作者：Marc Bourbonnais

大概在1个月以前我发行了自己的第二款游戏。我从未想过自己可以走到这么远，但我敢肯定这款游戏让我成为了一名真正的独立开发者。我的第一款游戏发行于去年，即我为了了解从开始到完成的开发与发行过程而进行的一次尝试。我几乎外包了所有内容。显然它并未创造出什么真正的结果，但我还是从中学到了许多。

而现在带着自己的全新游戏《Planet Lander》，我想要向那些和我一样的独立开发者们分享一些市场营销策略和工具。你应该从第一周开始便列出所有这些行动，即将它们作为自己的任务清单，因为我非常确定如果想成功发行一款游戏，这些便是必要执行的内容。我的游戏是否成功呢？这是现在很难回答的问题，但至少我获得了一定的结果。所以请继续读下去：

我们可以找到许多关于独立游戏市场营销的信息，但我们可以从这个3小时的视频《Marketing for Indies – PR, Social Media, and Game Trailers》（你们可以在这里http://vgamemarketing.com/找到它）中获得一些最显著的内容。

需要尽快处理的一些特定市场营销元素：

ASO

简单说来，应用商店优化（ASO）是对于所有与应用商店列表相关的游戏（或应用）元素的市场营销优化。

ASO其实是一种模糊，有时候也很容易被误解的做法，所以它经常遭遇忽视或者未能得到有效执行。有些人甚至会说ASO是毫无价值的，并且对应用商店没有多大影响。但是我却认为这是值得你投入精力和时间的对象，因为我们可以在此轻松使用所有可行的免费信息。有许多安装都是对于应用商店的适当调查的直接结果。当你发行一款游戏时你总会希望所有内容都对你们那方有益吧？

首先是名字。我想要使用两个具有描述性的词。首先我想到了“Lander”，因为这是一种特殊类型并需要与下方所列出的工具相符。通过一些测试，我最终决定使用“Planet Lander”，既简单又直切要点。

有些人认为ASO太浪费时间；但其实收集一些单词去帮助自己突显于商店中并不需要你花费太长时间。我使用了来自下面这些ASO网站上一些基本且免费的工具去决定自己的商店列表中所使用的关键词。

https://www.appannie.com/

https://www.mobileaction.co

https://www.mobiledevhq.com/

https://www.sensortower.com/

http://www.appcodes.com/

https://www.searchman.com/

https://www.apptweak.com/

我使用了这些工具去学习，比较结果，并反复审视自己的游戏状态。它们都拥有各自的利弊，免费工具和付费服务，排行榜，分数等等。而我也并未使用那些付费服务。当然了，你不应该止步于此，你还要继续搜索“应用商店优化”并作些功课。我只是提供给你们一些我个人的想法而已！

关于你想要优化的应用商店的主要游戏市场营销元素：

游戏名字

游戏图标

游戏简短描述（在Google Play上）

游戏完整描述

关键词列表（在iTunes上）

截图

视频

在线品牌

品牌意味着你在创建你的游戏的认知度。拥有一个好的品牌便能为你带来更多忠实玩家。你并不能控制评价，文章，评级或应用商店中的游戏数量。但是你却能控制游戏的图像或品牌，从而将其变得更加出色！

加载页面

你需要一个有关游戏且足够有趣的页面去面向潜在玩家销售游戏；它可以包含一些截图，功能列表以及吸引人的描述内容。最重要的是，它需要包含一个明确的行动号召：即面向你所有平台的下载按键。在这里你可以采取各种方法去获取潜在玩家。

