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David Barnes
For Facebook, How to Describe Your Game in Forty Words
In my previous post on describing your game better, I talked about how you'd describe a game if you had a page or so to play with -- say your web site, or the Apple App Store. But with Facebook, you get only about 40 words to describe your game and persuade players to "Allow access". How can you fit a compelling description into so little space?
Fish World from Tall Tree Games does a grand job:
Look how in 43 words it covers the three main elements of a game description:
5 short sentences that tell you just what you need to start playing the game.
Fish World puts you in control of a virtual aquarium. Take care of your fish, feed them, decorate their tanks, and keep them happy! Get your friends involved with gifts, and cleaning their tanks. Come play the best fish game on Facebook now!
Look how in 43 words it covers the three main elements of a game description:
- 1-sentence that captures the point of the game. Fish World puts you in control of a virtual aquarium.
- A verb-rich description of what the player does. Take care of your fish, feed them, decorate their tanks, and keep them happy! Get your friends involved with gifts, and cleaning their tanks.
- A snappy call to action. Come play the best fish game on Facebook now!
5 short sentences that tell you just what you need to start playing the game.
Posted
by David Barnes
Describe Your Game Better! Hook More Players! Make More Money!
It's sell time!
Make your game a success by giving it a kick ass description!
When you release a game you need to describe it -- on the App Store, on Facebook, on your own site. Get the description right and you can expect to see a lot more players. Get it wrong, and people who'd probably LOVE your game will never even get to try it.
Can you improve your game describing skills? Read on and find out!
First of all, successful game descriptions follow a particular structure: one sentence to sum up the game; up to five sentences describing it; the "snapper" that closes the deal and hooks the player; and a list of features the persuade the uncertain.
Let's look at each of these in turn.
One Sentence to Sum Up the Game
This sentence needs to be sharp as a knife. It's purpose is to get people who will like the game to read on, and get rid of people who won't. You have to get the main "game fun" across in just one sentence.
Try to establish the key goal of the game, the theme of the game, and the main mechanic. You don't need many words to do this. Here's the one sentence description for Dynomite by PopCap:
"It's prehistoric egg blasting fun!"
Theme -- dinosaurs. Key goal -- destroy eggs somehow. Mechanic -- unclear, but involves blasting so there's probably explosions. Oh, and it's fun by the way. A brilliant one sentence summary that tells the player a lot in only 5 words.
The one sentence summary absolutely needs to end with an exclamation point. And it needs to earn that exclamation point too.
How can you sum up your game in just a few words?
Up To Five Sentences Giving a Fuller Description
This is where you tell your reader what it'll be like to play the game. Dynomite needs only one sentence here:
Use your slingshot to match three or more dino eggs of the same color... and watch them explode!
Notice that this doesn't describe the game. Instead, it describes what the player does. Use your slingshot. Match three or more. Watch them explode.
This is a crucial difference. Look at any of the top games on the App Store or Facebook or anywhere else. The game description text doesn't describe the game, it describes what the player does when they play.
Most games can use about 3 sentences here. Some need more. Some fewer.
Tell the player what they get to DO in your game, in about 3 short sentences.
The Snapper -- A Challenge or Call to Action
The snapper makes a brazen appeal to the reader to just play the game already. In Dynomite:
Can you blast all the eggs before Mama Brontosaurus tramples your game?
A challenge is just one way to do this. Another popular method is even more brazen. Look at Farmville's snapper:
Come and see what everyone is hootin' and hollerin' about.
Play the game to find out why other people are playing the game. Bejewelled uses a similar technique:
Bejeweled is the first and only puzzle game since Tetris to be inducted into Computer Gaming World's Hall of Fame. Play it yourself to find out why!
There are loads of ways to do this.
What's the one thing you can say that's going to compel the player to take action and play / buy / download your damn game?
The Feature List
The App Store has its own section where you list features as a set of bullet points. Treat this as a benefit list not a feature list.
For every feature you list, make it really obvious why it'll make the game more fun. If you can't figure out how to make the feature sound fun then don't bother to mention it.
