作者：Tyler York

上周，我发表了一篇颇受欢迎的帖子，论述如何优化iOS & Android游戏的发行计划，但这同时也带来许多问题：若你的目标不是开展大规模发行计划，而是测试概念，这会是什么情况？若你旨在迎合硬核细分市场将会是怎样？若我的作品瞄准的是浏览器平台，那我该怎么办？我希望向发行或测试新游戏的开发者提供类似相关指南，解决这些问题。

Advanced Wars from ds.ign.com

寻找你的头1000位玩家

对于许多游戏来说，寻找头1000位玩家是游戏开发中最具挑战性的部分。这里的关键是，像推广其他技术产品那样应对游戏的营销工作。就如Eric Ries在他的著作《The Lean Startup》中所论述的，无论产品存在多么多缺点，初期接受者依然会喜欢它，体验它。

Technology Adoption Lifecycle from gamasutra.com

谁是你的初期接受者？

你也许尚不清楚这点，所以不妨问问你自己：我为什么要制作这款游戏？假设你制作的是异步回合策略游戏。很有可能，你制作这款游戏是因为你喜欢回合策略，或是你希望《Advanced Wars》能够推出现代更新版本等等。你的初期接受者无疑喜欢回合策略游戏。他们是谁？你是他们中的一员。你需要挖掘你的“精神钱包”，弄清目标初期的具体情况。这可以具体到基于数据分析的性别和年龄百分比，或是基于你自身游戏经历的预感。只要你愿意保持思想开放，在假设出错的情况下再次进行尝试，那么你就能够继续前进。

要在何处寻找初期接受者？

要找出你的第一批初期接受者，你需要搜索着迷于测试游戏所属类型的玩家。根据我们的例子，假设你寻找的是策略玩家。你可以查看大型游戏网站的策略版块，着眼于策略游戏的论坛，或是同你们相似的策略游戏公司论坛。务必在Facebook和Twitter上给你的游戏创建社交账号，每天通过此账号同你的初期玩家进行互动。

若你寻找的是更集中的设计和开发反馈信息，你也可以搜索支持独立游戏开发的社区（游戏邦注：如/r/IndieGaming、IndieGamer或 TIGSource）。根据我的经验，独立开发者发布的、旨在寻找参与者的简单论坛帖子通常都很受欢迎，这些家伙和你一样喜欢玩游戏。你还可以在论坛签名中添加游戏链接，这样你在这些论坛所发布的其他帖子也能够充当游戏的迷你广告。

在此你的目标是，搜索那些在尚未进行试验前就欣赏你作品的用户。他们也喜欢异步策略游戏，或希望《Advanced Wars》推出现代更新版本。这里你的目标是找到感兴趣于你作品的志趣相投者。通过这一策略获得首批玩家的优点是，你和他们建立起联系。这同时也意味着，他们更易于谅解你游戏的粗糙之处，给予你有价值的反馈信息。

screenshot from gamasutra.com

基于游戏创建社区

在头2个步骤之后，希望你会找到若干初期接受者，尽量和他们建立私人联系。下个步骤是，基于游戏创建社区。为什么？社区富有粘性，会促使玩家持续返回。它们还让玩家相信，游戏富有趣味，还吸引了其他玩家，自己能够和他们谈论游戏。由于游戏的初期接受者通常来自硬核细分市场，因此他们的确认对于潜在用户来说非常重要。

作为案例分析，下面就来看看两款基于浏览器的策略游戏：备受赞誉的精致《Neptune’s Pride》和自主冒险《Conquer Club》。《Conquer Club》的社区着眼点突显在他们的网站中，虽然他们的玩法几乎并无二致，但社区着眼点让他们收获众多富有粘性的用户。《黑手党战争》设计师Roger Dickey在他关于游戏创收的讲话中谈到，很多玩家在对游戏感到厌倦后依然持续体验这款游戏，因为他们效忠于他们的暴民。你多半也希望你的玩家能够形成这样的社区。

