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November 25, 2013

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Moving Forward – Learnings of the „The Sha Man“

So I officially stopped investing time in promoting The Sha Man(iTunes) and see it as a first step which I had good learnings off.
It will stay in the Developer Portfolio in iTunes. So when ever I create a Success It will benefit from that and maybe get some Attention too.

The new project
Here a list of what I will do different and what I will do the same.

What I will do again:
I will be using Gamesalad to develop the Game and take 3-4 months developing time.
I will do my own Graphics, Sounds and Music and the same Core Gameplay again.
Marketing wise I will create a Twitter, Facebook Page and contact Youtubers for Gameplay Videos since I see them as an existential minimum if you want to be successful in the online world.

What I will do differently:
The Game will have a clear understandable level by level Progression Layer not as detached from each other as I had it with The Sha Man. As a new addition the Game will have a simple Narrative structure to give Player additional Motivation/Reasoning to progress. Overall I will go for a less „nerdy“ Game Setting and go a little bit more into the girly direction. I will change from full Price Game to In-app purchase model including an In-game Currency.
The end of the game will be left open for more Content, so I can patch new Content and over longer time create a News stream which I can push through Marketing Channels.

The next Game will get a real website, a one Page Website for the Game, like a business card with all links (iTunes, Blog and Social Media) this enables to practice search Engine Optimizations.
My Girlfriend has taken over a lot of PR Work and has created lists with cooperative press Partners. And another list where you can get cheap paid Reviews. We will send Promo Codes and Information to the press 2-3 Weeks before Release this Time. Additional I got a Tip of a Gamesalad Community Guy which suggested prMac for Marketing which I also will use.

Ditched

„Ditched! This sweet puzzle game is coming soon to your iPhone!“

Production history
Since a little over a year I have been working with two friends of mine on a puzzle game for a younger audience. It stars a cute sheep and squirrel in a sugary world. We worked on it in our private time after our regular jobs, so it took a while, but it is now coming close to being released.

Software
The game has been built in Construct 2, not in Gamesalad which I do my games with…

…and for one very good reason:
It has a polygon editor for your 2d Graphics, which lets you paint in the bounding box with single points and achieve a much more complex and accurate collision model than with Gamesalad.

But I also have to mention that the community and the tutorial material around Construct 2 is very weak compared to that of Gamesalad. Also, it seems much more difficult to actually release the game to the app store, which we can hopefully manage to figure out.

The Game
The goal of the game is to get the sheep out of different ditches which he repeatedly falls into every level. For this challenge you have the control over a mechanical claw, which you can move through varying ditches with different gameplay puzzles and timing challenges: Magnets that make you stuck or repel you away, grumpy crabs that will cut the sheep or the claw’s wires, and even magical firebreathers which will burn you if you’re not careful!

There are 3 different worlds, each with a bunch of levels to play:
– Bubblegum Barn
– Sugar Shore
– Cupcake Castle

My Role in the Team
Initially I was supporting the concept phase of Ditched, but slowly I slipped more into the business-, PR and marketing roles. I also helped drive the development forward by mentally supporting the developer with his work.

Facebook Link:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ditched/589214191115118

Have a nice Sunday!
David

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David Zobrist

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November 22, 2013

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Indie Full price Game – With no History or Fan Base = 0 Chance

Hey guys.
Here a Statistic directly out of my iTunes Connect Account showing the Amount of Downloads.
Note this is my Release Week.

In total around 30 Downloads. 18 Paid 12 through Promo Codes (for free).

Conclusion: Thats pretty poor but nice too know. So what can I learn here…

Theres a few Reason I can come up with:

1.) 250 Games get released per Day accordingly a statistic from October this Year.
Specialy as close to Christmas as now their are much more Releases as normal. All kind of Marketing Channels are affected through that, since they have an Overload on Work to do and are more likely to ignore the little Indie Developers Apps.

