The roadmap changes and marketing (a.k.a. The Common Effort)

[Konstanty]

I'm making a new discussion in order to grab your attention. First of all, we worked during the weekend and updated the roadmap.

I would like to explain why it looks like that and ask for your help, so bear with me, please.

The short version is that the game is not selling great, so we have to focus a bit more on early game balancing, polish, marketing and prepare demo version. Right now the majority of people who play the game say it's great. However, this doesn't translate to sales. We know that many players are scared of the early access label. We would like to let them try the game.

Why sales matter? We are a small (seven people in total) and self-funded studio operating without a big publisher. We are not No Man's Sky devs who had Sony behind them. In order to show the game to a wider audience once it's ready, we have to secure some funding for marketing. We also have to build a presence and this takes funds and time. Just this weekend we had a stand on PAX West - we send only Tom there and still it was a significant cost for us and all of us had to spend some time preparing materials and showcase build for him.

This doesn't mean that the game is doomed (unless the sales take a sudden nose dive) so don't despair. However, more funding equals more features. In the ideal world, we could sell enough copies to expand the team and make Book of Demons on steroids. As it stands we will work on our roadmap as planned and add planned and new (proposed by the community) features, it will just take a bit longer because we also have to put more effort into the marketing.

So, what can you do to help?

I know that many of you love the game and would like for it to get the recognition it deserves (or at least attention). So, what can you do to help? Spread the word, tell your friends, post about the game on the social media of your choice, ask your favorite youtuber to cover the game. If you like the game please consider writing a review on Steam.

You are our best secret asset, never underestimate the power of the community :-) It might not seem like much to you but every bit helps. If you have any ideas or suggestions how we can go about marketing please share.

Cheers!

[Arhont]

All I can do to promote the game to the masses is suggest you to add a link on your website (or somewhere else) for my VK community[vk.com] to attract more Russian-speaking people. In that group I always publish all latest news about the game (new patches, content, etc.). Maybe it will help you, who knows :)

[Konstanty]

Originally posted by Morok:

All I can do to promote the game to the masses is suggest you to add a link on your website (or somewhere else) for my VK community[vk.com] to attract more Russian-speaking people. In that group I always publish all latest about the game news, content, etc. Maybe it will help you, who knows :)

Good idea (and thanks for making that community!). We will post this on our facebook targeting Russian-speaking fans.

PS The slots will go live in few hours, the wait is over!

[KameHameHans]

I dont belong to a big gaming community and have only one frenemy in terms of gaming but ill write to some youtubers. Thats all i can do. I hope there are others who can spread the word more efficiently.

I didnt know that you are only 7 people btw.

In terms of Marketing - well you have to pull the attention of the people with Ads. I dont play much games on my cellphone but sometimes only the ads in the games make me curious to download games and try them out.

You have to tell the world. Hey i am here :) and fyi "no mans sky" i only saw the different gaming sites talk about it. Never touched it, never watched a trailer, for me it was just uninteresting. Another crappy sandbox clone but i saw book of demons on steam and was like "whoa" watched a gameplay on youtube how the game and movement works and "ka-ching" the game was bought.

Marketing costs a lot of money and is a risky thing, but if done right its the best thing you can do for your product. You have to find someone who is experienced in that area!

[Arhont]

Originally posted by Konstanty:

Originally posted by Morok:

All I can do to promote the game to the masses is suggest you to add a link on your website (or somewhere else) for my VK community[vk.com] to attract more Russian-speaking people. In that group I always publish all latest about the game news, content, etc. Maybe it will help you, who knows :)

Good idea (and thanks for making that community!). We will post this on our facebook targeting Russian-speaking fans.

PS The slots will go live in few hours, the wait is over!

Wohoo! :)

[Konstanty]

Originally posted by Silent Moebius:

I dont belong to a big gaming community and have only one frenemy in terms of gaming but ill write to some youtubers. Thats all i can do. I hope there are others who can spread the word more efficiently.

That's would be great - if you write to them it will effectively double the number of people who did :D

Originally posted by Silent Moebius:

I didnt know that you are only 7 people btw.

Until recently there used to be six of us (Tom joined to handle press and youtube but there is only so much he can do alone - right now he is at PAX so one of us have to handle emails :D) and for the first two years we worked in 3. That's why we are answering posts even during the night - we have to work double shifts to fix the bugs, add features and we don't have time to advertise the game. We modified the roadmap because soon we will have to catch some sleep and we want to be honest with the community. Better to warn players that stuff will have to wait a bit than to lie until the very end (and then crash and burn)...

Originally posted by Silent Moebius:

In terms of Marketing - well you have to pull the attention of the people with Ads. I dont play much games on my cellphone but sometimes only the ads in the games make me curious to download games and try them out.

You have to tell the world. Hey i am here :) and fyi "no mans sky" i only saw the different gaming sites talk about it. Never touched it, never watched a trailer, for me it was just uninteresting. Another crappy sandbox clone but i saw book of demons on steam and was like "whoa" watched a gameplay on youtube how the game and movement works and "ka-ching" the game was bought.

