aka. “I don’t want to do that stuff because I prefer working on my game

instead.”

Game PR & Marketing ‘101’

#gamemarketing

Table of contents• Who am I

• PR & Marketing Crash Course

• Handy tips & tricks

• Summary

• Questions

#starttalkingalready

Who am I?This is a lecture by

Vlad MicuDid freelance journalism, consulting, event management and

research under own company

VGVisionary.comUsed to be the European editor of

Gamesauce MagazineWrote for many other international outlets including

GMR magazine, Control Magazine, Bashers.nl, Gamert.nl,

CriticalGamer.co.uk, XBLAFans.com & Game Mode Magazine

And now went Indie since April 3rd to work on

Snobli RunThis slide’s design is inspired by

Brandon Boyer @brandonnn

#thatguy

What is game marketing?#e3

=

#bs

From the start: The 4 Ps#peepeepeepee

Why you need it

“Obscurity is a greater threat than piracy"

- Tim O'Reilly

#ninjasalwayswin

VS

Why you need it even more

That’s you

#somanygames

Why you will need it foreverThere are

390+ games on XBLA

577+ on WiiWare188+ on PSN Minis5748+ on iPhone* & 554+ on iPad*

*(that are covered in PocketGamer.co.uk’s database)

How many can you name?

#theendingsucked

The obvious chores• Build a website, write blogs

• Join communities, post there

• Make a Facebook Page, wait

• Twitter account, troll people

• Annoy your friends

Add interesting quote about why this stuff is still important

here

#boring

What you can do right away in Four Easy Steps

“You want to get yourself out there, as much as your game.”

– Phil Fish (Fez)

#isignedsomeonesboobtoday

Step 1: PR ≠ Marketing• Get yourself out there

– Talk to blogs

– Do interviews

– Participate in communities

– Join podcasts/contribute

– Don’t spend money, just talk

#pubicrelations

Stay true to yourself

“I have a personal philosophy to PR. I really try to do things that stay true to the

development of the game. I really am not a big fan of the ‘cheesy.’ I am not a big fan of beating our own chests or telling everybody

how great we think we are. I’m a big believer in ‘walk softly and carry a big

stick’.”  - Pete Hines (Bethesda)

#learnfromthepros

Learn to spin as well!• Even bad PR is good!

– Screwups double the press

– Piracy is always a nice issue

– Linux port, do it!

#humbleindiebundle

“If you support Mac and Linux as an independent developer you have a good chance

of doubling your revenue.”- John Graham (Wolfire)

Step 2: Create Assets• Post them

everywhere

– Make a DeviantArt account for your concept art

– Post gameplay videos on YouTube

– Publish and spread screenshots (just 1 can do magic)

#prettycolours

One screenshot to rule them all!

Step 3: Join (and participate in) Communities

• Make friends

– Comment on other people’s projects

– Ask questions, find help

– Support others in their work, too

#friendsareuseful

Step 4: Understand how press works

#davidvsgoliath#inversefunnel

Any attention is awesome

“I implemented a dialog popup in my other games that asked the user if

they'd like me to e-mail them when I released a new game. Since that

time, amazingly, I have been able to collect over 30,000 e-mails.”

– Andrew Garrison (BridgeBasher, SimplePhysics)

#spamandeggs

Don’t force itDon’t act desperate or force

attention to yourself.• People can now find you on

Google!• You will get

– Fan art– Likes– Followers– Retweets – More followers!– And lots of other viral

marketing treats!• Those metrics, numbers,

feedback show you how many people are interested in your game (and will end up buying it).

“Promote your game, but make it look like you’re not trying” - Kyle Gable of 2D Boy (WORLD OF GOO)

#celebrity

Why you don’t need it• #1 reason: It takes away

time from your development process

• Your daddy owns Activision

• Found the magic formula to turn code into gold.

• The press already adores you and went through your garbage last night.

• Your game is so awesome, nobody will ignore it.

Build it and they will come, if you’re lucky (like Minecraft)!

#onemanarmy

Some handy tricks#clipartrules

#1 - Use SEO and be unique

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimalization

#gamenamegenerator

Tag yourself every time!• Come up with a unique name and

domain.

• Embrace Google. – Google Analytics ftw!– Google Pagerank is your friend– Start asap for yourself!

• Tag you and your stuff on Youtube, favorite others.

• Start using Social Media – Aaargh (I hate it too).

Make yourself findable

#brandingiron

The case of Snobli Run

Snobli or Snobly?

