Business strategy

People who make videos on Youtube or play live on Twitch.tv are believed to be one reason why Amnesia the Dark Descent was able to become so popular. The game was genuinely scary and being able to see people play the game and react in such a way that people found humorous. This escalated the sales of the game and the reputation of the person playing.

This means that if we can find a person who makes Youtube videos with a fair-sized audience then we may be able to encourage players to purchase or at least play our game. The issue is that horror games are not for everyone and to achieve wide range of genres to appeal to most players the game would need to lose what makes it a horror. Therefore, the game we make would have to either be a pure horror-based game with a niche audience or it would be mixed in with action, adventure and others to appeal to a wider audience but risk being bland and messy.

Statistics showing that horror was not even within the top 90% of most popular genres sold in America within the year of 2017, Image provided by Statista (2018).

“Gaming channels dominate the top 100 channels on YouTube and 144 billion minutes of gaming videos are consumed monthly on the platform.” “90% of gamers turning to YouTube for gaming advice every week.” These two quotes taken from a page from How Game Review changed the way of introducing a video game (2018) highlight the presence that youtubers have within the gaming industry and how the influence can be used to show a game to a wide audience which may then lead to further sales.

Another key way to market our game would be to produce posters and place them in key areas. We can look for strategic areas such as main roads or roundabouts however the price can change for every location and size of advertisement we may wish to make.

“London’s Piccadilly Circus and its famous billboards are passed by an estimated two million people each week, which is why a large, 96-sheet billboard in this location can cost in excess of £727 per week (plus VAT)” (Inman, 2018).

An example of a 96-sheet billboard sitting on a road in London which can be passed by a large number of people published by Studio Canal (2018).

Finally, another great venture for us to consider is using conventions or trade shows to present our work to an audience who is specifically there to see what games are coming out soon. Events such as EGX Rezzed which is an indie gaming event and Adventure X which is an indie gaming event aimed at story driven games are both events we could attend to show off the game and aim to achieve a larger player base or at the very least a chance to allow people to see the game.

EGX Rezzed 2014 cost $250 per day for a single booth which is fully furnished meaning no additional equipment is required. This includes a single PC / Screen to play on, information taken from (GamesIndustry.biz, 2018). This can give us an idea on how much a convention may cost for us to exhibit our game at, this is a well-known indie event in the UK therefore it may be a little higher than some events, however this is also the price for 2014 and so the price may have increased slightly since then.