Have any PR questions???

#1 I'd be interested in how a first time developer could get their game reviewed. Where would they want to try to get it reviewed and how do they get the reviewers interested enough to review it? Any help would be appreciated.

-Bryan

#2 Brian,

First, thanks for the reply. I felt lonely up here. I hope to make this a kick ass forum for developers.

WHEW...where to start. First, where are you in the development of your game? If you could, please reply with that and also the platform.

As for getting coverage, the first thing you want to do is develop a relationship with the magazines. You won't get anywhere without one. There are many folks at magazines like PC Gamer or CGW that are excited to hear directly from the developers. However... please, be brief, to the point and attach screen shots. Don't pester them too much.

Second, understand what each editor/writer does does. Magazine staffs are divided by section (i.e. previews editor, reviews editor, news etc) or by genre (i.e. Sports guy, action guy). Respect their role. It also helps to read the magazines. :)

Third, send them some code or a demo. Give them something to sink their teeth into. Often times, they will respond with questions. If its a demo, ask them to put it on the cover disk.

If your game is finished, please say "FOR REVIEW" on it. Then it will receive a score. Conversely, don't send in code for review when it is not ready! Say "For Preview only". From that, the magazines will know what section to put the game in.

Tell me more about your game and I'll get much more specific, such as providing insight to specific magazines and cool PR tactics to get coverage.
BL

#3 I'm developing a turn based RPG on the PC platform. Emphasis is on design with average to OK graphics. Main features include an innovative, advanced magic system and randomly generated dungeons. It is loosely based on Roguelike concepts.

-Bryan

#4 Sorry for the delay in answering. Internet at the office has, well, not worked. It makes running a PR agency difficult, but we think we've worked out the bugs. (i.e. Posting and reading email from home)

You present an interesting challenge. While the gaming media appreicates a deep, well thought-out game like yours, their first impression may be influenced by the graphics. Many great games have "Ok" graphics. However, in this day in age with video cards, many believe if the technology is there, why not use it?

So how do can you get around this. When I first worked with Jeff Tunnell on Tribes, we sold "vision." Sure, the engine was up and running, but the game lacked key functionality and graphics were still "ok" or in progress. So, we told the journalists what we wanted to accomplish, how we could do it, and about the people making the game. Soon, we started to see stories referring to how great the tribes team was and that they had a good handle on the design and implementation. All this time all we had was really one fairly unbalanced level and a great spokesperson.

How can this help you? First, establish a relationship with the key editors that cover RPG's. I'd start with online editors, as they may be a little more approachible in the beginning. Try RPGplanet and Avault and even shoot an email over to IGN.com. Tell them what you are trying to accomplish, refer to areas of your game that haven't been tried before and focus them on the vision behind the game. And, don't be afraid to show them screens. Its likely you'll get a news story or two out of it. Continue building relationships and you'll get better at the pitch.

Once you master the pitch, then start talking to the print publications. Pretty soon, you'll be on your way to getting an image on the cover of the magazine. :)
Not yet... but maybe someday.
BL

#5 Thanks for the help Bill! It is great to get advice from seasoned veterans like you. Once I get some stuff ready for a press release I'll let you know. =) Hopefully you could look it over for me.

-Bryan

#6 I never understood the need for a third party public relation company to promote games. For a company the size of Microsoft I can see a need, but otherwise I think you're just throwing money out the window. It's not_too_hard to get some editor to write a story about a game, post/take shots or do an interview. it's not like you need some third party liason to twist our arms to cover your product.

Robert Howarth
Managing Editor,
Voodoo Extreme.

#7 Wow, I'd love for you to come spend the day at our office to better understand what we do. There's a lot more than meets the eye. To your point, we are really here to enable the press to do their job. However, we support more than 1200 journalists around the world covering games, so the volume of request via email and phone can be very overwhelming, even for companies like Microsoft.

Are you near the SF Bay area?
BL

#8

Quote:Wow, I'd love for you to come spend the day at our office to better understand what we do. There's a lot more than meets the eye. To your point, we are really here to enable the press to do their job. However, we support more than 1200 journalists around the world covering games, so the volume of request via email and phone can be very overwhelming, even for companies like Microsoft.

I can see a need for public relations, but most of the game companies I deal with already have in-house public relations departments. The only quality third party PR company I've dealt with was Arbuthnot (who handle Microsoft). The rest are fairly unoriginal, take really bad screen shots and only know three sites -- IGN, GameSpot and Daily Radar.

I'd be suspect of that 1200 journalist figure. Hell, we're not even among them, and we're the largest 3D gaming news site on the Internet.

#9 Regardless of how many publications you may serve (actively or otherwise) in my experience very few companies have public relations departments that I would say really 'go that extra mile' and come up with creative programs, take good screen shots and send out product on a timely basis. If you were to point a gun to my head and ask who does the best job, I'd have to say Interplay. Worst PR? maybe the GG staff can give some suggestions. ;)

#10 Arbuthnot ranks high on the quality level? Dear God. Well, Bill, it's all the better that you're here--thanks!

