Author Topic: selling games in a cruel world  (Read 6670 times)

rubikscube

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selling games in a cruel world
« on: May 27, 2010, 07:40:54 pm »
http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3179489 found it on 1up, talks about advertising the game, which i'm not criticizing since I'M here, but surely could do a better job and such ( more videos, and i understand a lot of advertising is expensive but after creating multiplayer and minigames more noob friendly, people will see ai war as the next starcraft )( yet again, i understand not trying to be like another game is a key factor of this game)

Offline x4000

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Re: selling games in a cruel world
« Reply #1 on: May 27, 2010, 08:10:09 pm »
I don't know any politer way to say it: but please give it up on the minigames. There has to be an identity for a game. People want to know what a game is, described in a sentence. They already know AI War as being pretty hardcore; anything I do would not change that.

If ai war were not yet out, had not already run the review gauntlet a year ago, and had tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars to spend on advertising, then that would be one thing. But the game is what it is, and no amount of minigames will change the perception potential customers have of the game. Also: I have no interest in minigames, so there is no way I could do them effectively.

It seems you are posting about minigames every day, but I don't think you have much perspective on how all this really works. I could put out a video every day, for example, and it wouldn't make any difference to sales. Also, I have done advertising with google and facebook -- spending $50 per day on each of them -- and saw a 0% increase in sales.

But, when someone talks about the game on some other forum, or when we do a sale with a partner, we see a huge spike in sales. With our partners, 300% boost or more.

When we want to approach a different audience, we will make a different game, not try to make this game something that is so broad in appeal that it loses all identity. In fact, that is what we are doing with Tidalis and Alden Ridge and all the rest we have planned.

Regarding advertising, for AI War, for whatever reason, it does not work. People don't want to hear about he game from me, they want to hear it by other fans who are excited about the game. And that excitement has been out key asset, when people take time out to talk to other people about our work.if we take our eye off the ball in pursuit of an audience that is more interested in adrenaline and graphics anyway, we will lose. I can't compete with Starcraft or command and conquer. But what I can do is offer a game that scratches a certain itch for a certain niche, and which nobody has ever seen the likes of before. And that's what I've done.

I appreciate the sentiment, and I know you are only trying to help, but I have already explained why minigames aren't going to happen multiple times, and yet it seems like you still bring it up almost daily, as if you didn't even hear me. I don't mean to be rude, but it is very frustrating.
« Last Edit: June 01, 2010, 07:08:34 pm by x4000 »
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Offline danando

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Re: selling games in a cruel world
« Reply #2 on: May 28, 2010, 10:21:46 pm »
i agree x4000 I'm sure rubik hasnt got the idea of the designing games and advertising cost , its like everything is free these days rubik is tryna say lol  :-\    money monet money :( oh and minigames :/ no point reli
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rubikscube

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Re: selling games in a cruel world
« Reply #3 on: June 01, 2010, 06:43:33 pm »
techy stuff to complicated ;)

rubikscube

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Re: selling games in a cruel world
« Reply #4 on: June 01, 2010, 06:43:46 pm »
but no one read the article ???

Offline KingIsaacLinksr

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Re: selling games in a cruel world
« Reply #5 on: June 01, 2010, 07:05:12 pm »
but no one read the article ???

No, and we're just going to quote X4000 on this.  Put an end to this idea.  Ai War works and has its identity.  That is all you need to figure out. 

King
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Offline x4000

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Re: selling games in a cruel world
« Reply #6 on: June 01, 2010, 07:10:33 pm »
I skimmed the article, but don't see how it is in any way relevant.  It's discussing a game on an entirely different platform (the Wii), in an entirely different genre, with entirely different issues (uh, we have a demo).  At any rate, I'm locking this topic, it's spiraling into a dead-end discussion.
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