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In this Discussion
New book of interviews with Gideros developers
jasonbrownlee
Member
Hey,
I'm finalising a book of 38 interviews with mobile game engine developers using off-the-shelf game engines. Gideros is among the engines covered.
The title is "Mobile Game Engines: Interviews with Mobile Game Developers" and I've put up a landing page some the cover, the blurb and some details at http://mobilegameengines.com/interviews_with_mobile_game_developers
I'm still trying to figure out how to best describe the book and I figure there are many people on this forum that know a thing or two about marketing and promoting their games.
For example, would you be interested enough to read it? If so, are you able to put into words what interests you or what you are eager to find out from reading the book? If not, why, how did I miss the mark?
For me it was curiosity into the processes used by other developers to choose and working with third party frameworks that is what drove me to put the book together in the first place. It's such a critical decision that has to made right at the start of the project and influences so many of the technical decisions for the rest of the project.
Jason.
I'm finalising a book of 38 interviews with mobile game engine developers using off-the-shelf game engines. Gideros is among the engines covered.
The title is "Mobile Game Engines: Interviews with Mobile Game Developers" and I've put up a landing page some the cover, the blurb and some details at http://mobilegameengines.com/interviews_with_mobile_game_developers
I'm still trying to figure out how to best describe the book and I figure there are many people on this forum that know a thing or two about marketing and promoting their games.
For example, would you be interested enough to read it? If so, are you able to put into words what interests you or what you are eager to find out from reading the book? If not, why, how did I miss the mark?
For me it was curiosity into the processes used by other developers to choose and working with third party frameworks that is what drove me to put the book together in the first place. It's such a critical decision that has to made right at the start of the project and influences so many of the technical decisions for the rest of the project.
Jason.
Likes: gorkem, GameMinion
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* Monkey
* GLBasic
* MMF2
* Game Maker Studio
From my side, I would be interested to see how games developer are using different tools, what features (Push, Cloud Storage, Multiplayer etc) they deem important and to get an insight on the pains developers face when implementing different features.
This will hopefully validate our roadmap or point out what we need to focus on.
-M
Also I didn't see any mention of the Corona SDK on your list (no it isn't a dirty word around here - I still use it for business apps).
#MakeABetterGame! "Never give up, Never NEVER give up!" - Winston Churchill
Likes: GameMinion
Have you read the Appillionaire's book? - also have a look at the AppDesignVault website.
Actually - it's a real important point as in my experience most developers just want to develop and whilst they'd like to sell games, haven't actually got a clue about marketing and sales.
Likes: phongtt
#MakeABetterGame! "Never give up, Never NEVER give up!" - Winston Churchill
Marketing seems like catching the swordfish. You'll most probably end up eating vegetables at home; but when you catch one, you can even donate some to your neighbors.
Likes: avo
#MakeABetterGame! "Never give up, Never NEVER give up!" - Winston Churchill
And building a great product/service can not be done without listening to the market, the people, paying attention to each person, and making an effective use of creativity to make "a difference".
So I think like this : if want your marketing efforts to pay off, you better have to bring something of value to the market. Working hard for long hours doesn't mean you create something aligned with what the market you are entering think as valuable. I believe this focus helps to achieve great things.
Some people would say "A real artist doesn't make decisions driven by the market" and I would answer "An artist doesn't *need* to take his art to the market. The market is the place where your offer meets some people's needs/wants/fears. If not, you are just building something for yourself (that's totally fine) but you are irrelevant to the market".
So @jasonbrownlee, like @gorkem I'm always interested in the way developers (and other entrepreneurs) think creatively to market their products/services/creations and which investments (time, money, actions) created the biggest amount of value to the market's perception.
Likes: phongtt, techdojo, avo
A probably more realistic approach is to realize that people who think they are better probably aren't and that as you decide you are just like everyone else and find what is valuable in that then the art (games) you make will reflect something of serious value.
Edit to add: and thus marketable. Kinda off topic dumb rant. Sorry about that.
Likes: phongtt
My apps: http://www.yummyyellow.com
@techdojo I hadn't heard of Appillionaires either, thanks for the heads up.
@MikeHart and @techdojo the limiting factor was the developers willing to be interviewed. Generally, developers from open source projects like cocos2d, libgdx and andengine were more open.
I think I'll make a review on my personal website, with marketing tips, sharing experience about how to automate tasks and work (code and create art with the ipad for ex). If some people are interested, just ask and I'll post the link later.
@jasonbrownleed
Can I ask you how you got in touch with those developers, how did you choose them and what % of them didn't respond to your introduction email?
And last, the most important thing for me : are these developers making a living with this activity?
