low-zag: marketing

‏إظهار الرسائل ذات التسميات marketing. إظهار كافة الرسائل

Pig Eat Ball announcement trailer!

Pig Eat Ball announcement trailer!

Oh wow, I started working on Pig Eat Ball back in January 2013... it's 3.5 years later and I *finally* feel ready to "reveal"...

مزيد من المعلومات »

4:44 ص

Creating Your Own Genre

<a href="http://www.pigeatball.com/"><i><b>Pig Eat Ball</b></i></a> is a tough game to describe succinctly. I've reworked the tagline about "getting fat and barfing" many times, but I've also been working on just what category the game falls into.<br /><br />Recently I've changed the genre-blend description of <i>Pig Eat Ball</i> to "<b>Arcade-Adventure</b>" which I've not seen used before.<br /><br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzGPjf89ucrTIxGNvAtHColhU_Hhi2dmMSg6kkvtxEP28Jh969DXXolE7GCUm1XBk2MB3qPdkXwSByJ8-UXzI3vAB9wDfIJb3ObrjKg3cBm79v79kyAfNN8jtE3BaQE96eDsMUKC9LMVuL/s1600/pigEatBallGame+2016-10-21+11-43-04-92.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzGPjf89ucrTIxGNvAtHColhU_Hhi2dmMSg6kkvtxEP28Jh969DXXolE7GCUm1XBk2MB3qPdkXwSByJ8-UXzI3vAB9wDfIJb3ObrjKg3cBm79v79kyAfNN8jtE3BaQE96eDsMUKC9LMVuL/s400-rw/pigEatBallGame+2016-10-21+11-43-04-92.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Here is a particularly maze-heavy level with butane torches turning on/off in a maze of screens.</td></tr></tbody></table><br />We've been working on the genre description since the beginning. The problem is when you're dealing with a new, strange blend of games, what can you say to link it to the fun things people have already played?<br />The best fit games we've come up with so far includes:<br /><ul><li><i>Super Monkey Ball</i></li><li><i>Battle Block Theater</i></li><li><i>Assault Android Cactus</i></li></ul><b>Originally, </b>we first started with "Puzzlish Adventure", a new game description.<br />We worked hard on the word "Puzzlish" to convey to people that the game is "light puzzle solving with action" but I don't feel like, based on reactions I've heard, that this was effective.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieuT6xsmtoYZ8FPQD6yLkW_7XThh01T-wz41WxRv4yQV2Jy4kauWp3__5MKyP-aEw9Lt4HpFLlpT8_mt-sUKRCgOFFJfXKUsGlg53dWS1ru3pmo6AvjEBfEDl0Pvl-VckpxR51123XhbbL/s1600/pigEatBallGame+2016-07-28+16-12-07-90.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieuT6xsmtoYZ8FPQD6yLkW_7XThh01T-wz41WxRv4yQV2Jy4kauWp3__5MKyP-aEw9Lt4HpFLlpT8_mt-sUKRCgOFFJfXKUsGlg53dWS1ru3pmo6AvjEBfEDl0Pvl-VckpxR51123XhbbL/s400-rw/pigEatBallGame+2016-07-28+16-12-07-90.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Intricate, busy, chaotic levels which are a blast to conquer, are the hallmark of Pig Eat Ball levels.