作者：Mike Stumhofer

万圣节的时候，我们为自己基于回合的战术RPG《Depth of Extinction》发行了一个演示版本，而对于这么一款来自并不知名开发者的游戏，它的确拥有一个成功的开始。在游戏发行前两周，该演示版本便获得了itch.io和GameJolt的推荐，并创造了超过1400次的下载量。我从我们的经历中获取了一些经验教训并希望能够帮助你们成功发行自己的演示版本。

让人们先玩游戏

你不能完全相信朋友和家人对你的游戏的看法。因为他们喜欢游戏并不意味着所有人都会喜欢游戏。你需要获得更多有关游戏的公正意见，而各种展会便是帮助你做到这点的绝佳场所。你将在此看到各种类型的玩家，既包括新手也包括资深玩家，并且你也将清除看到自己的游戏是否能够吸引更多不同类型的玩家的注意。如此你将能够了解游戏在哪方面存在缺陷或者你该在教程中添加哪些内容等等。

十月份，我们在亚特兰大举办的SIEGE和奥兰多举办的OrlandoIX呈现了《DOE》的演示版本并获得了不错的回应。我们甚至在SIEGE上获得了“优秀独立游戏设计奖”第三名，这也证实了我们的演示版本所具有的吸引力。

寻找一些能让你去呈现演示版本的区域游戏大会并不困难。

doe_orlando(from gamasutra)

在展会中不要只是待在自己的展位上

如果只是待在屏幕后面你便不能与人们交流并真正观察他们玩你的游戏。相反地你应该走出去并与玩家进行真正交流。你应该尝试着与每一个玩你们游戏的人进行一对一的交谈。

使用较大的屏幕去呈现游戏玩法视频

当然不需要像人那么大的电视屏幕。当人们停下来观看你的屏幕时，请勇敢地询问他们是否喜欢这款游戏。然后你便可以邀请他们尝试游戏或询问对方的邮件。

你并不需要市场营销材料，只需要进行有效的宣传

在展会前，我们花了许多钱去制作我们的展位标识，明信片以及名片大小的宣传册去推广游戏。尽管这些内容没有什么坏处，但是我认为他们也并非帮助你在展会上获得良好表现的必需品。也许他们能够帮助你突显自己，但除非你参加的是像PAX或GDC等大型展会，否则这些材料真的没多大用处。对你来说最重要的应该是将更多人带到你的展位前并鼓励他们去玩游戏。你应该自信地进行游戏宣传。因为你热爱自己的游戏，所以不要害怕去告诉别人你有多爱它。

重视邮件列表

我真的认为创造更多订阅者邮件列表对于创建一个独立游戏社区至关重要。但似乎并没有很多开发者能够重视这点。举个例子来说吧，《失落余烬》刚刚结束在Kickstarter上的活动，并且实现了超过300%的目标。这是一款拥有华丽视觉效果的游戏，其开发者在Facebook上表示他们拥有一份包含5千人的邮件列表，而这也是帮助他们在活动一开始拥有不错成绩的主要原因。当有人在你的邮件列表上进行登记时，这并不意味着他们便会下载你的游戏或在之后支持你的游戏，但这却比在社交网站上点赞更有效。因为在社交网站上如果要接触到所有粉丝你必定要花费一大笔经费。所以你最好想办法去获取人们的电子邮件，特别是那些喜欢你的游戏的玩家的邮件。

在游戏中整合邮件注册方式

你可能会想到，在展会上让人们写下自己的电子邮件存在许多问题，不仅仅是你可能会看不清他们的书写。你同样也不可能清楚自己所获得的是对游戏感兴趣的玩家还只是个过客。所以我认为你可以在游戏期间收集玩家的电子邮件并用其去保存玩家在游戏中的进程。然后玩家将面对之后再回到游戏的选择并能继续从刚刚离开的位置开始游戏。关于我们在展会上收集到的170封邮件，其中有超过一半的邮件是来自游戏注册。我们也通过这一方法获得了许多不错的回应。这也能够省去将手写电子邮件转录到电脑上的麻烦。同时我也惊讶地发现我们是这两个展会中少数向玩家收集电子邮件，并且是唯一将电子邮件整合到游戏中的开发者。

