gamedev

Creating Great Social Shares

Disclosure: DryCactus, creators of Poly Bridge are currently one of my Patreon sponsors. The framework for this article was drafted prior to their involvement, but I believe strongly in practicing transparency.

Previous Articles in this Series:

Why Social Sharing?

In a marketplace that’s flooded with choice, how do you reach more players? The cost of user acquisition has skyrocketed, and is well out of reach for most indie, or even mid-sized game studios. Advertising via social channels may have some small impact if positioned correctly, but it can just as easily fall flat if the campaign doesn’t hit exactly the right mark. So if you’re unable to pay for user acquisition or direct advertising, how can you help ensure that you reach more players than those that have already downloaded your game?

Enter: Social Sharing!

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Reporting Issues

As a follow-up from my Status Report Templates post, I thought it’d be a good idea to cover reporting individual issues into your team. While a weekly or monthly summary is great for highlighting the more general issues, sometimes you need to quickly communicate issues back into the team individually, or with more direct information. These are often communicated via a quick email, and generally contain either a single (high or critical severity issue), or a collection of 3-5 of the most relevant individual issues.

Audience: Community Managers, Social Media Managers
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Basic Status Templates

If you’re working in social media or community management, reporting your progress and general status back into the larger team can be hugely beneficial. While keeping in contact with key members of the team on a day to day basis is absolutely critical, summarizing the state of the community on a regular basis can help ensure the larger team is kept in the loop and has an opportunity to more directly participate.

To that effect, here are a few basic report templates. Feel free to use, adapt and modify for your personal needs!

Note: While not included in these examples, if you’re able to use visuals in your reports: DO IT. Visual content, be it screenshots, growth charts, etc. adds substantially to the readability and visual interest of your report.

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Considerations Before Launch

Part 1 in this series: ‘Just Put it on Steam!’ Is Not a Strategy

Audience: Independent Developers, Self-publishing

What: High level overview of the areas outside of ‘make a great game!’ that should be considered before you launch. Not all of these may apply to your individual title, but it’s worth the exercise of considering each high-level area and its implications for your game.

When: Ideally you should be thinking of these throughout the development of your title, and make a special effort to revisit and focus on them no less than 3-6 months prior to launch (for any title which has been in development for more than 1 year).

NOTE: Questions provided are only intended as a kicking off point for brainstorming and consideration, and are not intended to be all-encompassing. Please seek additional information and/or guidance from subject matter experts as applicable.

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