Fine & Dandy Blog

The Best Time to Market Your Game is Always Now

So it’s been over a month since Goop has been released and boy have I learned a ton. I’ve been busy working on our second title as well as adding a few updates to Goop, so I figured I need to take a break and write my entry for iDevBlogADay. I’m hoping this helps other devs out there and also sits as a reminder of what I need to do for future releases.

Buzz

One thing that is very important in the life of a game is generating buzz before launch. I did my share of pre-launch buzz, but I only started about 2 weeks out from launch. For an indie, and especially a first-time game developer, you need to realize that no one cares about your company or game. You have no reputation therefore it’s likely most major publications would overlook your title for a title that its readers would be more familiar with.

I also fell victim to not wanting to show too much of the game too early in fear that I may not be ready for the launch date target I would announce to the world. I’d consider myself somewhat of a perfectionist, so I wanted to make sure the game was damn near 100% complete before seeing the light of day. What I didn’t realize, is that I still had a significant amount of gameplay, images, and information that could have been shared with the outside world which could have perhaps created some loyal followers a lot earlier. With the second title now within its infancy of development, I plan to hopefully stay transparant about everything I can. Unlike most other types of software and products, most games require the major buzz and word of mouth at or near launch, similar to Hollywood movies releases. In a mostly hit-driven market, you have to do everything in your power to get in front of as many eyes as you can.

Sustainability

The initial first week buzz of Goop was somewhat of a success, although we didn’t catch Apple’s attention or a particular major blog we had our radars focused on. And then the second week rolled around and a fresh influx of new game titles entered the store and down the Goop dropped (pun intended!).

There were a few highly anticipated games that came out around this time, but I believe the 2-3 days of no marking following the Goop release also played a role in the game’s fall. Consumers are bombarded with new apps on a daily basis on the App Store, and the only way to get their attention is to keep your product in front of them by staying current in the blogosphere, generating word of mouth buzz, staying active in the forums, etc. By being absent for a couple days, Goop lost a little of its “new” shine. It lost a bit of its relevancy. It was yesterday’s news and in general it had no significant importance anymore.

Fighting Back

So what does Fine & Dandy do? In addition to working on our second title, we also pushed a few updates for Goop including the addition of OpenFeint. We also have started a second, more strategic marketing push. Although this may not return Goop to its heyday, I think this will help keep our company relevant and known, and hopefully make the second game’s release all the more successful. Perhaps enough lucky people would also stumble upon Goop and give it a shot as well. :) All in all, the moral of the story is: market now!