremely targetted advertising at reasonable prices.

Until then both I and my large client will continue to ban their advertisements and not support their company.

Internet Snake Oil

2006-09-12T19:26:00.000-07:00

I am a firm believer that mankind has not evolved much in the last 300 years. We’re still as savage as we were in the days of colonialism, but more importantly, mankind is still as gullible. In each era since the dawn of industry there have been charlatans who prey on the ‘weak minded’ or ‘weak spirited’ folk who are really just average Joes and Janes trying to get by in a world that APPEARS to be evolving much too quickly.

Each birth of new industry causes a rebirth in a new form of communication: Newspaper, Radio, Television, The Internet, Live videos of some guy jumping out of a moving car downloaded onto your Ipod… And each time some new way to better ourselves comes along, right on their coat tails are the most nefarious schemers. Today, Joe and Jane America laugh at the ads our parents and grandparents were fooled by. Yes, Joe Namith did television advertising for women’s stockings, because anything Joe said HAD to be true (right?).

A long time ago newspapers would run ads selling miracles, things that could not possibly be true, but people believed and people purchased because they did not realize something in print could be wrong (or dangerous).

Radam's Microbe Killer Lehn & Fink Ad
The following in an ad that was in the Lehn & Fink Drug Catalog of 1906...

Radam’s Microbe Killer
Drink A wineglassful of Radam's Microbe Killer after meals and at bedtime and it will prevent and cure disease by destroying bacteria, the organic life that causes fermentation and decay of the blood, the tissues and the vital organs.

Radam's Microbe Killer is the only known antiseptic principle that will destroy the germs of disease in the blood without injury to the tissues. Pleasant to the taste and agreeable to the most delicate stomach. A purely scientific remedy, recognized as a true specific.
It Cures

I Gallon Jugs, Price $3.00 40 Oz. Bottle, Price $1.99z

Taken from http://www.drugstoremuseum.com/sections/level_info2.php?level_id=40&level=2

Over time each communication form eventually caught on that selling lies was bad for business, and that real businesses were being driven away by such things. It wasn’t that the owners of the media companies cared about selling lies, it was all about money. People began to disbelieve advertising, and the MOST important factor in any advertising is credibility of source.

Now in our modern age we laugh at these pathetic attempts to fool us into believing miracles can happen. We laugh and laugh, and then we go on the internet. Two things happen. The average Joe and Jane America get fooled by internet advertising snake-oil and the un-average ‘technologically inclined’ people get insulted by ridiculous ads that make us ask “Who clicks this crap!?” It messes up the websites we like to go to, it damages their credibility with the masses, and worst of all; nobody seems to care enough to do anything about it.

That’s right, spyware, adware, malware, and spammers are the snake-oil salesman of today, not-so-cleverly disguised behind the mask of an IP address and Terms of Service they know nobody reads.

Gosh, a free screensaver from screensaver.com? Lets read the Terms of Service: “When you download a screensaver or wallpaper from Screensavers.com, you might see a promotion for one of Screensavers's award-winning software products, like our AdZapper pop-up ad killer, our Privacy Manager that helps you surf the web privately, or our Screensavers Toolbar that gives you one-click access to the web's best search engines. You are never under any obligation to try these products.”

Lets take a look at another famed culprit. Claria, previously known as Gator, Operators of GAIN. Their newest “ad” method takes the form of PersonalWeb (see graphic below). You install this program and it creates a homepage for you (Is this homepage jacking? Sort of like giving permission for homepage jacking). It watches and monitors what you do and creates a homepage around your habits, which advertisers then bid on/purchase. It sounds harmless, but in reality you’re downloading something that is watching what you are doing and creating marketing tailored specifically to you. Is that dangerous? Well, it depends on your mentality. This is coming from a company who, according to the Wikipedia, “The Gator software has in the past undercut the fundamental ad-supported nature of many Internet publishers by replacing banner ads on web sites with its own, thereby depriving the content provider of the revenue necessary to continue providing that content.”

The internet is a dangerous place, and it is dangerous because people haven’t been aggressive enough with the ad networks and websites they frequent. Get active, get your websites to BAN dangerous advertisements and get them to tell their ad network “Hell no, we won’t go…along with this crap.” I've taken a stand, with the support of one of my major clients, we have purged all known dangerous and unscrupulus ads from our ad network. We did this and sent a very nice e-mail explaining that we do NOT support these companies. While we know our stance won't change things alone, we hope to be one voice in many that doesn't take this kind of crap.

The bottom of this ad: “If you are afflicted with DEAFNESS” … yeah, oil that cures deafness.

Oh yes, I am once again the 100,000,000^th person contacted. Rewards abound. And it cures deafness!*

*Restrictions Apply

My IGF List

2006-09-12T11:08:00.000-07:00

The IGF List is now live, as you all have heard. I have my list, but my list is a little different. My list isn't who I think will make the final cut or win- it's my list of which entrants I worked with in some fashion. Some of these games I fully represented, some I only did a press release for, a couple I merely had a formal discussion and gave formal advice to (for free, that's part of my company motto, remember?)

So here goes!

Astro Battle 2	Lava Lord Games
Build a custom space ship and fight against other players in online battles.

(Ages ago I helped on Astro Battle 1)

Aveyond	Amaranth Games
Fight monsters and explore a medieval world. Aveyond is packed with more than 60 quests, tons of places to explore, and over 40 hours of game play.

(Fully Represented, go Amanda!)

Bugs of War	NinjaBee
Bugs of War is a fast playing, accessible, tactics strategy game. Gameplay is deep enough to be satisfying to established fans of the tactics genre, but friendly enough to appeal to more casual gamers as well.

(Seeing as I represented every other NinjaBee title, I will PROBABLY work with this one as well)

Dangerous High School Girls in Trouble!	Mousechief Co.
Level-up a band of teen thrill-seekers for daring adventures in 1920s' USA. Scour their intolerant hometown with brazen hi-jinx. Conquer opposition with a variety of quick games: Taunt, Flirt, Fib, Expose, and Gambit. Acquire dapper dates. Use. Discard. Repeat. Win other handy items. Learn scandalous secrets. Foil a dastardly plot.

(Actually I haven't worked with this title yet, but I hope Keith will at least have me do the press release, I think I did one for The Witch's Yarn.)

Eets: Hunger. It's emotional.	Klei Entertainment Inc.
Eets is a whacky and fun puzzle game that breaks the mold of the boring puzzle games of yesteryear. With vibrant graphics and gameplay reminiscent to Lemmings and The Incredible Machine, it turns a puzzle game into orchestrated action, at least when things go according to plan. Experience over a hundred puzzles included in the game, and plenty more created by our budding community!

(Fully Represented: Jamie is not as pretty as Amanda, but the game sure is.)

Epoch Star	Battleline Games LLC.
Prepare yourself for an epic space adventure. Blast apart enemy ships in real-time combat at the helm of your own customizable warship. Complete missions to gain wealth and experience as you explore a distant galaxy filled with exotic alien races to save the universe from the ominous Epoch Star.

(Advice given)

Kudos	Positech Computing Ltd
Kudos is a turn-based 'life-simulation' where you control your character from age twenty to thirty, and see if you can turn their life around. You control each day of their life deciding who to socialize with, where to work, and how they relax in their free time.

(Press Release)

Minions of Mirth	Prairie Games, Inc.
Minions of Mirth is a no-monthly-fee MMORPG! Persistent world with 14 diverse regions, hundreds of quests, thousands of monsters, day/night cycles, and realistic weather. 12 unique races and 16 classes for thousands of playable combinations. Single player, epic battles, player guilds, two hour original score, and more!

(Fully Represented, best of luck Lara!)

New Star Soccer 3	New Star Games
New Star Soccer 3 is the football career game that lets YOU be the star player. Defender, midfielder or attacker, the choice is yours, just make sure you keep the boss, fans and everyone else happy on your rise to football stardom!

(Press Release)

Pursuit of Power	Precision Games, LLC
Pursuit of Power is a real-time strategy game based in a fantasy setting. You assume the role of a leader with powerful abilities that play a decisive role during battles. Your main goal is to defeat all enemy portals and troops.

(Press Release)

Potion Motion	Flashbang Studios, LLC
Help Kira the Witch stir up some trouble in this dazzling puzzle game! Rotate pieces around the board to match up colors, create combos, unlock special moves, and buy powerups! The beautiful, eye-catching graphics, relaxing orchestral soundtrack, and innovative rotate gameplay add up to a recipe for fun!

(While i haven't worked with Potion Motion, I did help bring Glow Worm to retail. Buy it now at Comp USA and other fine retailers!)

Starchon

Freelance Games

Starchon is a 360 degree scrolling space action shooter with real-time strategy elements. You can't directly decide where to place your computer controlled support units or which sectors to they will attack. However, you have a lot of indirect influence over the outcome of the game. The game is real-time, so if you take to long in a sector, you will probably be overrun by the enemies in the adjacent sectors.

(Advice given)

Stunt Bike Island	ForgeFX
Stunt Bike Island is a real-time 3D bike game with spectacular stunts and a tropical twist! Get away to the islands and launch yourself into the trade winds while pulling backflips, yahoos, deathboxes, tail whips and a boat-load of other insane stunts. Collect speed-boosts and other power-ups while you jump over trees, ponds, boulders, and mountains.

(I just started working with ForgeFX on a variety of potential business ventures. We'll see if that goes anywhere!)

Virtual Villagers: A New Home	Last Day of Work
Care for and nurture a tribe of little villagers by teaching them the basics of survival. They need to become farmers, builders, scientists, parents and make decisions about unpredictable ‘island events’! Guide their day-to-day lives and help them explore their new island home and the secrets it holds.

(Press Release)

Overall, not a bad list if I do say so myself.

Best of luck to everyone who worked with me and a little less to anyone who didn't :)

PS: I did buy Andy lunch once, does that count as working with Venture Arctic? I'll do it again if so :)

MM NO

2006-08-28T20:52:00.000-07:00

So I finally brow beat the NCSoft guys at Gencon into giving me a copy of Auto Assault. Why? Because I worked with the Auto Assault Trading Card Game (which, to save you the rest of this post, is a lot better than Auto Assault- find out at www.autoassaulttcg.com)

I play Auto Assault with this feeling like someone had a great idea... and then investors gave their opinion, the marketing guys gave their opinion, and risk analysis specialists gave their opinion... and the resulting stew was not a delicious soup but a horrific gruel.

I know indies out there try to make MMOs every so often. Heck, in my opinion it doesn't take too much to make one work. As long as you don't spend millions of dollars and thousands of manhours it isn't hard to recoup the cost to create a small scale, small population MMO.

But: here's the professional analysis of where this great idea took a wrong turn down a dead end street.

First, what they did right:

Auto Assault is a car game. It feels fast paced, at times it IS fast paced. You can drive all over a fully destructable world and its damn fun to run around blowing shit up.

Here's where it all falls apart:

I'm sure the idea of having originality with your "class" system was discussed. Unfortunately someone with the idea to just copy a hack N' slash RPG won out. So you're left with the mad max version of a fighter, a thief, a healer, and a "pet" class (druid?). Worse, they had three distinct and unique races... and managed to make them all the same. So, in a world where most new MMOs bost a dozen classes (and some over 100); we're left with 4.

