Google+ Communities Will Connect You To Gamers

In one push of the button Google has elevated the activity on its social network Google+ substantially, seemingly in just one day. If you haven’t heard about Communities yet then let me tell you a little about them.

First of all why should you be on Google+? There are a number of reasons, but with sticking to the theme of marketing your game and company I’ll focus on that for now. Maybe the biggest reason to be on Google+ at least on a personal account is to network. I have spoken to a lot of you through Twitter over the last few months and Twitter does a great job of helping you find people with a similar interest as you. The strength and weakness of Twitter, however, is its limited format. You get your 140 characters and then you’re done. When you’re trying to have a conversation with people this can get frustrating. “Why not just use Facebook then?” you may ask. The answer to that is that Facebook is more of a private social media site for a lot of people. You are less likely to accept a friend request from someone you’ve never actually met in real life. This means you also aren’t chatting with them.

So what does Google+ have to do with all of this? Everything. Google+ effectively combines the networking strengths of Twitter using hashtags, and the comfortable, open feeling of Facebook using chat features and no character limits on posts. Google+ actually takes this a step further by allowing anyone the ability to video chat rather easily. I’ve been using the video chat software (Hangouts as it’s referred to) for a few weeks for our “On Air” series of interviews.

To sum all of this up – You can easily find gamers and game developers on Google+, begin talking to them about shared interests, and collaborate on projects or discussions using video networking software… all for free! Sign up!

So what are Communities?

Communities on Google+ make finding others with similar interests as you even easier than hashtags.  A Community can be either private or public, be a topic, a place, an interest or anything you’d like to share with others.

The owner can also customize communities. What this means is you can set up different discussion, similar to a forum, where people can post different topics within the overall community. As an example, I created the Indie Games Community earlier today. Within the Community I created the following sub topics:

• For Gamers
• For Devs

This organizes posts for members and clearly illustrates where your post should go. These discussions can be rearranged, renamed, added, or subtracted at any time by the Community owner.

Google+ Hangouts can also easily be created, at any time, with any group members. A Google+ Hangout is a powerful videoconference software built directly into Google+. I don’t like calling it video chat because there is so much more that can be accomplished with it. There is text chatting, audio, and video built in. In addition a screen share feature lets you easily show what you are working on to others in the hangout. Another great feature is Google Drive integration. You can work on documents with others in real time while all being on the same broadcast as if you were in the same room. Extremely powerful for connecting developers from around the world.

Events can also be set up from within the Community. As an example, for my Startup Gamers On Air show I can set up the event in the Community so all members can see it and join if they care to. Another option for developers would be if they were going to be at a local game store or convention demoing their game. To get the word out they could set up the event and list the location, date, and time and suddenly people that never would have known about it would be informed.

Finally, the option to share any article, post, picture, or anything you find on the Internet with every member of the Community is not only possible now, but also extremely easy. All of those +1 buttons out there now and soon to be out there have this capability.

As you can see Google+ Communities have some huge implications in networking and that means more exposure for you, your company, and your game. There is a general rule out there though: Do not use this, or any social media, to only promote yourself. If you constantly post about how great your game is then people will ignore it and on some platforms it could get you banned for SPAM. Instead take part in discussions, comment on the work people are doing, and provide help when people are stuck.

I’ll leave you with some new Communities that you should definitely be a part of if you’re an indie game developer or gamer:

 Indie Games

Indie Game Developers

Steam

 Are there any other Communities you’ve found that are interesting? Let me know in the comments!

Talk soon,

 -Patrick

Startup Gamers helps you make a name in the indie game space. Click START for updates!

4 Easy Steps To Creating A Marketing Schedule As A Solo Games Maker

How do you manage your time between your day job, creating your game, and marketing your game? I got this question a few times since I put up my last post earlier this week. From talking with different developers there is a feeling that if they spend too much time marketing then they won’t ever get their game completed. This is especially a concern for the solo game dev, but it can affect any small game studio. What I’m going to attempt to do is list out some tips and tools for managing your time effectively so that you can both create your game and spend the necessary time marketing it.

Let’s go!

1. Create A Schedule

This is the first and most important aspect. If you don’t create a schedule for yourself you’ll end up developing the same game forever. I remember a quote from the movie industry that I believe Peter Jackson said – “You never finish your movie, you just run out of time.” The same can be said for game design. Just because you’re indie doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have a deadline. Deadlines are important for a lot of reasons, but the most important of all is having a day on the calendar you are shooting for. If you have a date, you have a goal.

Here are the top three things you should take into account for your timeline:

• Allocate one hour a day for marketing
• Allocate a full day off a week (it’s important to the creative process to have a day off)
• Allocate two hours a week to write two short updates for your blog

After you take this into account make your best guess at a date that you will have a completed game. Mark that date on your calendars (digital, desk, or both) because this is your target date! This is your goal!

 2. Get Social Media Management Software

The importance of having software like this is immeasurable! You need all of your brand accounts in one place, easily accessible so you can quickly see your conversations and schedule posts. I recommend going with HootSuite if you’re just starting out. It’s perfect for the small indie studio because it allows you to include up to 5 social media accounts. It also has the Klout scoring feature built in so you know what kind of influence your followers have in the world of social media.

Once you download HootSuite you can login with your Facebook page, Google+ page, and Twitter account. The software let’s you switch back and forth between accounts effortlessly while also being able to customize different columns. But maybe the most important function of software like this is its scheduling feature. As you read articles from the web that you think would be beneficial to your audience you can set them up to tweet out the next day at whatever time you like.

So picture this, you get home from your day job around 6PM, work on your game for 3-4 hours, and then spend 1 hour replying to conversations on social media and setting up 5 tweets to go out throughout the next day! While it would be even better if you could check your accounts throughout the day, you should at least be doing this as a minimum.