扩展初期接受者社区

在着手创建社区，看到些许牵引力后，你是时候该思考如何扩大这一社区。除社区延伸和社交媒介外，你是时候该思考付费广告和新闻媒体手段。

在本指南中，我们假定在用户获取上投入数千美元不是可行选择。这没有关系，因为我们可以通过许多方式进行超定向广告，这能够实现利益最大化：

* Facebook：你可以通过Facebook的激光瞄准功能根据国家、年龄及他们所喜欢或体验的Facebook游戏锁定用户。若操作得当，这能够成为你短期内最高效的推广渠道，但要避免过快敲定小范围的用户。

* Google Adwords：虽然无法根据习惯做法划分，但Google Adwords能够根据兴趣锁定用户，这同样作用显著。关于关键字搜索，有许多资料值得我们参考，但我觉得这可以总结成如下问题，“如果我是玩家，我在搜索这款游戏时，会在谷歌中输入什么？”然后就这些关键字做广告。

* 旗帜广告：当你搜索初期接受者社区时，你也许会注意到，他们有些也利用广告。现在你也应该采取相同策略。旗帜广告成本高，但效果显著，所以确保仔细选择你要打广告的地方。花时间出于此目的制作或委托制作精致图像完全值得。最后，务必测试不同信息或者甚至是不同图像，以了解什么吸引玩家。

这时候，你也许能够让细分市场中的媒体人士评论你的游戏，带给你宝贵的曝光度，这能够制造社交媒介噱头及带来新玩家。在和媒体人士谈论游戏情况时，务必做好准备工作。寻找报道所处细分市场独立作品的媒体渠道（游戏邦注：和付费广告一样，这里的目标是超定向推广）。在向媒体渠道发送电子邮件的过程中，把握如下要点能够促使你获得宣传的机会最大化：

* 联系他们：告知评论者，你读过且欣赏他们对于类似游戏的报道。

* 获得他们的关注：告诉他们游戏的独特之处所在。

* 亲自碰面：如果你们置身同个地区，能够亲自向他们提供演示内容，这将能够提高你获得曝光的几率。

* 促成交易：解释你的游戏为什么适合他们的用户。

* 达成交易：向他们提供促销码，以让他们能够尽早访问你的游戏，询问他们是否有兴趣评论你的游戏。

* 协商限制条件：在你的游戏上线时发布评论。这能够推动流量。

总结

无论你制作什么类型的游戏或是选择什么目标平台，寻找头1000位用户并没有你想象中的那么困难。这只需要你了解游戏的初期接受者，向这些玩家推广你的游戏，基于初期牵引力创建社区。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

How to get your first 1000 players

by Tyler York

Last week, we wrote a well-received post on how to maximize your launch for iOS or Android, but it also prompted a lot of questions: What if your goal wasn’t a huge launch, but to test the concept? What if you’re trying to capture a hardcore niche? What do I do if I’m making a game for the browser? We wanted to address those questions with a similar, but tangential guide for developers launching or testing a new game.

Finding your first 1000 players

For many games, finding that elusive first 1000 users can be the most challenging part of game development. The key is to approach marketing your game like marketing any other technology product. As Eric Ries has stated in his book The Lean Startup, no matter how much your product (ie game) is lacking, early adopters will still love it and play it.

Who are your early adopters?

You might not know this yet, so ask yourself this: why did I make this game? Let’s say you made an asynchronous turn-based strategy game. Chances are, you made it because you love turn-based strategy, or you wished that there was a modern update of Advanced Wars, or what have you. Your early adopters are people that absolutely love turn-based strategy games. Who are they? Well, you’re one of them. You need to dig into your mental pocketbook and figure out what your target early adopter looks like. This can be as concrete as gender and age percentages backed up by statistical analysis, or it can be a hunch based on your experiences playing these games yourself. As long as you’re willing to keep an open mind and try again if your assumptions turn out incorrect, then you should forge ahead.

Where do I find my early adopters?

To find your first group of early adopters, seek out communities of players that are dedicated to the type of game that you’re testing. As per our example, let’s say you’re looking for strategy gamers. You could look at the Strategy section of a large gaming site, a Strategy game-focused forum, or the forum of a Strategy game company that is similar to yours (note: they may not take to this too kindly, so tread carefully). Be sure to create social accounts for your game on Facebook and Twitter, and to use this accounts daily to interact with your first players.