Keep throwing in game-friendly words and phrases like "exciting", "addictive", "challenging" and so on. Words that will sell the game.
For each feature you want to list, how does it make the game better for players?
Game Copy Writing Tips
- Sell! Nobody is really interested in a description of your game. People are there because they want you to persuade them to buy / play it. Use the opportunity to sell your game directly to the player.
- Avoid "[title] is a..." in your description. It's boring and is more suited to an encyclopaedia than a sales pitch for a game.
- Be sparing with techy and gamer words. They probably don't mean as much to the reader as they do to you, and they carry no emotion for most people. MMO, RPG, persistent browser game -- these words don't mean much to most people, and will rarely close a sale.
- Do use "genre appropriate" words. Action games should include words like "action-packed", "fast-paced", "thrilling". HOGs should include words like "discover", "find", "uncover", "unlock", "mysteries". And so on.
- Every single thing you say must be a good reason to play. If you've put in a sentence or phrase that doesn't give the player a reason to play, take it out.
- Start sentences with VERBS. Starting sentences with a verb puts the player into the action. "Fight your way to the top!" is better than, "A game where you must fight your way to the top" -- and much better than "get to the top by fighting". Serve up big, action packed verbs at the start of sentences.
- Say "you" and "your" a lot. Never "the player". After all, you're talking to people who you want to BE players. Right?
- Say "the" not "an". "It's the addictive puzzle game where you have to unblock the sewer" is better than "Pooper Scooper is an addictive puzzle game where the player has to unblock a sewer".
- Don't waste words. There are lots of phrases that you just don't need, because the context makes it obvious. Phrases like "is a game", "the backstory is", and so on. We don't need to be told this.
- Suspend disbelief. We know that there isn't really an intergalactic war going on. We know that we won't really be piloting a faster than light star ship. But it's more fun and more compelling if the game description lets us forget reality and experience the game. That's another reason for leaving out "is a game" and "the backstory is" type phrases.
- Keep sentences short. More than 20 words is really pushing it. Much less is best.
Case Study
Here's the opening sentence for Solitaire Siege by Bad Bumble...
Solitaire Siege is an action based solitaire (Pyramid) style game where the player gets to use Grenades, Flame Throwers, Rocket Launchers, Snipers and even Air Strikes to help them clear the table of cards.
This describes the game, but it doesn't sell the game. Let's:
- Get rid of "Siege Solitaire is an" and replace it with "it's".
- Break it into 2 shorter sentences.
- Use "the" instead of "an", use "you" instead of "the player".
- Ditch the wasted words -- particularly "gets to"
- Find more powerful verbs than "use"
New opening sentence...
It's the action-packed solitaire game where you fight against the nastiest playing cards you've ever seen!
And the left-over becomes the first part of the fuller description...
Hurl grenades, fire rocket launchers, and call in air strikes to help clear your cards in this thrilling take on pyramid solitaire!
For homework, rewrite the next section of the description into the remainder of the full description, and the snapper:
It’s a fun, quick game that will make you want to play it over and over again and with it been on the iPhone, you will be able to play it where ever you are.
The basic background story to the game is that an evil general is secretly creating an army of clones to take over the world and it’s your job to stop him by any means possible. You will travel from the deepest forests, to hot, dusty deserts, to the cold snow covered lands and even to hidden underground bases in your quest for the general.
Post your answer in the comments. Or even better, give your own game descriptions an overhaul and tell us how you get on.
This post is long but I think it's about the most useful thing on this blog so far. If you agree please retweet, link, and fall down on your knees before me (but no funny stuff).
Posted
by David Barnes
Are You a Marketing Bum? (via @gamesbrief)
Posted
by David Barnes
Using Sneezers to Spread your Viral Game
(If STDs had any sense they'd find a way to make you randier. I've not heard of any that do, but maybe I'm just naive. Have you?)
Anyway... if you want your game to go viral, you need a way to get anybody you've infected to sneeze hard and often. With Facebook notifications gone, you can't rely on Facebook to sneeze out your game for you. You need to get your players sneezing.
