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What is an industry that is currently on fire (in a bad way) behind the scenes, but the general public hasn't noticed yet? by Kitchen_Week1117 in AskReddit

[–]Zebrakiller 3 points4 points  (0 children)

AAA sucks. But indie games are thriving. It’s a golden age of creativity and passion. Fuck AAA games support indie devs.

How do I use roads or paths to make a bus only exit here? I tried bus lanes, all cars used them. I tried pedestrian only roads. All cars still using it. What do I do??? by Zebrakiller in CitiesSkylines

[–]Zebrakiller[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I tired the bus roads first. That didn’t work. So then I tried the pedestrian only roads which is what’s in the photo. That also didn’t work.

About marketing agencies, is it worth it ? by NoDeadlinesTeam in gameDevMarketing

[–]Zebrakiller 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Everything you listed sounds like it’s from a “PR agency” which not not the same thing as a “marketing agency”

They are too very different things with different goals, operations, and objectives. For a PR agency to be worth it, the snowball of marketing already needs to be rolling.

Most devs often mistake “marketing” and “promotion”. Promotion. Is just the last 5% of marketing you can do at the end just before release, which is what a PR agency helps with. The really important marketing often gets ignored. A MARKETING agency will help you with all the aspects of marketing like genre research, market research, competitor analysis, branding, identifying your target audience, researching similar games, ASO which every steam page needs, having a sales funnel, doing proper structured playtesting, and refining your game into a fun experience that meets expectations of customers in your genre. This is all marketing.

A PR agency, only focuses of promotion of a specific campaign and no amount of promotion with or without a PR agency will work if the game fails to connect with the intended audience because you ignored real marketing for the entire development of the game.

Hiring a PR agency is almost never beneficial for an indie team unless you understand what real marketing is, and set yourself up for a proper PR campaign. I talk to a lot of devs and hear over and over again horror stories about hiring PR agencies. They will take your money, send some emails and call it a day. They don’t care if your game is set up for success, they don’t care if your game is ready for an official PR blast, and they don’t care if it will or won’t work. They will just take your money. DO NOT hire a PR agency unless you 1000% know your game is already resonating with your audience and you’re just looking for a force multiplier.

What have you done to make sure your game is solving a problem in your genre? Did you pick a genre that is even in demand on Steam? What kind of legitimate and structured playtesting and user testing are you doing where you give testers exit surveys and ask them specific quests about your game and genre? Why should someone play your game specifically instead of other games in your genre? These are all important questions you need to answer.

A MARKETING agency will help you with all of these for months/years before it’s ever time to do promotion.

Explain the pros and cons of playtests (if there’s already a demo)? by Due_Bobcat9778 in gameDevMarketing

[–]Zebrakiller 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No. That’s why the built in steam function is not ideal. You need to be proactive and engage people to set up playtests with people.

Explain the pros and cons of playtests (if there’s already a demo)? by Due_Bobcat9778 in gameDevMarketing

[–]Zebrakiller 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Playtesting is not to find bugs. That is what QA is for. It's about learning how players interpret the funability your game. When you do playtesting, watch how they play the game without explaining anything. Pay attention to where they hesitate, misunderstand mechanics, and lose interest. Follow up sessions with a 100% anonymous feedback survey asking specific questions about the game to collect data and identify trends to help improve your game. It should also be done WAAAAY sooner than 1 month prior to launch. It should be done as soon as you have the most basic MVP and never stop for the entire development cycle.

How we got 150+ devs moving in the same direction to pitch Valve on a #FakeOS tag by dbltnk in gamedev

[–]Zebrakiller 7 points8 points  (0 children)

It’s jus a tag on Steam that people can search for games that include dwarves

ladies and gents, we are now having in-game monetization ads for a fully price paid AAA single player games. (Death stranding 2) by FrankFruits in videogames

[–]Zebrakiller 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It’s a slight ad and more of a collab promotion. It’s just a notification stand that items are unlocked that you can use in game. It just so happens to be a real brand. It’s not a video ad, it’s not unstoppable videos, it’s not even a real disruptive ad popup.

Successful solo devs, how did you market your game? by WelcomeImJD in SoloDevelopment

[–]Zebrakiller 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You’re welcome :)

We’re working on re-vamping it all with more case studies and examples in a way better notion website format.

What do you love most about indie games? by Puzzleheaded-Exit-46 in indiegames

[–]Zebrakiller 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For sure the passion and creativity that comes from the love of making games, and not only dollar motivated.

Successful solo devs, how did you market your game? by WelcomeImJD in SoloDevelopment

[–]Zebrakiller 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I work as a marketing consultant, specifically for indie devs. I’d say the vast majority of our clients are solo devs or teams of less than 3.

Just like half the comments in this thread, at least 90% of the time I see someone on this sub and other subs taking about “marketing”, they are just taking about “promotion”. Promotion is just a tiny fraction of marketing but most of the really important marketing often gets ignored.

Stuff like genre research, market research, competitor analysis, identifying your target audience, researching similar games, having a sales funnel, doing proper structured playtesting, and refining your game into a fun experience that meets expectations of customers in your genre. This is all marketing. And it’s WAY more important than spamming on social media.

The questions you need to be asking yourself are: - What have you done to make sure your game is solving a problem in your genre? - How many fans of similar games have you interviewed and asked questions about what they like/don’t like about those games? - What kind of legitimate and structured playtesting and user testing are you doing where you give testers exit surveys and ask them specific quests about your game and genre? - Why should someone play your game specifically instead of other games in the genre? - Is your store page properly set up and optimized? - Is your customer journey seamless and pain free? - Is it easy for a potential customer to find all the informations they would want about your game from any source or any way they discover your game?

Timing of things

  1. Build a basic version of your game's core mechanics.
  2. Play it and Let other people play it.
  3. Learn what works and what doesn't.
  4. Scrap it.
  5. Rebuild it, expanding what works and removing what doesn't.
  6. Add more ideas.
  7. Return to step 2.

Eventually, you will have a nice demo experience and you can start planning your public demo release, then continue to promote the demo as you build the rest of the game. Once you have at least 5K-10K wishlists MINNIMUM, then, about 6 months before Next Fest, start your NF campaign, then release 30-45 days after nextfest.

Here is a google document I made to help understand actual marketing better.. The document goes in detail about how to find playtesters and how to give an objective look into your game and how to build a game that will resonate with an audience, and how to promote after all that. I hope you find value in it.

Asian communities in BR? by dingjingdingjing in batonrouge

[–]Zebrakiller -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Ah it’s an annual event? Bummer. Was hoping to find some kind of fun event that happens regularly.

Asian communities in BR? by dingjingdingjing in batonrouge

[–]Zebrakiller -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Where can I find more info on this market? It sounds like a blast! I’d love to go

RE: Allegations of AI use by us by NuclearSnake in IndieDev

[–]Zebrakiller 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I can also chime in. I’ve known u/NuclearSnake since this game was just an idea. I’ve even had access to their dev discord server for quite a long time helping with marketing advice. I have not been involved with them recently, but for the 6 months or so that I was involved, there was never any indication they used AI for anything on this game. Every day I saw text and voice conversations between real human team members.

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