#selflessselfpromotion

Snobli Run vs Monica Snobli#googledominationtakestimetoo

#2 Don’t forget social media

And remember: Write 20% about yourself, 80% about

others

#tigerblood

#3 Have the Look#I<3gearbox

“One of the hardest parts of the job when trying to get people to look at games is

having something that is interesting to look at. Just in the fact that we did a very

dramatic change, which was perceived to be late in development, everybody was

looking.” – Steve Gibson, VP of Marketing at Gearbox about

Borderlands

Make it special. Make it yours

•Make it personal

• It has to be easy to describe and easy to love.

•Make it ‘pop’

#brandingiron

#4 Find your champions

“Militarise your fanbase.”

– Kieron Gillen (former game journalist)

#battlefield

Funnel them out#embracethefunnel

Pick the right ones• You need advisors

– “There’s two types of people you should have play your games, first is your advisors, and you can’t have too many of those because you’ll get conflicting information. For me very early on Dan Paladin from The Behemoth helped out […] He kept the game from being more cerebral, which is what I tend to do, and made it more arcade and snappier.”

-Andy Schatz (Monaco)

#superbestfriends

Listen to the rest• You need supporters

– “Who don’t know shit about games. […] What you do want to listen to, is their impression of the game.[…] Their impressions and experience are always right.”

#superbestfriends

“Have people playing your game from like day two.”

– Andy Schatz (Monaco)

Ask your champions• Three important

things:

– What do you like

– What do you not like

– What confused you?

#homework

Marketing = Research

#5 Show your Face

“As an indie, you’re half the story.” – Phil Fish

#lookingatbadges

A Test#nerdherd

A Test#whereswaldo

#6 Act like you’re already successful (in a good way)

#notlikebritney

“In order to get people to pay attention to you, pay attention

to them first.” - Manuel Saint-Victor (InfiniteUnity3D.com)

Use your voice#helpmehelpyou

• Visit other studios

• Play other games

• Help other people out

• Make fan art/tributes

• Interact

• Give people credit

• Give tools credit

I <3 Vlambeer

#7 Deal with the stress

“If you’re a one man or two man show, by far the biggest thing you can do is make a great game.”

– Andy Schatz (Monaco)

#thinkoutsidethebox

Getting things doneJust want to make the

game, not do marketing as well?

• Tough luck pal, it’s part of the job.

• Marketing starts from day 1 of development.

• Still too lazy? – Have a friend help you. It might

be his/her big break into the game industry!

– Be prepared to let go and involve them

– Ask others for advise. Everybody loves giving their opinion!

#delegatelikegaia

Read a book about it• Loose ends eat up

energy, be aware of them.

– Don’t think about everything you need to do to market your game all the time.

– Think of it once, write it down and move it up to when you have time.

– Dump all of it in a document and go on with making your game.

#lifehacker

Summary• Blog

• Do your research!

• Make a game, get it ready and send it in for next year’s IGF (or any other competition)

• Google alerts

• Be friendly to other devs/fans/press

• Continuous marketing effort. Just a little bit each day

Download this book

It’s 4 years old, but still.

#scottsteinberg

References/Further Reading• Most importantly:

http://www.pixelprospector.com/indev/2010/08/the-big-list-of-indie-marketing-and-business-tips/• http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/aSGuest87210-848525-tmg-advertising/ • http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/4117/building_buzz_for_indie_games.php• http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=22866• http://www.joystiq.com/2011/03/01/super-meat-boy-postmortem/• http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/4230/postmortem_ronimo_games_swords__.php• http://gamesauce.org/news/2011/01/19/studio-spotlight-codeglue-in-rotterdam/• http://www.gamedevradio.net/?p=151• http://www.gdcvault.com/free • http://dragonmaw.tumblr.com/post/4273836091/indie-game-developer-meme• http://gillen.cream.org/wordpress_html/?page_id=693 • http://bashers.nl/gdc-dagboek-deel-een-virtual-worlds-en-indiegames (Dutch)• http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/BrendaBrathwaite/20090721/2537/Why_Game_Developers_Sh

ould_Get_on_Twitter.php

• http://skullsoftheshogun.com/?p=102 • http://christophermpark.blogspot.com/2010/07/wearing-multiple-hats-is-tough-and-pr.html • http://www.pamorama.net/2010/03/03/35-great-social-media-infographics/

#readallofthis

Contact me• I’m in ur campus, working in ur Gamelabz

• Will be staying in the guest lecturer house at Talo 6 #F28. Look me up there in the evening and let’s play some beer pong.

• Mail me at v.micu@vgvisionary.com

• @vgvisionary

• Website: www.vgvisionary.com

#imlonely

Sauna, Beer + talking games

• Tomorrow (Tuesday 17th) after my 2nd lecture

• Bring a towel and some snacks to Talo 6 #F28. Cold beers will be in the fridge.

• Share your opinion, ask questions, let’s talk making games and selling them!

• First come, first serve. As long as we all fit in the sauna !

#letstalk