</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><b>Then </b>we switched to "Action Adventure", which is a very common genre name. <br />But Action Adventure conjures up too much fantasy hack and slash and <i>Zelda</i>-style games and we don't want people thinking that. <i>Metroid</i> is an Action-Adventure, but it has the platforming sub-genre to help distinguish it. <i>Pig Eat Ball</i> is a top-down action game, that has hundreds of quick-to-play levels, but is also tied together with giant overworld areas to explore, NPCs to interact with, and mini-quests to embark upon.<br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik3CM5sr0ZJA7F9reiwWNuSRFQwPKORIYpHvMdW3bjRoVw0ERRKUpeGxXiJrtw6qICefCEbPx9Oe6VoovTQdwEKTiV5DPChjREyjJi1wYUhux1R52z-pTq8kmmbgH0LcooCBGtiOpzXaX9/s1600/pigEatBallGame+2016-10-21+11-34-24-51.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik3CM5sr0ZJA7F9reiwWNuSRFQwPKORIYpHvMdW3bjRoVw0ERRKUpeGxXiJrtw6qICefCEbPx9Oe6VoovTQdwEKTiV5DPChjREyjJi1wYUhux1R52z-pTq8kmmbgH0LcooCBGtiOpzXaX9/s400-rw/pigEatBallGame+2016-10-21+11-34-24-51.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Another great arcade-style level, in which you're trapped, frantically dodging spike balls as they fall while eating yummies.</td></tr></tbody></table><br />With our "closest games list" in mind, we switched to listing the distinguishing points of the game:<br /><ul><li>Hundreds short arcade-like action levels</li><li>Large overworlds to explore</li><li>Over-arching story with hand-created levels (no grinding, not procedural)</li><li>Top-down action (no platforming)</li><li>NPCs to interact with, mini-quests to embark upon (not just a list of levels)</li></ul>Looking at this list, we tried to find the two closest, large categories that would fit.<br /><br /><b>We came up with </b>"<b>Arcade-Adventure</b>". This name is working pretty well on all accounts. It's meant to make you think of an arcade experience, but with the longer play time and exploration of an Adventure game.<br /><br />Combined with the pixel art and the short level play-times I think the Arcade prefix fits the best.  <br />The game also has some "arcade homage" levels that we'll be revealing down the road that will help bridge the game between the 8-10 hour gameplay time and the arcade feel.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik8nW9-bZj09xOGT0P6OrGhTOROzGhoyri-qZH6zTEEhrbVtFeEHUGaiMiSEzxoYASrzQ9tSEdYlKZHd8wZ5AhhVAeCFgzJO51h5v412dgxqtxiQqAtsC60Zhjt48ZXhThWnIYmcrH4TF0/s1600/pigEatBallGame+2016-10-21+11-34-54-48.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik8nW9-bZj09xOGT0P6OrGhTOROzGhoyri-qZH6zTEEhrbVtFeEHUGaiMiSEzxoYASrzQ9tSEdYlKZHd8wZ5AhhVAeCFgzJO51h5v412dgxqtxiQqAtsC60Zhjt48ZXhThWnIYmcrH4TF0/s400-rw/pigEatBallGame+2016-10-21+11-34-54-48.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bosses are large, and it's lots of fun to figure out how to defeat them!</td></tr></tbody></table>What do you think? Would any recent games you can think of fit a genre called "Arcade-Adventure"?<br />Sound off in the comments, thanks!<br /><br />

