Indie game developer duo talks marketing
Creating a great game is a big achievement, but marketing ensures that it gets into the hands of consumers.
That’s the message of a development and marketing alumni duo, Dana and Whitaker Trebella. They shared their advice with game design students during a visit to campus April 18.
The couple has designed and launched three games ranked in the top 25 iOS apps. Dana, BAJ’08, founded her own public relations company, Spoke & Wheel Strategy, to oversee marketing communications for a trilogy of Whitaker’s game designs, Polymer, Pivvot and Piloteer.
Whitaker, who graduated with a music degree in 2009, started his career as a music teacher, creating compositions for others’ games on the side. Eventually, he decided that he enjoyed being a part of the game design process so much that he wanted to create games.
“My degree at IU didn’t really directly relate to what I do now, but it led to what I do now,” he explained.
Since releasing Polymer, Whitaker and Dana said they have learned a lot about getting the word out about a new game and building a fan base before launching. Their first lesson taught them the value of marketing, they said. Because so many new games are released, it’s crucial to build a following and convince people that your product is special, they said.
The Trebellas suggested developers start thinking about how to pitch and sell their designs as soon as they start working with the idea. Marketing should be a long-term project, planned carefully. Whitaker recalled planning marketing strategies for his latest game, Piloteer, and remembered how glad he was to have Dana help him put his best foot forward.
“Planning marketing earlier prevents you from saying things that you want to take back later,” Whitaker said. “When I was making Piloteer, I had a playable version working way before the game was done, and I thought I should get it out there.”
“Marketing said no!” Dana replied.
In the end, Whitaker changed a lot of the features on that version and was relieved they weren’t released. Dana talked about a number of other things that are important to think about when talking about your game, including not comparing your game to another that’s already out there; pointing out unique, intriguing characteristics about your design; and getting people excited about the launch.
Perhaps the piece of advice that she stressed most is to come up with a human-interest component to talk about in your pitch. Dana said in her experience, developers often are eager to emphasize artistic features in marketing that’s intended to draw people in, but most people would rather hear a personal or inspirational story connected to the game than a list of features.
“There are important questions to ask yourself that can help you figure out what story to tell,” Dana said, listing a few. “Why should anyone care about my game? Why was I motivated to make the game? What experience am I trying to create for the player?”
Still, all of the marketing technique in the world could be futile if you don’t nail down a compelling elevator speech to promote your game. Your speech needs to immediately convey what your game is, why it’s unique and why a player should be excited about it.
“You only get one chance to show people your game for the first time,” Whitaker said.
Dana pointed out that it is important to be consistent because studies on marketing strategies show that the more people hear things consistently, the more they are likely to want it. Whitaker said a pitch that sounds like another game won’t grab anyone’s attention.
“You don’t want to be known as the guy who cloned this or the girl who copied whatever,” Whitaker said. “You really want to stand out on your own.”
Many of the students in the audience are in the process of releasing the games that they’ve worked on in a three-semester-long game design workshop project in The Media School. Lecturer Will Emigh, who arranged the visit, said he hopes students soaked up every bit of the couple’s advice.
“They have an instant connection to what we’re doing here at The Media School,” he said of the couple when introducing them at the start of the talk. “We asked them to come down and talk to you about making indie games.”
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