- Proven Success Record -
The marketing message that would work with me is : Advices on how to choose a mobile game engine *by people who've met success* and that would be even better if you could display a few names at the top of your landing page to grab our attention so we can check the developer's records and see how well they are doing.
Choose a few, insightful quotes, and display them above the fold.
I don't believe (as a beginner) I'm interested in knowing what engine people are choosing if there isn't any evidence that this choice took them further than where I am now.
Interviews with Mobile Game Developers
> Great! But who are they? If you can't display a list I think this is a miss. How can I know that they are not hobbyists that released just another fart app (I'm exaggerating here but you get my point).
Nowadays it's so easy to be called a "Game Developer", an "Artist", a "Programmer" (you can call yourself like that even if you've no success record, no achievement, and you've been doing it for months on sunday afternoon between 2pm and 3pm while watching a japanese tv show and without generating any value), that you really need to emphasize the credibility of those developers.
I'm not implying that the ones featured in your book are hobbyists, but if they're not that's your job to put their achievements in the light.
That will help to grab people's attention and increase sales.
- Actionable Steps -
There are already a lot of places where we can read about developers that are passionate about what they are doing, but I believe there is a need for actionable advices that work from people who applied the same strategies and got proven results (proven success is the key component here).
If you can emphasize that aspect (actionable steps), I believe that would make this book stand out.
I didn't see the content of your book so I don't know how you display those actionable advices, but in my opinion you need a separate section at the end of each interview with actionable steps.
To be honest I already own so many books (I love books) that I don't have enough time to apply every piece of advice, so I don't think another book without actionable items would catch my attention (but i am not sure I am part of your targeted customers).
If you have the opportunity, you can go to the book store and check Tim Ferriss' "The 4 hour workweek" or Jay Abraham "Getting Everything you can out of all you've got" template to make it compelling (something like : the story, the lesson, the action steps).
If I remember well Robert Cialidini's "Influence and Persuasion" (or was it "Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die" by Chip & Dan Heath) provide a good way to make people apply the advices contained in the book.
Sorry for the rant, hope it helps in some way.
Good luck with this project!
Edit : whoooaa. It's just too long. Hopefully Gideros already helps me to save a few hours a day, and now I'm back to getting things done
Likes: phongtt
As I'm one of the interviewed developers (guess the game engine I've talked about...), I may be able to (briefly) answer some of your questions myself.
Great! But who are they?
I'll just link to my introduction on the forum, the game is the same I've discussed in the interview
http://www.giderosmobile.com/forum/discussion/414/first-game-in-final-testing-some-thoughts
So no, I'm not an hobbyist, but at the same time I don't call myself a "Game Developer", much less an "Artist", and I don't watch japanese TV shows.
As a freelancer, however, you'll barely see my name around, even though I've over 30 apps on the App Store (plus all the ones that have been developed for internal use): the value I think I can bring in is that I must evaluate many tools and frameworks, and make them as profitable as they can be, the right choice is not only important, but critical.
Proven Success Record
It depends of the idea of "proven success": if that means writing the next blockbuster game, and make a nice living out of it, then I've certainly failed, but then, I doubt the game engine choice would have had anything to do with it.
In the book's perspective, however, I guess the idea of "success" is to get from the idea to an actual product in the most efficient (and painless, for beginners) way, and in that I think Jason's questions, and hopefully my answers, have highlighted why Gideros, for that game, was the best choice
I think there was a confusion and maybe you misunderstood my intentions and took it a bit like a personal attack about your credibility.
So I'm sorry about that, those were not my questions but the ones that the potential buyer could have in front of the sales page (and they are hard to convince).
I thought it was obvious that I was not questioning the quality of the content of the book (at all), but trying to make suggestions to improve the sales page because I think that is what Jason was asking for. In my opinion those questions need an answer on the sales page but if Jason doesn't think so I totally understand : I was just making suggestions.
But my lack of english skills probably created this confusion.
My goal is the same as yours : try to make this book a success, and bring attention to Gideros.
You are not a hobbyist, you are experienced and you know about it, I know about it and I don't have a quarter of that experience myself, but the potential buyer doesn't know anything about you and other developers if he just reads the sales page.
And that's all that this page should focus on : Bring those answers, call to action. My point is : what you just wrote is the kind of things that should appear in the sales page to convince people, a good sales page brings all the answers to help the visitor make his decision and take action. Your sentence above is worth several hundreds of words if it's displayed as a quote with your name associated (and a link to some of your achievements).
Again I'm not writing this to question the quality of the book (or show myself) : I only try to make what I hope to be useful suggestions.
So again, sorry for the confusion and I'll keep my words for myself next time.
(Ok, maybe in two years
Likes: phongtt