The Mystery revealed…
The launch trailer for The Mysteries of Little Riddle is now live on the internet so I thought I could share it with everyone via the HeadBlog.
This project has been one of the most interesting of the year, not because of the game (which looks fabulous) but because of what it represents.
Video games, generally speaking, are written by “developers” and then published by “publishers” in much the same way as authors and publishers generally work. Big publishers such as THQ, Capcom, EA etc are great at bringing games to market. They provide an expertise of marketing but also they provide the funds necessary to get it, well, published. It takes a lot of money to fund games these days. A lot of money to keep the developer going, a lot to pay out to the makers of the console and then a lot to market it to as wide an audience as possible.
But things are changing.
The easiest example of this taking place can be seen on the App Store (Apple’s online store for it’s iPhone applications). These are beginning to be created and released by tiny teams with virtually no marketing budget. They have a willing audience who are looking to purchase and, for the most part, rely on the brilliance of their design as their best advertisement.
The technology involved means that this approach, for now, is possible.
And it is being followed by other consoles such as XBox Marketplace and PlayStation Network. Increasing numbers of people are opting to buy direct via digital download rather than through traditional retails.
But the rush to digital marketplaces and the compartive ease by which products can be created means that there is now an awful lot of products are being released.
Apple make this a bragging point – something like 100,000 apps are now available through them.
But turn it around and say you have one of the 100,000 apps. You are faced with a problem.
You need to make your product stand out.
Because increasingly we are seeing the big brands make it to the front page. So Jamie Oliver’s cooking app is up there and it’s there not because it’s the best cooking app in the world but because it is easily recognised. It’s a brand.
Which leaves lots of cooking apps, like the one my Mum might write, going cold. Not because they are worse, but because we live in a world where big brands are pushed over better products.
So my Mum now needs to make her cooking app which will actually stir your sauce for you*, stand out.
Which means, well, marketing.
And those one person developer teams might be able to do that on their own or they might need create a streamlined marketing process.
Relentless Software are doing this with Blue Toad Murder Files and Head First have been proud to work on it with them. For us it shows what a knowledgeable agency can do to help make a point of difference because, unlike in the days where all you had to do was place a print ad in a specialist magazine, now you have different issues. Bringing games to market in the era of digital downloads is just as challenging as it was in the days of those old fashioned things called shops.
These days you might not know where your consumer is. They might not be browsing the sites you think they are browsing. They might be watching TV whilst texting. They might be using Messenger whilst listening to the radio.
So you need to be clever. Or cleverer. You need to create advertising which can be passed on. Which is fun and entertaining in its own right and which has a message which can be adapted to suit the medium.
It’s an old-fashioned idea really.
And it still works.
*not even remotely true.
