Making A Good First Impression on Steam - Some Simple Techniques |
- Making A Good First Impression on Steam - Some Simple Techniques
- I Want To Make My First Game.
- The Substance Team Joins the Adobe Family: An Update :)
- 25GB+ of High Quality Sound Effects - The Sonniss GameAudioGDC Bundle 2019 - Free Download
- Any good book/resource about Advanced Lighting? AAA level/complexity.
- Shooting Bullets in Unity (2D Megaman)
- Considerations when developing for multiple platforms
- Building a tile system with multi-tile entities in mind?
- Codecademy Launches Learn Phaser Course (livestream today 1:30PM EST)
- All legacy Flash games can now be played in HTML 5! No conversion needed ! YES Actionscript 2 AND 3 swfs !
- Spider-Man's City Sounds - Game Audio Analysis
- Multiple keyboard inputs using JavaFX
- Open Source CYOA or text adventures that are written in C that can be used as learning tools.
- Game showcases. Need an advice.
- Does art give you more opportunities to make a quick buck
- Playing with the Animation and Rigging package in Unity. Just Setting up a simple rig.
- Is Bastion Indie?
- Experienced programmer, terrible artist. Tips?
- Game Presskit with NES.CSS
- NWN Aurora and Dialogues
- 2D Grid Animation & Collision Detection Logic - Direction Needed
- In the Mind - NEED FEEDBACK
- Some scraps of ideas
| Making A Good First Impression on Steam - Some Simple Techniques Posted: 18 Mar 2019 08:14 AM PDT
Please note that I am not a professional marketer nor am I well experienced with marketing. I'm merely sharing what I have learned in pieces throughout my indie dev journey. Technique 1: Research and understand your core target audience This seems to be a no-brainer, but it's not always obvious what how exactly your target audience behaves and what they look for. Let's assume that we are not a well-known studio and we haven't established any fan base, and we're releasing a dungeon crawler. Who's our target audience? Hmm, duh, people who like to play dungeon crawler, right? Well, not necessarily. Keep in mind that we're not selling a "genre" - we're selling a unique experience which only our game will offer. Now, let's assume that our dungeon crawler game offers a sophisticated physics system that allows the player manipulate the dungeon environment as a means (probably the only means) to defeat the enemies or solve puzzles. Our target audience will probably include some players who enjoyed Half Life 2 and Portal, and perhaps Antichamber too since it has some dungeon crawler feel to it; but at the same time they have a thing for dark, wet, horror settings. These will likely be our core fan base, the only people we strive to attract, impress and please. We can't please everyone, obviously; but the positive presence of our fan base will help us attract others without us trying to. Technique 2: Design the sales funnel based on the emotion your game delivers After deciding on the core target audience, it's time to think about how to resonate with them. When we release our game on Steam, how will people discover it? What's the first thing they see? What's the second thing they see? What about the third? With these questions in mind, we can specifically design a "sales funnel" through the information Steam allows us to present. For example: a user is looking for a new Early Access game. Most likely the first thing she sees about our game is the list of "New and Trending" games with a logo image, a title and a price tag. With humans being visual animals, most likely the logo image is the first opportunity for us to attract her. Then, after she clicks on our game, she will be presented with the video/screenshot media box in the middle of the page. That's most likely the second thing that she will pay attention to. Lastly, after watching a few seconds of the trailer (yea, just 5-6 seconds) and maybe click on 1 or 2 screenshots, she will read the short description on the right hand side of the media box. Though not everyone follows this sequence, but we can safely assume that most will, and this defines the structure of our sales funnel: |_________/ - Logo awareness |_______/ - Visual Impression |_____/ - Forming Definition (Of course this is just the top of the sales funnel. After "Forming Definition", the potential customer will still go through several more levels before making purchase, such as deep understanding of the product and pre-purchase screening, but those depend largely on the game's own quality and reputation) The key to capture the audience and lead them deeper down the funnel is to resonate with their emotion. But we must first understand what emotion our game will deliver. Using the dungeon crawler example again - the emotions we're delivering may include: suspense, danger, stress, and relief of stress. But ultimately, the key emotion is the feeling from defeating enemies using purely our wits and resourcefulness. So we are going to focus on dedicating the logo, game title, trailer, screenshots and short description all to resonating this feeling with the viewer. How do we do this? In this particular case, we can use the logo image to build up some suspense with a high contrast dark dungeon scene, then use the title to deliver a key message (we can call the game something like "The Next