宣传资料页面

这是关于游戏的不同页面，这一页面将包含所有有关游戏及其开发的信息。这主要是为那些需要了解你的游戏基本信息的记者等人提供便利。

游戏讯息：描述，发行日期，平台

游戏信息：功能列表，制作历史

开发信息：开发团队，团队简介，媒体联系人，社交联系，发布的文字，其它游戏

视频资产

截图资产

图像资产：游戏logo，游戏精灵，标语，开发者/发行商logo

你的游戏的社交网站

有关加载页面和宣传资料页面的网站

开发博客

Youtube频道

Twitter页面

Facebook页面

Google+页面

LinkedIn页面

如Pinterest，Instagram等内容分享页面

你可以使用所有这些网站与用户进行交流。这就像你的临时表演台，你可以在这里展现自己的激情。你可以发表文章，截图，设计图像，评论，事后分析，建议和技巧，开发日记等等。你应该频繁地与粉丝们进行互动。确保你始终保持言行一致。这个社区总是需要来自所有独立开发成员的理念分享。

评论网站

简单说来，你总是希望能够吸引玩家到你的游戏中或向其他玩家分享你的游戏。那么同时做到这两点的最佳方法便是在游戏网站上曝光你的游戏，不管是通过文章还是评论。它们可以帮你接触到更多用户。更好的是，它能够有效吸引那些对你们这类型游戏感兴趣的玩家的眼球。所以你们的部分市场营销过程必须包含与游戏网站和记者们的接触。但是你可以在哪里找到它们呢？对于从零开始的你来说收集联系人列表会是一件繁琐的工作，但这也是非常重要的工作，它能够帮助你组织PR工作。

我给超过150个适合手机游戏的网站发了电子邮件，希望他们能够对《Planet Lander》做出评论，并提到希望在他们网站上发行游戏。有些网站表示评论需要收费。而一些有关游戏的文章和tweet都有效推动了它的下载量。之后我又发了一些邮件给那些未回复的网站，如果你有幸得到它们的宣传，你便能够获得一些不错的结果。

以下是我所找到的一些能够组成你的PR邮件列表的手机游戏评论网站。你可以从中选择一些最适合你的游戏类型和平台的网站。

http://www.indiegamegirl.com/app-review-sites-comparison-tool/

http://videogamejournaliser.com/

http://www.androidb.com/2015/07/android-game-review-sites-list/

http://app-apes.com/2014/09/list-of-the-greatest-app-review-websites/

https://maniacdev.com/2012/05/ios-app-review-sites

http://www.appfreak.net/list-of-100-mobile-game-review-sites/

http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?t=96403

Youtuber

联系超过75个“可能”愿意评论你的手机游戏的Youtuber。从手机屏幕上记录视频较困难，所以很少有Youtuber会对手机游戏感兴趣。

我便获得了一个来自Youtuber的视频评论，并因此为我的Twitter账号迎来了不少粉丝。

http://videogamecaster.com/big-list-of-youtubers

http://youtubers.brightside-games.com/

新闻稿

为了游戏的发行发布一篇新闻稿。使用vgamemarketing.com/所建议的3个新闻网站（游戏邦注：其中2个是免费的，还有1个对于2次发行只需要30美元），他们帮助我获得了一些曝光度与信誉。我也因此获得了来自GameZone的访问！

http://prlog.org/

http://gamespress.com/

http://gamerelease.net/

游戏开发社区

虽然这是我最后提到的内容，但这却是你应该在一开始便关注的内容。你可以在很多地方与别人交流看法，公开项目，展示工作，并推广你的游戏。Reddit便拥有许多活跃且友好的论坛。还有许多独立网站拥有一个极度活跃的社区：

http://www.gamedev.net/

http://forums.toucharcade.com/

http://forums.tigsource.com/

http://forums.indiegamer.com/

http://forum.devmaster.net/

结论

通过采取所有的这些方法，我在第一个月便获得来自Android的2000次下载以及在iOS上的500次下载。在这个过程中我也不断地修改游戏漏洞并调整游戏玩法。虽然每天的下载数量都较低，但却始终呈现着稳定且发展的态势。我非常高兴看到每天都会有回头客，并且游戏的反馈也很棒—-所以我真正需要做的便是让别人注意到这款游戏。

虽然这需要付出许多精力，但我已经准备好了。因为缺少市场经验，所以对于短期结果我还是不够确定。但是每一天我都在开辟着新天地，并且游戏的下载量也一直缓慢增长着。因为我是一个非常固执的企业家，所以在尝试过所有方法前我会一直继续尝试下去。

