Beta #7 Tomorrow!

Beta 7 Difficulty Menu

DO YOU USE DEVIANT ART??? IF SO, I WANT YOUR ADVICE!!!

Here at MakeGamesHappen, we believe in the importance of marketing in addition to making a great game.
However, we want to be careful that, in our attempts to market our game, we do not violate the trust of our fans.

So, here is the question?
I've been thinking that we could release beta #7 four(4) times on Deviant Art.
The submissions would be identical. Except for the preview thumbnail used.

This would be to help us figure out what kind of thumbnails work the best for advertising our game.

However, I could see this not being appreciated by our watchers when they mistakenly click on 4 identical submissions.

Thoughts?

-MakeGamesHappen
(-John Mark)

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JKSSN 2014-04-11 10:04:58

I'm in a love/hate relationship with DA right now like whenever I hear that site, I don't know if I want to punch something or think about much I've improved because of the minority of the actual useful good artist.
Just do whatever you want in DA and try as much as possible to add them on a group that has something to do with the stuff ur gunna upload.

MakeGamesHappen 2014-04-11 10:04:58

I like that advice of just do whatever I want.
I know what you mean about the mediocrity of DA.
But that is something I like about it, you can start off mediocre, and keep improving.
And no one bothers you for being untalented while you are working on becoming great.

-MakeGamesHappen
(-John Mark)

vampiretodd 2014-04-16 16:12:05

Hey your back! I'm not really sure if I can help with this. The best I can say is do whatever you think is right.

MakeGamesHappen 2014-04-16 16:12:05

That's quite alright. I am always checking with my testers on things I do.
Sometimes I don't see all of the possible outcomes of my choices. And sometimes those outcomes are more obvious to my testers than they are to me.

-MakeGamesHappen
(-John Mark)

MacGuges 2014-04-18 13:29:31

Perhaps you could cycle through reassignments of your preview thumbnail, while tracking statistics collected from your game to track thumbnail a player saw before playing the game?

MakeGamesHappen 2014-04-18 13:29:31

I like this idea. But I am wondering about how feasible it is.
If I were a perfect awesomely organized person, this would be the solution right here.

I'll definitely entertain this idea in my head while I come to a decision!

-MakeGamesHappen
(-John Mark)

deletedTAMyStudios 2014-04-21 14:53:14

Whoa, don't get ahead of yourself.

You're talking classic A/B testing, but no one ever said you had to release the actual beta. All you want to know is which thumbnail is most attractive.

MakeGamesHappen 2014-04-21 14:53:14

I am good at over-complexifying things.
It will change things a bit, as I cannot post the thumbnail in "games" category.
BUT!!

I think you are correct. I am getting ahead of myself.
Hopefully by keeping a good connection with my testers I can keep myself on
the correct track. :)

-MakeGamesHappen
(-John Mark)

deletedTAMyStudios 2014-04-21 14:55:05

I'll also say that I like the fact you mentioned DA. That's probably the only site where you can do this kind of A/B testing without releasing the actual game on a portal of some kind, without having to release the actual product.

Good thinking :)

MakeGamesHappen 2014-04-21 14:55:05

I do like that Deviant Art allows me to experiment all I want without worrying about wrecking my reputation. To an extent. I mean, I obviously have a reputation of some sort on Deviant Art.

-MakeGamesHappen
(-John Mark)

deletedTAMyStudios 2014-04-21 15:00:38

Annnnd are you looking at classical advertising/marketing, or are you planning to put your site on something like FGL first for people to look at? A good enough game can get decent bids from sites like Newgrounds, Kongregate, Armour Games, etc.

"The floating icon rating system helps you improve your icons (these are essential for getting your game noticed by players and sponsors)." - That's an FGL benefit.

http://gamedevelopment.tutsplus.com/articles/web-game-sponsorship--gamedev-8559

I went through the process of emailing game hosts directly for my (crappy) game Shelter. I actually got a response or two. Since they were both negative, I stopped emailing people, but I'm sure someone would be interested in your game.

MakeGamesHappen 2014-04-21 15:00:38 (Updated 2014-04-23 14:19:06)

Many thanks for your efforts!!!
The "floating icon rating system" sounds pretty awesome.

I am reading the link you provided now!

-MakeGamesHappen
(-John Mark)

UPDATE: 2014.02.23_11:49AM:
Article block says:
"Don't get your players/fans to beta test. I did this with Kit & The Octopod and they treated it as a chance to play the game early. While I did get a few odd bits of good advice, the overwhelming majority did not bother to fill out the feedback form. Stupidly thinking that meant the game was OK, we launched - only to discover, to my horror, that it was full of bugs!"

My opinion:
They were lazy with how they communicated with their testers.
Testers are people. You need to interact with them like people!!!

This block coming after they mentioned that sponsors were people.

There is still a lot of good stuff here!!! Thanks once again.

Mumbo-Jumbo 2014-05-14 15:39:37

Wellllll....my advice is that you post a news thingy (haven't been on dA for a while so I can't remember for the life of me what it's called) and inform everyone on dA that you'll be posting it four times to see which preview thumbnail works best, and such.

I really don't know what I'm talking about, because I'm tired and am stroking my cat like a maniac. :P

MakeGamesHappen 2014-05-14 15:39:37

Good advice delirious sleep deprived cat petting maniac!
-MakeGamesHappen
(-John Mark)

Beta #7 Tomorrow!

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