I can live with the classic four classes though, boring as it may be. What I can't abide by is how darn difficult they made playing it with other people. Look Dungeons and Dragons Online is on one side of the scale, basically FORCING grouping. Auto Assault is on the far other end. I tried to form "convoys" multiple times, but Auto Assault goes out of the way to make it hard. For instance most experience and gains come from completing quests, but two people can't share quests unless they're actually ON the same quest. The odds of running into someone who happens to be doing the exact same quest string you are are astronomically low. The only use in multiplayer is PvP combat and sharing equipment, otherwise this is a single player game with a chat room.

Also the game is riddled with bugs. Upon spawning my car's controls got reversed today. I've heard numerous reports that about half the skills in the game either don't work entirely or are so badly implimented they may as well NOT work at all.

Anyway: I love the idea of this game. I even like their main combat system (their ability system is kinda lame though). You run around like a bat out of hell turret and front guns blazing trying to keep your enemy in your fire arc. THAT is cool... but i've said it before and I will say it again. If I play a multiplayer game I want to play alongside other people- either trying to kill them or trying to kill something else WITH them.

An interesting hack...

2006-08-18T14:48:00.000-07:00

The other day it was brought to my attention that a game I used to play a whole lot had been hacked. That is, technically they took the ancient beta code and got it working again, offering up a subscription game for free.

So the initial reaction is "Well, that is bad"- except there's more to this story. See, the game is pretty much on its last legs with the real publisher. They refuse to update it and keep it current, offering up meager patches and addons without any direction to improve the product. It's like walking through a ghost town, really.

Further, the company in question KNOWS about this "hacked" version and has sent a cease and desist letter... and the hacker's response was: "They don't care enough about their game to update it, they're certainly not going to care enough to waste money on a lawsuit."

Ya know what? He's right. So, if a hacker ressurrects a game from death out of love of a product (making no money himself) and the company who owns the product doesn't even care enough to file a lawsuit- is it really wrong? Or has this hacker done the now hundreds of players who are playing the 'free' version a great service by bringing their game back from the brink of destruction.

I don't have any answers to this one. It is legally wrong, no doubt, but I find myself in support of it. I like this game and I missed it, but without content and opponents it just wasn't any fun: And now it is.

E3... And my opinion

2006-08-02T14:56:00.000-07:00

By now everyone has heard about and has an opinion on E3.

Here's my quote that I gave a major website on behalf of one of my clients:

"It's about damn time someone cleaned up that over-hyped, garbage spewing, media circus. LA has enough over-hyped, garbage spewing, media circuses without our industry's help."

Ok, maybe that was a little too harsh (or maybe not harsh enough)- but the fact remains that E3 was a broken system. Oh yes, the gamers will whine, no more will they have a chance to drink booze for three days while they get in the way of actual business. Poor them.

E3 was nothing but a load of bullshit fed to anyone who'd believe it and I, for one, am happy someone put their foot down. It is SUPPOSED to be an industry only event. It is supposed to be about business meetings wearing nice suits, shaking hands, and getting a chance to convince a BUYER that your new product is worth them ordering an extra x-thousand units... and fun stuff like that.

So I have a thousand people on my press release list. If E3 does it right there should be, maybe, 5,000 people attending that show this year- because that is all the people who SHOULD be there. That's 55,000 people who I never should have seen any other year... and god bless them who made me wait an hour to get a cup of coffee, delayed me en route to important meetings, or stank the bathroom up with their nappy ass gamer smell.

Good riddens you industry leeches, but keep buying our games anyway ;-)

When NOT to make a demo

2006-07-16T10:05:00.000-07:00

Based at a thread from Indie Gamer: http://forums.indiegamer.com/showthread.php?p=101067&posted=1#post101067

There are a number of factors which go into if you need a demo or not. In my book *shameless plug* I allude to the fact it may be in your best interest to NOT have a demo at times.

Here are the factors that go into the demo making decision. I'll repost this in my blog as well:

1) Hype- How much work has been done and how much are you relying on the demo to build hype. If you're about to release a game and haven't done anything to promote it then you need a demo to help build traffic.

2) Target Audience- Who is likely to purchase your product? The closer you get to the match-3 / diner dash casual audience the more you will need a demo. The reason is because your target audience with casual games don't consider themselves game players. They download games every day (yes, that's right) and their purchases are purely impulsive. This is slowly changing, but will still be true for a long time.

3) Difficulty of the Game- The reason most titles do NOT have a demo is because their complexity. For example: A wargame. The theory is that a demo user is less motivated to learn a game and will dislike it more because they don't understand what is going on. If they purchase the game they will take the time to read the manual and understand the dynamics, leading to greater enjoyment and more likely second purchases.

4) Quality of the Game- Looks vs. Quality is an important factor here. If the game looks fantastic and plays like ... well, crap. It is in your best interest not to have a demo. The worse the game the less likely you should be to release a demo- afterall, it is better to have your customers unsure of your quality than to know your game sucks. When in doubt, since you are unlikely to honestly say your own game sucks... ask someone objective... like me.

5) Quality of the Demo- If your developer in question has no clue how to make a good demo, a demo will actually hurt sales. A good demo design that cuts the user off at the right time is vital to higher conversion rates.

I tried to get these in 'importance' order, more or less. The key problem most indie developers face is simply their entire marketing plan hinges on a demo. The target audience is a factor that will simply force you to make a demo no matter what.

This is probably missing a few ideas, given I wrote this in about 5 minutes of the factors I have seen that either damaged a game's sales or factors I have seen that lead to the decision not to make a demo. Still, it is a good guideline to get you started.

The Lingering PR Effect

2006-07-07T10:18:00.000-07:00

A press release client of mine recieved an e-mail this morning from a paper magazine in Portugal. This isn't unusual, a good press release and a good game can often catch the attention of magazine editors.

What was unusual is that they contacted us 6 MONTHS after the press release. I see this a couple times a year actually. It always amazes me, but people can and do remember good press releases and sometimes you are still getting bites months after releasing them.

One more reason that press releases provide excellent 'bang for your buck' opportunity.

When you assume things

2006-07-05T15:41:00.000-07:00

In a recent discussion with a collegue of mine the point was brought up: In your book you don't explicitly say how important it is to have a legible, well written and well presented, press release.

I had made the assumption that ANY such release would be legible and well written. However, this collegue was on the recieving end of press releases rather than the sending one and I was assured that this is NOT the case.

I know my blog is not exactly the paradigm of grammar and spelling, but when you are contacting a member of the press; be it from a press release or solicitation for review... USE PROPER GRAMMAR and SPELLING. If you are contacting places in English and English is not your native language- have someone else write it for you. Most people out there would be happy to take the 60 seconds and put it together for you. Not speaking the language is not an excuse. You don't have to appologize for it (I get a lot of 'sorry, I speak not english well.' e-mails). Nobody I know holds the fact you weren't raised in the US or UK against you, but if we can't figure out what you are asking the odds are your e-mail ends up in the trash rather than having us take the time to sort it out.

So my point:
If you speak english and write poorly you have no excuse. Get someone else to do it.
If you don't speak english, get someone else to do it.

The importance is the person recieving the e-mail can quickly understand what you want, be it review or news posting and believe that your company is as professional as any other.

Off to Origins

2006-06-25T15:33:00.000-07:00

As of Tuesday I fly off to Origins- while the rest of you slave away at Casuality.

However, no matter what convention you go to I have a lot of tips I have learned over the space of some years:

First- It's never too early to book a hotel. Really. As soon as you are sure you're going book it!

Second- Conventions are about meeting people. I know there are keynote speeches and boards of people and many experts who want to tell you exactly how much they know while giving away none of their secrets that make them valuable to others.... but that's really not that important in comparison to the MANY important people you can meet. Don't get too worked up in your 'schedule'... when in doubt I say just sit down with someone who looks important and join their conversation.

Third- The BEST way to meet 'professional' people is by common goal or interest. That usually means finding your favorite game (or loading your own) and drawing attention. Really, don't be afraid to be the center of attention no matter how introverted you are.

Fourth- the best way to meet members of the press is to find out where the heck they go. Most conventions have a press area. This means if you hang out near it (or in it, if you can sneak in) you'll meet way more press personelle.

Fifth- Most people won't turn down an offer to buy them drinks. If you need to use this as an excuse to get yourself invited to come along with them for an event later in the evening so be it. You pay a lot of money to go to this place, get a hotel, ect. Don't skimp on an extra 50 bucks in drinks for a potential contact with a lot more. Philanthropy baby!

Sixth- If you really want to play hardball- bring your wife/girlfriend and have HER scout out people for you. A girl interested in games ALWAYS draws attention... and then she can casually guide them to you- ripe for the plucking.

Seventh- Drinking is cool but know your limit. Better to spend your money getting a new contact drunk than getting yourself drunk!

Eight- Soda, Coffee, and Alchehol are ALL bad for your voice. Drinking them will cause you to lose your voice much faster (not to mention it dehydrates you more). Drink water. If you hate water, drink sports drinks.

Ninth- If you DO lose your voice there are a number of solutions. Sign language is one, but its a little hard to learn and harder to find someone who knows it fluently. Instead I suggest tea with honey in a pinch. Do NOT ever use a spray like Vicks 44- while it would restore your voice it would also probably cause dangerous amounts of damage... sometimes perminent. Also a product named Singer's Grace, if you can find it, will restore your voice instantly without any ill effect. However... it tastes like roasted butt. (Opera singers use this stuf though, it really works)

Tenth- Conventions are all about attitude. if you feel out of place you'll act out of place. The whole world will approach you if you look comfortable, approachable, and are having fun. So have FUN. Keep in mind why you are there but kick back and relax and you will find the people you meet will hang around you longer and remember you later.

See you at Origins!

Share of Voice

2006-06-21T12:37:00.000-07:00

An item I didn't cover in my book... because it is a rediculous concept in games, is Share of Voice.

However, recently a website owner friend of mine was asked by a major game company about advertising. They said they would advertise with them if they could provide 15% SOV.

The emphasizes two points to me: One- Most marketing people are book-stupid. Two- Maybe an indie should know what SOV is in case it ever comes up.

So: Item One- This person in question misused the term SOV. I had the site owner clarify and sure enough they wanted 15% of the impressions on the site (minimum). That isn't 15% SOV- that is 15% saturation. SOV is Share of Voice, 15% SOV means that your website reaches 15% of the ENTIRE market. Yes, the way this company stated it they wanted this website to reach 15% of the world's gamers. Hah, not many sites could boast a 15% SOV. Luckily we asked the right question and had them clarify they wanted 15% saturation, which is easily done and we won't let on that this person is totally misusing marketing terms.

Item two: What is SOV and why is it important?
In theory if you can reach a huge % of a market through a single source it becomes incredibly important to advertise or work with that source. In the windows PC game world this is a useless concept because so many sites have a wide range of SOVs. In the Mac market though, there is actually a site which probably qualifies for this huge % SOV- InsideMacGames (www.insidemacgames.com). This makes working with that site incredibly important in terms of building awareness of a mac game. (Apple.com is also one, but they're hard to work with)

There are some pitfalls of SOV though. The first is unlike most %s, the SOV of things need not add up to 100%. Two sites can have SOV of 50% and if you have 100% saturation (meaning you reach everyone on those two sites) you could STILL only reach 50% of the market. This occurrs when the two sites are visited by the same 50% of people. SOV is only useful when you have a huge % at a single source OR you have multiple sources with little overlap.

