This week I spent some time networking and getting Space-Time Slip noticed by people, as well as playtesting the current build. We went to a student games accelerator program, organised by Barclays’ Eagle Labs, where we were able to network with other student game developers. A new studio, named Kreek Interactive, were there and I was able to talk to them about their current and future projects; I am especially excited for some of their games that are in very early development, therefore, I informed them that I would love to work on them when they come about.
At the event, we were each able to pitch our games to the group and gain feedback on our ability to sell the game. I found this task fun, as it was easygoing, however, also a good learning experience for what works well. I was able to utilise images from my social media, such as concept art and the UI mock-ups, as well as captured gameplay from inside Unity, to clearly communicate the vision and intended experience of the game. When speaking, I found humour effective to capture the audience’s attention before any key points. From the questions afterwards, it was clear that everyone understood the concept; most were excited for the game, encouraging me to continue development after the university hand-in, and one person said that they would pay £3.99 for it. Other feedback that I received was to consider a free version, utilising ads to make revenue, and a paid version without ads for £3.99. We also discussed in-app purchases, such as different rocket skins, for £0.89.
When releasing the game on the App Store, I plan to follow this advice. Originally, I had intended on charging £2 for the full game, or releasing it via Apple Arcade, however, when speaking with the games team at Barclays, they explained that most mobile gamers are willing to spend £3.99 for a solidly built game. I decided to increase the amount that I will charge for the game, because people are willing to spend that amount of money, and charging lower may suggest a lack of quality in comparison to other games.
I also signed up to present at Barclays’ event in Canary Wharf, called Frenzy, where there will be an expo showcasing a range of games. I will have a stall where I can present Space-Time Slip on iPods, allowing me to increase my audience and even boost my own career by speaking with developers about the game. This event is on the 25th of May, by which point I will have a working build of the game with all of its features.
We had a talk from Shogun Social, the social media marketing agency, who gave us advice on how to boost our businesses online. Whilst the amount of work seems overwhelming at first, such as the need to post on so many platforms multiple times a day, Shogun suggested scheduling content over a week or a month. The best way to do this is to create lots of content at once, such as a long-form YouTube video, and break it down into smaller videos for platforms like TikTok, Instagram and Facebook Reels. These smaller videos can be posted once a day, to form a consistent stream of quality content.
It is important to complement these scheduled posts with more laidback content, simply to have a presence on social media to drive people to the main content. This content can range from participating in meme trends, to responding to comments in video format. When building an audience on TikTok it is key to do it in sprints, of at least 2 months, where Shogun recommends posting 2-3 times a day. This content, as it is on TikTok, should be focused on being authentic; reaction videos can work well as extra content, to boost social media presence.
Instagram should also have scheduled posts, but at least one of these posts every week should repeat the message of what the business’ goal is, and why they do what they do. Instagram rewards engagement, therefore, it is good practice to spend 5 minutes, before and after posting, liking and commenting on other people’s posts. It is also good to utilise stories, as these are quick posts that show Instagram that their platform is being consistently engaged with.
When posting, it is good to include keywords in the post so that it can easily be found by a search engine. Hashtags are not as important as they used to be, but it is still recommended to include 3-5 in each post. Instagram posts also allow for alt text to be added, for accessibility, and entering a good description here is really good for search engine optimisation.
Finally, this week we had an event hosted by the John Hansard Gallery in Southampton, where we were able to showcase our games. 9 people played my game and everyone retried it at least 3 times; some retried up to 15 times and it was clear to see that they improved with each attempt, as they lasted longer each time. Everyone who played described the game as fun, and it was clearly addictive as some came back to try again.
The core concept of the game was clear to everyone who played, without the need for any explanation from me. The only time that I needed to step in was to explain that the SPACE button would make the rocket go up. However, this was purely a hardware issue, as we had the game set up on a PC; on a touch screen it would be immediately clear as soon as the player touches the screen, which is the primary input of the device. Therefore, the core gameplay loop is efficiently communicated, so now I need only work on telling the player to go up and increase their score.
Most people found the number on the screen very confusing, as it slowly counted down from 100. Almost everyone asked me what would happen when it reached 0, and all were confused when it then started to count up. Both at this event and before, I have been asked what “BCE” means, so I will need to return to using BC and AD.
The bug where, if you hold the space button the whole time, the spaceship just goes up and can outrun the asteroids, was constantly figured out and used. Most players figured it out by their 3rd or 4th attempt and then held down waiting for the countdown to reach 0. One player placed a phone on the space bar and stated that he thought he’d won. Once I explained that this was a bug, a few players understood and continued to play the game the way it was meant to be played.