First, I realize this is quite a loaded question I'm about to ask... as I'm sure you can tell just by the subject. As such, I don't really expect a straightforward answer, and even if I got one I would have to tailor it to my situation. That being said, here goes:
Quick background: Over the past few months, I've been working with a partner to build a team including designers, programmers, artists, as well as a business-minded fellow or two. We have built up a decent starting infrastructure and established contracts, ground-rules, etc.... We also have a GDD, initial concept art, and the beginnings of the game being built. All in all, it hasn't been easy, but I feel like I'm finally at a point where I have a leg up and have a real chance to make this thing real, provided we all meet our deadlines, complete assigned tasks, and push each other.
What I'm looking at now is to gain an understanding to help solidify my chances, and best capitalize on the opportunity (or lucky break, if you will) that I've gotten. My first question is about marketing, because I'm sure it will influence/feed into the second part of my question. What methods, from your experience have worked in building awareness for games? Where to start? Are there certain places or things to avoid? Our initial thoughts were to begin obviously closest to home: friends, family, giving out some prototypes to familiar people and hope the word slowly spreads from there. We also have a website being built (as a central location is important to anything you want to keep organized), and were planning on hitting the familiar forums, threads, etc... Reddit, Facebook Groups, Youtube, a "meet the team", etc.... From there, we had intent to enter a kickstarter. Our thoughts being that we don't want to start a campaign cold, we'd much rather have some recognition beforehand. The second part of the goal being releasing the initial beta along with the kickstarter in a sort of event.
Given the above, are there any suggestions, recommendations, or 'must-do' items to ensure the maximum possible success for this?
That leads me into my second question (apologize for the lengthy post): The current climate certainly is not the same as when mobile gaming began: No longer do investors wildly speculate on new companies and give crazy investment sums with anticipation of returns (thanks, Zynga). What type of information or content would you recommend be available to investors to increase investment attractiveness? Obviously having items in a portfolio are about as critical as possible, but what other type of information should we build or have ready? How would you recommend we present it?
Thanks for the info! I'm really loving the book. If you need some more info to provide a better answer please let me know.
David
Quick background: Over the past few months, I've been working with a partner to build a team including designers, programmers, artists, as well as a business-minded fellow or two. We have built up a decent starting infrastructure and established contracts, ground-rules, etc.... We also have a GDD, initial concept art, and the beginnings of the game being built. All in all, it hasn't been easy, but I feel like I'm finally at a point where I have a leg up and have a real chance to make this thing real, provided we all meet our deadlines, complete assigned tasks, and push each other.
What I'm looking at now is to gain an understanding to help solidify my chances, and best capitalize on the opportunity (or lucky break, if you will) that I've gotten. My first question is about marketing, because I'm sure it will influence/feed into the second part of my question. What methods, from your experience have worked in building awareness for games? Where to start? Are there certain places or things to avoid? Our initial thoughts were to begin obviously closest to home: friends, family, giving out some prototypes to familiar people and hope the word slowly spreads from there. We also have a website being built (as a central location is important to anything you want to keep organized), and were planning on hitting the familiar forums, threads, etc... Reddit, Facebook Groups, Youtube, a "meet the team", etc.... From there, we had intent to enter a kickstarter. Our thoughts being that we don't want to start a campaign cold, we'd much rather have some recognition beforehand. The second part of the goal being releasing the initial beta along with the kickstarter in a sort of event.
Given the above, are there any suggestions, recommendations, or 'must-do' items to ensure the maximum possible success for this?
That leads me into my second question (apologize for the lengthy post): The current climate certainly is not the same as when mobile gaming began: No longer do investors wildly speculate on new companies and give crazy investment sums with anticipation of returns (thanks, Zynga). What type of information or content would you recommend be available to investors to increase investment attractiveness? Obviously having items in a portfolio are about as critical as possible, but what other type of information should we build or have ready? How would you recommend we present it?
Thanks for the info! I'm really loving the book. If you need some more info to provide a better answer please let me know.
David