Piece"), then in the trailer walk the player running through various scary scenes in the dungeon with occasional interactions with the environment, and finally showing how the player built a trap to kill the monster chasing after him. Nothing fancy/super artistic, just some carefully stitched-together in-game scenes to engage the viewer. One trailer I like is from a game on Steam called "In.My.Mind" by Scarlet Studio (sorry I can't link the page). You can see how the player is acting in desperation, and you can feel the horror without it telling you how scary it is. I think it would be even more effective if it didn't take 15 seconds of logo to get to the real footage. Personally I'm a firm believer of saving the logo to the end of the trailer. For one of my projects I created a rudimentary logo image to convey a story and emotion without saying a word. You get the idea :) If executed well, our sales funnel should work like this:
But, there's not one formula the works for all. Typically, some games are game-play focused, some are atmospheric, and some are more story-driven. The sales funnel should be designed to fit according to these focus areas. For example, a game-play driven game should show a lot of game-play footage in the trailer rather than trying to tell a story, and then use the short description to supplement the background story so the viewer doesn't wonder "what the heck is this game" after step 3. Technique 3: Speak to your audience, not to a computer We game developers are so used to coding and thinking rationally, but when we write the game descriptions (short or long) we tend to talk like programmers, trying to be precise, elaborate and comprehensive... That's not gonna work! We have to speak to the viewers like how we would talk to them in person or on TV. The human brain is not good at memorizing or comprehending every little detail, but it is very good at remembering the feeling about one thing. So in the short description, with the small amount of attention spared by the viewer, we must focus on delivering one key take-away that the viewer will remember. So using our dungeon crawler example again, after the viewer watches some of the trailer, he will be wondering hmm, what is this game about? And we are here to answer his question:
That's it. We don't have to say "this is a single player dungeon crawler game featuring sophisticated physics, allowing player to set up traps to defeat the enemies". Thew viewer would have figure that out by himself through watching the trailer, so we just need to convey one message: this game is about using engineering skills to survive a dungeon. I hope this article will inspire you to think differently with your marketing strategy. Please feel free to point out any mistakes I have made, after all we are all growing together :) In the future I'm also planning to write some articles specifically about copywriting, i.e. the game descriptions. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 18 Mar 2019 06:24 AM PDT I figured, since I'm sitting on programming and coding knowledge that no one wants to hire me for(No credentials.), I might as well put it to use. Anyway, I figured I might as well ask for the help of the same sub-reddit that inspired me. I need to know some good plugins for Paint.net. Does anyone have any recommendations? Your help is very much appreciated and I thank you in advance for your help.:) [link] [comments]  |
| The Substance Team Joins the Adobe Family: An Update :) Posted: 18 Mar 2019 09:34 AM PDT |
| 25GB+ of High Quality Sound Effects - The Sonniss GameAudioGDC Bundle 2019 - Free Download Posted: 17 Mar 2019 01:50 PM PDT The Sonniss GameAudioGDC Bundle is back! In celebration of GDC 2019 we are giving away 25GB+ of high-quality sound effects for use in your game development projects. Everything is royalty-free and commercially usable. No attribution is required and you can use them on an unlimited number of projects for the rest of your lifetime. All of the files we send out are just a small sample of our suppliers complete collection. We usually pick a couple of sounds from each library added to Sonniss over the year. They are the exact same files we sell - nothing has been modified. Visit the website: https://sonniss.com/gameaudiogdc19/ View the license: https://sonniss.com/gdc-bundle-license OFFICIAL TORRENT: https://sonniss.com/GameAudioGDCPart5.torrent Once you have downloaded the files, please help by sharing, seeding or uploading them to mirrors. Thank you in advance. If you can throw any seedboxes our way please do! (I am not sure how much our servers can take). If you missed the previous years, drop by our website or view the posts below... Alternatively, you can just send us a tweet over to @sonnissdotcom or drop me an email (there are over 100GB+ of files contained across these threads). https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/85kzjw/30gb_of_high_quality_sound_effects_the_sonniss/ https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/5whve2/20gb_of_high_quality_sound_effects_the_sonniss/ https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/2ynqyo/10gb_of_highquality_game_audio_free_download/ https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/4adlsk/16gb_of_high_quality_sound_effects_the_sonniss/ A special thanks goes out to the following people for making this possible: 3maze, 344 Audio, Airborne Sound, Ambisound, Andrew Vailcross, Apple Hill Studios, Articulated Sounds, AudioDesire, Bart Kamski, Baxter Audio, BlueZone, Borg Sound, Borys Peter, Certified Audio, Cfry, Charlie Atanasyan, Chris Logsdon, Coll Anderson, dmt3p, Eiravaein Works, fascinatedsound, Federico Soler Fernández, Fox Audio Post-Production, Gage Freeman, Glitchedtones, Impact Soundworks, InspectorJ, Invisible, Ivo Vicic, ktwAudio, L.A. Sounds, Larry Salzman, Leslie Reid, MatiasMacSD, Matt Script, Olivier Girardot, Pachamedias, PMSFX, Pole Position, Prismo Sound, Red Libraries, Rock The Speakerbox, Rzpost, Shapeforms, Sound Ex Machina, Sound of Essen, Sound Spark LLC, SoundBits, Soundbox Library, Soundholder, Soundmind, SoundMorph, Soundopolis, Soundreorganized, SoundsArchaic, Spectravelers, Starbrick Sound, Studio 23, Submerged Tapes, The Chris Alan, The Sound Pack Tree, TheWorkRoom, Tone Glow Libraries, Total Khéops, Touchdown Audio, UberDuo, West Wolf & 2496SoundEffects. [link] [comments]  |
| Any good book/resource about Advanced Lighting? AAA level/complexity. Posted: 18 Mar 2019 04:11 AM PDT I absolutely love Boon Cotter's work for example at Naughty Dog, the aesthetics of mirror's edge, all of the eye candy high quality stuff is what I wish to learn. I came here to ask from experienced people like you if there are high rated books or resources for things like this to learn from? Thanks in advance [link] [comments]  |
| Shooting Bullets in Unity (2D Megaman) Posted: 18 Mar 2019 05:48 AM PDT |
| Considerations when developing for multiple platforms Posted: 18 Mar 2019 03:49 AM PDT Greetings from Malaysia! My team and I are looking into developing a 3D RPG game using Unreal Engine 4, but not very sure on whether to publish for the Nintendo Switch, PS4, or stick to PC instead. I would like to ask fellow developers on advices and the technical considerations that we should adhere when developing for multiple platforms. One of the advice we have gotten is that of regarding the art assets. While PS4/PC can support art assets up to 4k, we might encounter problems with the Nintendo Switch, mainly due to hardware restrictions. It would be great if you have had experience in developing games that supports different platforms (ie, PC and any other consoles), or point me to any readings that may contain such information. If my question is not clear, do let me know so I can clarify further. :) [link] [comments]  |
| Building a tile system with multi-tile entities in mind? Posted: 18 Mar 2019 01:36 AM PDT How does a multi tile monster/player/entity impact a traditional grid and the resulting pathfinding, assuming A* or djikstra? [link] [comments]  |
| Codecademy Launches Learn Phaser Course (livestream today 1:30PM EST) Posted: 18 Mar 2019 09:32 AM PDT Hi /r/gamedev friends! My coworker Kenny and I have been writing a series of courses on learning Phaser, the JavaScript HTML5 game framework. Today we've launched the first two modules of the course covering basic code layout, building geometry primitives, using sprites, adding click and keyboard events, using arcade physics, and building out four games! The lessons are free but there's additional project and quiz content for Pro subscribers. We're also going to be livestreaming building a Frogger-style game from scratch an hour after this post at 1:30PM EST! We'd love for you to join in, follow along, and ask questions in the chat! If you feel like you want to get involved in game development this course could be a great first step! I personally took my first steps into game dev in this very subreddit (I started out learning LÖVE/Lua) so it is very near and dear to my heart. I hope you appreciate these materials as much as I enjoyed making them! Feel free to let me know what you think in the comments, over DM, or via email! Cheers, Tim (timothy@codecademy) Take the course: Game Development with Phaser.JS Watch the livestream: Livestream: Build Frogger in Javascript using Phaser [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 18 Mar 2019 09:48 AM PDT |
| Spider-Man's City Sounds - Game Audio Analysis Posted: 18 Mar 2019 10:25 AM PDT |
| Multiple keyboard inputs using JavaFX Posted: 18 Mar 2019 06:26 AM PDT Hello everyone, I am trying to create a game and I need to get multiple keyboard inputs (up and right arrows for example) and I am using the setOnKeyPressed event handler but it seems to only take the last action when the keys remain pressed. Anyone knows how to solve it? [link] [comments]  |
| Open Source CYOA or text adventures that are written in C that can be used as learning tools. Posted: 18 Mar 2019 08:35 AM PDT I'm looking into building my own CYOA type game with my son. Who has a learning disabillity and so I want to teach him ho to make his own, but first I would like to find an open source type CYOA game. Where we can work together and expand it and learn. Any help would be great, thank you. [link] [comments]  |
| Game showcases. Need an advice. Posted: 18 Mar 2019 06:09 AM PDT Hi everyone! I would like to ask what showcases / exhibitions for games (indie games) do you know? (mostly in Europe) With submission fee or not, doesn't matter. Thanks. [link] [comments]  |
