HET234 – Journal Entry Week 9

Presenter

Martin Wilkes - mart...@addictiveagency.com.au

Presenter Outline
Martin talks about how important marketing is in the game industry.

How does the topic relate to the Games Industry?
Marketing is the only way of “cutting through” the competition and getting a release into the hands of people who want to purchase it. Minecraft had little obvious marketing activity, however with word of mouth and news stories the developers took a slightly different approach. By identifying Australia as a small market has a loud voice paid off when the USA and UK boosted sales.

By informing your customer that your release is available and what new features it hold makes advertising a marketing tool. Public relations (PR) is more about being nice to the right people this translate to writing nice things about you.

An independent (indie) group of 3 should consult their marketing and business plan rather than going straight to market. Having screen shots and demos ready is one thing, remaining focused on cash is the goal. Having quality work is very important and settling for 8/10 is not enough.

Getting the game ready for release:

• Name
• Description
• Demonstration
• A strong article
• Video
• Images / screenshots

A press release is a hook to expose what your product is. It should include a zip file containing plain text, video and images. Now you’re ready to refer back to your previous PR networking connections. Having these items greatly helps when getting initial feedback before the official press release.

Launching locations:

• Gamespot
• The age blog
• Game arena

If you get a bad response, follow up and ask why! Don’t just release without the green light from at least a single critical response. The Australian market is a sharing group of people; find someone who is going to point you in contact with good people. Get feedback before going into a formal review.

Working on the press release, use the 120 days countdown and get the print marketing sorted first then move to get a review from someone senior. Creating exclusives is the kick back journalist get when your product is a success as they get recognition for being first to find you. Make sure thorough usability tests have been completed. By this time you have your plan, use this time to get your website up. Once you have release you need to contact and follow up with people that need to know, especially people that are taking an interest.

Newspapers are probably the biggest medium however are only valid for the day, although magazines are less supporting they exist much longer with 30 days of read time. The concern with Facebook is that the title needs to be charged to the purchaser. People who pay for games spend more on in-game purchases, those who don’t wont. Having a Facebook page is the easiest way to market, building a market is harder. Facebook is free although takes much time to produce results. Make sure to delete negative feedback, forums also have ability to kill enthusiasm. It may be easier to just pay for people to like it through advertising.

Big exhibition events such as GDC have media lists, obtain these also from Google, then start cold calling. Most Journalists that write for iPhones are juniors and while there is approximately 15 websites for Iphone it is increasingly difficult to publish on these.

Manage where your press releases go. Management of conversation is a huge task, people who put the effort in to reply will get more interest. Feedback is important however if those comments start to add up to a page-full of negatives, you need to avoid this by addressing the first issue as it arises rather than letting them pile up risks losing any credibility. Getting media clout helps enforce the power of positives, these journalists and their affiliates will be more inclined to support you. Don’t argue with people as there is a lot of people that talk shit for no reason.

The work flow for an indie releasing a title for free should include around 6 additional sub-releases so that way you keep customers in the loop and up-to date. At the same time as development write the press release article, then as you approach the final version to release (free or pay for purchase) you will be able to up sell add-ons for example different ships and guns and the 99c cost of purchase. Consider $6.99 for unlimited updates. Martin used the “Don’t flog a dead horse” when explaining the importance of moving onto the next project. Reward customer loyalty helps strengthen the brand and product, with an eye on the horizon to potentially franchise the game so that everyone buys it globally after EA picks it up and releases for you. While Martin speaks of high ideas he has no doubt brushed alongside many successful people and has obviously gained great practical knowledge, his positive nature brings relief to the low morale of budding game development students.
How does the topic relate to my own ambitions in the Games Industry?
The use of a company globally is important, rather than locally as a sole trader. So when it comes to leaving university and doing work its probably best to setup a company if you have a clear purpose otherwise it will distract away from your primary objective. The company name is not as important as focusing on the product, not as much as the business structure.

University with its deadlines is a great motivator to get the white sheet of certification, however I feel the indie world would require great dedication, discipline and ambition. The payoff is a fulfilling career that is within your control.

Bridh Athanatos

Wicked Witch Software

9/381 Bayswater Rd, Bayswater, Vic, Australia, 3153
Office +613 97200597 - www.wicked-witch.com.au

Presenter
Daniel Visser

Presenter Outline
Daniel refers to himself as a typical nerdy kid, at 8 he got his first 8bit computer, installed with basic. Later in life he joined clubs to gain information on computer programming. He began working/playing on MUD games, Atari, Intel 386’s and progressed all the way up through the technology chain being an early adopter of technologies such as the Internet and 3D video cards.

After TAFE, Daniel continued on to program games at home and release as shareware. He discussed the problems with cobalt as a programming language for games, and remarked that it was the only language suitable 10-15 years ago. Daniel touched on assembler, and mentioned how important problem solving is within his business.

Entering the games industry as a programmer, Daniel is constantly updating his skills and speaks passionately about the importance of learning maths.

Trickstar Games Pty Ltd

80/88 Greville Street, Prahran, Victoria 3181, Australia.

Presenter
Justin Halliday

jhal...@trickstargames.com

Presenter Outline
Justin has been in the games industry for 20 years. He first started at Beam Software, bug testing games at a small office with around 20 people. He then moved from designer to a producer who still dabbles in design. Trickstar games is a small organisation that succeeds through outsourcing and keeping a small team of 16, not 100.

The question posed to the lecture theatre, what career path to take, designer versus programmer?

Working in the games industry

Paul Callaghan

“Paul Callaghan is a freelance writer, game developer, educator, and co-director of the Freeplay Independent Games Festival. An active member of the development and education community, Paul has spoken about writing for games, play, what education can learn from game development, and the fundamentals of game design at the National Screenwriters’ Conference, GCAP, VITTA, the Emerging Writers’ Festival, the State Library of Victoria, Screen Australia, ACMI, CAE, RMIT, and is working with on a games and games literacy project with the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development. He currently sits on the board of the Game Developers Association of Australia, the advisory committee for the Australian Teachers of Media 2011 Conference Screen Futures, and the advisory panel for if:Book Australia. Away from games, he has written award-winning short-stories, short films, comics, too many non-fiction articles to count, and is currently working on a novel.” – (Jon Yeo 2011)

How does the topic relate to the Games Industry?

With Paul’s relevant experience in programming, designing and writing it’s no surprise that he has a lot to say about what’s going on in the immediate future of the computer games industry.  Interestingly, he speaks about the unknown in the distant long term future and compares the current technologies to yesterdays “pong”, which pales in comparison to the possibilities of the future.

Paul uses the Iphone as an example, as a medium that independent developers 5 years earlier had little or no hope of proving themselves in the global market place. The possibility was not available.