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Marketing Astroneer
The document outlines the marketing strategies employed by System Era Softworks for the game Astroneer, emphasizing the importance of time and visual presentation over monetary factors. It highlights the use of social media, particularly Twitter, for community engagement and word-of-mouth promotion, while also noting the significance of emotional storytelling in trailers. The overall success was attributed to a strong belief in the game, strategic networking, and maintaining an open relationship with the gaming community.
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Marketing Astroneer
- 1. Marketing Riley Gravatt, SystemEra Softworks
- 2. Gameplay first, everything elsewas second • Low Team Impact – HighValue Marketing • Money wasn’t ever part of the equation • Timewas the most important resource.
- 3. Know YourAdvantage •Color / Visuals (Low Poly) • Deformation /Shaping and Changing the world.
- 5. #ScreenShotSaturday Using Twitter asa way to experiment with ideas. Leveraging our only networking circle… specifically artist. #GameDev community became our early influencers. Still focused only on Astroneer and trying to build a compelling experience. Doing so made using Twitter easy… and because it came naturally, sharing became genuine. Twitter = a small step, but build the foundation of our overall community openness.
- 6. • Picture isworth 1,000 words. Gif playing at 10fps mustbe worth 10,000 words. • Game was always easier to sell when in motion. • Cheating at Screen Shot Saturday
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- 8. • First –Sell the game to the press. • Identifying our Narrative • Why should they cover you? • Packaging everything up. • First time we broke our rule of gameplay first. Press
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- 12. Wow… that went well •Building anactualstrategy. • Astroneerisa wordofmouthgame. • Look andcolor • Unique controls /diegetic UI • Discovery /Co-op • Youtube
- 13. GrowingIndustry Contacts • Shows • Buildingtowards a successful release • Networking
- 14. • Getting ContentCreatorson board. • Researchingand knowingthe right channels. • Not just looking at a spreadsheet.
- 15. • Knowing whatyoubring to the table. • Mutually beneficial. • Game is a platform for entertainment.
- 16. • Sci-fi setting •Space Exploration • Procedural Planets • Traveling between planets in a solar system • Stylized art direction • Mining / Crafting • Large multiplayer component
- 18. No Man’s Sky• Changedhow we talked about the game. • Doubled down.
- 19. • Talking withthe community. • Pushing for more openness • Still curated what we showed off, but we didn’t shy away from showing some raw / broken stuff • Rewarded with a very loyal fanbase.
- 20. • Evaluatingour bulletpoints. •Believed in our owngame. • We can dowhat theyaren’tdoing. • Stoppedfocusingontheirstrengths.
- 21. Keepingthe Momentum • RinseandRepeat. • Continueto leverage social media. • Keep Networking.
- 22. Building Trailers • WalterMurch. • Blink of an Eye – Ruleof Six. • Rule of Five for Video Game Trailers • Emotion • Story • Understanding • Pacing • Gameplay
- 23. • Emotionisthemostimportantaspectofcreatinga trailer. •Emotion= ShareableExperience • TranscendingLanguageBarriers
- 24. VideoGame Trailer Best Practices •Get tothe ActionFast • 10 Seconds • Endearly • Don’tbeRepetitive. • ShowDon’tTell
- 25. Findinga large Audience •Makinga game for all ages • Little Text, No UI • Overall Accessibility
- 26. How Didit Go? •Youtube was a massive success. • 20%viewerincreaseformostchannels. • 2016top 100best selling games on Steam. • ReleasedDecember16th.
- 27. Key Factors • Needa good game. • ArtStyle
Editor's Notes
- #2 Summary of the Game Summary of the creation of the game. -3 years of development before Early Access release. -2 years of development before announce -1 ½ working on another engine.
- #3 The name of the game, IS the game.
- #4 Once your strengths are known its easier to know how to move forward. AAA developers – Know how to make things look good. Programmers – Great tech
- #5 Early Teasing. Testing the waters. Sharing was genuine. Building from the ground up Pulse of interest in the game. (Not for all games.)