| Does art give you more opportunities to make a quick buck Posted: 18 Mar 2019 11:15 AM PDT Basically this, I was just offhandedly thinking about it at this point. That if I put an equal amount of time that I have into taking lessons and projects and learning unity development and c# into GIMP courses and learning to draw sprites at this point I might be in a better position to sell some assets more easily for a few dollars. My ultimate goal is making my own games so either way I'm going to need both. Not expecting to make a living off anything anytime soon there's just to much to learn. [link] [comments]  |
| Playing with the Animation and Rigging package in Unity. Just Setting up a simple rig. Posted: 18 Mar 2019 10:14 AM PDT |
| Posted: 18 Mar 2019 09:20 AM PDT Guys, I was making a research about Indie Games and in alot texts of mass media I got the name of the game Bastion side by side with Super Meat Boy and Undertale like "indie games of success". But now Im confused because Bastion was published by Warner Bros. I wanna know what you, Indie Developer, think about it. Is Bastion really a Indie Game? And what makes a company independent? [link] [comments]  |
| Experienced programmer, terrible artist. Tips? Posted: 17 Mar 2019 02:05 PM PDT |
| Posted: 18 Mar 2019 11:46 AM PDT I read about presskit, then decide to do myself. Here is link: https://masters-of-soccer.firebaseapp.com . What's your opinion about it? Thanks. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 18 Mar 2019 11:44 AM PDT Do people still use Aurora Engine to create dialogues? If so how do you export dialogues from *.mod or *.dlg files? [link] [comments]  |
| 2D Grid Animation & Collision Detection Logic - Direction Needed Posted: 18 Mar 2019 11:32 AM PDT I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around the logic and the implementation of the logic as it relates to 2D game tile based (smooth) design (http://higherorderfun.com/blog/2012/05/20/the-guide-to-implementing-2d-platformers). The game that I'm designing is similar to Candy Crush setup where it's grid based and each part of the grid can have different objects. In this version, you have a panda and you have to match the panda to the bamboo so that the panda eats the bamboo or a rabbit and a carrot. I have a grid that I've dynamically created of each piece in the gameboard field. Secondly, I have a vector of my active pieces on the gameboard. My data type of Piece is as follows: I'm having a hard time understanding how to do I compare whats in the vector list to determine if it collides with a gameboard piece? As the piece is falling through the gameboard, it's obviously falling/rendering at a per pixel granularity. Obviously the collision detection is not a per pixel granularity it's at a block granularity. I'm struggling with the best way to implement collision detection with a game grid logic similar to Candy Crush. This is my progress thus far, https://youtu.be/ffm1B28jy1k I'm open to any and all suggestions. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 18 Mar 2019 11:26 AM PDT Color is HUGE and I mean HUGE in this game, color represents emotion, Fear being Orange Confusion Green so on. I've replayed part one, Fear, 10 times now with an average of 8 - 10 minutes of game play. The bosses are incarnations of emotions and things. This game is not good in my opinion so I'm only letting it out to get general feedback. The text may be small to because the screen is small. Just don't expect much from it. I want honest feedback and help if you decide to play it. Thanks in advanced. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 18 Mar 2019 11:21 AM PDT Howdy y'all, so I've been thinking of going into gamedev as a hobby, and I've been rolling around an idea in my head for a bit now and figured I should at least get some feedback. Premise: The main protag and her girlfriend are out shopping one day when a portal opens in the sky and two giant hands reach down to grab the both of you. As she's caught in the grasp a lightning bolt, or what looks to be one, strikes the hand holding her and it lets go. It turns out that the bolt was a really sinister looking piece of armor, that tells you that the hands belonged to the villain (let's call them bob, or whatever) and that they're the ruler of an alternate dimension and that the armor will help you in exchange for the souls of the 8 generals of bob. Thus the start of the journey. Gameplay consists of traversing bob's castle, and defeating his generals to gain their souls which unlock weapons that allow access to new areas (in a metroid style), the weapons also serve as weaknesses (in a mega man style), while exploring also allows you to obtain traversal items (things that allow you to explore multiple routes, e.g. flutter shoes that allow wall climbing and dashing). This is just a skeleton and, honestly don't know if I'll ever make this so if someone else wants to take it and build something off of it that's fine too. But anyway, feedback is welcome, thanks y'all. [link] [comments]  |
| You are subscribed to email updates from gamedev - game development, programming, design, writing, math, art, jams, postmortems, marketing. To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States | |
No comments:
Post a Comment