Creating Your Own Genre

Pig Eat Ball is a tough game to describe succinctly. I've reworked the tagline about "getting fat and barfing" many times, bu...

مزيد من المعلومات »

9:06 ص

How to Show Your Game at a Non-Gaming Expo

In addition to the big shows like PAX and GDC, Mommy's Best Games has shown our games at some very small events. Comic Cons, Pinball Expos, Table-Top shows, Coding events, you may have some of these different events in your area that might let you show games there. In fact, this weekend is the Louisville Arcade Expo, a very fun show we've been showing at for several years. <br />With that in mind, here are some tips for showing at an event that *does not* feature recently-made video games as the main attraction!<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuNrkUr9EPxvLfAJHNPOTgdwLPLVSLlJZRf1vuB2z0Q2xV7rPTPZh5iUgH_A8Tc2uH3BWYvYaLhzlyfW4v9oui8lxOOHQXPV2pbrF9hySAU8MOec2uMG83caT88NMVcLFHJLZb1NTDzfBM/s1600/WP_20150418_013.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuNrkUr9EPxvLfAJHNPOTgdwLPLVSLlJZRf1vuB2z0Q2xV7rPTPZh5iUgH_A8Tc2uH3BWYvYaLhzlyfW4v9oui8lxOOHQXPV2pbrF9hySAU8MOec2uMG83caT88NMVcLFHJLZb1NTDzfBM/s400-rw/WP_20150418_013.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My lovely wife showing our iOS game "Finger Derpy" at the KY Science Center</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><h3>Free Play</h3>The games are free to try out! You're offering free demos!<br />You  know that, but for the general public tugging their kids through the  busy show, everything else is vendor tables. And vendor tables means  *things cost money*. It's weird in their minds to come across a booth that let's you play games for free. Some people don't know this. The  easiest thing we've found, in addition to simply saying the games are  free play, is putting up a simple  'FREE PLAY" sign on a sheet of paper. Obviously, you can get fancier than that if you want.<br />(If your expo  is organized enough to have all the indie games together, clearly  marked, you may not need this, so that's cool! )<br /><br /><h3>Non-Gamers</h3>Be nice when showing your game, and understand lots of people there are probably not 'hardcore' and may possibly be put off by your game. Don't take it personally about your game--you are simply getting a very large slice of the general public at non-gaming shows. <br />Don't be surprised if you get some kids playing, but the Mom or Dad does not want to play. If you have chairs, offer them a seat while the kids play and they may be more interested in your game!<br /><br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO7DS_IqFnxs1psE8DFp4EDGPq_iXE9GQdG_AHL03YgQK4H-gH6fRC4hJKsm5QpOq44c37DouJLpXCC7QTqEutUtT0VKP3NnsjaIhYF8utELaoMQ3HeFn5LuNLcc_seBhagp-MN6f4eLID/s1600/WP_20150919_001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO7DS_IqFnxs1psE8DFp4EDGPq_iXE9GQdG_AHL03YgQK4H-gH6fRC4hJKsm5QpOq44c37DouJLpXCC7QTqEutUtT0VKP3NnsjaIhYF8utELaoMQ3HeFn5LuNLcc_seBhagp-MN6f4eLID/s400-rw/WP_20150919_001.