If you’re looking for more focused design and development feedback, you can also seek out communities that support indie game development, like /r/IndieGaming, IndieGamer, or TIGSource. In my experience, a simple forum post by an indie developer asking for participants is usually well received, and these guys love playing games as much as you do. You can also link to your game in your forum signature, so that any other posts you make on these forums also serve as mini-advertisements for your game.

Your goal here is to find people that share your love for the game you’ve created before they even play it. They too love asynchronous strategy games, or wish there was a modern update to Advanced Wars. The goal here is to find kindred spirits that will be naturally interested in your game. The advantage of using this tactic to get your initial group of players is that you are building a relationship with them. This also means they will be more likely to forgive your game’s rough edges and give you valuable feedback.

Building a community around your game

After the first two steps, hopefully you’ve found some early adopters and have done your best to cultivate personal relationships with many of them. The next step is to build a community around your game. Why? Communities are sticky, and will keep players coming back. They also serve as validation for new players that this game is fun, has other players and has a group of people to talk to about the game. As early adopters of game types are often in hardcore niches, this validation is critical for people looking at a game.

As a case study, let’s look at two browser-based strategy games: the beautiful, award-winning Neptune’s Pride and the make-your-own-Risk Conquer Club. Conquer Club’s focus on their community is obvious just from looking at their website, and while their gameplay is hardly unique, their focus on community rewards them with a large audience with a lot of retention. Mafia Wars creator Roger Dickey noted in his talk on game monetization that many people continued playing Mafia Wars long after they were bored of the game because they felt loyal to their Mob. You want to engender this kind of community among your players as well.

Scaling the early adopter community

Once you’ve started to build your community and see some traction, it’s time to starting thinking about how to scale that community. Beyond the community outreach and social media that you should already be doing, it might be time to start thinking about paid advertising and press.

Since you’re reading this guide, we’re going to assume that spending thousands of dollars on user acquisition is not an option. That’s OK, because there are a number of ways to do hyper-targeted advertising that will give you the most bang for your buck:

* Facebook: You can use Facebook’s laser-targeting to target users by country, age and what games they Like or play on Facebook. Done correctly, this can be one of your most cost-effective channels in the short term, but be wary of tapping out a very narrow audience quickly.

* Google Adwords: While not able to segment by habits, Google Adwords can target users by interest, which is just as useful. There’s a lot to be read on keyword research, but I think it can be summed up with the question “If I was a player, what would I type into Google when I was looking for exactly this game?” Then advertise on those keywords.

* Banner ads: When you were searching for early adopter communities, you may have noticed some of them running ads. Now it’s time for you to do the same. Banner ads are expensive yet effective, so make sure you pick which sites to advertise on carefully. It’s also worth spending some time making or commissioning a solid graphic for this purpose. Lastly, make sure you test different messaging or even different graphics to learn about what sticks with players.

At this point, you should hopefully be able to get press in your niche to review your game, giving you valuable exposure that can lead to social media buzz and new players. When approaching press about your game, make sure to do your homework. Look for press outlets that cover indie games in your specific niche (as with paid advertising, the goal is hyper-targeted promotion). In your email to the outlet, you want to do the following to maximize your chances of a story:

* Connect with them: show the reviewer that you read and enjoyed their coverage of similar games

* Get their attention: tell them what is unique about your game

* Meet in-person: if you are co-located and can meet with them to give them a demo in-person this will help ensure coverage.

* Make the sale: explain why your game is a great fit for their audience

* Close the deal: give them a promo code to access your game early and ask them if they would be interested in reviewing your game

* Negotiate embargoes: so that their reviews post when your game is live. This will help drive traffic.

Wrap up

No matter what type of game you’re making or what platform you’re launching on, finding your first 1000 players is not as hard as it seems. It just takes an understanding of the early adopter for your game, marketing your game to those players, and building a community around that initial traction. Our hope is that this will serve as a successful guide for those endeavors. Don’t forget to report back here with your experiences or share existing ones below!（Source：gamasutra）