Table Top Versus Video Games - Part 3: Reaching Your Audience

So you've finished your game, and if you've nailed the game play, and you've made it easy for people to play with their friends... the only thing left to do is sell the game, right? Okay, not the only thing. But in order to keep making more video games, it would sure help to sell a few copies of the game you already finished, wouldn't it? Actually getting sales is a mind numbingly big problem for any video game, and it's even more challenging for tabletop games. Oh, what to do!?

While the casual games market might embrace some tabletop games, many games don't really fit well along side brick smashing and the latest match 3 craze. Heck, there isn't even a "strategy" section on many portals, and if there is, it usually only has a handful of tycoon games. Nothin' wrong with a good tycoon game, mind you. But a portal is not a sure-fire way to get your tabletop game into the hands of your adoring fans. Ah, the fans... Who are your fans? Where do your fans hang out? What can you do to reach them there?

Retail publication might be an option. While some people will inevitably pick up your game while strolling through the isles of their local Walmart, it's more because nearly everyone ends up finding themselves, at one time or another, strolling through the isles of their local Walmart. But rarely do tabletop conversion games "reach out to me" there. If anything starts reaching to me there, I usually run away... very quickly. So where do fans of collectible card games, miniatures, role playing games and such hang out? Where oh where can they be? Yep, that's right. At the local comic book shop. Sure, they hang out online in various niche web forums, and those aren't bad places to market either. But I think the real gold mine of untapped potential is right there in the local mom and pop comic book shop.

They aren't without problems though. The most obvious of them being that, by-in-large, they don't stock video games. Well, that is a problem. If you're up for it, you can try something like the affiliate route. That would imply that you give them coupons/fliers that include their affiliate number as a code that your customer would need to enter to get, say, 5 bucks off the game. Another 5 bucks goes to the affiliate for the hard work of passing out the coupon (paid out via paypal or whatever), and you pocket nearly half of the retail value. While it might work, there are definitely some serious logistical issues to work out such as Why in the World Would Someone Want To Buy a Video Game They Can't Even See? Demo cd's or other paraphernalia are going to be too costly... hmmm. How do you make a video game that is a hit in a store that doesn't sell your game?

Some of you, who were paying attention in the last post, probably caught it...

The answer is: You Don't.

What you need to do is give your paying customers the ability to invite and play online with anyone they want to, even if they haven't bought the game yet. We'll call it the Invite Model.

I'm not trying to go all new age open source communal living on you. I'm not even going all Shareware on you. What I'm saying is that the cards are stacked against you. While a couple hundred people may think that $20 dollars for a fun tabletop game is a good bang for their buck, there are thousands of people who will disagree. Something is very wrong with this picture. We're not bringing enough to the table anymore. With the Invite Model, you are promising the player more than just their own enjoyment. You're letting them share the enjoyment of your game with all their friends. With that kind of viral marketing, then you may just be able to reach into the one place your video game wouldn't have been able before. The comic book shop.

See, it's the perfect setup. You have a game that appeals to a bunch of guys who are all sitting around playing Friday Night Magic in the comic book shops all around the country. One guy says "hey, have you played X yet". Another guy will say "never heard of it", and then the first guy'll say, "oh it's this cool game that's kind alike Y, but it does A, B and C". Now, normally, that's about as far as the conversation goes, and a great, potential sale is lost. But now the conversation will add... "and if you buy it, all your friends get to play with you online for free anytime". Which will be followed shortly by "what's your IM account?".

I know what you're thinking. That if it's that simple, then why don't games that are completely free become more popular. We've got shareware, do we really need an Invite Model? Because society is clear - you get what you pay for. I love talking about open source projects like Mozilla, but free games are different. It's like going out with an "easy" date. You may be willing to try it out (if you're willing to risk getting an infection), but you certainly aren't about to tell your friends about it. Shareware has gotten to the point where it's more like "cripple-ware", and the consumer isn't an idiot. Look, why are sell through rates for video games so abysmal? People want something for nothing or else they wouldn't have downloaded it, but they also need to see the value in shelling out $20 bucks.

The Invite Model. Letting Friends Play Free. It's about value. It's about building communities of people who play your game. It's about reaching your audience. It's a movement (like "Alice's Restaurant"). Tell me what you think?

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Stay tuned next time where I show off our game. I know you can't wait!

-Andrew