In Unleashing the Ideavirus, Seth Godin says there are 2 basic kinds of sneezer:
- Powerful Sneezers -- popular people interested in the "social reward" of spreading your game. That is, by spreading your game they will somehow gain followers or have their followers value them more.
- Promiscuous Sneezers -- people who will pass on your message for a price.
Both kinds of sneezer are useful if you want to spread your game virally. Each requires a very different approach.
Examples of powerful sneezers:
- Trusted review sites
- Twitter users with 1000s of genuine followers
- Popular and respected blogs and bloggers
- Respectable newspapers and magazines
Powerful sneezers are respected by their followers (or they want to be), and will usually only pass on your message if they think it will make them more respected.
And now, some examples of promiscuous sneezers:
- Anybody enrolled in a pay-per-tweet or pay-per-post program
- Anybody who accepts advertising -- advertising is the ultimate promiscuous sneeze. "For the right price, we'll annoy our readers with your message as much as you want"
- People who use Amazon affiliates and other similar programs to make money
- Twitter users who follow 1000s of people in the hope that they'll automatically follow back, and prove themselves spammable
- Most of us, if the price is right.
Promiscuous sneezers might have a smaller field of influence. They might not be respected by their followers. But if you can hook them with the right rewards, they'll tirelessly promote your game or whatever else you want them to. If you make the rewards powerful enough, they will invest significant amounts of time just in spreading your game.
Seth Godin gives his own methods for appealing to promiscuous sneezers. Here, I've adapted them to viral games and assumed that you're using "in game rewards" to get players to sneeze:
- Make big promises. Show them just how much in-game value it's possible to unlock if you sneeze enough. Don't promise incremental improvements here and there. Promise a complete change in their fortunes in the game -- show how sneezing can propel them into another league.
- Show them how to make it up in volume. Hint to the player that they don't need to only invite their Facebook friends or whatever. Show them how they can invite anyone by web links, email, Twitter, and whatever other options they might have. Make it clear exactly what they are getting rewarded for, and leave it to their imagination to figure out how to win. Try to make effective sneezing a better way to increase your score / rank in the game than just playing is.
- Describe an attainable path. On the other hand, make it easy to get started and give your first few sneezes. Sneezing out the message should require just one or two clicks, at least to begin with.
- When someone succeeds, tell the rest of them. Keep reminding people how much reward it's possible to win. Share success stories -- show how high ranking players are really particularly good sneezers.
- Give the successful ones a way to show the non sneezers it worked. If somebody's success in the game is due to their sneezing, make it obvious so that people who want to do well in the game realize that virally spreading the game is a key to success.
- Have a sales convention. Provide ways for your top sneezers to communicate with each other -- this will provoke competition, and also (paradoxically) encourage co-operative sharing of tactics and ideas.
What about powerful sneezers? Seth doesn't provide a pithy list for that bunch, so I'll hack one together myself:
- Divide opinion. In the last week, Tweet Defense was the most talked about iPhone game in existence -- and it was controversial too. Some people thought hooking up with Twitter was clever. Others thought it was the dumbest thing ever, and the end of the road for serious gaming. Violent games also benefit from dividing option. People with a following want to tell their followers what they think -- and they mention your game along the way.
- Offer entertaining, interesting, quick, and shareable content. Powerful sneezers might not have time to actually play your game. They want interesting things that they can share with followers even without playing the game. Make sure there are lots of quick pieces of content that powerful sneezers will see and want to share immediately -- funny trailers, insightful blog posts, beautiful art work, original ideas. (When I mention a specific game on this blog, it's because they're doing something that looks interesting -- not because I necessarily played and liked the game.)
- Make the game really stand out. Powerful sneezers will directly plug your game if it offers a unique experience that's worth sharing. That doesn't mean it has to be the best, cleverest, most advanced game ever. Just that it isn't like the others. Don't aim for "reviews" from Powerful Sneezers -- writing a review takes a lot of work. Just make the game obviously interesting enough that they'll sneeze it on the basis of that.
- Enable expression through the game. Powerful sneezers who play the game will want to share something more interesting than a high score or achievement. Let players build something that is "expressive" and that they'll want to share even with non players.
