Creating a game on your eyes - part 5: Subtotal (prototype)

So, a little more than a month has passed since we began our series of articles on our game, and it is time to sum up a small intermediate result.



In early March, we submitted an application to participate in GamesJamKanobu, and the whole of this month was intensively writing a prototype of our game, because by 26.02 it was necessary to send a finished build for refereeing.
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Below I will give you what we managed to do, and also share on how we work on marketing.

Prototype.

I have to say - we had time. And surprisingly, we managed to have time to make a logically complete piece of the game. Yes, we did not have time to make a large number of “strapping” - quests, plot, dialogues, perks, script scenes, relationships, etc. etc. Just what justifies the word "Story" in our title. But on the other hand - I managed to write a more or less working boevka and pumping system. And to give the prototype complete completeness, we limited the length of the game session (food in the fridge) and screwed the online record table. As a result, we have a build that demonstrates some game mechanics and allows us to fight for a line in high-speeds.

At the moment we are waiting for the end of refereeing.

See what we have, you can link .

How we start PR.

We did not become like many developers who think about marketing only when it is time for release. We decided to start gathering an audience from the very beginning. Naturally, deploying full-scale hostilities is still early. According to this, we are still working in the light version and collect experience / information.

So, what we did:

1. We started our own blog , where we are trying to write about the development process, the team, etc. With that, they did it immediately in both Russian and English. If someone is interested in the technical side, then this is WordPress with a modified Corpo theme.
2. Brought Twitter accounts: Russian and English . In them we post the same thing as in the blog plus trying to post something else. Some screenshots, photos of sketches, etc. So far, as Galenkin has bequeathed, it does not work out a couple of times a day - there is not enough imagination. But we are trying. We are also trying to use the known hashtags: #pixelart, #indiedev, #gamedev, etc.
3. Brought accounts in the social. networks - VKontakte and FaceBook . In fact, this is the same twitter, but we post there less often.
4. Created a small video teaser:
   
5. Began this cycle of articles on Habré. For the most part, of course, it is not justified by PR, but by our desire to share information imposed on our desire to write texts. And this is the first post of the series, where I brazenly poscu links to our game. But, nevertheless, it should not be discounted from public relations.

And now they have done for us:

1. Vision of our game got into the top three " Kanobu editorial choice " from over 300 applicants.
2. Some small games site cut out our prototype from the browser and packed it into .exe. We do not mind, let more people know about us.
3. Someone perpetuum made a video review-letplay (we didn’t even know about it).

What did all this bring?

And here it is interesting.

• The blog is visited by about 60 people per day.
  
  
  
• There are about 50 followers in Russian twitter, and almost 500 followers in English.
  
  
  
• In the VC group - about 130 people, on the FB - about 100. However, a lot of schoolchildren came into contact in recent days:
  
  
  
• The video review from perpetuum'a was watched by more than 25 thousand people.
• Our teaser looked about 300 people.
• More than 7500 people looked at the page with our game on small-games.
• Over the past 2 days (after the release of the video review), more than 3,000 people have played in the official version of our game (on the site).

Tips.

Of course, it’s too early to give advice, and we don’t have any experience. But something is clear now.

1. Start gathering your audience as soon as you have something to show them.
2. To operate on Twitter (especially multiple accounts) - use https://tweetdeck.twitter.com/
3. Be sure to use twitter. This is a live tool where you can find an audience. Use hashtags. Follow your potential audience, many of them follow you back. Find the audience for the same hashtags. Prefer people with live (real) accounts and especially those who like to retweet. After all, a retweetting person may very well have a retweet for you.
4. VK audience is lively and active, you need to work on it.
5. How to use Facebook - we have not yet understood (as Galenkin admits in his book, he did not understand this either).

Conclusion

At this point I’ll end up with a PR marketing article and continue to write about the technical side. If you have ideas for articles, something interesting to you on development or on Unity - write.

Yes, and play our prototype . We need to know your opinion.

According to the plans, we want to go to GreenLight closer to the summer (and KickStarter, if possible). And by the autumn to be released.

All articles in the series:

1. Idea, vision, choice of setting, platform, distribution model, etc.
2. Shaders for styling images under the CRT / LCD
3. We fasten the scripting language to Unity (UniLua)
4. Shader for fade in on the palette (a la NES)
5. Subtotal (prototype)
6. Let's talk about the indie games
7. 2D animations in Unity ("as in flash")
8. Visual scripting of cut scenes in Unity (uScript)