2.) The Name „The Sha Man“ auto-corrects to „The aha man“ and is a pain in the Ass to search for.
Additionally this removes the random Chance to get found since it will always auto-correct them away from my App. Something to check before the next App.

3.) I did start with the Marketing too late. I basically started with it on the release Day, definitely to late. If possible I will try to achieve a little hype before my next App.

4.) The Price. The pure Fact that it has one, seem to be a no go. There is no more Chance to sell Full Price Apps without having a Fan base behind you that waits for it. People want them Free and Pay a lot of Money for In-App purchases. That’s nothing new, I knew it but didn’t put this Business-model into Place because I wanted my first Title to be as easy to publish as possible. To learn about the whole Process first.

Result: Since Players can’t try and they don’t know the Brand it will be coldly ignored by the Users. The next Game will be free to play with in-app purchases so I get at least more Downloads and reach a bigger Audience before I block my Content by Prices.

Have a nice Weekend everyone!

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David Zobrist

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November 19, 2013

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Marketing Post-Mortem

Hi guys! So I released my first mobile Game „The Sha Man“ about a week ago. I and my Girlfriend tried our best to give the Game some Attention.

Marketing/Promotion Steps:

Facebook: Created a Facebook Page, with Diary like Content and Screenshots, we started with that around 1 Month before the Release. After I reached around 43 likes via my own Friends I decide to boost the Page via the Facebook Promotion Option.

I quickly learned that you get the cheapest (most rapid like rate within paid time frame) from India and the Philippines. But their actual interaction with the Page Content equals zero. (almost as they get paid for it, or are bots?) So I guess if you want to use this Feature than target iPhone relevant Countries like United States, Germany, China, Switzerland….

I put in around 200 Euro and reached 2165 Likes within 10 days.

Twitter: My Girlfriend created a Twitter Account and started to follow relevant Players, in order to get their Attention to us. This led to around 50 Followers from which 2 re-tweeted „The Sha Man’s“ Release, that was cool.

Youtube: I Created a Youtube Gameplay Video, simple Screen capturing.
Additionally I contacted like 12 Youtuber’s which review Games or do „let’s play’s“, two of them responded to upload some uncommented Gameplay on their Channel. One of them actually did. See here!

Websites and Blogs(Press): We wrote to around 20 Blogs and Websites such as Pocketgamer and Toucharcade (big players). Not one wanted to do an unpaid Review when they even responded.

Forums: We wrote our Promo Text and Links into different Game Forums. This kind of worked once we learned that they want Promo Codes to access to the Game for free. You can create 100 of them for each Version of the Game in iTunes Connect. A valuable Marketing Step.

Software Community: I created a Topic for my Game on http://gamesalad.com. I’ll got 250 views and nice motivational Feedback, of a very supportive and active Community. After that I created a second Topic with 10 Promo codes, within 2 days 7 where taken and proper Feedback given. That was encouraging and insightful! I handed „The Sha Man“ in for GameSalads Game of the Month. ( Not yet ended) But it looks like close to Christmas the amount of Games produced within the Community trippeled and some of them are very strong Competition.

Blog: I started to write this Blog. Not only for Promotion but to provide an authentic Experience from a Indie Game Designer.

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David Zobrist

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November 18, 2013

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The Sha Man

Live!
I was developing and meditating a lot the last 3-4 months, the Result is a Mobile Game called The Sha Man.
It went through a lot of Iterations during the developing Process. I changed Setting/Locations from a underground jail to a colorful Jungle, over painted Graphics millions of times, cutting Game Features out of the Game even if already perfectly running.

The Sha Man
Its time to clean your soul! The Sha Man is coming!
Slip into his role and battle through a horde of inner Demons. Good reaction and well timed actions are needed for success.

Gameplay:
Demon after Demon appears in front of you. Block their spells and use the available time in-between to get your own attacks off. Unlock Mini-Games by reaching the next Goal Score. Solve the Mini Games to get more Spells for your Shaman.