Mobile ads won't work for PC game - if we had a mobile port that would be a very good idea. Steam exposure (which worked in your case) comes from sales. This is a slingshot - once the sales are high more people see the game. For that, we need youtubers and coverage in press.

Originally posted by Silent Moebius:

Marketing costs a lot of money and is a risky thing, but if done right its the best thing you can do for your product. You have to find someone who is experienced in that area!

[/quote]

Ideally, we could cooperate with some established marketing firm to coordinate media push just before launch. But for that, we have to save some cash before the launch :-)

[Arhont]

Originally posted by Konstanty:

Good idea (and thanks for making that community!). We will post this on our facebook targeting Russian-speaking fans.

But a small problem is that there is almost no Russian-speaking people on Facebook. But in any case it may help :) You can also post about community in Steam news http://store.steampowered.com/news/?appids=449960 and in your Twitter.

[Konstanty]

Originally posted by Morok:

Originally posted by Konstanty:

Good idea (and thanks for making that community!). We will post this on our facebook targeting Russian-speaking fans.

But a small problem is that there is almost no Russian-speaking people on Facebook. But in any case it may help :) You can also post about community in Steam news http://store.steampowered.com/news/?appids=449960 and in your Twitter.

That's a good idea (although I guess those people who see the Steam announcements are already aware of the game. We will mention vk community page in the next update (so probably in the next few hours).

[RodHull]

This is probably something youve done already but have you sent free copies to all the you tube types who play games like this yet those guys can spread the word quicker than traditional marketing if the game is good and there are quite a few who actively promote indie titles like this.

[LaeLena]

I think it is great that you are making a demo. I've tried getting people interested, but they are scared of the price tag and think I'm insane when I praise the game. I guess they don't really see the depth in it at all :( So hopefully the demo will bring more players and funds when they see what the game is truly about - just make sure the demo gets enough visibilty on Steam.

I really love the communication and honesty you have towards the community with this situation and everything else. A team that truly cares about the customers is a rare things these days, even with small studios.

Have you thought about donations? I would be more than happy donate some extra even tho I bought the game at full price.

[Konstanty]

Originally posted by RodHull:

This is probably something youve done already but have you sent free copies to all the you tube types who play games like this yet those guys can spread the word quicker than traditional marketing if the game is good and there are quite a few who actively promote indie titles like this.

Aye, we did that :-) we also keep pestering those who didn't cover the game. It never hurts to remind them from time to time. We should probably nag them more once the Mage is in.

However, our list might not be complete since we never did anything like that before. Do you know any youtubers who like indie titles?

[Konstanty]

Originally posted by MiiMuu:

I think it is great that you are making a demo. I've tried getting people interested, but they are scared of the price tag and think I'm insane when I praise the game. I guess they don't really see the depth in it at all :( So hopefully the demo will bring more players and funds when they see what the game is truly about - just make sure the demo gets enough visibilty on Steam.

That's what we are hoping for too. The visibility is not up to us really but we will do what we can :-)

Originally posted by MiiMuu:

I really love the communication and honesty you have towards the community with this situation and everything else. A team that truly cares about the customers is a rare things these days, even with small studios.

Thank you, we are trying!

Originally posted by MiiMuu:

Have you thought about donations? I would be more than happy donate some extra even tho I bought the game at full price.

Wow, that's super nice of you, thank you. We truly appreciate that

If you want to support us even more than just buying the game please consider buing another copy as a gift for a friend. That way Steam will see game as more popular and show it to more people :-)

[RodHull]

Originally posted by Konstanty:

However, our list might not be complete since we never did anything like that before. Do you know any youtubers who like indie titles?

Officialstuffplus (ignore name its just some guy) plays a lot of indie stuff he tends more toward building titles but maybe worth throwing it his way, and then theres the usual bunch quill, northernlion etc

[LaeLena]

Originally posted by Konstanty:

If you want to support us even more than just buying the game please consider buing another copy as a gift for a friend. That way Steam will see game as more popular and show it to more people :-)

Hmm, I could actually do that if my husband doesn't buy it for himself :P I enjoy the game so much that is easily one of my best buys on Steam (just wish that the evil, evil Legion wasn't taking so much of my time).

[Konstanty]

Originally posted by MiiMuu:

Originally posted by Konstanty:

(just wish that the evil, evil Legion wasn't taking so much of my time).

Gah, since my wife started playing I had to install battle.net only to be able to talk to her in whispers since she won't even alt-tab to other chat :D

[LaeLena]

She must be enjoying it then :D You could use her to promote Book of Demons if she is in a guild. "Guys, I know a great game to entertain you during maintenances. It can be played for 5 minutes or 5 hours or anything in between and beyond that." Aaaand now I'm sad that I'm guildless atm and can't do that myself :D