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A family getting into our Steam game "Shoot 1UP" at the Louisville Mini-Maker Fair</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><h3>Xbox 360 guide button</h3>If you use Xbox 360 controllers and have Steam running, and a user accidentally holds the Guide button it will stop your game and bring up Big Picture mode. This is really annoying.<br />Users are having a blast with your game, but may be so enamored that  they don't notice they are holding the wrong button to do something. It may  seem obvious "Just don't hold that button" but for some reason Valve  has not released a simple option to disable BP mode for the Guide  button.<br /><br />The easiest fix is to not have Steam running. Have a DRM-free version of your game without running Steam. There are also Steam community threads in which people are trying to figure out workarounds to it.<br /><br /><h3>Locally-Made, Recently-Made</h3>A lot of regular folks are still coming around to the idea that video games are being made in their own backyard! They may be pretty surprised to learn that you are developing games there. Take some time to explain the cool thing to them and if they express interest in game development, mention your local development support group! Here in Louisville, it's <a href="http://louisvillemakesgames.org/">Louisville Makes Games</a>.<br /><br />The other thing we've noticed is a lot of these shows will have <i>Super Smash Bros</i> or <i>Mario Kart</i> or some other tournament running at the event. That's some tough competition to show your game against! The important thing is to communicate that you are personally making the game they are playing now, and it was made recently--not by a huge, well-funded company (such as Nintendo).<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV9Ua5Y1ebguYzrvWAhEGj6VFvMeh7SJWairylf1gYJtwUDYmlO0pob4dhqTt1IqG9fnDKUcwEVsdSzoV7gfUAJ70Cl7G4AFdoHw9O5YAv4t8i-dW0vNC8q0jt6KbaeYzyR8DOhRma9wv_/s1600/WP_20150306_011.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV9Ua5Y1ebguYzrvWAhEGj6VFvMeh7SJWairylf1gYJtwUDYmlO0pob4dhqTt1IqG9fnDKUcwEVsdSzoV7gfUAJ70Cl7G4AFdoHw9O5YAv4t8i-dW0vNC8q0jt6KbaeYzyR8DOhRma9wv_/s400-rw/WP_20150306_011.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The MBG booth at the Louisville Arcade Expo 2015, with our upcoming "Pig Eat Ball".</td></tr></tbody></table><h3>Expo Experience</h3>Most of the regular expo moves still apply here. For example, if you want people to remember your game's name tomorrow, print cards and hand them out! You can get 500 custom cards for under $20 at GotPrint, or basically for free if you print them on a 8.5"x11" sheet and cut out a few dozen by hand (or on stock paper). Remember to mention your release date and platform if you have one. And of course take extra cords, connectors, monitors, tape, sanitizer, drinks, signs, snacks, and controllers for backup and any other booths that need help!