Gameplay Footage

Features:
-A window to a colorful unique World
-Defeat the shamans crazy inner Creatures
-Pure Skill based gameplay every move matters
-Master a set of Magical Mini-Games
-Learn new Spells and become more powerful

The Sha Man iTunes
The Sha Man Google Play Store
The Sha Man Amazon Store

Check for Updates on Facebook
Check for Updates on Twitter

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David Zobrist

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November 16, 2013

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Private me - Insights and Thoughts

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Gaming Industry – How I stepped in

Welcome on my new blog!
I’m glad you found your way to this blog. I want to quickly introduce myself. I’m 28 years old. I’m working since 4 years in the gaming industry. Here a quick overview over the noteworthy pillars that lead me to my current situation.

„Grüetzi“ a brick layer from Switzerland
I was born in Switzerland Dübendorf which is a part of Zürich, I wasn’t a very bright student in school and didn’t really knew what I will do for living. My parents paid me an expensive year in Art + Media Design and another one in Informatics/Math. Feeling spoiled through the intensive financial support of my parents I decided to start working as hard as I can, in the most basic job I could get. So I became a brick layer, highly motivated I wrote almost every examine with best grades. Unfortunately you can’t fake real handwork skills, so I ended my 3 years of hard work at any weather conditions, without the final certificate because I failed in the practical end test. I decided to move on and found the Games Academy Advertising in a newspaper. I moved to Berlin quickly.

Games Academy
In Berlin I did the a brief Game Design Education at the Games Academy it took back than 1 year to finish it, I think this option is not longer available. It was kind of expensive and I’m thankful to my parents that helped me financial to follow my dream and surf on the rainbow to luck and happiness.

YAGER Development – As the young motivated Intern:
Prototyping and Pitching
I worked for YAGER Development the guys that made Spec ops the Line I was responsible for developing future potential projects. Creating Excel sheets, Game Vision Docs, High concept and Mechanics Design. Sitting in meetings and talking with people that have done that stuff for years was a challenge for someone who has not yet the complete technical jargon absorbed. It was a good learning experience and a very open creative working environment. Unfortunately I got sick with Salmonella lost the job and my former girlfriend left me. A intense down phase of my adult age happened over 6 months, I rised out of that misery by doing a lot of sports.

Young Internet – Online Worlds for Kids:
Quality Assurance and Game Design
After that I worked for Goodbeans a.k.a Young Internet which created online Worlds for Kids like Panfu and Oloko.
The working environment was not as professional as I was used with YAGER but it was extremely relaxed and I felt save in my role as an employe. I started as a Quality Assurance Manager, together with Programmers I assured the game world quality and hunted bugs and usability issues. I switched to Game Design after that and designed a few Weekly quests for the online Community and developed Features to improve the usability of the Game World.

Goodbeans – Mobile Monster RPG Game!!!!! Balancing, Content creation and Narrative Design Goodbeans switched from online gaming to the mobile market. I designed together with my Lead Game Designer Kyle Smith, a former employe of EA Canada, a Pokemon type game for the iPhone and iPad. Called Zuko Monsters, free to play with a bunch of in app purchases and timers to overcome. Creating 100 of abilities and Monsters was a lot of fun. Also developing Xp, Monster Attribute Profile curves and monetization values.

There is also a fancy Trailer to this one:

Independent Game Designer !??! Creating Games with GameSalad, Photoshop and my Mind

So the game couldn’t save the already sinking company, which it was supposed to do.
Goodbeans former Young Internet had been shrinking from 60 employes down to the half.

The last months, where I was a part of the company, there where around 15 survivers. And I decided to quit the work position before I also get fired and with this remain in psychological positive state because of the rationalization that it was my decision.

I work now as an Independent Game Designer and create Mobile Games with the tool Gamesalad. My first released Project I will show off next. Thanks for reading!