我想知道在与记者和游戏评论网站接触时怎么做才更合适：发送一个短而精的信息（这对于新闻稿来说是有效的）或提供所有手上的信息，链接和图像去传达你想要表达的内容（这更适合一些游戏评论网站上的即时报道）。

（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）

Marketing my latest mobile game – post mortem of the first month

By Marc Bourbonnais

So about a month ago I published my second game. Never thought I would go this far, but I guess this really makes me an indie developer, no doubt about it. My first game was released last year, just a trial to understand the development and publishing process from start to finish. I outsourced everything. Obviously it did not give tangible results, but I learned a lot, which was the point.

Now with my new game Planet Lander, I really want to go all the way with marketing strategies and tools for a lone indie dev like me. Just listing all my actions from the first month can work as a to-do list, since I’m quite positive these are all necessary things to accomplish for a successful launch. Is my game successful? Can’t say for now, but at least I did have some results. So read on:

There are tons of great info on indie game marketing out there, but if I had to pick something that stands out, it’s this 3 hour video Marketing for Indies – PR, Social Media, and Game Trailers that you can find at http://vgamemarketing.com/ Watch all of it, and check out their site, it is extremely informative.

The specific marketing elements to address, pretty much all at once and as soon as possible:

ASO

Simplest way to explain it: App Store Optimization (ASO) is all the marketing refinements on the elements of a game (or app) related to app store listings.

ASO is such an obscure and sometimes misunderstood practice that is often ignored or poorly implemented. Some even say ASO is worthless and has little or no impact in the app stores. I think it deserves some attention and time since it is fairly easy to apply with all the free information readily available. A lot of installs are the direct result of a search right in an app store. You really want everything to be in your favour when you publish a game, right?

First, the name. I wanted two descriptive words. I needed “lander” since it’s a particular genre and checking with the tools listed below it’s not overcrowded. With some trials I ended up with “Planet Lander”, simple and to the point.

Some say ASO is a waste of time; still it does not take too long to gather a list of words to help your store visibility. I used basic free tools from these ASO sites to help me determine what keywords to include in my store listings and how I rank in relation to direct “competitors”.

https://www.appannie.com/

https://www.mobileaction.co

https://www.mobiledevhq.com/

https://www.sensortower.com/

http://www.appcodes.com/

https://www.searchman.com/

https://www.apptweak.com/

I have used all of them to learn, compare results, and I revisit my game status from time to time. They all have their pros and cons, free tools and premium services, charts, scores, rates and all. I have not used their paid services yet. And of course don’t stop there, search for “app store optimization” and do your homework. I’m just here to give you some of my thoughts and a list of things to check out!

The main marketing elements of your game related to the app stores you will want optimize are:

Game name
Game icon
Game short description (on Google Play)
Game full description
Keyword list (on iTunes)
Ratings and reviews
Screenshots
Videos
On-line branding

Branding means you are building awareness for your game. With a good brand (either for a game title or a developer) come loyal gamers. You cannot control your reviews, articles, ratings or the huge volume of games already available in the app stores. However you have total control on your image or brand, so you better make it awesome!

Landing Page

You need an interesting page about your game that needs to sell your game to potential players; it can contain a good arrangement of screenshots, features lists and catch phrases. Most importantly, it will contain a clear call to action: download buttons for all your platforms. This will be where you want to bring your potential players by any means necessary.

Press Kit Page

A different type of page about your game, this one contains all the information related to your game and its development. It is destined for journalists and anyone who will need facts about your game;

Game stats: descriptions, release date, platforms,

Game info: feature lists, production history,

Developer info: Development team, team bios, press contacts, social links, published articles, other titles

Video assets

Screenshot assets

Graphic assets: game logo, game sprites, banners, developer/publisher logo

Check out http://dopresskit.com/ , a fantastic resource made by an Indie dev for Indie devs! Even if you do not use it, (it’s free) the examples are great references.

