Yo, wassup? And also a question

James Coote

James Coote

Cadet
Hi,

I'm James and I'm a sci-fi fan, about 25 years old from London.

Unfortunately, I have historically had a short attention span, so whilst I've started reading pleanty of sci-fi novels, I've finished a lot fewer

I also really don't like the format used by many TV series of simply having some vague, open ended, overarching plot that is basically a premise for shallow exploration of a different sci-fi theme or idea each week (except sliders, because that was just straight up-front about it)

Talking about up-front, I like sci-fi so much, that as an indie games developer, I decided to make my first game set in space. So like klopek a few threads down, I'm looking to promote it.

So my question is: How would you suggest I go about promoting the game to a Sci-fi audience?

Posting on forums like this one, or on blogs are one way, though most 'marketing experts' say it isn't worth it vs the amount of time it takes

I've been looking at getting tables at sci-fi conventions as well

Also, although my game has no backstory as such, I've been peppering it with little snippets of prose (such on the ship description screen) that look like extracts/quotes from a story

Any other ideas? Thanks

p.s. Sorry if this is the wrong place for this or if people think I'm being too 'sales-like'.
 
Video game, for android. I don't want to give too much away as I don't want this turning into a sales pitch (also it's still some months off from being shiny and presentable)
 
Good afternoon James, nice to meet you.

Try posting your gamer questions in the game section. I believe more people will see it that have experiance or knowledge in the field of video game creation and distribution..
 
I posed the same question on a couple of other forums as well, and one person suggested a poll on why people play sci-fi games. I'll put the same one in the gaming section here as well. It'll be interesting to see how the responses differ (or not?).
 
I'm not a video game developer, so I don't know what all is possible, but I'd suggest online forums and sci-fi conventions, as you mentioned...but perhaps have a downloadable (or in the case of the conventions perhaps a hands-on) demo that folks can try out for free, to see if they like it. Samples are always a great way to draw in potential customers.

I'd propose that all video games are played for a sense of escapism, to leave your life behind and enjoy being someone else for a few hours (or more).
 
James Coote said:
Video game, for android. I don't want to give too much away as I don't want this turning into a sales pitch (also it's still some months off from being shiny and presentable)
Click to expand...
For the record... sales pitches are fine (we even have a For Sale forum here) as long as they aren't the only reason for posting here. :)
 
astonwest said:
...but perhaps have a downloadable (or in the case of the conventions perhaps a hands-on) demo that folks can try out for free, to see if they like it. Samples are always a great way to draw in potential customers.
Click to expand...

Having a demo, or going down the 'freemium' route, where you make the game free but only in a limited form, and then charge for the full thing, is something I've looked at. The problem for my game is that it will be difficult to separate off a good enough portion of the game that players can play in the demo without giving the whole thing away, nor giving so little they can't get a good feel for it

Also being a game for phones, you can't exactly hand out demo CD's nor have a link where people can just download the game from a website (you can, but it onyl works if the user has registered with the app store and logged in on the web, and/or are browsing the site on a phone)

astonwest said:
I'd propose that all video games are played for a sense of escapism, to leave your life behind and enjoy being someone else for a few hours (or more).
Click to expand...

I'd like to think they can be more than just escapism. Sure that is one possible 'use', but they can also serve as ways to educate and allow people to learn, or as a way of communicating ideas. In the same way a good film can be more than just explosions and special effects
 
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