Indie startup at the GDS 2014 gaming conference
Hi, Habr!
In this publication I want to tell you how important and you need to get feedback on the game in the early stages, to seek advice from experts and just to see how people play your game and how they react to certain events.
The last time on Habré are increasingly articles, the general meaning of which is as follows: "As I did it and nothing happened." I want to bring some color to this world and tell us what we did to make it better.
November 29, the GDS 2014 gaming conference took place in Minsk. A little about the conference itself. The conference was divided into several zones: "Workshop", "Business", "Startup". In the workshop, there were reports on gaming topics, large companies were located in the business zone, and teams of 1-3 people with a prototype / idea were hanging out in a startup zone and tried their best to stand out. Our team decided to take part in the conference as a startup. By the beginning of the conference, we were just planning to release a release version on Google Play and start a promotion company, so the conference was very helpful.
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Budget option stand design
By the day of the conference, we have achieved the following successes. A game was developed, a beta testing stage was completed on Google Play, a release version was released. It is worth noting that already in the process of creating the game, we collected from the early stages both user reviews and consulted with an experienced game designer. As a result of all these actions, the game changed its design several times over a period of 5 months, the game mechanics were reworked, and the functionality was also refined.
After launching the release version, we tried most free or cheap ways to promote. Since a team of 3 people does not have a huge budget behind them, there’s no point in hoping for strong advertising campaigns. We tried targeting advertising on Facebook, advertising through Vkontakte groups, post on w3bsit3-dns.com forum, posts on game-review sites.
I will give a small statistic that was relevant to us. Perhaps it will be different from other games, because it is strongly influenced by advertising materials, banners, design and more.
As a result, after 2 weeks of such a campaign on the day of the conference start, we had 200+ downloads from Google Play. But let's not talk about sad things.
At the conference, we received half of the start-up table (one table was for 2 teams), a free choice of the place where to put this table (within reason) and a 2-minute pitch from the main stage. And most importantly, many gamers in one place where you can show the game, ask for their opinion and just interesting to talk.
We talked with everyone
We prepared for the conference the whole previous week. Preparing posters, materials for the presentation and at the same time modifying the game to show it in all its glory.
A huge role was played by the choice of location. Our table was located immediately at the main entrance and was the first thing that a person saw when he came to the conference. The location next to the column on which posters and QR codes could be hung also played a decisive role. In order to stand out against the background of large companies, it was necessary to make a lot of effort.
Do not be afraid to experiment
As a result, a good location, candy and a bit of creativity attracted more than 100 people to our stand. As a developer, it was unusual for me to talk so much. But it bore fruit. I wrote a few sheets of paper with ideas, wishes and suggestions, made a dozen interesting acquaintances, and received advice and advice from experts on game design, music, and ui / ux. One of the most interesting results was to observe how your user plays. How different people are and how different are their approaches and expectations. I first saw a 4-year-old child playing my game and it exceeded all my expectations, as he figured out the game mechanics after a couple of seconds.
Pitch helped to become more confident in his abilities and get a comprehensive assessment of experts. This turned out to be very helpful.
Stage performance
We understood and learned a lot in one day, perhaps as much as in the previous six months.
I want to advise game developers to feel free to show their products, go out, watch people play and make more and better games.
In this publication I want to tell you how important and you need to get feedback on the game in the early stages, to seek advice from experts and just to see how people play your game and how they react to certain events.
The last time on Habré are increasingly articles, the general meaning of which is as follows: "As I did it and nothing happened." I want to bring some color to this world and tell us what we did to make it better.
November 29, the GDS 2014 gaming conference took place in Minsk. A little about the conference itself. The conference was divided into several zones: "Workshop", "Business", "Startup". In the workshop, there were reports on gaming topics, large companies were located in the business zone, and teams of 1-3 people with a prototype / idea were hanging out in a startup zone and tried their best to stand out. Our team decided to take part in the conference as a startup. By the beginning of the conference, we were just planning to release a release version on Google Play and start a promotion company, so the conference was very helpful.
')
Budget option stand design
By the day of the conference, we have achieved the following successes. A game was developed, a beta testing stage was completed on Google Play, a release version was released. It is worth noting that already in the process of creating the game, we collected from the early stages both user reviews and consulted with an experienced game designer. As a result of all these actions, the game changed its design several times over a period of 5 months, the game mechanics were reworked, and the functionality was also refined.
After launching the release version, we tried most free or cheap ways to promote. Since a team of 3 people does not have a huge budget behind them, there’s no point in hoping for strong advertising campaigns. We tried targeting advertising on Facebook, advertising through Vkontakte groups, post on w3bsit3-dns.com forum, posts on game-review sites.
I will give a small statistic that was relevant to us. Perhaps it will be different from other games, because it is strongly influenced by advertising materials, banners, design and more.
- Facebook gave us ~ 2 users for $ 1. Since we focused on low-cost countries like India, the figures were low in general, but still tangible for our pocket. It is easy to calculate the cost of 1 million users;
- Vkontakte groups brought an average of 15 users from 100,000 groups. My opinion is this: people who sit on Vkontakte love to sit on this social network, they basically do not need services and games that go beyond it (not to be confused with fan groups created for the game). In principle, familiar SMM players also adhere to the same opinion;
- Post on the forum w3bsit3-dns.com was active for 3 days. Now and then new comments appeared in him and he went up. Now it has 850+ views and, on average, has given 20-30 new users;
- Posts on the game-review sites did not give any tangible increase, so even talking about them makes no sense.
As a result, after 2 weeks of such a campaign on the day of the conference start, we had 200+ downloads from Google Play. But let's not talk about sad things.
At the conference, we received half of the start-up table (one table was for 2 teams), a free choice of the place where to put this table (within reason) and a 2-minute pitch from the main stage. And most importantly, many gamers in one place where you can show the game, ask for their opinion and just interesting to talk.
We talked with everyone
We prepared for the conference the whole previous week. Preparing posters, materials for the presentation and at the same time modifying the game to show it in all its glory.
A huge role was played by the choice of location. Our table was located immediately at the main entrance and was the first thing that a person saw when he came to the conference. The location next to the column on which posters and QR codes could be hung also played a decisive role. In order to stand out against the background of large companies, it was necessary to make a lot of effort.
Do not be afraid to experiment
As a result, a good location, candy and a bit of creativity attracted more than 100 people to our stand. As a developer, it was unusual for me to talk so much. But it bore fruit. I wrote a few sheets of paper with ideas, wishes and suggestions, made a dozen interesting acquaintances, and received advice and advice from experts on game design, music, and ui / ux. One of the most interesting results was to observe how your user plays. How different people are and how different are their approaches and expectations. I first saw a 4-year-old child playing my game and it exceeded all my expectations, as he figured out the game mechanics after a couple of seconds.
Pitch helped to become more confident in his abilities and get a comprehensive assessment of experts. This turned out to be very helpful.
Stage performance
We understood and learned a lot in one day, perhaps as much as in the previous six months.
I want to advise game developers to feel free to show their products, go out, watch people play and make more and better games.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/244639/
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