How to Show Your Game at a Non-Gaming Expo

In addition to the big shows like PAX and GDC, Mommy's Best Games has shown our games at some very small events. Comic Cons, Pinball Exp...

مزيد من المعلومات »

7:24 ص

"The 3 That's" for Your Game

<h4>"The Deluge"</h4>You know that scene in some movie where the wave is so high, it's over the view of the camera, and it's going to crush the heroes? Well the players are the heroes, and that wave is made out of potential entertainment. Games, movies, TV, books. It's practically infinite, and you're trying to make money in the business. Good luck.<br /><br /><h4>"Flash Memory"</h4>Yes of course. You do get some flash-moments in front of people's eyes. Here and there, you do get times to catch their eye. Someone's Retweet, Facebook share, Steam's recommendation. It's possible. That is what I'm working on improving for my game (and maybe you are too) so I wrote this for myself. It's a sort of an action-list. Or one-sided argument. So this is mostly for me, but if it helps others, that's groovy.<br />  <br />I'm getting <a href="http://www.facebook.com/PigEatBall"><i>Pig Eat Ball</i></a> ready for Early Access on Steam. It's really scary. I know it needs more work and more polish. I've made <a href="http://store.steampowered.com/search/?developer=Mommy%27s%20Best%20Games">other games on Steam</a>. Somehow it seems to get harder rather than easier.<br />Here's what I figure someone should say when seeing my game.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b><i>Desired Player Reaction</i> </b><br /><b>or </b><br /><b>"<u>The 3 That's</u>"</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>1. What is that? </b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>2. I have not done that. </b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>3. I want to do that.</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><h4>"What is that?"</h4>Your game has to be instantly recognizable. The  same of course goes for movies, children's books, comics, any visual  medium. When you see my game, I want you to *know* for certain it is <i>Pig  Eat Ball</i>. Not some other pixel-art retro looking game. It's very difficult to find a unique, intriguing style.<br />So far, the best way I've found is to enhance the qualities unique to your game, through gameplay, but also through your art. My game has lots of kinda-gross-funny barf. So I continue to find ways to "up the barf".<br /><br />And if you see my game, and don't know the name, <b>I want you to want to find out</b>.  You need a look for your game, such that if the viewer does not know the game's name, they'll still remember the look for next time that they see it.  And hopefully they'll actually find out the name, and want to learn  more.<br /><br /><u>Ask yourself:</u> What is the thing in my game, that when player's see it, they'll know it's <b>my game</b>? Is there something unique? What exactly is it? Can it be improved or enhanced?<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3c9eS0hcxIHQy62yUsXv4mZcxeyVyQmnfTU2RBS4tCt4TQ3iXzJK2I3Fh1ljdoli3EhnFebwNkSLR_XwlkFU_cc-GN9mO3voabxPZObgWCE9c3OoQQxqIIRrnD6J8oW6LBkPS8JmtvzqC/s1600/PEB_midbarf_Feb2016.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="312" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3c9eS0hcxIHQy62yUsXv4mZcxeyVyQmnfTU2RBS4tCt4TQ3iXzJK2I3Fh1ljdoli3EhnFebwNkSLR_XwlkFU_cc-GN9mO3voabxPZObgWCE9c3OoQQxqIIRrnD6J8oW6LBkPS8JmtvzqC/s640-rw/PEB_midbarf_Feb2016.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The current 'barf situation', not perfect, still refining it.</td></tr></tbody></table><h4>"I want to do that" </h4>When someone sees your game, you want them to say: "I want to do that". It's a very simple goal for your trailer or gif. When they see a movie trailer, they should want to watch more. Games are different--people should want to do, to operate, the very thing they are watching in the trailer. It should get them excited to do the thing you are showing them. If you can't communicate that, you're doomed. At the end of the trailer, does the person know the cool thing to do in your game? Do they want to be in your game world?<br /><h4>"I have not done that"</h4>*You* know your game is fun. You are taking for granted that they, the viewer, think it is fun. Meditate on this: <b>The viewer does not think your game is fun.</b> They have no idea. This is the hardest part--the ephemeral part. You have to communicate the fun parts of your game, to a cold person--someone who has no impression of your game.<br />I love running and shooting in games. I love shooting monsters. I love jumping on platforms. But I have played many of these. It's very common for me to see a game, that has these components, but the video has not convinced me that it has something unique to offer.<br />Is the game hiding something cool? Perhaps. But I will never know. If the game 'spoiled' a cool looking thing in the trailer, I may have gone for it, and played the game. But as it stands, I will never play that game. Maybe if it didn't hold back, and showed me the cool thing, I would be more interested.<br /><h4>"75% in the trailer"</h4>Whenever I watch any game trailer, I assume the game only spoiled 75% of the cool parts in the trailer. If you showed me 3 really cool things, and I want to experience those 3 cool things, then I'll hope for one more hidden cool thing. If you show me only 1 thing that is half-way cool, I now assume you have one other thing that is only-sorta-barely cool that you are hiding. So if you spend your trailer only showing me something sorta-cool, but you are in fact hiding 3 amazing things from my view--I'll never know (or not for a very long time), because I've passed on your game.<br /><h4>"Not the last boss!" </h4>No one wants the final cool thing to be spoiled in the trailer. Why? Well, obviously the surprise of the final boss/area/thing is ruined. But I think the real sadness would be, that it would mean your game doesn't have enough to show me--that instead only the final conflict--the thing most people will never get to it, had to be used in the trailer, in order to build up enough cool things to show me a single minute worth of your game. That would be sad.<br /><h4>"What else is there?"</h4>But you may say, "but what if they only think there is barf (or whatever) in your game?"  Well, now you have a good problem. The problem is, you have their attention, and you have to find "the rest" to tell them more. That's okay, you'll find more. But the first part is, getting their attention. This is about making sure, they even know about your game *at all*. Focus on that right now.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b>1. What is that? </b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>2. I have not done that. </b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>3. I want to do that.</b></div>

