Moving Forward
I’ve been working for Battlerite as a french marketing manager from April 2017 to February 2018. Tomorrow is my last day! I want to thank all the people from Stunlock Studios for being such great coworkers, give some explanations and tell you what’s next.
Battlerite, a great milestone for me
Battlerite was my best contract & job! I was so lucky to work on this project with those people. During my time there, I did a lot of different things such as building a community, making tournaments, making live streams, handle every day requests, translate patch notes, handling the french F2P launch. It was amazing.
I also had some budget to work with the F2P launch and it was definitely great, exciting times. I will remember this experience forever.
That said, there’s been some hassle but it was because the game is a victim of its own success. Such a massive player base is VERY HARD to handle for medium teams. So I don’t blame Stunlock, it’s very rough times for them as well. They’ll do great in the future and in a short range of time, the game will be even more visible.
Special thanks to Johan Ilves (marketing director), Liz (community manager world), Boccato (region manager Brazil) & Pangolin (region manager Russia). They’re great people to work with and discuss with.
Why stopping?
Battlerite took me roughly ¾ of my freelance time so it was a lot to deal with weekly. I’ve been a bit less passionate in the game and became too bitter. It’s not sane for anyone, not for me, not for the whole team. So I’ve decided to change my focus and work with smaller teams. Teams who have less budget, which will be harder for me. But hey, as I work in games, I should enjoy it as much as possible!
I will then work with smaller teams (1 to 20 max) and try to do less very long time-work. I would like to work with teams between 2 days and 1 year. I’m not good at doing the marathon. I get less motivated over time if I can’t work on new projects. I’ll gather several parallel contracts with marketing overview and less operational work. It brings more safe money but takes more time. Everything is in the balance.
Moving Forward
I’m already in the transition and the next months look REALLY AWESOME! Here is a summary:
- Double Kick Heroes, which is my long term indie project with the bois of Headbang Club. A metal rhythm game with a wonderful soundtrack and great rhythm mechanics. Expect announcements soon!
- My blog here on Medium, which will have an article every 2 weeks. One might appear this week as well!
- STAY SAFE, a difficult platformer racing game with hardcore short tracks. It’s released in the next months.
- Lord of The Dungeon, which will be renamed, that is still in the starting blocks. It’s an RPG Card game where you’ll have to escape a maze and a puppet master’s evil intents.
- Seers Isle, a westernish visual novel taking place in the northern islands. Those guys are pushing the narrative.
For the last 3 people I’m using a formula that looks solid. I have to prove it overtime, but it’s a good deal both for me & them.
Look @ this process
- Long term consulting, 1 hour every week or 2 week. I can have an impact at the beginning of the production, and give advice to have the best marketing stuff possible. This is SUPER IMPORTANT. My hardest tasks are when the strategy / tools stuff hasn’t been set in place.
- Short operational help. Like 5 days of help around a release / big announcements (reveal, gameplay trailer, etc). This is also super important to dive in with those indies. They often need someone to coach them on the ground! It helps me understand the reality of making real-marketing, not just speaking about it.
To sum it up, it generally reaches 2–3k€, which is the sum most indies are willing to put in someone’s work for their marketing. I think it’d be better with 4–5k but I’m always adapting to my clients.
I also want them to put more money in the marketing costs itself (ads, streamers, events) rather than taking all the expenses for myself.
50% of the success of a marketing campaign is due to leading the strategy.
I’m making decent money with those contracts and can get a bit of help from Léonard, my assistant in writing and influencers stuff! But I’m still on the edge, so I hope Double Kick Heroes will help me get some cash on the side. The summer will also be a challenging moment because a lot of french people are on vacation.
I’m making a game called Neurodeck! Check out the steampage!
