This isn't what you think it is.
So, now that's out of the way, how do you actually advertise a game? Both on and off of BYOND?
At the moment, other than not knowing where to start, the problems I am running into is just getting people interested enough to play a game. I'm not exactly popular or well known, I haven't made any great games in the past. How do you get people to actually step in and try a game?
I think the game looks good, people have said the art looks great. I think the game is fun to play from what people have said. It maybe needs a bit of tweaking and fine tuning, but I don't think it has any major issues from what people have told me. I just need people to start playing it.
As for getting the game off of the BYOND website. That's an entirely other issue. Unless I can get some sort of stand alone version of the game, I'm not going to try and the few attempts I've made have probably done more harm than good.
The problem I have with this is 1. No flash client which would be absolutely perfect for what I need and 2. $100 which I am not willing to pay due to being out of a job right now and needing money.
The plan is to try and make some money with the game on BYOND, and if I make enough use it to pay for these things and then get the game out there to a larger audience. But this comes back down to, how do you get people on BYOND to play a game? (And how do I convince people to part with their money?)
So, what do I do?
ID:1404043
 Oct 22 2013, 7:44 am
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Oct 22 2013, 8:01 am
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Hiro the Dragon King
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The first places that I'd look to are the indie game forums, /r/eddit, and 4chan. They may be able to provide you a small audience to start with. Generating a recurring audience after that is all about the game itself and is a bit trickier.
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Like he said, though, he's more focused on promoting internally to BYOND users.
And I can't really answer that, though. As far as I know, there's really no good way to reach a large number of BYOND's players, as the site doesn't really offer a community area for players. | |
I tried on 4chan. The results were basically...
BYOND Which if you know anything about 4chan is enough to say it all (and if you don't it roughly translates into "wow why are you using byond is this some kind of joke i'm not even going to consider playing this game go and remake it in something that is not byond and even then i wont play it because at one point in time this game was associated with byond"). | |
Advertising within BYOND doesn't work. There really isn't a way to do it. There's just Game Updates...
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The Magic Man wrote:
... it roughly translates into "we're self-absorbed, stereotyping, elitist pricks." Fixed. | |
Which is actually something that really needs to be fixed.
If BYOND developers can't even really spread the word readily among reglar BYOND users, then that's a huge hurdle that really shouldn't be there. Yes, promoting a well-polished game outside of BYOND should be a goal, but there really needs to be a convenient way to get the word out to the existing userbase. | |
The best way is to record yourself and a few others having fun on the game, show em bits of how it works and how much fun it can be. Post up a video and write a short description to go along with it. Post it where ever you can and people will try it out. Make a post in "off-topic" forums for some of the already made card games on BYOND(like Duel Monsters Genesis). The more you post it, the better the description, and the more your video shows, the more people you reel in. If they like it, they'll stick.
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SuperSaiyanGokuX wrote:
Which is actually something that really needs to be fixed. I check game updates all the time, in fact I hate the new pager so the forum is my only source of news. Not a ton going on there, but it's certainly active. I guess it is sort of hidden on the front page, down at the bottom there... | |
I think the pager should be redesigned to match the website colour scheme. It would look much more friendly then that horrible black it is now.
That's my only problem with the pager, it's incredibly ugly. Seems slower than it used to be as well, but I'm not concerned about that. | |
You can customize the pager's colors, you know?
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I don't see that as a good idea. I think the pager should match the site by default. Personal Preference I suppose.
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Magicsofa wrote:
SuperSaiyanGokuX wrote: You do, and I'm sure the other developers do (I'm tempted to say "other forum users", but truthfully, it's really only developers that use the forums) But that's only reaching a tiny fraction of BYOND's total userbase. The number of players to developers is a HUGE ratio. There are, maybe, 100 active developers/forum users (and I'm being generous), compared to thousands of regular players. Virtually none of those players can be easily reached via the site, because none of them use the forums. It is that audience that I'd like to be able to tap into. (it's still not enough, and outside promotion is still necessary, but it's far better than hitting a hundred or less sets of eyes through the Game updates forum) | |
I love the color scheme. It's more that my computer is about a decade old and while the pager is usable, it is certainly not responsive. Furthermore, I would not want a potential player to be distracted by what they might consider a steam rip-off. I want them to download and play the game as quickly and easily as possible.
So I would say, finish your game and then cobble together the $100. I'm sure you can do it...hell, maybe you can make a kickstarter with that goal :) | |
Agreed, something needs to be done about this. I've tried everything I can, posted on the forums, held tournaments, talked about the game, got other people playing the game to invite their friends.
I'm currently averaging about 20-30 players per day. I'm effectively reaching less than 1% of the people using BYOND at any one time. And there is nothing more I can do to reach new players on BYOND. My only options now are pay up the $100 and leave BYOND because I just can't reach any more new players by staying here. | |
The Magic Man wrote:
My only options now are pay up the $100 and leave BYOND because I just can't reach any more new players by staying here. We're working on improving this through a free version of the exe that runs a conditional ad (where micropayments could be used to disable it). We just need to come up with a compromise so that we aren't cut out of the loop, since obv. with every game going off BYOND, we go out of business. We're also still going forward with the Flash, so that should hopefully help open things up when it's ready. | |
Tom wrote:
We're also still going forward with the Flash, so that should hopefully help open things up when it's ready. That is very good to hear! I'm honestly more excited for this than anything, as it makes any multiplayer byond game easily accessible anywhere. | |
Doohl wrote:
Tom wrote: Oh, most definitely. I'll be very excited for that once it comes out. | |