 3. Sign up for Tweriod

Each night you are scheduling posts to go up for the next day, but at what times are you supposed to schedule these posts? For Facebook all recent research shows that the best time to get the most Likes and Comments is 12PM EST. But for Twitter it could vary greatly depending on your audience. Insert Tweriod. Tweriod analyzes your followers’ activity over a certain amount of time and then quickly sends you a report of the best times to post your content each day.

This way you aren’t throwing a shot in the dark at when you should be posting your original blog post vs. an interesting article you found (HINT: Your original work should be posted at the heaviest traffic times).

4. Create a WordPress blog

It’s true that there are many, many sources to create blogs, and by no means is WordPress the right choice for everyone. However, WordPress.com offers built in widgets, built-in SEO (Search Engine Optimization – so that people can find you when they use search engines), a community of bloggers that can find your blog easily from the WordPress site, and a ton of themes that you can customize to your brand – all for free!

It also has a built-in analytics tool so you can get some basic information of where people are coming to your site from, where in the world they are, and what they are clicking on when they get there.

Earlier I said you should allocate two hours a week to creating original content for your blog. This is a MINIMUM! Split those two hours into two days – one at the beginning of the week and one at the end. Your content should include any progress you’ve made on your game and any other info you think your audience will find interesting and useful.

Hopefully this gave you a good starting point to beginning your marketing efforts with social media. If you follow these four basic steps you will feel less stress when thinking about juggling the creation of your game and marketing it. You’ll also have a one stop shop to see all of your conversations, know the best times to post, and own an original blog that will begin to attract more customers looking for your type of game.

Talk soon,

-Patrick

 Startup Gamers helps you make a name in the indie game space 

Startup Idea, Why I Am Doing It And Who I Am

I wanted to take a few minutes to give Startup Gamers a little bit of an identity outside of the logo you all have been seeing out there on social media. It’s been great meeting so many awesome people from the community and seeing how everyone is so eager to interact with other studios and the gaming community. Let’s get to it:

Who are you?

Patrick Stephens

I’m from a small suburb about 40 minutes outside of Boston, MA. I’ve lived here my entire life while travelling to different parts of the country for work over the years (I hope to go to PAX Australia in 2013!).

My background is in sales and marketing as I did sales training work for nearly ten years with Circuit City, right up until they went out of business. At that point I had a decision to make – continue on the road of in-store sales or branch out and embrace the technology I’ve grown up with (the Internet). I chose to embrace technology by studying Internet Marketing and at the same time taking on a position as a regional manager for a consumer experience marketing company in the Northeast.

Why Startup Gamers?

This questions really goes all the way back to the 80’s (30 years ago now). I can remember playing Adventure (you can play it now by visiting this link) on Atari when my twin aunts brought home a shiny new box with the word Nintendo written on the side. I commented on this before, but the first time a goomba started walking toward us we had no idea what to do! I also remember my uncle creating elaborate stories involving trolls and orcs and magic potion. He told me these stories when I was at my most impressionable ages. He was a D&D gamer from its beginning and his passion for the game created a lifelong obsession with me. Fast forward a few years and I’ve taken home a brand new PlayStation just in time for summer break from school. The guy at the store recommended Silent Hill since I am a horror fan so that was what I bought – how scary can a game be? Extremely scary. I spent a good portion of that summer navigating Harry through the desolate, foggy town. About 8 years later it’s time for PAX East and my buddy finds a unique, storytelling indie game called Fiasco. When we finally get home and get a group together to play we come up with possibly the most outrageous, fun, inappropriate gaming night we’ve ever had.

So to answer the question of why I’m launching Startup Gamers – I love games.  I’ve wanted to open a gaming store for years, but the economic conditions always told me it was never a good time. So that got me thinking – What was it about the game store that attracted me? Was it the high cost of goods? Was it the settling stench of chicken soup? Was it the disheveled look and feel of the product on old bookshelves? Well, OK, maybe all of that has something to do with it now that I think about it – but really what attracted me to the idea of a game store was the community. It’s the idea of gamers coming together to play games, and to make new friends. It’s the idea of helping each other out and also healthy competition. Startup Gamers is your friendly local gaming spot, but it’s worldwide and that is a powerful idea.

So tell me about you in the comments, shoot me an email, post to my twitter. This is your magazine as much as it is mine and I absolutely mean that. You will never find an advertisement on our site, nor will you pay a dime for any content that we publish on it.

Talk soon,

-Patrick

follow me on twitter: @PDS271

Talent, Passion & Games – Welcome

There’s been something great happening over the last few years. It hasn’t happened quietly, but it still feels as though it snuck up on all of us.  The Internet has grown in exciting new ways and we are constantly seeing talented people build brand new mediums from seemingly thin air.

We’ve come to a point in time when the kids who remember their parents, aunts, uncles, and grandparents coming home with a box that created endless hours of enjoyment on their television screen are now the major players in the adult workforce. Individuals who remember suppertime AOL busy signals are now crafting experiences for a new generation who expect instant connection at the touch of a button.

You have the experience, you control that great thing that’s happening – and don’t be fooled, it’s happening around the world. The great thing is gaming as an art form, as an educational vehicle, as a form of entertainment, as a pastime. Games are everywhere and the older generations are now quick to get on the bandwagon with “gamification” for business, school, everything.  You have what they need, and you are utilizing that need everyday and making it happen on Twitch TV, Kickstarter, Steam, etc.

Welcome to the turning point, the line in the sand when we bring developers of every type together to share ideas and experiences. Share everything we know about the craft and hobby that we love so that the only thing holding us back is the real differentiator: passion and talent. Welcome to Startup Gamers.

 -Patrick

Follow me on Twitter: @PDS271