- #6 -Experiment – See what sticks -Sharing was genuine. Downside – too early, could be years. When do you start marketing. -The look of the game was finalized. -Early on we know the emotional tone.
- #7 Naturally movement attracts more attention on social media. (Does not need to be manually played.) (File size and Facebook videos.) Cheating at Screen Shot Saturday Finding “sharable content.”
- #8 Before announcement, was all about building up the game and finding a publisher / investor. Teasing the game, helped give us confidence in the product and pushed for the actual announcement. Goals weren’t much more than, “We hope a lot of people hear about this.”
- #9 Selling the game first to the press. What is our story (identify narrative) Why should they even write about the game. Packaging everything up into a trailer. (More later.) First time we broke our rule of gameplay first.
- #10 Blockbuster moving came out October 2nd week of October when we announced. Lots of favorable comparisons.
- #13 Time to build an actually strategy. Word of mouth game. (Knew what was in the game that were our differentiators.)
- #14 2016 – PAX East, E3, GamesBeat, PAX West, Day of The Devs -Press Meetings -Networking -Youtubers Astroneer is not a great game to show at an exhibition floor. 2-3 pcs. 10+ minute sessions. 400 – 500 people played it at PAX The did work as artificial milestones to move the game development forward. Most important is the feedback / feelings from players.
- #15 Number one goal was to get content creators on board with the game. Knowing their demo / content Cast a wide net, but understand they get hounded by indies Finding the ones that will grow. Who will be big in one year…?
- #16 Know that you bring to Youtubers Platform to create content for their channel. Know what kind of value you bring to the table Same goes to press and everyone else. Getting feedback from our closest content creators -What are they looking for. -What does their audience like -Emergent gameplay.
- #17 Marketing machine of SONY On stage at E3 showing the game to millions.
- #18 Marketing machine of SONY On stage at E3 showing the game to millions.
- #19 Forced us to change how we talked about the game. -More Intimate. Focused on our differences. How we marketed the game – More Personal What our strengths were. What set our game apart. -Look -Gameplay -Multiplayer Fear – motivated us..
- #20 -Youtube Developer Lets Plays -Twitch Development – Design / Art -Showing Broken Content – Helping to set foundation for early access
- #21 Bullet points – Did not chase them. Believed in our game. Multiplayer became more important. Can’t beat their scale or their procedural tech.. We became more intimate. Release Date Trailer – Basebuilding / Multiplayer Using timing to your advantage – Trailer was weeks after NMS launch
- #22 Once we felt something was cool, fun, or exciting – that’s when we would share it. Gameplay First. Nothing ever was forced. It was natural to share what was happening because of our focus on gameplay. Openness
- #23 Talk about Film Background Blink of an Eye -Continuity, Story, Rhythm, Eyeline Subverting that for video game trailers
- #24 Culmination of what we felt about the game. Putting those personal feelings into the trailer. Hoping to share that with our audience. Emotion = Shareable Experience Transends language barriers / cultural barriers. Feelings Transend that
- #25 Get to the action fast What are your strengths, you have less than 10 seconds to show them off. End early, don’t overstay your welcome. Less is more, purchasing decision for a lot of people, and you don’t want to give them an excuse not to buy the game.
- #26 Our passions aligned with our market. (Space exploration.) -Little Text / UI -Easy to localize, but really didn’t have to. (US vs rest of the world. Numbers.) Visual Marketing. Accessibility – Color / Softness. Accessibility – Diegetic Interface
- #27 Youtube = success -Need a game that people want to buy. (Not only about views.) -Muliplayer helps -Improved viewership drove multipart let’s plays and helped drive sales for months after release.
- #28 Good marketing is desired, but having a good game is critical. Visual Style Gameplay First – Showing Rather than telling. Reiterate the whole talk. – Know your strengths.
- #29 Re iterating the whole summary of the talk. -Gameplay First Tie it all together. Good marketing is desired, but having a good game is critical.