关于演示版本，我们并不想按照自己的方式向新玩家发送垃圾邮件，我们只希望能够推动喜欢游戏的玩家去注册游戏。所以你该如何区分喜欢游戏的玩家以及不喜欢游戏的玩家呢？对此我们便足够幸运，因为这在《DoE》中非常明显。即至少体验了两个任务并在其中一个任务中获得成功的玩家便会收到注册提醒。我们会在玩家满足这些条件后才呈现给他们注册选择。

在发行演示版本前花时间将反馈内容带到游戏中

你应该以提供给玩家真正优秀的用户体验为目标至少花几周时间去调整游戏。你必须清楚你不可能亲自像那些下载了游戏的玩家作解释，所以游戏教程便是非常重要的一部分。

拥有能够吸引用户的分析解决方法

有很多解决方法能够在这点上提供给你帮助，并且大多数方法都很容易执行。我们便在自己的项目中使用了Unity，但同时我们也发现Google Analytics更适合自己，并且基于该资产我们也可以更轻松去使用Unity。

doe_analytics(from gamasutra)

发行后便每天着眼于一些异常数据

这点很重要，我们便未能有效做到这点。因为我们是在第二周的时候才真正着眼于那些异常数据，并注意到一个在游戏一开始便会出现的漏洞。我们发现该漏洞已经出现了35次，也就意味着有35个玩家获得了糟糕的最初游戏体验。于是我们便在游戏发行后的第10天发布了更新内容去解决该问题。

提供一个能让用户提供反馈的表格

我们同样也未能将该内容添加到《DoE》。不幸的是，如果没有一份“报告问题”的表格，我们的玩家便没办法告诉我们自己所遇到的游戏漏洞。如果不能让玩家做出反馈，你可能还会遭遇到其它重要的缺失。

如果你认为媒体可能会喜欢你的游戏，你便可以和PR公司合作

我们已经和不少PR公司谈过媒体宣传的事，但对于演示版本我们最终还是决定自己来，所以我们便将《DoE》的密钥发送给了20个不同的媒体人。但最终只有少数媒体为我们编写了相关内容，并最终导致我们在游戏发行第一周没有多少推荐。当然我不会说自己做这件事就是错误，但从某种程度看来PR公司真的很有帮助。因为很多时候记者并不会愿意帮不知名的开发者宣传游戏演示版本。

不要忽视任何可能的平台

我们正在使用itch.io Refinery工具与团队以及其他想要尝试游戏的人分享游戏架构，并且最初我们只计划在该网站上发行《DoE》的演示版本。在展会上有些人建议我们也可以尝试GameJolt，最终我们也证实了这是最适合我们的平台。

实际上我们的演示版本的发行的真正转折点是在发行后的第二周，即我们在11月7日获得GameJolt的推荐的时候。那时候我们获得了巨大反响。即在那之后我们平均每天的下载量超过150次，同时也受到了许多积极的评价。GameJolt社区真的带给了我们很大的惊喜。

使用邮件服务去发送电子邮件

我们已经拥有了一个包含几百人（大多数是来自展会）的电子邮件列表并在游戏发行当天使用免费MailChimp服务给他们发送了电子邮件。MailChimp非常适合独立开发者，因为它不仅是免费的，同时还会提供给你邮件发送的效果，即告诉你邮件是否被点击或被打开。我真的非常推荐这一市场营销工具。比起在Facebook和Twitter上发表消息，发送电子邮件带给了我们更多回应。

勇敢地去联系销售平台的相关人员

在发行第一周，我联系了GameJolt的支持人员并询问了对方一些问题。在收到回应后我便决定尝试着提及游戏推荐的问题。其客服回应道编者分为了不同群组，但《DoE》看起来真的“很不错”。尽管我不能保证是自己的这一行动促成了游戏被推荐，但这也绝不会影响到游戏的发展。