- Place your marketing alongside stuff people want to spread anyway. So you've got a game that you know will appeal to Rolling Stones fans? Write a blog post called "the 20 best Rolling Stones photos ever", and mention your game around the edges. Stones fans will circulate the link regardless of the game. Think of YouTube -- you pass on links to YouTube all the time because you want to share cool videos. But marketing for YouTube is all over the place when you do.
- Target specific communities. Yes, a tweet from Stephen Fry or Guy Kawasaki will do wonders for your game -- but powerful sneezers are careful what they sneeze. If you've got a game that's aimed at fans of Sherlock Holmes novels, look for powerful sneezers in the Sherlock Holmes fan community and target them first.
What are you doing to make your game go viral?
If you liked this post, please sneeze it by linking to it from your blog, retweeting, or posting a comment. Cheers!
Posted
by David Barnes
The One Rule for Building a Valuable Indie Games Brand
I was planning to do one of my list posts "9 Ways to Build a Valuable Games Brand". But then I realised there's only really one rule, and this is it:
- Narrow concept, broad distribution
In fact, this is the main way to build any valuable brand.
How many best-selling authors write "books about anything, but I only sell them in hardback at Borders"?
How many famous bands say "we play all kinds of music, but only sell it on cassette in HMV"?
How many successful restaurant chains say "we sell any kind of food, but only at railway stations?"
None! So why doesn't it surprise us to hear game devs say things like, "we write a whole variety of games for the iPhone", or "we aim to be world leaders in writing games for Facebook"?
There is only one reason to focus on one platform -- and that is to promote the platform
Remember the Sega vs. Nintendo wars? It wasn't really the quality of the hardware at stake -- the Megadrive and Super NES were both pretty good. It came down to this: are you a Mario or a Sonic person? Are you a Mortal Kombat or a Street Fighter 2 person? These games didn't cross over to the other platform, because they were a powerful way to make their own platform stand out.
Now of course Sonic is a Nintendo character, and seeing Sonic in a Nintendo game always makes me feel a bit dirty. It's like a child who lost his parents and is adopted by his wicked uncle, who only wants to get his hands on the family inheritance. Games that feature Mario and Sonic remind me of Roman Caesars leading their vanquished foes through the streets of Rome.
David Letterman's band will play any kind of music the show demands. Why? Because they exist for only one reason -- to support & market the David Letterman show.
If you build games that only run on one platform -- whether it's the iPhone or Facebook or whatever -- what does that say about your relationship with the platform?
The most valuable game brands have a clear concept and will run on any platform
Sims, Grand Theft Auto, Call of Duty, and other major name game brands run on a wide variety of platforms. And these brands are powerful enough to outlast any game playing platform that's around today. None of us have a clue what game devices will be popular in 5 years, but we can be pretty sure that you'll be able to buy Sims, Grand Theft Auto, and Call of Duty on them.
"If I had an iPhone, I'd buy that game for sure"
I wonder how many people, like me, are in this position? We see an iPhone game getting great reviews, the trailer looks great, we like the developer. But before I can give the developer a dollar and buy the game, I have to pass a few hundred dollars to Mr. Jobs. I have a dollar to spend. Heck, I have ten dollars to spend. But right now, I don't want to spend a few hundred dollars on a new phone. People like me are willing customers with cash in our hands... but you don't want to take it!
So what's a game developer to do?
Here, we have a list. How to build your valuable games brand:
- Decide what your "concept" is all about. As a rule of thumb, aim for the biggest concept that you can afford to own. Look at your strengths and resources, and pick a concept that's popular enough to give you a good return, but not so popular that other, bigger and stronger, brands are already there. Unless you have billions of dollars to invest you will never own a space like "real time strategy in space" or "humorous games" or "first person shooters". "Twisted and funny RTS games in a circus setting" might be a better fit for an indie with low resources.
- Build your marketing message around that concept. Don't market yourself based on the platform! Make sure it's clear what your games are all about, from the moment somebody hits your home page.
- Ensure all your games fit the concept. No doubt you have hundreds of great game ideas. Building a valuable brand means throwing away most of your ideas. Force yourself to find ideas that fit your brand.