In PC games this is unlikely at best- however, it is an important concept. If you can prove you are reaching a site that is unique to a market (gamers go there and nowhere else) then that site is also incredibly valuable.

While it is likely not to affect any indies, the trouble most large ad campaigns get into is the level of overlap begins to degrade the quality of the ad. Ads are useful, even if the person sees them more than once and in multiple places- but at a certain point the ad becomes ineffective (you have either reached that person and gotten them interested or you have not). Too much overlap in your SOV ratios and you are likely to reach this level much sooner. This is why there is some benefit to advertising with few very large outlets as opposed to many small ones. For an indie the price difference rarely justifes that though.

So- Share of Voice will probably never come up in your indie life... but be on the lookout for the MISUSE of this term.

Slashdot Review

2006-06-20T12:18:00.000-07:00

Ok so my review on Slashdot is now live, it is the same as the review on GameGrene (Same guy)

http://books.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/06/19/1434223

Some people told me "slashdot isn't a big deal" because of all the young kids and rediculous posts you get with it. I'll dispell this myth and talk about something marketing related all at once. This Slashdot review has caused a noticeable increase in sales- not a HUGE increase, but a few more copies a week for sure. It definately created sales.

On the otherhand, a lot of people made some really idiotic comments that even I was tempted to reply to. So here's the marketing advice. Publically defending your work when you are talking to the masses is usually a bad idea. All it can do it add fuel to the fire and really accomplish nothing. On the otherhand, I looked through the posts and those few people who attempted to make valid but false arguments (there was only one, the guys that made Lugaru, www.wolfire.com) and I replied personally to them.

While we certainly didn't see perfectly eye to eye on everything, my personal e-mail certainly gained their appreciation as someone who really does care about the industry... at least that was the impression I got. Here is the intro from their e-mail:

"Wow, a reply from the author. :) Congratulations on getting posted on Slashdot. I probably was a little too harsh, but it is Slashdot after all, I have nothing against you and have not actually read the book. Just a knee-jerk response."

The point is, when you are dealing in a professional mannor with the 'unwashed' masses you really need to pick your battles. The end consumer will always believe things like 'marketing is evil and will ruin your game' (the theme of pretty much every negative post). You won't change that no matter how good your argument is, and the end result will be more flames and negativity.

When you get someone who's opinion may matter a direct reply is almost always preferable to a public post.

This whole topic is untrue when there is a gigantic factual miscommunication going on and something needs to be clarified OR if you are on the other side of the coin and speaking to something the 'unwashed masses' supports (like our games have no copy protection- see the post on Gal Civ II on this review).

That said, anyone who's enjoyed the book and valued it- feel free to post your opinion on the Slashdot thread. It may convince someone to pick it up!

-Joe

Mac Game Radio Review!

2006-06-15T11:45:00.000-07:00

http://www.macradio.com/shows/igameradio/index.php
Mac Game Radio has reviewed the Indie Developer's Guide to Selling Games.

Woot? :) Omaha highly reccomnds the book to any indie developers. While she had a few minor complaints (who doesn't), I felt she did a pretty good job going over some of the things that are both good and bad.

It's pretty early in the podcast so listen away! Plus they talk about the NEW NW Game Convention which went on in Portland and was put on by one of my favorite 'local' writers- Beth A. Dillon. B

Also a couple people mentioned my blog has been a little harsh lately. Sorry folks, I was a little angry when I wrote the last few posts. I'll be nicer in the near future.

Thanks to Mac Game Radio www.igameradio.com and see you at next years Northwest Game Convention http://www.nwgamesfestival.com

A 360 Degree Reality Check

2006-06-13T01:13:00.000-07:00

A few days ago Russell Carroll (www.gametunnel.com) and I were talking and he mentioned he was seeing more and more developers harping on the idea that the 360 Live Arcade is a great new outlet for indies... and in fact that many people were planning on making games with the objective that they become Live Arcade games.

At the time my response was that he was crazy and it is his imagination, there aren't too many people out there with such a mentality. As of today I changed my mind, the number of 360 'wanna-bees' is growing and he apparently just ran into the horde before I did.

See, it isn't Russ' job to post what I am about to say... if he wrote it people would get angry, for some reason people like picking on what he writes because he runs a game website. I believe if I articulate it though, it will come off a little more 'slap you in the face to stop you from falling down the steps.'

So, here goes:

First, getting into Live Arcade is hard. Really hard. This isn't "if I make a good game I can get it on there" kinda hard. That's actually the somewhat easy part.

It takes a great game, I believe you can create a great game. What you may not realize is it also takes money. A fairly substantial amount. It takes a rediculous quantity of QA work, more than any team smaller than Wahoo Studios/Ninja Bee (www.ninjabee.com) should undertake. It also requires contacts... not just knowing someone's e-mail... but knowing them well enough that they trust and believe in your company: NOT JUST YOUR GAME.

This means you need a well respected company (plenty of business experience as well as programming), plenty of CASH capital, and a team large enough to deliver whatever the various MS people want promptly... and you need this before you even get whatever game you have considered.

So be honest with yourself: Are you in this position? Do you have the above requirements met? If you do, is your game really going to be considered? What's your backup plan if each of these answers turns out to be 'no.'

My opinion is if you haven't made a game for the 360 Live Arcade yet, don't make one SPECIFICALLY for the 360... or even with that as a cornerstone of your intentional business plan. Make it for the PC and if your game does well that it makes your company well respected and provides capital for future development you can take the time to get to know the Microsoft team and convince them they should be interested in your company. THIS METHOD MAKES SENSE.

I'll be deeply saddened if I see some good idea get canned because they couldn't get MS behind it without having a proven track record.

The First Reviews

2006-06-06T16:17:00.000-07:00

So a few reviews, both formal and informal, have come my way so far on The Indie Developer's Guide to Selling Games (www.indiegameguide.com). I'm also happy to report I am now about $500 in the black... which doesn't quite cover the time it took to make the book, but at least I have paid for what it cost to produce it!

So, here are some links and things that have been said:

GameGrene:
http://www.gamegrene.com/node/637

"... you can see right through the skin, down to the bone. The book's bones are solid, however, and they provide a good foundation for any Indie game developer to build upon."

Julio Gorgé said...
"I finished reading the book yesterday and I liked it. It's like comprising 5 years of Indiegamer.com advice into 150 pages : )"

Tero Miettunen, Mitorah Games (http://www.mitorahgames.com/)
"An excellent compact book for those of you who haven't read these forums a lot or who wish to get all the IndieGamer marketing knowledge + some in one package."

For those who like the book, be sure to tell all your geeky programmer friends :) For those who DIDN'T like it- Be sure to tell all the geeky programmers you don't like to go buy it also! :)

Reasoning, Logic, And Games

2006-06-01T13:58:00.000-07:00

I made a post about spam e-mails. This is a related subject that I will now tie into games.

Lets talk about the logical and illogical decisions you can make about marketing your game. Oh yes, there are many: So many in fact I can't simply list them in 'do or don't style.' Instead I am going to teach or refresh your memory on what the very foundation of logical arguments are.

This will be fun!

There are mainly two kinds of arguments in this world, inductive and deductive. Each argument has FOUR states, Valid and True, Invalid and False, Valid and False, and Invalid and True.

Ok, bored yet? Lets go to story mode then!

Meet Bob. Bob wants to make a game. Bob says to himself.
"A good game gets traffic.
"Dinner Dash is a good game."
"If I make a game like that, I will get traffic."

Bob continues:

"Portals exist to make money."
"I want to make money too."
"Therefore I don't want the portals to make money from my game."

And Bob releases his game and says:

"So far my first three reviews have been good"
"Therefore I have made a good game."

And later comments:

"A site has given me a bad review"
"That site wants to become an affiliate"
"Because of the bad review they must not believe in our product and shouldn't sell our game."

Ok bob, you may be smart in programmy world but deep down you're a marketing moron who has all the logical sense of the flying cat with buttered toast on his back*.

What went wrong here, why has bob produced a game, released a game, and experiences lack luster sales?

Comment 1: Invalid and False Deduction. Because the first sentence is invalid the entire thought is invalidated and the conclsuion is false. Believe it or not, many people still believe that a good game is all you need. It's not, it helps, but it isn't the solution to your woes... because I can name several bad games who make more money than some small countries.

Comment 2: A valid but false deduction. When you write it like I did this whole argument sounds stupid, but I encounter a lot of people who have 'something against' portals because they make money. Ok, there are reasons to dislike portals and reasons to avoid using them, but the argument that you don't like them simply because they are 'big companies' is retarded. Lines 1 and 2 are VALID and TRUE statements. The third line is a FALSE conclusion drawn from them. Just because they make money and you want to doesn't mean you should ensure they DON'T make money- it means you have a common goal!

Comment 3: An INVALID and FALSE induction. I hate it when people get all pissed off over a bad review. Do you honestly think you've created a game SO good that every human on earth thinks it is a 7/10 or higher? Look, people like different things and there's NO SUCH THING AS A GOOD GAME. There are only games that seem good to YOU. Don't get pissed off at any bad review you get, take it as feedback on a 'type' of person who is an unlikely buyer and try to use that information to HELP YOU SELL YOUR GAME to the RIGHT people.

Comment 4: I come across this one every so often. A site or a person who is reviewing games for a PORTAL (non-published) will have negative comments to say about your game. GASP. You need to fix your tutorial. You should add a few more musical tracks. Your main character looks like he has an erection all the time. Because they tell you negative things people assume they DON'T want to sell your product and have some EVIL scheme in mind when they tell you they are still interested in publishing or affiliating. Yeah that's right, the evil portal is out to get you! A) You aren't that important. B) They are telling you these things because they know stuff about THEIR customers that YOU apparently do not and they WANT your game to sell better.

I'm not an expert on logical arguments and all the ways you can manipulate them, however, even I can spot many developers who make comments that are simply false reasoning. They present a series of facts (deduction) or findings (induction) and make downright poor use of those facts or findings to arrive at a decision that HARMS THEIR BUSINESS.

Take the time to read and get a better understanding of what deduction and induction are and how they may be affecting your decisions. It can be very, very, tricky at times- much more so than I have made in these examples...

For Additional Information take a read at:
http://www.triviumpursuit.com/articles/two_methods_of_reasoning.htm

*The Flying Buttered Cat refers to strapping a piece of buttered toast to a cat's back and the dropping it out a window. Everyone knows a cat always lands on its feat and toast always lands butter-side down, therefore the cat would simply hover unable to achieve its goal. Brillaint :)

Spam mail, Marketing, and Politics

2006-05-24T11:37:00.000-07:00

My grandparents (yes, still alive thankfully) forwarded me a set of e-mails today. I don't normally write about politics, but sometimes the ignorance of the massess sets me off.

