6 replies to this topic

[speedchuck]

I don't understand game distribution here on the GMC. It is seemingly random that some games get a lot of comments, and some don't. I've seen great games that I really loved fall off of the WiP/Creations pages, and I've seen half-decent games become hot topics. What is the factor that decides how well the game will do? Is it luck? A well written topic?

And finally, when spreading a freeware game out beyond this forum and the sandbox, where do you go?

[rinkuhero]

tigsource.com, indiegames.com, and many other sites cover freeware games -- if you want to spread your game outside of the community you'd try sites like those

[Shades]

I'd probably try doing a Let's Play or something on Youtube to help get the word out.

[Sirosky]

I used IndieDB, it's pretty good and it really allows you to promote your game.

[millzyman]

I am currently doing a business degree (conjointed with a Computer Science degree of course ) and as apart of the initals papers I had to do I was required to do 2 business papers (I am specialising in Economics). And I think that I learnt something that was relevant to the gaming industry (actually it was used as an example) and could apply in this situation.

Spoiler

The best way to spread the word is the users of your product themselves. Consumers are achieving the target of perfect knowledge (an assumption of consumer buying behaviour) of a market these days. Believe it or not even though there is no monetary exchange involved, the GMC games section can still be seen as a market. Where you provide a game while they provide either feedback or simply another play and view to your topic. Consumers are currently the best way to spread the word because people no longer trust a business (or possibly the topic owner in this instance) as we have previously done so and rely on friends, family and other users in order to decide whether we will play the game or not.

When you think about some of the things that influence a user here:

* Member popularity - important, you are far more likely to play a game from someone that has a good reputation on the forums
* Topic presentation - it is more-so a catalyst and a first impression. It is like the cherry on the cake, you get the good inital impression and then it adds to the flavour as you eat the cake (or get the download).
* Genre popularity - we have seen massive increases in the number of zombie games. As this happened, the amount of plays in a lot of these games fell because people got sick of the same old zombie shooter.
* Consumers - the most vital asset to you (I know I call them consumers, you can know them as players). They will give the best advertising for your game and meanwhile provide good feedback for you.

These four things I believe are the most important to getting more players. Obviously there are basic fundamentals such as a catchy title, good description and other aspects that I haven't covererd here as I have just assumed that you have already thought of these.

So how do you apply these to getting more plays?

Well here is a modern business concept called Co-creating value. The co-creation of value is related to the player and the producer adding value (or 'sastifaction' is another word that could be used). You see this a lot in games where the users can mod games, or where they can change certain aspects of the game that make the product they have unique to them. This could be as simple as the colour scheme, to as complex as the manipulation of the game world itself. The main point of co-creating value is that the player is somehow involved in making a unique product. This is where you can apply these four parts above. Member popularity, genre popularity and topic presentation are all things that you provide in adding value to the product you provide the player, meanwhile then giving them the ability to make the game content unique to them.

This has been proven in business and the game industry to make much more successful products. For instance Skyrim, you can mod the game, character customisation, downloadable content etc. all makes Skyrim unique to every individual player which is one of the things that makes it so successful (obviously the popularity of previous games would be another one).

So to sum up that long paragraph and add someother points that may or may not have made sense, here is the bullet points:

* Don't forget the four fundamentals which are:
-popularity
-presentation
-genre
-consumer advertising (them talking about your product)

* Use customisation in and out of the game in order to create a unique product for each customer (co-create value) - this may seem silly but it has been proven to actually be successful in the gaming industry. Look at WoW and Skyrim both of them use customisation to co-create value.

* Encourage users to give feedback - this is important. People like to be heard and they want all the changes to be made that they suggest. The important thing is to have good public relation skills and address their problems individually and in a personalised manner.

* Find new distribution channels - so thats like IndieDB, indiegames, tigsource and such as everyone has been talking about. These are all new ways for your game to get plays

* People like a free lunch - give them an offer. Say 'play my multiplayer game now and get 1000 coins in game now. Limited from 17 September - 18 September'. May seem stupid but a lot of people like to put off things and you want to give them an incentive to play your game NOW!

Remember it isn't all just about whether you have a good game. You can have an amazing game and receive little views because you have only done half the job. The other half of the job is the marketing side and it holds great flexibility in how you go about it. You can do the bare minimum of advertising (like only a topic in the GMC) and still get many plays if you do ithe advertising effectively.


Sorry probably not your most conventional reply. If you want to understand the terms of value and co-creation of value better here are some links:

http://en.wikipedia....iki/Co-creation - Co-creation of value.
http://en.wikipedia....lue_proposition - Value creation / capturing (like the satisfaction they get from consuming your product).

[speedchuck]

*huge snip*

I must say, I read all of that and found it very helpful. Thanks!

[icymx]

GameJolt, Sandbox, Kongregate, GMC... And of course adding a link with a nice attractive picture to your signature on all forums where doing so is permitted. I'd also recommend filtering links to your game via Bitly so that you can track how many plays it's getting - probably more than you think.

Edited by icymx, 22 September 2012 - 03:03 PM.