THA | Hamst3r.com

May 6th, 2009: ezmuze+ Hamst3r edition (EZMHE) was released on the XBOX Live Marketplace. Since then I’ve been doing my best to get gaming sites to give it a chance and not just brush it off as amateur non-game crap. This has turned out to more difficult than expected. I’m not even going to go into detail about all the things that didn’t work. Let’s just say: no one cares about your Community Game.

On the pyramid of games there are the big-name AAA titles at the top, indie and budget titles below that, download-only titles lower still and free Flash-based games at the bottom. Beneath the pyramid, under miles of dirt are the Community Games. At least, that’s what the common opinion of them seems to be. They are things you can get for free, but now they cost money and aren’t as good as the free versions.

In the case of EZMHE; it gets automatically placed in a circle of game hell reserved just for vibrators, fireplaces and other non-games.

That aside, here are some things you can try to get your Community Game noticed. This list is not about making your game better, picking the right price point or anything else like that. The sole focus of this list is the pimping of your shit:

1. Send videos to GameTrailers.com

You need to do this. You also need to do this more than once. Here’s what we did with EZMHE:

1. Short Trailer – Best if kept around one minute in length as you haven’t earned anyone’s time yet. Keep it upbeat but information rich. Show gameplay. DO NOT make a “clever” teaser trailer that doesn’t show anything of value. DO NOT try and joke or be funny, it’s likely that the viewer wont get or appreciate it as you’re not friends yet. This is your first impression, so make it a good one. Also, release it a month or two before you expect your game to come out.
2. Detailed Trailer – A walkthrough or long trailer that goes into more detail about your game. You need to impress people, so make every second count. Explain what’s going on.
3. Release Trailer – Remind people that your game has just come out. I didn’t have a great release trailer prepared for EZMHE because I didn’t know how the Community Games Peer Review process worked. Once your game passes peer review it will simply appear on the Marketplace without any warning or delay. So, make sure you have a good trailer ready before your game gets its final pass.
4. Post-Release Trailer – Gather up the accolades that your game has received and make yet another trailer showcasing that info. Hopefully people who have played the game will post nice comments about it on the video and those who haven’t played it will be convinced to check it out.

2. Suggest your game to ByteJacker

ByteJacker is a popular online show that reviews downloadable independent games. To get in contact with them, simply go to their site and fill out the, “Suggest a Game” form in the lower right corner of the page.

3. Enter…The Gamerdrome

This is the user videos section of the Bytejacker website, which caters specifically to the indie gaming crowd. Videos uploaded here have the chance of being featured on the Bytejacker blog. Videos can be up to 45 minutes in length and 1 GB in size, which is pretty generous. You can also have it pull your videos straight off Youtube so it takes almost zero effort or time to do this.

4. Challenge Destructoid to review your game

Destructoid is harsh. Destructoid will destroy you. But, they will also review your Community Games if you ask them to. They promise.

5. Suggest your game to XNA Roundup

They make video reviews of Community Games, so getting in contact with them is probably a good idea.

6. Create a Giant Bomb page for your game

Giant Bomb is that website created by Jeff Gerstmann and other ex-Gamespot staff after the Kane & Lynch fiasco of 2007. Their site has a Wikipedia-like database of all things gaming and it takes very little effort to add your game to the site. Having a page is better than not having a page, so why not?

Also, when you post blogs on Giant Bomb and associate them with your game, they will appear in the Giant Bomb forums and sometimes on the Giant Bomb homepage. Lastly, when you think your game is just about to be released, create a Release entry for your game so it shows up in the new releases list.

7. You have fans. Find them, talk to them and utilize them

You need to make sure that you’re easy to find. Create accounts on all the big sites people will visit to find you. Youtube, Myspace, Twitter, etc. Also, go find the section for your game on the XBOX Forums. Respond to their messages. Answer their questions. Befriend them on XBOX Live. Perhaps making some signature banners and forum avatars would be a good idea too.

Short version: Help your fans and they’ll help you.

…Uhhh.

There are a lot of ways to market your game online. There are probably several great methods that I’ve tried but have totally forgotten to list here. If I remember them or think of any new ones though, I’ll make sure to post them here.