There's a marketing tie-in too. Always take what you learn about marketing and apply it to politics. It doesn't matter what government or country, it's always the same- Marketing politics is the biggest business in business. There's a variety of studies show that it's how a politics bill or even a political person is marketed that is a primary motivator of outcome rather than the actual poltiics and beliefs that should govern the process. Further there's a direct correlation between money spent and success.

Believe it? You shouldn't. I just made up most of the above paragraph. Parts of it are true, parts of it are false. It is an ancient marketing trick of mixing fact and fiction to tell a tale people WANT to hear. If I slapped this kind of a message into a "tell your friends" spam e-mail it would circulate the globe in a matter of hours. Why? Because this is the message people want to hear and they will believe it to be written by an authority as long as it is stated as facts and is relatively believable. You can even use this style of marketing to make logical jumps that aren't even connected.

In the e-mail that set me off on this tirade the conclusion was: Middle Eastern countries vote against the United States (with a list of %s on how often, yet no source on where these %s came from) because they hate us. Yet we give them foreign aid, therefore we should remove them from our foreign aid and exit the United Nations.

What the hell? My grandparents sent this to me because they believed it! A list of e-mails was included in it of other poor souls who recieved it. They missed a logical gap the size of the grand canyon SIMPLY BECAUSE THEY WANTED TO HEAR THIS and were willing to GLOSS OVER THE DETAILS.

Here's the gap. Is this e-mail suggesting that because the United States gives someone foreign aid that they should vote for what we believe in? Are they suggesting the 2 billion dollars we give Egypt to (in theory) help feed their hungry should somehow equate out to international bribery? And what the hell does any of this have to do with the United States withdrawing from the UN? Is it suggesting that because people vote against us we should just quit the UN? What kind of backwards narrow ass minded shit is that!? Yet my grandparents bought it enough they felt it important to forward to me and everyone else on their address book, simply because it told them what they wanted to hear, that the arab nations hate the United States.

Me, personally, I am not sure I support some of the foreign aid programs, nor am I sure I support the curren state of the UN, but it scares me that people can be duped by an amature marketing attempt like this: Imagine how they and many others are affected when a real professional does it while you're trying to vote for something like ... oh... President / Prime Minister.

Always understand the adjenda and motive of the speaker, always question anything stated as fact without supporting evidence... and STOP FORWARDING ME SHLOCK MARKETING.

Intro and Exit

2006-05-23T10:36:00.000-07:00

I was reviewing a client of mine when I brought up a point that I kinda of brush on in my book. In hindsight I should have emphasized this more in the book- its there, but it is a little obscure. In my book I talk about, in a demo, where you have chances to 'sell' your game. Two of those listed are when the game starts and when the person exits.

And now I change tracks for a moment. My speech and debate teacher, in highschool, was a jerk... but he was good at speech and debate. One of the lessons he taught was the way to effectively get an idea across is to first, tell them what you are going to say, then tell them what you came to tell them, and finally tell them what you just said.

A demo is kinda the same way. When it comes to a product with two nag screens, one on entry and one on exit, you want the two nag screens to be DIFFERENT.

The first nag screen should tell them what they are about to play and experience. The game will let them experienced, and the final nag screen should tell them A) what a good time they just had and B) What they were missing out on.

The final nag screen is a closer, but your FIRST nag screen shouldn't be the same message. Otherwise you have the equivolent of walking into a store and having the sales clerk say "So, this is the one you want" before you even tell him what you're looking for. Your opening nag screen should pitch them all the glory of the demo. The closing nag screen should pitch them all the glory of the final version.

This is just a rule of thumb for most products- it may not be true for every product. Nag screen contents should vary based on audience and complexity of your game.

And since my mother has informed me she is reading my blog as a second religion now- You could always just take her voice and record it as your intro or exit, there's no greater nag in the world than my ma.

I'll just stand here and wait for the phone to ring. A count to 10 should be enough ....

Marketing is the Soap of the Unwashed Masses

2006-05-14T09:53:00.000-07:00

I'm back from E3! Sad to say all I saw was a small area of Kentia Hall as 99% of my time was spent staring at the inner walls of Meeting Room 7529. The bright side is my legs don't hurt much, as I was sitting down.

I did get to pop over to South Hall for about 5 minutes (really, 5 minutes exactly). The title of this entry popped immediately into my head. Marketing is the soap of the unwashed masses.

Why? Because its a title that sounds great and means nothing, just like the multi-hundred thousand dollar booths I saw in my 5 minute jaunt. Sell the glitz, sell the names, sell sell sell. It is absolutely impossible that these companies featuring their many products in south hall can all make back what they are spending. Most of them will be entirely forgotten by the sixty thousand visitors, despite their HD plasma televisions, fog machines, light shows, and live stage performers.

My five minutes in South Hall told me that big business is all about marketing and none of the big business marketeers want to do anything more creative than get into a money war of ads and glitz, and so those uncreative companies will be the first to go in the upcoming round of thinning and consolitation.

PS: I saw a poster for Fallout 3. Please let it be good!

INDIE GAME GUIDE NOW AVAILABLE

2006-05-01T19:47:00.000-07:00

Hooha! Yipee! And other elated remarks.

Yes, it is done. I hereby declare it a ... book! You can pick it up from the links at www.indiegameguide.com

I did a press release today through my own press release service. Keeping in mind that my press release list is GAMES only, I would like to say I it was a success :)

So far it snagged a smattering of posts and interest around the web and will likely result in a review on Slashdot (www.slashdot.com) and Gamasutra. I consider those two sources alone as "worth it."

Also I would like to formally appologize to Laughing Dragon GAMES for A) messing up their company name and B) not linking to their www.laughingdragon.com website.
Same goes for Caravel Games (www.caravelgames.com) which I also forgot to link.

Now leave me alone Mark! Some people with their persistent IMing...
-Joe

PS: www.indiegameguide.com -> you know you want it!

Customer Behavior

2006-04-26T23:53:00.000-07:00

Ok, so in all the touting of my book I haven't been giving out too much in the way of marketing wisdom lately.

However, in my evening shower after reading some Dungeons and Dragons Online forum posts, I decided it was time to talk about the customer.

Customers are self-serving, conniving, self-righteous, and downright capitalist pig-dogs.

There, I said it. Even those of you who will buy my book, as my customers, this is who you are. Now before you blacklist me for calling you dirty names, let me explain. The fact of the matter is what I just said doesn't actually make anyone a bad person... In fact, it just makes you normal.

Sane people rarely do things for absolutely no reason. Behind every action there is a motive and in the majority of actions those motives are self-serving. When someone buys my book (exception being Mark Fassett from Laughing Dragon) they do it because they believe that the value they will get out of it exceeds the price of the book. Mark, for the record, is apparently buying it so he can see how Cafe Press does printing... But that is also self-serving for a different reason.

When the first comments on the book come in the odds are they are going to be requests for more information on X, Y, and/or Z. Once again, this is a self-serving request. It isn't bad, the odds are if one person wants more information on X, so does half the people who purchased it.

This is all clear in something simple, like a how-to book. It becomes less clear in games, and worse in online games.

We'll take the extreme example, an MMO- where 95% of all the suggestions about the game are entirely just to rebalance the game in your favor. How do you weed out the good and bad suggestions to move forward, knowing full well you've created a game far too large to test every possible suggestion?

Well, sadly, you can't... And MMOs always suffer for it. People love to complain and complain they will; it creates a rather depressing scene and I do not envy the community managers of our MMO world.

In games it gets a little tricky and the WHOLE POINT of this crazy post is this:
Expect your players to do what serves them best.... And capitalize on it.

I am about to do a press release for Caravel Games on the massive user created content that has been done. 8,000+ levels. To achieve that, they have an active and vibrant community full of selfless people, right? BAH. They have an active and vibrant community, yes, but the act of creating levels wasn't done out of the kindness of the heart of the creator. It was done to achieve some self-actualizing goal. Caravel Games has made a game that can harness that power and put it to work for them, not only making them direct profit (See the Smite Master Selection) but also in aiding in 'word of mouth' and other sales channels.

What are the goals of these people? Could be many things. Could be fame and notoriety for instance.

It is really the capitalist way. Do what is best for you and you will do what is best for the whole. It is a false philosophy (those who have taken a few economics courses know that it is a good start but doesn't quite get the job done). The trick really is to design a game where what is BEST for the consumer is truly best for you. Easier said than done, but be on the lookout for designing a game where what is BEST for the consumer is NOT best for you.

Most often: Requests for a longer demo, requests for new features, requests for a lower price...

I guess the point is, when dealing with the customer ask yourself "What's in it for them?" There's always an answer and it can either be good for your business or bad for it, but you MUST always ask that question- not just assume that everyone is as nice as my readers are ;-)

And god help you should you ever make an MMO, where everyone has their own agenda and the 'honest' people out there will never get through the noise of the dishonest.... And don't you dare nerf my Heavy Repeating Crossbow... at least not before you fix that damn bug with melee weapons (DDO players will get that).

The Book Arrived!

2006-04-24T18:09:00.000-07:00

I'm excited. The test book (to test graphics, layout, and any possible errors) arrived today. It looks fan-bloody tastic... and I'm not just saying that because it's my baby. While I admit that it is a thin book by eye-ball looks, it is jam packed with content. The cover looks good, the pages look good, the text looks good.

For those of you who are uncertain that Cafepress books are of good quality, this is my shining reccomendation. It totally exceeded my expectations (then again, being a pessimist I was expecting having to rewrite the entire book).

Assuming Yinsey can get the title slapped onto the final picture she sent me earlier, this book will be on sale in a week!

Artistic Evolution

2006-04-14T12:41:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I promised I would post the progress of the book cover. We'll keep a running tally of what it looks like. When it is finished the book is officially released.

Due to overwhelming demand, also, a PDF version will be made available. It's currently looking to be about $28.95, unless I am miscalculating processing fees :)

I won't give away what the scene is on the cover to anyone, but I think it will be interesting to see it evolve from a single character sketch to a full cover. You can take a look at my esteemed artist's other (final) work at http://yinsey.deviantart.com

Phase 1: http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y75/yinsey/screencap.jpg

Phase 2: http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y75/yinsey/girl.jpg

Phase 3: http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y75/yinsey/eobot.jpg

Phase 4: http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y75/yinsey/commstage.jpg

Phase 5: http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y75/yinsey/sofar1.jpg
Keep it up Yinsey! :)

Book it!

2006-04-13T01:49:00.000-07:00

It's done! 122 pages of marketing bliss. Currently waiting on the cover art while I make minor changes to formatting and layout. In the end I pulled a 9 page section on QFD. I felt the concept was too abstract and I was unsatisifed with my attempt to explain it.

So now the important part. How will you be getting this bad boy?

For the first-test print run (assuming the couple copies I have printed up to test it first work out) I will be using Cafe Press.

It will be available as Print ONLY (no PDF at this time). I am still looking into PDF versions and if it is worth the trouble.

The book will be $34.95 and expect $4.00 shipping inside North America, so just under $40. Before anyone tells me "wow, that's a lot." I say- If the 122 pages gives you a single idea that results in only TWO extra sales of a $20 product; it's worth it. I wanted this book to cost $40 if it were on a retail store, so I lowered the price based on the expected shipping costs. That's all I can do :)

IF a PDF version is made it will be about $27.95. That retains the same profit margin for me. If you think a PDF version at 27.95 is something you would prefer to have, PLEASE let me know. I can't promise anything, but I will do my best to accomodate any overwhelming demand.

