Your marketing is your game
I’ve worked on several game productions as a game marketer. I helped the team of Wild Factor and Plug In Digital (publisher of Neurovoider, Pankapu). I’m currently responsible of the marketing for the HeadbangClub (Double Kick Heroes).
Some people ask me: “What should I say or show on my social media posts?”. Here are some tools to figure it out.
Write the vocabulary
Every game has a specific vocabulary based on:
- The characters personalities
- The world surrounding the player
- The plot of the game
- The actions the player can do.
For instance, when you think Call of Duty, you’ll mostly say Shoot or Kill. But what will you say for a game like Shadow of The Colossus? Explore? Climb? That’s your job.
Take the list above and write verbs, adverbs and descriptive short sentences that will make this vocabulary. They will help you build catch phrases for your pitch.
Understand how your players use the game
A player only exists in a game through his action. It can be moving, crafting, exploring, problem solving, calculations. How do you capture those actions? Can a random player get what happens in a trailer? In a GIF? It’s even better if your game can be understood with a screenshot.
Look at this Event0 trailer and watch between 0.19 and 0.26 seconds. The action is really clear: a door is blocking the way, the player goes to an AI, then asks “who are you?”. But it could be even clearer if the player asked “open the door please”. Because it’s a game about speaking with an AI and you can only continue if the AI allows you to do so.
Is all of this unique?
When you’ve prepared all this stuff, read it again. Can your vocabulary describe another game you know of? Are your actions empowering your game ideas to the core? My friends often mock me about how much I use the word unique, but it will matter for the player. If he’s already seen a game that exactly looks like yours, he’ll be less likely to buy it.
Let’s take the example of Shadow Of The Colossus.
Vocabulary : Climbing, Exploration, Riding, Looking at a giant colossus, Flying on a colossus.
Readable action on a video: A colossus coming at you, Flying over the lake on a colossus, Riding a horse in vast empty plains, Climbing a huge mountain.
That was an easy example to describe. You know why? Because the game is original and unique. If you make a great game that can be described like no one else, your marketing will be way easier.
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I’m making a game called Neurodeck! Check out the steampage!