同时在itch上，我发现在发行后游戏并未出现在“最新添加”的游戏列表中。我怀疑可能是因为我们在使用Refinery并在演示版本发行前一个月便创造了游戏页面。我想这可能是游戏未被推荐的一个原因，所以我便在在游戏发行八天后在itch社区委员会报告了这一问题。不出所料我们的游戏在隔天便获得了推荐。

结论

虽然做到所有的这些并不能保证你的成功，但是它们却能帮助你创造出与众不同的游戏。当然还有许多应该添加进来的内容，所以请果断地给我留言吧！

（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转发，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Preparing to release your game or demo? Read this first!

by Mike Stumhofer

We released the demo for our turn-based, tactical RPG Depth of Extinction on Halloween, and it had a successful start for a game from an unknown developer. In the first two weeks of release, the demo was featured on both itch.io and GameJolt and downloaded more than 1,400 times. I’ve collected some tips from our experiences that may help you have a successful launch of your demo.

Have people play the game first

You can’t totally trust input from friends and family on your game! Just because they love it doesn’t mean that it will be a success when you put it out into the wild. You need to get a lot of impartial opinions on your game and convention expos are a great place to get this input. You will get a variety of players from beginners to experienced and can find out if your game is working for more than just fans of the genre. You will also get a lot of insight into where your game is falling short or what you can address in a tutorial.

We showed our demo of DoE at a few conventions during the month of October in Atlanta (SIEGE) and Orlando (OrlandoIX) to a great response. We even received third place in the “Excellence in Indie Game Design” awards at SIEGE in Atlanta, which was great validation that our demo was appealing to players.

Finding some regional game conventions where you can show off your demo is not too difficult. I recommend you start with this site.

Don’t sit behind the table at a convention

You can’t interact with people or see them playing your game from behind the screen. Get out there and mix with your players. You should try to connect one-on-one with every person who plays your game.

Have a largish screen at eye level showing a gameplay video

This doesn’t have to be a big screen TV on a stand. We used a $45 tall (22”) monitor arm and a 27“ monitor, and it worked really well. When people stop to watch the screen, don’t be afraid to ask them if this looks like a game they would enjoy. Then you can follow up by asking them to play or sign up for your mailing list if you don’t have a station available.

You don’t really need marketing materials, just a good pitch

Before the conventions, we spent some money on large vertical signs for our booth and postcard and business card sized handouts promoting the game. While these things don’t hurt your chances, I would say that you don’t need them for the convention to be a success. They might help you stand out but unless you are working a large convention like PAX or GDC, they are probably not necessary. The most important things are to squeeze as many stations into your booth as possible and encourage people to play! You should also be confident in your pitch. You love your game. Don’t be afraid to tell others why they might like it too. If you can’t tell people this in under 30 seconds, then I recommend reading this link to help you formulate your pitch.

Focus on mailing list signups

I can’t stress enough that building a large email list of subscribers is key to building a community around an indie game. I don’t think enough developers are working on this angle. For instance, Lost Ember is just wrapping up a Kickstarter where they have hit over 300% of their goal. Lost Ember is a fantastic looking game, but the developer posted on Facebook that they have a 5,000 person email list and that this really helped them at the start of the campaign. When someone signs up for your mailing list it is certainly not a guarantee that they are going to download your game or support you in the future, but it’s much more personal than just hitting the “like” button on a social site. You should also consider that reaching all your followers on a social site might actually cost you money. Get those emails – especially from people who liked your game!

Integrate the email signup into your game

As you might imagine, there are a ton of problems with asking people to write down their email at a convention, not the least of which is actually reading their handwriting. You are also never sure if you are getting an interested player or a pity sign up. My idea was to collect the player’s email during the gameplay session and use it to save the player’s progress in the game. Then the player would have the option of returning later and continuing where they left off. We had it pop up immediately after completing the first mission. I suspected that this might be a big draw and turned out to be right. Of the 170 emails we collected at the conventions, more than half came through the in game sign up. We had far fewer bounces and better response on those addresses. It also saved major effort having to transcribe hand written email addresses. I was really surprised that we were one of the few booths at both conventions collecting emails from players and the only one (that we saw) who had actually integrated it into the game.