- Find ways to get your games on a bunch of platforms. This doesn't mean you learn to program for every platform yourself. Developers working on other platforms might be prepared to port your game in exchange for a royalty. Invite developers for other platforms to "pitch" new games based on your concept. Congratulations, you are now a publisher.
- Once you've done all you can with your chosen concept, move on. Once you own your space, or realize that you can't get any further for the time being (i.e. until new platforms come along, or its time for a sequel), find a new concept and build on that. Of course it makes sense if your new concept will carry over some of your customers for the old. But by now, you might want to try something completely new. Or you might choose that you now have resources to broaden your core concept into something bigger: "instead of focusing on tennis on mars, we think we can now own the whole "ballgames in space" niche", or something.
Of course if you already have a game that's working for you, then you'll want to build your concept around that game. First focus on bringing that game to other platforms, and then decide what that game's "core concept" is so that you can bring build new games that share it.
Do you want to build a valuable brand? How are you going to do it? Or do you have other goals and motivations driving your development?
Posted
by David Barnes
9 Innovative Ways to Promote Your Facebook Game without Notifications
Facebook developers around the world are mourning the loss of "notifications" to app developers. No longer can an application force itself into the face of new players -- one of the key growth strategies used by the biggest successes in social gaming.
No need to too much boo hoo, though. There are plenty of ways to promote your game without notifications... without even using Facebook's social graphs at all, in fact. This is how most people in the world have to promote their wares. Here are 7 ways to get your Facebook Game free exposure:
- Create a video trailer. Do a search for "iphone game trailer" on Youtube and you'll get hundreds of results. Now try "facebook game trailer" and you'll find absolutely nothing, or at least no trailers for Facebook games. Game trailers are a very effective way to promote your game. Borrow techniques from the best trailers for other game genres. Then share your video anywhere you can. If you're not up to creating video, even a slideshow can give players a quick taste of your game.
- Get your game reviewed widely, and not just on the app's Facebook page. Reviews -- even bad reviews -- get publicity. Encourage as many bloggers to review your game as possible. Offer incentives to reviewers to review your game (but not incentives to review it well -- make sure they're honest). Contact bloggers, tweeters, forum posters, and so on. Tell them why your game is unique, interesting, and worth talking about.
- Write and distribute a press release. Try to make your press release a "story", not just an announcement. Write it in such a way that a journalist can add their by line to the end and publish it, and it'll read like a news story. Or write something utterly off the wall, like this. Search Google to find out the best way to distribute a press release.
- Give trophies and other virtual objects that players will want to show off. Give players trophies and other tokens of success that they'll want to share with all their friends, not just other players -- beautiful art, funny animations, or shareable freebies.
- Find your future loyal players, and engage with them. If you're aiming your game at a niche or niches -- and you should be -- then find out what communities exist for those niches already, and join in with them. If you have a social game about managing a 60s pop band then you should be promoting it to the following communities: people who like social gaming, people who like 60s pop music, people who like other "music" games such as Rock Band or Guitar Hero. These people are more likely than anybody to like your game. It's not rocket science.
- Build good relationships with other developers. Indie developers love to play and talk about each other's games. Attract other developers to your game by sharing your insights and learning with the developer community, being open about how you work, and asking people lots of questions.
- Create a web site, blog, and Twitter feed for your game or games. Give out news about your game, share strategies and secrets, and generally try to get "conversation" around your game. As always the best result is to get people to link to or share your tweets, posts, or pages.
- Make a remarkable game. Build a game that people will want to talk about. Part of this is just about being a good game... but also try to have a few key features that are surprising and that people will want to talk express, and can explain in just a few seconds.
- Copy what iPhone game developers are doing. The AppStore really gives very little promotional help to indie devs -- if you're not in a top 10 list, you're more or less invisible in the AppStore. So iPhone game developers promote their games on the "open web" outside the store. And it works. Look at what they do, and copy them!
As always, I invite you to discuss these points in the comments below -- or add your own promotion techniques and ideas.
Posted
by David Barnes