"The 3 That's" for Your Game

"The Deluge" You know that scene in some movie where the wave is so high, it's over the view of the camera, and it's going...

مزيد من المعلومات »

6:50 ص

Case Study: One Game's Amazing Click-Rate on Steam

(Vagueness: The take-away points of this will be intact, but if I act vague about exact numbers or certain practices, it's because I don't want to violate the non-disclosure agreement we (and other developers) have with Valve regarding their store.)<br /><br /><h3>TL:DR</h3>That little, tiny strip of your game logo on Steam is really, really useful. Take a second look at it, and try to improve it to grab more eyes. Also, consider tweaking your Tags.<br />Unless you've released on Steam before, you probably don't know how extremely powerful that slot is.<br /><br />We had <a href="http://store.steampowered.com/sub/76770/">4 games released in one day</a>, and we compare and contrast why one game got a lot more clicks than others.<br /><h3>The Steam Front Page</h3>This article is about examining a tiny sliver of art which very much influences how much traffic ends up on your game's Steam page. As we can see by visiting the main page on Steam, there are several categories where games are shown.<br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz3WqsG3JQFopCbfjObCJV27uu6Vsec1qLDV35yHk4M88ljWMEPnn_GQd3hUIpvLe68uQ8W7FIuQuyfLUrK4gcZSQo-UXXtjGaNGIjpIV9fDChxByFC0oeGm8C6nC2oYKEToSLJFJdSXPN/s1600/steam_front.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="263" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz3WqsG3JQFopCbfjObCJV27uu6Vsec1qLDV35yHk4M88ljWMEPnn_GQd3hUIpvLe68uQ8W7FIuQuyfLUrK4gcZSQo-UXXtjGaNGIjpIV9fDChxByFC0oeGm8C6nC2oYKEToSLJFJdSXPN/s320-rw/steam_front.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Front page on Steam, September 29th, 2015</td></tr></tbody></table><br />We can see the large, top part--currently it shows <i>80 Days</i>--which cycles through many games and the lower, smaller section that reads "New On Steam" just above.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDAXoMpoqfpeITOu7ygzsvJtnLVrsKpmgNbEv98D-H5IjLcaELrCq0QQzJiaSa1zsoB-CYoUHjqnrxQpBAFIbcVevfPzrkhn0eSEstsUqlSBs4c2t-LnQII5DezoSD3pNCENQN8p0XEE0P/s1600/steam_frontB.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="290" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDAXoMpoqfpeITOu7ygzsvJtnLVrsKpmgNbEv98D-H5IjLcaELrCq0QQzJiaSa1zsoB-CYoUHjqnrxQpBAFIbcVevfPzrkhn0eSEstsUqlSBs4c2t-LnQII5DezoSD3pNCENQN8p0XEE0P/s640-rw/steam_frontB.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The valuable, New On Steam section.</td></tr></tbody></table><br />This "New On Steam" part is where we'll focus on our time and thoughts, but let's first look at a few points.<br /><br /><h3>Front Page Flow</h3>Now, without running afoul of any agreements we have with Steam, we can still determine and talk about some interesting points. Anyone that spends some time analyzing the front page for a few days can see a pattern. If you keep track of games that show up on the Upcoming tab near the bottom, and then compare them to games in the New On Steam section above, you can see that it seems that games that went through the Upcoming section get some time in the New On Steam section. <br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpBAFzWHw9mU9u6_gtcYukDit2A67QXvrfKmDsMN5pLqyNBhGvSLHGfp1Oc_6dq3QkwwEM3uCPvTYc2JqFN5NIp-QMkicy1Qs4l-_fs2m_99NDcpLzJ2v2y1TQYDviCFuup8wG8Fw6j9GP/s1600/steam_upcoming.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpBAFzWHw9mU9u6_gtcYukDit2A67QXvrfKmDsMN5pLqyNBhGvSLHGfp1Oc_6dq3QkwwEM3uCPvTYc2JqFN5NIp-QMkicy1Qs4l-_fs2m_99NDcpLzJ2v2y1TQYDviCFuup8wG8Fw6j9GP/s320-rw/steam_upcoming.jpg" width="236" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Upcoming Games reasonably seem to show up in the New On Steam section.</td></tr></tbody></table>So we have the idea that, 'Upcoming Games' move to 'New On Steam'.<br /><br /><h3>Lots of Eyes</h3>Without saying how many potential times gamers could be shown your game banner, let me just assure you it's a substantial amount, that any developer would be happy to have.<br />It's a very nice setup, since independent of your marketing budget the New On Steam section affords (apparently?) every game an opportunity for a lot of people to see it.<br /><b>So, let's accept the assumption that the</b><b> New On Steam section is very valuable and powerful.