For the demo, we didn’t want to spam new players with our form, but we wanted to make sure that players who liked the game were prompted to sign up. So how do you separate a player who likes your game from a player who probably doesn’t? We were fortunate that this was obvious in DoE. A player that has played at least two missions and was successful in one would see the signup form. We do keep displaying the form after those conditions are met and until the player signs up, but it’s a free demo, after all.

Take the time to integrate feedback into the game before launching the demo

What good is getting gameplay insight if you don’t use it? Take at least a few weeks to make adjustments to your game with the goal of providing demo players a good user experience. Remember that you won’t be there to explain the game to players who are downloading it, so a tutorial (even something simple) is likely a good investment.

Have an analytics solution that captures users and exceptions

There are a ton of solutions out there that can do this for you and most are relatively simple to implement. We are using Unity for our project but decided that Google Analytics made the most sense for us and was relative easy to integrate into Unity with this asset.

Look at exception data daily after launch!

This is so important and an area where we stumbled a bit. We didn’t really look at our exceptions until the beginning of the second week, when we noticed a game-breaking bug that could happen at the very beginning of the game. We saw that it had happened about 35 times, which meant that 35 players had a poor initial experience with the game. We did manage to get an update out on then 10th day after the launch to resolve the problem.

Have a form where your users can provide feedback

We also missed adding this into DoE. Unfortunately, without the “report an issue” form our players had no way to tell us about the game breaking bug they were experiencing. Doh! You could also have other important insights lost to the void without a way for players to give feedback.

If you think press will like your game, use a PR firm

We had spoken to a number of PR firms about doing press for us but decided for the demo to try doing this ourselves, so we sent out advance keys of DoE to about 20 different press contacts. We only got a few write ups out of this effort that led to very few referrals during the first week of our launch. I wouldn’t say doing this ourselves was a mistake, but to some degree it did validate why a PR firm is helpful. Journalists for the most part don’t respond to unknown developers pitching a game demo.

Don’t neglect possible platforms for your game

We were using the itch.io Refinery tools to share builds with the team and a few other people who were trying out the game and were originally planning to only launch the demo for DoE on that site. At the conventions a few people suggested we also check out GameJolt, which turned out to be the best input we received.

In fact, the real turning point of our demo launch was during the second week, when we were selected as a featured game on GameJolt on Monday (11/7). The response was huge. We averaged over 150 downloads per day after that and got consistently positive ratings and comments. The GameJolt community really surprised us to say the least.

Use a mailing service to send out email blasts

We had assembled a mailing list of a few hundred people (most from the conventions) and sent an email blast out to them on the day we launched, using the free MailChimp service that announced the demo was available. MailChimp is great for an indie, mainly because it is free and you get reports on how effective your mailing list is by showing you opens and clicks. I highly recommend adding it to your marketing tool belt. Overall, we got a lot more response to this email blast than we did from posting to our Facebook and Twitter followers.

Don’t be afraid to contact the staff of your sales platform

During that first week, I reached out to the GameJolt support staff to ask a few questions. I received a personal response back so I decided to try asking for my game to be featured. The customer service person responded that the editors are a different group but that DoE looked “awesome.” While I can’t say for sure that this led to being featured, it certainly didn’t hurt our chances.

Meanwhile on itch, I noticed shortly after launch that our game did not show up on the “recently added” games. I suspected that this might be related to the fact that we were using Refinery and had created the game page about a month before the demo launch. I was concerned that this might have been a factor in the game not being selected as a featured game, and so I reported the issue on the itch community board eight days into our launch. It turned out that I was right about the issue as one of their developers opened a ticket about the issue. The next day, the game was featured by itch!

To Sum Up

Doing all of these things won’t guarantee your success, but some of them might make a difference for your game. I’m sure there are a lot of other things that could be added to this list, so please feel free to give input in the comments! You can also contact me on twitter or connect with us on Facebook.

Try out our demo! (shameless plug)

You can download the Depth of Extinction demo on itch.io or GameJolt. We plan to launch the game in 2017 and will potentially be exploring some crowdfunding or early access options so if you are interested in participating, please sign up for our mailing list (emails are important after all)!（source：gamasutra）