Social sites for your game

Website for landing page and press kit page

Development blog

Youtube Channel

Twitter feed

Facebook page

Google+ page

LinkedIn page

Content sharing sites such as Pinterest, Instagram, etc.

Use them all for updates and communications with your audience. This is your soapbox; use it to share your passion. Post articles, screenshots, design art, reviews, post mortems, tips and tricks, developer diaries… Engage with your followers. Make sure you are consistent. The community is hungry for insights from all its indie dev members, so share your thoughts!

Review websites

Simply put, you want to attract gamers to your game and/or deliver your game to gamers. A great way to do both is to have exposure on game sites, either for an article or a review. They can reach large audiences. Even better, it will catch the eyes of gamers that are specifically interested in the genre of your game. So part of your marketing process must include reaching out to games sites and journalists. But where can you find them? Compiling a list of contacts is tedious work when you start from scratch, but it is important and will help you organize your PR efforts.

I Emailed over 150 websites that are mobile game friendly, to ask for a review of Planet Lander, mention its release or list the game on the site. Some replied with offers for paid reviews. A couple of posts and tweets about the game, all giving a great instant boost in downloads. I’m sending a follow-up e-mail to all the sites that did not write back since a few weeks have passed and the results are very good if you get coverage.

Here are some of the best mobile game review sites compilations that I have found to start building your PR mailing list. You can go through these spreadsheets, find the sites that are best suited for your game genre and platform. Check the lists one by one to filter out the broken links and repeats.

http://www.indiegamegirl.com/app-review-sites-comparison-tool/

http://videogamejournaliser.com/

http://www.androidb.com/2015/07/android-game-review-sites-list/

http://app-apes.com/2014/09/list-of-the-greatest-app-review-websites/

https://maniacdev.com/2012/05/ios-app-review-sites

http://www.appfreak.net/list-of-100-mobile-game-review-sites/

http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?t=96403

Youtubers

Contacted over 75 YouTubers that *might* be interested in reviewing mobile games. It’s much harder to record decent videos from handhelds screens, so very few are interested in mobile games.

I got one video review (modest but friendly YouTuber), instant results; nothing else yet except a few followings on my Twitter account.

http://videogamecaster.com/big-list-of-youtubers

http://youtubers.brightside-games.com/

Youtube for Indies List

Press releases

Published a press release for the launch of the game. Using only 3 press sites suggested by vgamemarketing.com/, (two are free, one is only 30$ for two releases) it got me a lot of visibility and added credibility. With this I got a great interview from GameZone about the inspiration for Planet Lander, that was awesome!

http://prlog.org/

http://gamespress.com/

http://gamerelease.net/

Game Dev community

This item is last but should be the first place where you should put your energy. So many ways and place you can exchange ideas, annouce projects, display work and yes, promote your game. Reddit has many active and friendly forums to exchange. Many indie sites also have a very active community:

http://www.gamedev.net/

http://forums.toucharcade.com/

http://forums.tigsource.com/

http://forums.indiegamer.com/

http://forum.devmaster.net/

I used to write a blog about digital effects and running a VFX studio, (that’s a little bit about my past) and I got back to it with a game dev blog of all my efforts.

Conclusion

With all this work I got around 2,000 Android downloads and 500 iOS downloads in the first month; most of them from peaks following the actions above. All this while I was fixing bugs and ajusting the gameplay with new published versions of my game. Daily numbers are low but steady and growing each day. I’m happy to see return users every day and the feedback is good – so all I really need to do is get the game noticed.

It is a lot of work, but I was prepared for it. I am still not certain of the short term results considering my lack of experience in this particular market. But every day I break new grounds, the numbers are growing slowly but surely and the feedback is good. Also I am a very stubborn entrepreneur so I will continue until I have tried everything I can.

I wonder what’s better when contacting journalists and game review sites: send a short, concise message (it worked with the press release to get a thorough interview on GameZone) or throw all the information at hand, links and graphics in the message and help get your word out (it worked for instant coverage and mentions on some game review sites)（source：gamedev）