For the record, I expect to make about $25 per copy sold.

The expenses broke down as follows:

Overhead:
$1,000 for editing
$300 for Cover Art
Too many hours to count.
5 test copies $72

Variables:
$10.50/unit printing costs

Break-even sales goal: 55 copies sold
Actual sales goal: 300 copies sold
Profit at Sales Goal: $6,128

So to reinforce anyone's objection to the book being fairly high priced based on quantity of pages (as if that is some way to judge a book's value), it isn't like I am walking away from this adventure a millionaire :)

The 80 / 20 Rule

2006-04-03T22:36:00.000-07:00

You often hear people talk about a mystical marketing rule called the 80 / 20 rule. It basically states that 80% of the result can be had for 20% of the work. It applies to almost every single activity you'll ever do.

Unfortunately, it is a rule and not a law. Laws, like gravity, always exist. This rule doesn't... and it is because it does NOT apply to casual games that I make this post.

Let me rephrase that. It does not apply to casual games in the way most of you would first think.

Once upon a time someone asked me "Why should I take an extra X number of months polishing my game when the 80 / 20 rule says the last 20% of the game takes 80% of the time for only 20% of the result."

This is a common way to mistake that rule.

Here's the reality as it applies to games:

A game can be completed to 80% with 20% of the effort.

However, the final 20% represents 95% of the sellability of the game.

The end result is you spend 20% of the time producing an 80% game and get 5% of the sales it could have.

Yeah, that's a lot of confusing numbers, and really they are guestimates anyway.

Here's the truth. There are a lot of games out there. There's some really bad games... but most of all there are THOUSANDS of "pretty good" and even "good" games. In fact, I would say 80% of all games fall into the pretty good catagory. Those 80% of the games represent LESS than 20% of the sales. To have your game do REALLY well (note how often I am using caps here) you've gotta make it exceptional. The only way to do that is to take it that last 20% of the way.

Those final steps are worth more than all the work you put into creating the actual gameplay, idea, and implimentation... its the wrapping on the present that makes it special...

In fact, it is a lot like the lingerie for your game. Girls are hottest when they are wearing appealing clothing, not when they are naked. I'll leave any further comparisons about a "naked" game and how undressing takes more time to your imagination.

Book editing is on page 70!

GDC Blues

2006-03-29T15:48:00.000-08:00

So I went to the GDC. It was two days of rather dull meeting people and one day (wed) of complete insanity. It wasn't that the people I met were dull, it was just so laid back Monday and Tuesday.

Anyway, I went to the IGF Awards and the Minna Mingle and met a lot of really cool people!

Of course, I got nothing done on the book in that time :(

BUT... on track, IGF AWARDS...

I wont give everyone a summary of stuff they already know. Instead I will relate the following story:

Of all the speeches given at the awards ceremony for BOTH the IGF and the GDC, including the Darwinia team dropping the F bomb on stage, I found it incredibly ironic that the best was given by a man who created a game about dropping anvils on rabbits.

Oh, yes, Jake and his Dodge that Anvil game gave a speech along the following lines:
"When I set out to create Dodge that Anvil it was my goal to create the best anvil dodging simulation ever made. I don't know if I achieved that goal, but this award tells me I am on the right track."

Oh, so awesome it gets a link in my blog. www.rabidlab.com to play Dodge that Anvil!

And now- back to editing.

The Best Advice

2006-03-12T11:19:00.000-08:00

In the book there is a demur sentence that can easily be passed over in the great gobs of other sentences which are demanding your attention. Someone e-mailed me recently and asked a question that this sentence (actually its more like three sentences) covers.

The question was "What tricks do you have for SEO?"

The answer: "NONE." Look- I don't care if you hire me to do SEO work, honestly I don't. The important thing to know is that anyone who claims to have some mythical SEO "trick" should not be trusted. In the BEST case the trick works for a few months before the search engines change their system and your page drops off the charts (Forcing you to hire someone else OR if you haven't figured it out yet- the same person). In the WORST case the trick is so bad that the search engines blacklist your site, which may take months or longer to get fixed.

The book sums it up as follows:
"The first and most important rule of SEO is not to use tricks or secret methods that the snake oil salesmen of the Internet will try to sell you. Even if it temporarily works, the end result could be getting black listed from search engines! Instead, you should focus on using the methods that are recommended by reputable sources and do not seem too sneaky."

PS: Book final edit is coming along (33% done). Cover art is coming along as well. I hope to post a sketch of the cover soon!

The BIG list of Names!

2006-02-25T16:14:00.000-08:00

Thanks to everyone for their incredible name submissions. I had WAY more feedback than I had anticipated (which is a very good sign!). I'm going to be holding a "mini awards" ceremony. The winners are going to get their entries into the book in the very back (along with a link to your website!)

The categories are going to be "Top 5 funniest name submissions" ; "Top 5 Most Creative Name Submissions" ; and "Top 5 Overall Name Submissions"

Here is the BIG list of all the submissions I'll be picking through this week. Its over 9 pages long!

******************************************************************
Smart Marketing : An Indie Game Developer's Guide
or
Smart Marketing : A Guide for Indie Game Developers
You've Made Your Game, Now Sell It!

Indie Game Marketing For the Masses

Game Marketing : Target Your Market!

Indie Game Marketing Solutions

The Indie Game Marketing Manifesto

1. How to stay alive while beign an independent game developer.

2. The Chronicles of Narnya (im not sure if its used yet...)

3. How to survive in the independet game developing adventure.

4. Make money while making video-games.

5. How to market your video-games.

6. Video-game marketing for Independet developers.

7. How to sell your games and not die in the intempt.

8. The perils of marketing-knowledgeless.

9. How to make a living making video-games.

10. Robocop 3 (again, im not sure if this is used yet...)

80% marketing - 20%coding

-The independent developer's guide to selling games

Game Marketing Matters

Marketing Smarter: Effective Independent Game Marketing

Guerilla Game Marketing for Gorillas and other Neanderthals

Indie Game Marketing Demystified

Game Marketing for the Rest of Us

Game Marketing for the Little Guy

DIY Game Marketing

Indie Game Marketing from the trenches

Indie Game Marketing for Dummies

Learn Indie Game Marketing in 24 hours

Million Dollar Game Marketing

Market your game and make Millions ;)

The Indie Game Developer's Guide to Increasing Sales

Strategies for Increasing Sales: A Marketing Guide for Indie Game Developers

How to Get More Sales of Your Independently Developed Game

Selling Small Games

Indie Game Marketing

Flea Marketing - for the small guy

No, I Am Not That Joseph Lieberman

Captain Joe's Glamour Guide to the Indie Game Scene

When I Grow Up, I Want to Be an Independant Game Developer

Philomathian Dreams: A Transcendental Journey

Liebermania!

Liebermania: Catch the Fever

Liebermania I: The Prequel

You Can Make More Money Selling Anything Other Than Games, Including Your Own Spit: The Title of this Book is the Last Warning I Will Give You

shareware marketing tricks

shareware marketing techniques

shareware marketing secrets

shareware marketing bible

shareware marketing - the definitive guide

small developer software marketing

VG SMARKETING!!

The Game Marketing Guide (to the galaxy)

A Senator's Guide to Game Marketing

Game Marketing Exposed

Marketing Games

Selling your game

Buy this book, sell your game

Buy this book!

Sold!

Marketing Underground

Game Marketing Underground

Underground Game Marketing

BOOK!

Selling illegal goods legally

Buy or Die

To the people: A guide to game marketing

Consumer Whore

Feeding Gamers
From Bedroom to Boardroom
Lieberman's Guide to Making it in the game industry

Making Games for Fun and Profit

Steal this Game Marketing Book

An Idiots Guide to Indie Game Marketing

Got Game? A guide to Indie Game Marketing

Indie Software Marketing Toolkit

And then Came a Game...

The Name of the Game - Indie Game Marketing Workbook

Not the Same Game! An Indie Guide to Marketing Game Clones

Clone Wars, How to Market your Game for Total World Domination

A Day at the Game Grocery - Or how to Market an Indie Game
(get it, market - grocery )

"from developer to consumer - a video game marketing guide"

video game marketing in 24 hours

teach youself game marketing

planes, trains and game marketing

one flew over the game marketing nest

capturing the video game market - a book by terin, who's reyt gud

the video game demographic maze

cake - the incoherent cheese slice of sales toobin.

DMC - the journey from developer to consumer.
From outer space to shelf space: A guide to game marketing
(whoa)

Selling Your Soul: A Guide to Indie Game Marketing

Marketing to Criminals

This book does not contain porn
(Not much porn)

Dial 7 for Game Marketing

Don't touch that dial, Video Game Marketing!

More fun than Poker, Dynomite!

Game marketing for fun and profit

Profit for fun and Game Marketing

SmartClub

Marketeering

Marketing Fun: A Guide to Marketing Video Games

GAME$

I was born a sock puppet, I will die a sock puppet

SKU You

Your game here
(oohh, deep... if you bought it from a bookstore that is)

The game marketing coloring book

Downloadable Marketting

This Book Does Not Have A Free Trial

Game Marketing Made Easy

Game Marketing Played Easy

Game Marketing's Easy Mode

Game Marketing on Easy Mode (or medium or hard mode?)

Winning at Game Marketing
Blasting the Competition with Game Marketing Played Easy
etc..

So you think you can market?

A comphrensive guide to bringing your independent game to the masses

Independent game marketing for dumbass/dummie

Independent game marketing in a nutshell

Joe's guide to independent game marketing

How to sell your indie game to women?

Market your game with this guide or perish in isolation.

Indie Game Development
-a marketing perspective

Indie Game Development
-Marketing your game

The Indie Developer's Guide to Marketing

Marketing your Indie Game

How to Market your Indie Game
1. Make game 2. ??? 3. Profit!
^

this book

When Good Games Go Bad: The Zen of Game Marketing

Selling Shareware : The guide to indie game marketing for the rest of us

Selling Shareware : Marketing for developers

Why you can't sell games for S***!

Indie Game Marketing for Fun and Profit (Well, Fun Anyway)

Harry Potter and the indie game marketing plan
Chapter 1. How to get sued in 1 easy step.

The Game Marketing Manual : Ideas don't sell themselves!

Little Game, Big Market

Win Big with Game Marketing

Uncle Joe's Grand Book of Game Marketing Wisdom

The Game Plan and Marketing

I'm not only the president, I'm also a consumer

Developing a marketable game

Marketing Games: From concept to completion

The solution to all your problems, and marketing video games

The good book (about marketing games)
(text in brackets would be small)

Video games don't sell

Hot coffee your way to success

Scandals, Lies, and what really happened in Roswell

If I was a consumer in your position, I'd buy this book

Portals, Publishers, and Products, and it's not even lunch yet

Cheat codes for successful game marketing

Game over, you lose, without marketing advice

What you did wrong (with your game)

The rules of Acquisition (and other lame geek references)

GameMarketingBook.com, the Book

325 pages of what they neglected to mention in game development
(Number pages should reflect book)

I'm on a mission to take out the competition

Knowing is half the battle

Zen, and the art of marketing indie games?