</b><br /><br /><h3>High Traffic Analytics</h3>Once you have your game on Steam, you get access to some nice traffic analytics, breaking down how many people saw your game banner in the New On Steam section but also how many clicked on it. You get to see total views and total clicks.<br /><br />I'm personally in an uncommon situation, in that we recently ported <a href="http://store.steampowered.com/sub/76770/">4 of our popular XBLIG games to Steam</a>, and released them all on the same day. From that, I now have 4 data points from the same time period. While anyone could simply watch the Steam front page for a while and track how long games show up in the New On Steam section, I'll tell you, for us all 4 games stayed on there about 10 hours each.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFS8lpMfRmx5boaoBGmMxPkKnu4ZGAVAuooRyAWa8Vkgy8_Kpo5Vj80KPNgNEf0hpdqY5zP4k_hAlI5F1EVoPFrjXyEEUusL9NYapNeUwFEpSTvdgNbYyyCYzwF6NRg9RNglgWOe3plpLh/s1600/MBG_Actionpack_art_outnow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFS8lpMfRmx5boaoBGmMxPkKnu4ZGAVAuooRyAWa8Vkgy8_Kpo5Vj80KPNgNEf0hpdqY5zP4k_hAlI5F1EVoPFrjXyEEUusL9NYapNeUwFEpSTvdgNbYyyCYzwF6NRg9RNglgWOe3plpLh/s320-rw/MBG_Actionpack_art_outnow.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mommy's Best Action Pack promo</td></tr></tbody></table>Steam also shares with you the *average click-through rate of other games*.<br />One of our games matched this average.<br />Two of our games were nearly twice the average.<br /><b>And our final game had over *three and half* times the average number of clicks.</b><br /><br /><h3>The Click-Through Puzzle</h3>All of our games in the "<a href="http://store.steampowered.com/sub/76770/">Mommy's Best Action Pack</a>" were critically praised over the years. The popularity of the games goes in this order: <a href="http://store.steampowered.com/app/373610/"><i>Shoot 1UP</i></a>, <a href="http://store.steampowered.com/app/373600/"><i>Weapon of Choice</i></a>, <a href="http://store.steampowered.com/app/373620/"><i>Explosionade</i></a>, and then <a href="http://store.steampowered.com/app/373630/"><i>Game Type</i></a>. <i>Game Type</i> is a fun but very strange game, plus it's an extremely niche 'caravan' style shoot 'em up. It never sold well, but it was respected.<br /><br />Of course one has to factor in 'brand awareness' when considering why someone would click on your game banner, after they see it. Maybe they've heard of it before and are interested! (That's of course exactly how brand awareness is supposed to work!)<br />Instead, in this case, the click-through breakdown went like this: <i>Game Type</i> had 3.5x the average number of click-throughs. Shoot 1UP and Weapon of Choice both were over the average at about 1.8x times. And Explosionade simply had an average number of click-throughs. <br /><br /><b>What does this mean?</b> For me it shows what I'd expect, that <i>Shoot 1UP</i> and <i>Weapon of Choice</i> had some brand recognition, and brought some people through to their game pages. This is good.<br /><br /><b>But the puzzle for you to consider is:</b> What happened to <i>Explosionade </i>(average click-through) and <i>Game Type</i> (amazing click through)?<br /><br /><h3>Compare and Contrast Clicks</h3>Obviously we all work hard to create the game logo and the title treatment. But the wide, small game banner used in the New On Steam section is tough. It's horizontal and it's small. You don't have a lot of space to show off your game... or do you? <br />I took this as an opportunity to consider the art used for each of my 4 games and you should look at yours as well.<br /><br />Here's what the banners for each game looked like at launch, during the traffic period in question.<br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3xJ5J016pZgfP6YuY_vFudVntB2ylA1Po6PfOY_ACGBbnXHzfGVS-SFmxgo7cz-H5VgtwCTOErPeNAP14-OgCskNuPk08iwzlJMhBGb6xbmFIAZms5fWJUmCWps1r1QNYMCrMK4P0tGQ8/s1600/ActionpackBanners.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="302" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3xJ5J016pZgfP6YuY_vFudVntB2ylA1Po6PfOY_ACGBbnXHzfGVS-SFmxgo7cz-H5VgtwCTOErPeNAP14-OgCskNuPk08iwzlJMhBGb6xbmFIAZms5fWJUmCWps1r1QNYMCrMK4P0tGQ8/s640-rw/ActionpackBanners.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Original versions</td></tr></tbody></table>Here are my notes from looking at the art.