2017 st g expo

Your invite to the…
StG GAMESStG GAMES
EXPO 2017!EXPO 2017!

A Quick Quiz on the UK Gaming
Industry!
 The UK has a long track record of
success in ICT-related media such as
games and movies, selling products not
just in the UK but worldwide.
1. The UK games industry is the biggest in
Europe. How many countries worldwide
have a bigger games industry than the
UK?
 Just 2! The US and Japan, although
China may eventually overtake the UK
too. TIGA campaigns on behalf of the UK
industry.
StG GAMES EXPO 2017!StG GAMES EXPO 2017!

Industry! The gaming industry is a major
employer: ‘7050 people work in the
computer games development and
publishing, with a further 6,900 working
in VFX, 27,550 in online content and
800 in mobile content’ (2009 figs)
2. Which media industry raises most
through sales each year: movies, music
or games?
 As of 2012 … games! The UK games
market is worth £1.93bn (DVDs/Blu-
Rays £1.8bn, music £1.07bn) (
BBC report)

Industry!
 Of the 62m population of the UK,
33.6m are ‘active gamers’ (report).
Facebook is emerging as a key
games platform, with users
seemingly happy to play relatively
low-tech games. A whopping 50%
of the UK (31.4m) have a
Facebook account! (report)
3. What % of time on Facebook do
UK users spend playing games?
 50%! (report)

Industry! UK gamers split their time fairly
evenly between a range of
platforms, from consoles to
PC/Macs, social networks to
mobiles, although consoles (just)
remain the most popular
platform for gaming with a 24%
share.
4. Taking together the entire UK
population, how many million
hours per day are spent
gaming?
 55! (report)

HOW THE EXPO WORKS:
Each group will run a stall at which…
 Your group’s game will be on display and
playable
 Any promotional materials (magazine ads, TV
ads or viral videos, game sleeves, free
postcards etc) will be on display
 One or more group members will be on hand to
answer questions and attract gamers to your
stall (you can rotate, so each also has a chance
to explore other stalls!)
 You will have May/June lessons to develop then
present this work at final KS3 assembly

Forming Production Groups
 You can form groups of up to 4
 Come up with a company name. You will need
to design a logo for this!
 You can market all OR some of the games your
group has individually produced
 Try to form groups with mixed skillsets!
 As in the gaming industry, marketing and games
development are closely linked: you need to
work closely together, thinking carefully about
the target audience for example…

Defining your target audience
 All major media productions have a specific audience in
mind from the pre-production stage
 Without this marketing will be very difficult
 This effects decisions such as level of difficulty, any
gore, gender of characters, sound/music, title, plot etc
 Gender and age range (plus the PEGI rating*) are just
two basics
 You can also consider a broader ‘demographic’ profile of
your potential audience: eg are they smartphone owners,
Facebook account-holders?
 It can be useful to think of a typical audience member
and profile them
StG GAMES EXPO 2017!StG GAMES EXPO 2017! *see next slide

PEGI & age ratings
PEGI is the ‘Pan-European Game
Information scheme’ that sets the age
ratings for games, just as the BBFC does
for films: see
http://www.videostandards.org.uk/VSC/ga
mes_ratings.html

Application Form
To help you work
through the details
of the game, and
make sure your
group has a clear,
agreed creative
vision, you need
to fill in this
application form

Technology To Use & Some
Marketing Suggestions
 You can find folders of images,
videos and URLs in the shared
folder
 You can use any technology at
home you wish to create your
promotional materials, on Mac/PC or
iPad, eg Flash, iMovie, Photoshop,
HTML coding, iPad apps …
 You will get a tutorial on Photoshop
next week, and can try out Windows
Movie Maker yourself
 There are many possible forms of
PR materials…

1: Posters & branded giveaways
 Posters & giveaways (eg postcards, mouse mats) featuring
your game title + perhaps screenshots, URL (or QR code* for
this), Twitter/FB address, tagline etc are free advertising! A
good slogan or tagline can be very effective, eg the game
Destroy All Humans used “One Giant Step on Mankind”,
twisting a familiar phrase.
 Instead of screenshots, you could always Photoshop something
with your game characters, as in the middle example below
StG GAMES EXPO 2017!StG GAMES EXPO 2017! *see slide 17

(Giveaways contd.) Stickers
Stickers are another option!

(Posters examples)

2: Web page, blog, QR code
 You could apply your HTML skills (or
use an iPad app for web design) to
creating a home page for your game,
or a free site such as Blogger to create
a game blog. QR codes are codes you
can scan with smartphones, iPads etc
that take you to a webpage; its easy to
make your own: just google ‘free qr
code generator’
Next Slide: Just
Dance 4
homepage
screenshot

ICT@IGS GAMES EXPOICT@IGS GAMES EXPO

3: Social Media
 As well as a blog or web page, you could come
up with a realistic Facebook, Twitter or other
social media address to use on posters, ads,
giveaways etc. You could also mock up a
Facebook page

4: Tie-ins, product placement
 Games companies often link up with major companies
to run competitions and promotions (tie-ins). Examples
include Android, Finnair, MacDonalds. Product
placement is where companies advertise within
games.

4: Tie-in game concepts
 Movies have often used games as a form of publicity,
and you could turn this around: use a link to a popular
movie to help promote your game. The examples below
are from games used to promote Nanny McPhee and
Hot Fuzz (modified Pacman and Space Invaders)

5: Spin-Offs, Merchandising
A possible challenge for your Photoshop
skills: creating spin-offs such as a board
game box cover, or merchandise such as
branded drinks!

6: TV ads, music & viral videos
 Video remains a primary form of marketing and raising
attention. There are examples in the ‘TV ad-Videos’
folder, such as this Angry Birds/Bing tie-in ad, Chrome
tie-in ad, or this alternative music video of the Angry
Birds theme – its unusual enough to have the potential to
go viral, eg through being ‘shared’ on FB. There are also
good egs of Angry Birds as Star Wars and A-Team.

7: Fan art/User Generated Content(1)
 Once games reach the market, fans tend to come
up with their own images to share which you could
use for marketing. There are infinite possibilities
here, from fancy dress costume, to tattoos, post-it
displays, painted golf balls, even cakes!

 If you fancy working on this at home, LegoLego is another
option! Could you recreate a game character or scene using
Lego? Fans have also made Lego animations, such as this
Angry Birds example (screenshot below, right)
7: Fan art/User Generated Content(2)

8: Game sleeves
Console and PC/Mac games still sold in a
physical box require a sleeve…

Over to you!
 Form a production group;
 Discuss & agree the game title and concept;
 Shortlist the screenshots or other images you’ll
need from the game programmers for your promo
work;
 Fill in the expo application form together (adding
missing details as you go)
 Experiment & have fun – this is a very open brief!

2017 st g expo

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