A VGSmart game marketing book.

1.0 VGSmart game marketing book.

1.0 VGSmart game marketing.

(The) Marketing Game

Indie Business

Fun & Profit: Marketing Indie Games

Evil Marketing Ploys Made Easy!
How to Make More Money Selling Shareware Than You Ever Thought Possible
Mark Etinggs the Advertisement Armadillo.
Hi kids, let's go for a walk with Mark the purple armadillo, he will show you the way to a succesful indie business. Remember kids, marketing first.

"Marketerin" :-)

Game Marketing Complete

Independent Game Marketing Complete

Your Game In Their Hands

D-I-Y Shareware Marketing

How to Market Games and Make Money

How to Market Your Own Games and Make Money

How to Market Your Games and Make Money

How to Sell Your Games and Make Money

How to Sell Your Own Games and Make Money

How to Sell Your Own Games Online and Make Money

How to Sell Your Games Online and Make Money

How Get Rich Marketing Your Own Games Online
(and variations ...)

10 Steps to Game Marketing Success

10 Steps to Financial Freedom by Marketing your Indie Games

Marketing Games: The Bible

Marketing Games: How to Get Rich Selling Your Games on the Internet

Indie Game Marketing

Indie Game Marketing: The Bible

Indie Game Marketing: How to Get Rich (by) Selling Your Games on the Internet

Indie Game Marketing: How to Make Money (by) Selling Your Games on the Internet

From what I know of the subject, I'd call it

Indie Game Marketing: The Most Fun You'll Ever Have Going Broke

Good Luck: You're Gonna Need It

Indie Gamer to Wealthy Gamer: a Manual

Marketing Essentials for your Indie Game business.

Marketing, The Game

Do I Know Your Game?

Indie Games And Eyeballs

Your Game, Your Players, Your Revenue

The Indie Game Developer's Guide to Increasing Sales

Strategies for Increasing Sales: A Marketing Guide for Indie Game
Developers

How to Get More Sales of Your Independently Developed Game

"...And I'll show you mine!: Insider Help to sell your game!"

What's in a name?

2006-02-17T16:09:00.000-08:00

Ok so I am darn close to being completely done. Cover art sketches are coming in and I will soon select the winner (If I have trouble picking I may post them here with permission from the artists). Expect some decision on that to be made in the next couple weeks.

One problem: I STILL haven't picked a name!

So submit your name suggestions in the comments area... the winner (if you login and post) will get a free copy of the book! Oooh... ahhhh.

Otherwise I will have to go with
"Joseph Lieberman's Guide to Independent Game Marketing" or something lame like that.

Or "Indie Game Marketing..."

Anyway- Give me suggestions, please!

A good comment is hard to find

2006-02-04T23:58:00.000-08:00

In our last post, someone who didn't give their name wrote:

"i'm sorry but i dont think i'll read your book. What one would need are serious statistics on indy businesses (which are terribly hard to provide), not theories, opinions and anecdotes."

Comments like these are like cockroaches (no, seriously, hear me out!)- If you see ONE it probably means there are thousands more lurking silently.

So I wanted to supply reasoning for why the book is not a book of statistic tests.

The funny thing about numbers in business settings is that they don't follow the normal laws of numbers. See, when you read an analysis of a business decision what you are reading LOOKS like hard numbers and statistics, but is actually an interpretation of data: In short- it is the author's opinions, theories, and personal anecdotes cleverly disguised as fact.

Let's take a math example. Let’s say there are three sales for a product with three key features. We all know 1 + 1 + 1 is 3. So we can write that these three features contribute to 33.3% of sales (yes this is a stupid example, just bear with me)- But what if there is a fourth item? What if it is 1 + 0 + 1 + 1? What if it is 2+0+1?

Now statistics is the ART of predicting these kinds of things, and I understand that. If I had a controlled test and a few million dollars in research money I could test each theory stated in the book and determine if the instances and practices are actually true. Unfortunately, that will never come to pass. Even if I had the power to collect all the data from every game released in the last three years it wouldn't provide me the information to accurately predict business decisions.
What that leaves me with are the principals behind consumer behavior, business, and sales along with limited knowledge of sales facts (those "hard" numbers, most of which I am not allowed to state outright).

The point of the book isn't to give you some ultimate formula to make your game, because by the time that went to print the formula would be wrong (unlike math, business formulas never stay the same). It is to provide the background and underlying principals to make smart decisions and to provide the tools and suggestions to follow through on the principal ideas.

In the end it is a book of advice, something people pay millions of dollars for under the umbrella of consulting. To say that the advice is not worthwhile merely because it is not backed by mathematics would be the equivalent of saying you do not believe the person to be competent.

Now- I can't say I am competent... can't say it and have someone believe it at least, but I leave my reputation amongst the community to speak for me. In the end, I believe my book will be invaluable to someone new to independent game development. I further believe the veterans out there will also enjoy reading it to compare their opinions to mine, find new ideas, and maybe pick up a few new tricks.

So to my anonymous poster I say thank you for providing a GOOD comment; even though it was negative! I hope I have swayed your opinion or at least removed some doubt from anyone else out there who had thought the same thing.

Book is Finished

2006-01-28T18:28:00.000-08:00

The book, she is perfect!

Ok, no she isn't. She is unedited... but finished.

I am considering yanking out about 5 pages that covers the basics of QFD, simply because while I did my best to explain it... it is very complicated and questionably useful... I fear that people who read it will either be confused or worse, think they understand it and misuse it. At the same time, there are hundred pages books written on QFD, so there is no hope of conveying a more accurate look into proper QFD use.

I'll probably nix it and put it up on here for you to laugh at.

-Joe

Promo Pricing

2006-01-22T12:56:00.000-08:00

A recent question from another developer brought up the issue of promo pricing.

Promo pricing is the act of lowering the price as an initial offer. IE: You are about to release your game so you offer a discount to the first people who buy it.

It is my belief that the majority of developers who do this don't actually understand what promo pricing is supposed to be used for, and because of that misuse this tool. So lets go over the theory of promo pricing, which is covered in the book.

Promotional pricing is used to enact trial for long term use. Perhaps a new toothpaste is released and you receive a 50% off coupon for it. Because of this extreme discount you purchase the toothpaste (and the company who produced it probably takes a loss on that). You like the toothpaste so much that you begin using it regularly, purchasing it at normal prices.

However, this model doesn't really work for trial games! It doesn't make any sense. It isn't a reusable product (unless you have a subscription or a LOT of games/sequels/expansions). The only thing you are doing is losing money.

Think of it this way: The people who are receiving the discount (first buyers) are the people who are MOST likely to pay MORE for a game. If anything, you should offer the game as MORE EXPENSIVE for the first months before lowering the price! (AKA: Price Skimming)

The numbers on this can be extremely misleading, and to a novice may be very... Convincing that their strategy worked.

In the above mentioned question that triggered this post the issue was during the promo stage their conversion rate was 3%. After the promotion ended it was .5%. The declaration was the promotion was a success and the question was "Should we switch back to the promotional price?"

There are TWO possible scenarios. The most likely scenario is the conversion rate was higher because there were a LOT of fans of their game waiting to buy. Fans that would have paid any price for it! Lowering the price probably didn't increase the sales nearly as much as it decreased the profit.

The second scenario, which could be happening simultaneously with the first, is that the lower price is actually a BETTER price than the final price: IE: it converts better at 14 dollars instead of 18 (Not just a higher % but enough more people to create a higher PROFIT as well). IF this is the case than there should have been no promo price to begin with, but instead just a final price of 14 dollars. This is NOT likely the case.

A side note to this. It has been found that IF a game is wanted enough the players will be willing to pay nearly ANY PRICE. When it comes to selling to existing fans, especially people who have been waiting a year to buy this game, don't sell yourself short.

The prime example was the study done on Unreal (the first one). The initial worry that 40 dollars was too much for a game was debunked when they learned the VAST MAJORITY of the players were purchasing new graphics cards JUST to play the game... Resulting in the spending of over 200 dollars to buy the game. It doesn't mean you can charge 200 bucks for your games, but don't be so afraid of price sensitivity when you are dealing with your hardcore fans! Certainly don't give them a discount without some ulterior motive.

-Joe, Practitioner of "evil" marketing

Learning From My Poem

2006-01-12T00:47:00.000-08:00

It may come as shock to you that my poem was written on the spur of the moment (in less than 30 minutes!); but it carried a hidden marketing message in it.

A lot of people will hear me talk about "Content marketing" - it's in the book. Basically it is this: make content for your site that people want to read. Best of all, make content that is interesting and original. Better still, make it so interesting that people talk about it.

When I finished the poem I did a few things, and now I will share the results.
First, I made two posts. One on Indiegamer.com and one on Idevgames.com that I had written a wonderful poem...Then I used a variety of ping services to let the blog directories know I had done an update.

The result: Between Saturday and Monday- 230 unique visitors. Now, that isn't exactly a earth shattering number, but when you compare it to last week's Sat-Mon (about 65 uniques) it is a huge leap forward. Imagine if I did that every week, going to different places (so not to spam) and continue finding new outlets to talk about my interesting new post.

The point is this: The poem was content. It was totally meaningless, but it was also creative enough that it made people smile, laugh, and talk about it. It was, in essence, nothing more than an evil marketing ploy! For my 30 minutes of work I was rewarded with a lot of extra (relative) traffic. If I were that entertaining EVERY week imagine what 52 weeks like that would bring. Imagine the power I could have if I had a newsletter signup button (I probably should, actually). Imagine how many times I would have to rhyme the word indie ....

Mindy, Cindy... That's all I can think of... And my wife would be angry :-/

Oh and hey, SPEAKING of M.Indie, my new article is online:
http://www.gametunnel.com/articles.php?id=421

How many words can YOU think of that rhyme with M.indie... or Ninja Pirates.

Oh the places I go

2006-01-07T17:32:00.000-08:00

Oh the places I go, with my head full of marketing and my fingers thrilled by use,
I'll write an entire blogpost like I was Dr. Seuss.

I go lots of places, through forums and sites,
I meet the developers, who all seem so nice.

But let me tell you, OH the places I go!

To indiegamer.com, with their membership dreams,
Where each developer has the potential it seems,
To be someone great, or at least someone good,
Except for that Cas, because he's awful crude (Sorry cas!)

Then to Gamedev.net with their students so thoughtful,
where ambitions are strongest, though experience not-so.
The articles there will inform and insite,
And in the end their students become rather bright.

And to the ASP, where the talk is expensive,
you'll find there's no place with skills to extensive.
Thought the website is crappy and and the price kinda of high,
nowhere will you find better for a marketing eye.

Now to Idevgames, with their Apple and Mac
My gosh, a small forum, but cut them no slack.
Though their downloads are few and their system perverted
Mac sales kill us all, with their percentage converted.

The IGDA, oh what a place to play!
Where enthusiast meets experience in pay.
While you are there, take note of a caper,
to steal some data from their white-paper.

And there's one more place a smart person will go,
It is thoughtful insightful, and sometimes quite slow,
Where the marketing folks are second to none,
even when their rhyming is done.