<br />The <i>Explosionade</i> title takes up more room than any other game art here. <i>Game Type</i> text takes up the least space. <i>Weapon of Choice</i> and <i>Shoot 1UP</i> are very colorful by comparison, and bright. <i>Game Type</i> has an identifiable human girl, kicking, which is strange. You can kind of make out a cat in <i>Game Type</i>. For <i>Explosionade</i>, I can make out two bullets sort of, but I can't tell what's happening on the lower left, it's mostly a wasted opportunity. The monster on the bottom right of <i>Explosionade</i> shows his eye,  but loses a lot of context, which could mean for some people that the  coolness of seeing the glowering monster is lost. The <i>Weapon of Choice</i> 'font' is weird and non-standard and has strange organic shapes all over it. <i>Shoot 1UP</i> has a girl who is peaking over the edge, this is titillating.<br /><br />Here is the new version of the game art.<br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfvqkI_11yMEWtnSQZ7OA3WMzxCLF92AkgPUV9EOGtC62EfgTvo7taboSWFFNzp3_B8A_SlDhCOWfsv7jeCGy9ByoqsdDNCL3GiIMVYTo8ZALroVC5Gkl-0humCos87elzKrDWG4PMnqYw/s1600/ActionpackBannersAfter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="287" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfvqkI_11yMEWtnSQZ7OA3WMzxCLF92AkgPUV9EOGtC62EfgTvo7taboSWFFNzp3_B8A_SlDhCOWfsv7jeCGy9ByoqsdDNCL3GiIMVYTo8ZALroVC5Gkl-0humCos87elzKrDWG4PMnqYw/s400-rw/ActionpackBannersAfter.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">New versions (only Game Type and Explosionade were changed)</td></tr></tbody></table>The main changes to <i>Explosionade </i>are to give things more context, and reduce the text size. Keep in mind players will see your game name, just to the right, in plain text. They will know the game's name, so can reduce your title art somewhat if you have more interesting things to show. I've increased the space the mech on the lower left takes up, and increased the space the monster on the right takes up to indicate the cool fighting in the game. <i>Game Type</i> was made brighter and the other two games were not changed.<br /><br /><h3>Let Tags Do Their Thing</h3>The other thing to consider is that I labelled all my games "Action", and "Indie". There is a *broad* selection of  games on Steam that fall into those categories. I wasted my chance by not labeling <i>Shoot 1UP</i> and <i>Game Type</i> as "shoot 'em up" (much fewer games) and I wasted my chance to label <i>Explosionade</i> as "Mech" (very few games). <br />Players could have quickly seen those words just to the right and had another reason to click!<br /><br /><h3>What's the Point Now? The Moment Is Not Gone!</h3>Why improve the art, after the games are out of the New On Steam part? Because that same art is used all over Steam, in the 'More Like This' section and the 'Recently Updated'. You get more chances to catch player's eyes!<br /><b>Redemption</b>! If your game had a poor performing click-through rate on launch, you can do better it!<br /><br />If you have not released your game consider:<br />As I said, if I could do it over, I should have added more useful tags to my games (the "User-Defined tags", not the search words, which are also important). Adding custom tags that make sense to your game, but some that are also specific. <br /><br />In any case, take  another look at your game banner, especially the small one, and make sure you're making most of  it.<b> There are a lot of eyes on that tiny piece of art and you can get more clicks with it!</b><br /><br />----<br /><br /><i>(And since we're sort of talking about designing box art (but smaller, and wider) I found this to be an inspiring article on how others made some very nice art: <a href="http://www.polygon.com/features/2015/8/27/9207581/video-game-box-art">http://www.polygon.com/features/2015/8/27/9207581/video-game-box-art</a>) </i><i></i><br /><i><br /></i><i>(And finally, please chime in as to why you think </i>Game Type<i> scored so well and </i>Explosionade <i>only scored 'average'. I'd love to hear different points of view, thank you!)</i>

Case Study: One Game's Amazing Click-Rate on Steam

(Vagueness: The take-away points of this will be intact, but if I act vague about exact numbers or certain practices, it's because I don...

مزيد من المعلومات »

7:26 ص

Pig Eat Ball announcement trailer!

Creating Your Own Genre

How to Show Your Game at a Non-Gaming Expo

"The 3 That's" for Your Game

Case Study: One Game's Amazing Click-Rate on Steam

المشاركات الشائعة

أرشيف