VGsmart is my favorite of the above,
Because it is mine... the one that I love!
So hear my advice, in rhyming so new
Else I'll do my next post from standard Haiku.

Breaking Into and Out of Video Games

2006-01-01T14:28:00.000-08:00

At the request of "TheGoodEvil" and his blog at
http://pcgamejunky.blogspot.com/ I was coaxed into writing about breaking into video games... at least, from the indie perspective.

There are typically two types of people who make indie games: Those that are breaking in and those that are breaking out.

For those breaking in: You are new to this whole field. You need experience to land a job and you need a job to land experience. Simply put: You're screwed and your only option is to make some games on your own and hope they can pay the bills until someone realizes your great potential.

Sometimes this results in you doing well enough to get a job, other times you realize that you don't need that job afterall and become king of the indie developers... or at least make enough money to get by happily.

So how is this done? As a solo developer it is all about appearances. Your website is your face; before any publicity is gained or work is shown you should be sure that your website is clean and professional. You should also ensure you are using a domain E-mail. Nobody thinks e-mails coming from hotmail.com is professional!

Then you have your product. First, make sure you are making something simple. It can be a clone of an existing product or something original and innovative, so long as it is something you think you can finish in 3 months time (As I mentioned in the Keep it Simple thread, it will take you much longer than you think). Next, while your code skill will be analyzed by the potential employer; in order to catch their attention your game artwork needs to be SUPERB.

Let's face it, the initial hiring process is all about judging a book by its cover. They are going to look at your product or screenshots of your product and a one page resume and make assumptions about your character and skill. You've already lost the battle if your screenshots or product LOOK like crap- regardless of how beautfiul the code is inside. I say wow them with graphics and THEN you can worry about how nice your code looks on the actual interview stage!

That's how to break into the industry from the indie side of things. It's all about presenting yourself professionally through your product. If you find that you enjoy working for yourself and your game seems to have the potential to make you money... maybe the indie path is right for you.

Then there are those of you who are breaking OUT. Yeah, dream job my left toe. Your company treated you like dirt and you said "Hell, I could do this on my own and take all the profits with less hassle."

Ok... so now what? Well, the problem with me giving advice in THIS field is I have never been in that position (I attempted to break in and then decided to go indie, never having to break out). Also, each person will have different skills and experience levels...

But here's my general take based on things I have heard others say:

First, plan out things with more depth than you have ever planned anything else in your life. Create work schedules, create milestones, revise, edit, and redraft this plan until it is workable. Aim to create your first product within 6-9 months; depending on complexity.

The best advice I have is don't assume that your experience in mainstream games is going to make this easy. It will be just as hard as the person just starting out. Your advantage is you have SOME skills already that the newbie does not; but when it comes to the OTHER skills that you didn't have to worry about, you and Mr. Newbie are on equal turf... If you aren't open to learning these skills, like marketing, planning, and finance, you are going to fail despite your many years of experience.

The next best advice is follow that plan you worked so hard to create! It is very easy to get distracted when you work from home. An hour here, an hour there, and suddenly your 40- 80 hour work week (depending on how cruel you are to those around you) turns into a 15 hour work week. Your game gets delayed, the bills pile up, and you rush to release hoping to beat the bill collector... and you wake up the next week back in your dead end job you thought you'd been liberated from.

The final piece of advice for all game developers is plan for your first game to fail. It doesn't have to fail horribly, maybe it makes you a little cash, but if you are stuck relying on your first product to make 2k/month for an entire year; you're in for a nasty fall. That doesn't mean you should do nothing to help it succeed- just the opposite. You need to do everything to help this first game work; just be ready to learn from the mistakes both in development and during your mad attempt to make it sell. If it goes crazy and become the next Professor Fizzwizzle (a game that was their very first product and sells very well)... all the better. If not, you won't find yourself in a financial jam; because that is just what you had planned.

Check out fizzwizzle at www.grubbygames.com.

-Joe

Corruption in Journalism

2005-12-26T12:54:00.000-08:00

I'm a little slow to jump on this bandwagon- Are journalists corrupt? Do they sell scores and editorial space in return for large heaps of money for advertising? What has become of our free press system.

First of all, this was all brought up by Dan Hsu at EGM in his recent editorial. Its caused a big stink in the industry; moreso than most of you can see actually. In my opinion, Dan risked his job when he wrote that... kinda ballsy. He said, basically, there are people out there who are taking bribes in the form of ads to misrepresent the quality of games and the quantity of coverage dedicated to it.

Now your reactions should be "Well duh." and "So why didn't he say WHO!?"

The reason why is because he doesnt want to lose his job and cause EGM to go under with libel lawsuits. You can't just say magazine X is taking bribes: It would be so difficult to prove you were telling the truth AND it would be fairly easy for them to show economic damage from your writing.

So does it really happen? You bet it does. It happens to me a lot; not usually with large magazines and websites, but with the smaller ones. It ESPECIALLY happens with websites. I have found the further from "professional press" you get, the more rampant this becomes.

Is it a problem? No. Not exactly, at least.

This is my stance on the subject:
As long as the editor(s) in question offers to cover your product regardless of advertising or compensation, that is fine. If second, third, fourth, features, or "minimum scores" can be purchased; that is ok too. I consider it a form of value added advertising. It isn't very ethical, but you can't really stop it. As long as they are covering items independent of this practice, they are still OK in my book. If 10,000 dollars can buy you a five article spread on a fairly sizeable website I considering it nothing more than an advertorial. If you need 1,000 dollars to get the FIRST article on that site, I consider it corruption.

It doesn't say much for my belief in free journalism.

And for those who question if this was merely an EGM/CGW power play to gain an upper hand over the competition I can say...

CGW (owned by the same company as EGM) has never once brought this subject up to me and are, by far, the most likely major magazine to cover independent games. It doesn't mean it wasn't a power play, but I do not believe them to be corrupt by any standard at this time.

Journalists have been corrupt since the invetion of the printing press. Some of them are business men, and those are the dangerous ones.

Software Trademarks

2005-12-22T01:37:00.000-08:00

I had an interesting conversation today with Kellogg Creek Software (Power Politics, Spirit Wars) and it brought up a very important point.

This isn't in the book because it isn't something your average indie will worry about... however, it may be interesting for some of you readers out there to learn.

Trademarks and Tradenames do NOT protect your concept from large companies. Tradenames can protect your concept from small companies, about your size or smaller, but when a major corporation comes and steals your Tradename you are "Shit out of luck."

In the Kellog Creek Software incident, specifically, Hasbro infringed on KCS's Spirit Wars. The end result of the lawsuit nearly put KCS out of business, despite the fact they WON.

This is pretty common, and in talking with the owner he says the piece of advice he should have listened to was when another firm said the best thing to do when this case began was to write an appology letter to Hasbro and offer them (for free) the rights to his product.

Sounds crazy doesn it? Just keep in mind they have money and you don't. They have teams of lawyers and you don't. They play dirty as sin... and if you try to you'll be worse off for it.

So establish a copyright, trademark, and trade name, but do not think for a second it (or anything) you do makes you terribly safe from large corporations.

I've heard plenty of other horror stories like this, including a SECOND one from Hasbro.

Kudos to Kellogg Creek Software (www.kelloggcreek.com) for sticking to their guns and winning a settlement. Shame it couldnt amount to anywhere near the legal fees and lost time it caused.

-Joe

A Weekend With Nothing Done

2005-12-18T23:29:00.000-08:00

Took a break from writing this weekend. Was quite fun.

I made an important post at www.indiegamer.com recently that wasn't covered in the book, at least, not that I recall. I may slip it in yet:

The synopsis is this:

There are intangible benefits to doing business with YOUR company. For instance, you may have great customer service; fast, friendly and efficient. However, if the user is not aware of that fact BEFORE they make a purchase it won't impact your bottom line! Make sure users are aware of the benefits they get from dealing with your company directly.

The specific problem with customer service is, most of the time, when the problem reaches you the customer is already displeased. Customer service exists to create a sale the next time around, always remember that. Great customer service begins BEFORE the purchase is made by making them aware of the features and services you offer; not only to help sell the current product but so they know where to go when something goes wrong. Remember: Customer service shouldn't be looked at as a chore like fixing a dripping faucet, but instead at your LAST chance to turn a dead customer into a return customer.

It all starts before the purchase. End of story :)

-Joe

Minor Delays

2005-12-16T17:49:00.000-08:00

A quick status update:

I was hoping to have this sucker in print by the end of Jan/mid of Feb and I still do. A minor delay may be caused by a publisher who has taken interest in it. I will delay to hear what they have to say and what their offer is, as it would be foolish to do otherwise.

Hopefully they come to a decision quickly enough that I can meet my deadline one way or the other!

I also found a great editor who will be ripping my writing to shreds and putting it back together in a more orderly fashion.

Huzzah!

-Joe

PS: For anyone who has ever wondered how much it costs to create a book in terms of paying an editor/having a cover designed: The answer is I have found editors that range from 1.5 cents to 5.5 cents per word (and the skill varies with the price, pretty much). Book covers range between 200 and 500 dollars, or so. I anticipate this book will run me almost 2 grand before it begins selling... so at least you can get an idea of the risk involved with making a book!

Keeping it simple

2005-12-11T16:04:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Civ 3 I picked up a quote from Antoine de Saint-Exupery, which made it into my book.

“Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”

And so we make a post to keeping things simple, or KISS (Keep it simple, stupid.)

If you are making your first game, for gods sakes, make it something easy, simple, and fun. Putting 16 months into your first project is like investing all of your money in a single stock. Any smart investor will tell you it is a bad idea, and any veteran game designer will tell you the same thing about games.

Create a game you THINK you can do in 6 months. It will actually take you 12... and along the way you will learn MANY valuable lessons. This is much better than making a game you hope to complete in 16 months and finishing it 32 months later (this is NOT unrealistic, ask Inhuman Games (www.inhumangames.com) and Trash about their 5 year development cycle).

If you buy my book you'll at least have some idea of what to do and what not to do; but some lessons can not be learned from a book.

Oh, and here's another witty quote by the author on a similar subject:
"Avoid feature creep like you would avoid a movie named the same thing."

PS: The book will go to final editing in 2-4 weeks. Then I will do a test publish run and make sure it ends up looking alright. If anyone has a cover artist they reccomend please let me know!

Correlational and Causational Data

2005-12-03T19:27:00.000-08:00

One of the most important lessons from Consumer Behavior is correlative and causative data, and the understanding thereof. Understanding it is also handy when you are determining if someone is lying to you with statistics. Unfortunately neither the blog nor the book can go into enough depth on this topic to substitute for a class: but some research on your own time in both statistics and correlative data should prove very interesting.

Still, I can get into the basics with the blog and I am debating if this topic should (in slightly more depth) be covered in the book.

So: What is a correlation?

Correlation is a statistic way of showing that two variables are related to eachother. The lower the alpha value of a correlation (IE: Alpha= .05) the more "accurate" the correlation is. Alpha represents how CONFIDENT you are that your test is true. As a general rule, any alpha value over .10 (10% confidence) is pretty much useless in statistics.

There are tests, such as the Pearson Correlation that can help determine if something is statistically correlative, and I strongly urge anyone who doesn't remember or never learned about correlative tests to go do so.

However, what correlation is and how to calculate it isn't my subject. What is important is understanding a fundamental rule of correlation so that a massive mistake isn't made.

Even if you don't do a statistic test, it may be useful to think about how things correlate in your life. Does increasing your time spent marketing your game correlate with an increase in sales? Does changing the price correlate? And so on.

So what am I getting at? It is best exemplified two stories:
Anyone who has watched American football may have heard the following phrase:

"The team who runs the ball the most is almost always the winner." This statement is TRUE when you are talking about correlation. However, it is an UNTRUE statement. The reason is that correlation DOES NOT imply CAUSATION.

In this case the speaker says "X causes Y" because the team who runs more is more likely to win. However, the reality of this situation is that Y causes X. Because a team is winning they RUN MORE! For those who don't grasp the rules of football, a team that is winning can run more which eats up more of the clock, thus giving their opponents less time to catch up.

The alternative scenario is this: According to a famous research paper the following is true: "The shorter girls skirts get, the better the stock market performs." This statement, according to correlative data, is TRUE, however, anyone who stops and thinks about it knows that it is FALSE. The reason is, once again, CORRELATION does not show what CAUSES the event.

In this case, the third possible scenario is true: A factor that has not been considered (Z) is impacting both X and Y. In the above statement the Z variable is TIME. As time has gone on the stock market has gone up and girls skirts have gotten shorter. X and Y are unrelated to eachother but highly related to Z.

So what does this mean? The odds are, in games, you will rarely encounter a Y causes X scenario (though you should always keep it in mind, for those are the source of the largest mistakes!). However, whenever you say "Man, X caused Y" based on data that shows that as X changes Y changes (IE: As price goes up, profits go up), be very aware of the use of the word "Caused." It may be that a third variable (Z) is impacting your price / profit ratio: Such as a holiday, a review you didn't see, ect.

It could lead you to mistakenly leave your price high and hurt your profits until you realize your mistake!

Before this posts gets any longer than it will: Real quickly the only way to gain CAUSIAL data is to design a series of questions to rule out possible Z variables. This is why people conduct surveys and data mining operations. In general, determining causial data is very hard, very time consuming, and way beyond the scope of indie game development. Instead, rather than worry about statistically PROVING some event CAUSED some other event, just be aware of correlations and do your best to NOT assume that your correlation is 100% proof of CAUSATION.

Sorry for the ugly technical statistic post. However, it is important to me if anyone would find this remotely interesting to read about in a more clear fashion with actual examples (and maybe even an example of how to do a correlation test). If so, let me know, if not... We will assume the Blog covers it enough :)

Conclusion: Because data is connected (correlated) does not mean that it shows that your assumed cause for the change is true.

Game Marketing 4Ps

2005-11-27T11:02:00.000-08:00

Because it is a holiday weekend I will rehash a really old article I wrote for Gamedev.net ages ago. I may slip this into the book, but at the current time this isn't in it. The reason is because does not pertain directly to games, it is more general marketing philosophy to help move you into the mindset of thinking of sales factors.

So: Enjoy the links and the old articles! Happy Tofurkey day (we had a lot of vegetarian guests this year)

http://www.gamedev.net/reference/business/features/marketing101_1/

-Joe

Payment Processor

2005-11-19T11:41:00.000-08:00

Video Game Marketing isn't just about selling your game to others, it is also about the back end that supports your product. Included with the book is a handy chart that compares the prices of processing fees for games at various price points. Along with that is a list of each processor with a description and (if available) a list of payment types they accept.

There's more to this section than meets the eye though- If you think that price is the ONLY factor in payment processing you are only thinking of half the story. Service, chargebacks, and number of payment options are also major players in your decision making process.

While the book, from the objective standpoint that the reference guide is supposed to be, doesn't delve into who has the "best" service, it does discuss payment options and when available, chargeback fees.

Depending on the price of your product you will want different processors, but at the common 19.99 price there are usually three "leaders" that clearly are a cut above the rest. This information is not included in the book as I suspect the subjective nature of this is going to change rapidly and I do not want to misrepresent someone.

In no particular order they are:

Plimus - www.plimus.com Plimus recieves top marks in customer service and price (10%), with slight negatives on some questionable practices with download insurance. The price, customer service, and no chargebacks make Plimus a solid choice for anyone at a $20 price position.

BMT Micro- www.bmtmicro.com BMT Micro not only offers competitive rates (9.5% at the lowest tier) but also has a solid reputation after many years of business. BMTMicro also has a fairly decent affiliate system with lower costs than Regnow. However, they have a 7% chargeback fee at the lowest tier (that's 1.40 at $20) and also slightly less payment options than some other alternatives.

Digital Candle- www.digitalcandle.com Digital Candle is a low cost alternative with some distinct advantages- namely that they have a low price (10% with no minimum), no chargebacks, and accept Paypal payments. However, their reputation isn't quite as clean as others in customer service. Still, paypal payments are big and I am surprised others arent offering it. For whatever reason, good or bad, Digital Candle also runs some download sites.

Other altneratives are E-Sellerate and their built in sales DRM and Regnow, with their high prices, crappy service, but incredibly huge affiliate package (with extra fees).

If you want the complete breakdown the book will list all the information you need for high pricing, low pricing, and anything in between. There are 12 payment processors listed, but only the facts and none of the experiences and opinions I can list in the Blog. For the experiences you will have to ask around :)

And Civ4 Arrives

2005-11-15T10:31:00.000-08:00

Last week I wrote 40 pages of the book in a single sitting. This week I wrote 2. Reason: Civ 4. Productivity is currently down 95%... Thanks a lot Sid!

It is blasphemous to say this but the Civ series is a great example of cross selling through creation of sequels. Each civ game is great, but mostly each civ game is the SAME. Sure the effects are different, the graphics are different, and even some new items are added or taken away... but the core of the game is entirely unchanged. Yet like Civ 3, 2, and 1 I can not put it down. Change a few dynamics in your game and update the graphics; that's all it takes to create a sequel and SEQUELS SELL.

A section of the book is dedicated to sequel vs. non-sequel decisions... but the summary of it is they are both easier to market and easier to sell.

Current Mood: Angry that Persia launched their spaceship before I could achieve a cultural victory... I blame Tokugawa and Montazuma for their tagteam attack on me at a socially crippling time.

Horizontal vs. Vertical Niches

2005-11-12T00:12:00.000-08:00

Section 2, Chapter 1 of the unedited Indie Marketing Survival Guide (ok, that's just a test name... I think it needs to be shorter) is about Horizontal and Vertical Niches. What are they and most importantly, how they will affect the marketing of your product.

The unedited introduction currently says this on the subject:
"In the gaming world you will have the opportunity to create any game you can imagine. However, the best difference between a business and a hobby game designer is how they select the products they make. It doesn’t necessitate that the businessman does either horizontal or vertical development, just that they make a conscious choice on which one to go after."

Ok so that didn't tell you squat about either one. Unfortunately I can't cut and paste this whole section into my blog, so I will summerize it:

Horizontal is a mass market approach where you are targetting gamers or even genres. You are more likely to rely on large traffic sources and third parties, which will cost you a percent of profits, but have the opportunity to capture a very large population and with it a large amount of cold hard cash.

Vertical is a narrow market, you are targetting a type of person very specifically. You are most likely to really get your hands dirty in marketing a vertical game, going out there and seeking this tight knit target market (remember that from the earlier post?). Vertical games don't even need to target gamers- they just need to target people interested in something. Because you are doing a lot of the legwork here yourself, your margins should be higher. Often your risk will also be lower as well, though that depends mostly on competition and quality.

So, keep this tip in mind: If you are planning on making a product that you feel isn't going to be a smash hit with the mass market approach, try to alter it to better suit some vertical market. For instance my recurring example is Soap Box Racers, targeting gravity racing fans. A vertical product like that doesn't even need to be sold to racing gamers, you can sell it directly to gravity racing enthusiasts REGARDLESS of if they like video games! It all depends on your design, of course... and obviously people who DISLIKE video games won't be interested (they just don't have to identify themselves with gamers).

Aim vertical unless you have a plan to succeed in the mass market.

But maybe I just reccomend that because I am short... :)

More tips to come next weekend. And stay tuned during the week for general discussion on the process of printing your own book. Currently below this post you'll find the post on "what the heck size should this be." Currently 6x9 is in the lead.

Current Mood: Waiting for Civ4 to arrive...

What Size?

2005-11-10T17:32:00.001-08:00

So while I write I am considering the size of the book. Size affects a lot of factors involving how I will lay it out. While I am writing it, it is a 6x9 book.

Other options include 8.5x11 (which is much too large to be easy to hold or easy to lay out).

6.625x10.25, which is an interesting idea, gives it a more horizontal feel and slightly larger than 6x9.

9x7 Landscape which would give it a very hoiztonal feel

or a 7.5x7.5 square... which would give it a very .. er.. square look.

Personally I am debating between 6x9 and 7.5x7.5. Any opinions out there on what size they would prefer?

Target Market

2005-11-06T11:03:00.000-08:00

Remember: All of the excepts so far are unedited: This means they will contain glaring grammatic errors and maybe even some spelling ones.

The book is laid out in 6 chapters. Chapter 1-5 go through marketing in each stage of development. Chapter 6 is all about advaned theories.

The very first subject covered is target market. Here's an excerpt on target markets:

"So what is a target market? This is a group of people that are most likely to purchase your game. Target markets can be many factors or combinations of factors. Typically this is some kind of demographic; however, the common demographics (age, sex, race, ect) are the worst way to judge a target market. The best way to judge a target market is by interest or hobby. The second best way is by educational level. Only after that do you resort to general demographics as an attempt to identify a target. They are NOT mutually exclusive, so be sure to mark down as much as possible on each."

The topic goes on as follows:

"This information will be very valuable in both design and later marketing of your game! Always remember the group, education, and demographics of your target. If your target market is middle-school and higher, ensure that the text and learning curve on the game is scaled accordingly. Later-on it will give you an outlet for forming partnerships. Perhaps there is an international society for soap-box racers out there who would be more than happy to sell your game!"

Somewhere beforehand I talked about the fact that soap box racing will be my recurring example product. You'll see a lot of soap box racing references, despite the fact I actually know very little about gravity racing. Heck, I haven't even seen an X-games event in 5 years. Do they even still exist?

More great marketing information to come. Check back next weekend for the latest!

-Joe

Welcome to the Blog!

2005-11-06T10:16:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I should have jumped on this fad ages ago. I didn't... Mostly because I didn't need to and partially because I didn't want to be "one of those people." However, now I have something important to share... or at least important enough that it could result in someone learning something or improving their business.

I market video games. More over, I market independent video games from my company, VGsmart (www.vgsmart.com). Yep, my website needs to be updated.

Anyway, I am writing a book on the subject so that when people ask what experience I have I can accurately state "I wrote the book on the subject."

So once a week, maybe twice, I will inform the world of the book's status and take an interesting excerpt from it. By the end of this I hope the blog will entice you enough to buy the darn thing... but if not I hope the blog will give you some hints and tips marketing video games!

Enjoy!
-Joe Lieberman