Dave

#11 I'll only be responding to developers who want to learn more about PR.

BL

#12 Sorry if those previous posts sounded a bit nasty. After chatting with Bill for about 30 minutes, he explained how they operate; yes, they do indeed serve a useful purpose (grin). I guess my past experiences with some other PR groups had turned me off, to a large degree.

Anyhow, I look forward to fostering a better relationship (where there was none before) between VE, and some of the companies he reps.

I guess those previous posts was my way of saying "hi".

:)

#13 PS - I do have a legit question for Bill which I forgot to ask earlier.


How can I make VE a sexier site to make publishers feel compelled to give us more exclusives?

thanks!

#14 I am not sure what the economics are yet for consultants in the new dev model that Garage Games is developing, but I am interested in helping small developers on a part time basis (at very least to bounce ideas off). I have several years of professional experience with small developers and also working in the gaming and Linux media, so if someone wants me to do more serious consulting or in house work, I am open to hearing more.

Currently I am in North Carolina at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington but I'll be graduating in May. You can visit my resume website at http://www.cyprmedia.com if you are interested in learning more.

James Hills

#15 Well, speaking as an employee with a company that traditionally undersells its products hugely, I can see the worth of a GOOD PR company.

Hell, lets use the most hyped PR games as an example. Black and White, Messiah, Diakatana etc. Basically, EVERYONE knows about those games. They were all in production for many many years, and yet somehow the PR kept flowing.

If you look at the PR for worms, well, I doubt most americans have even heard of it, and yet it outsold Duke Nukem and all those FPS games of the time.

Basically, I agree that PR is a good thing, I just object to its abuse by the likes of Pete Molyneux and Demis Hassabis, thier rediculous quotes in every issue of edge magazine really make me balk :)

If its just honest to goodness putting the game in the hands of the people, then I'm all for it.

Phil.

#16 I am not sure that I would blame the PR practitioners that kept those games alive. If anything, they should get an award :) But really, I think that Daikitana and Messiah weren't so much PR driven as they were advertising driven. For about 3 years, every 5th page of every PC magazine had a Daikitana picture on it ... that took TONS of money to do ... advertising money = editorial coverage in the magazines.

I don't think that PR can make a dog of a product sell, but it can certainly make an average product with a potential market sell more. At very least, PR ... especially online and grass roots PR, can also be looked at by small developers as a VERY cheap alternative to buying expensive magazine and TV spots etc.

Unfortunately, I haven't figured out how to make great titles like Independence War / System Shock etc. sell. PR doesn't seem to really work, because the market isn't ready for them despite the fact that those two are among the best titles ever released in their genres, and the reviewers seem to agree.

I think the gaming media has a lot to do with the low quality and perceived annoyance of PR, because the ability to buy press coverage in the print mags and that many online media sites are amateurish and whorish just looking for a free handout or a telephone call to make them feel important, and the profesionals are so powerful in the industry because the majority of the hardcore market is online. Plus, they are in such a rush to get new content every day, twice a day or more even that many accept any piece of news about a big budget title from a well-known developer just to have something new on the page instead of doing their own work. (this is changing as the online pubs mature though)

#17 James: "I don't think that PR can make a dog of a product sell, but it can certainly make an average product with a potential market sell more."

Here's the secret to all PR and advertising: A great game doesn't need it, and a bad game cannot be saved by it.

Here's what sells game above and beyond anything else: Word-of-mouth (a.k.a. buzz). People talking good things about you game makes the differences, and it's what drove Half-Life and Crouching Tiger to long-term sales.

"Unfortunately, I haven't figured out how to make great titles like Independence War / System Shock etc. sell."

Now that you know the secret, here's where people get confused: Some genres will outsell others, so System Shock, as good as it was, isn't gonna sell that well--it's too much of a blended genre game and people who like shooters don't want to get bogged down in puzzles, while people who like RPGs don't want to risk buying a game that might have too much high-speed, twitch action.

When you're a jack-of-all-trades, you're usually a master of none.

Hype, btw, does not equal buzz, so do not get them mixed-up as most people do. Hype is pre-release talk about the game based on PR, advertising and other marketing. Hype can jack up initial sales of a bad game, but very quickly bad buzz will kill any good that hype may have down.

The best of all words is to have a wildly hyped game that actually lives up to its hype and does on to generate first-class buzz.

There's really a LOT more to this than covered here, this is merely a surface overview. Even more important is that you understand that marketing is ***the science of human behavior***, and advertising and PR are much less important than the more fundamental issues of branding, image and positioning -- get those three wrong and your company and your game have a much steeper hill to climb (and most developers and publishers get it wrong, because they think of marketing as a creative art, and that's exactly what it's not).

Scott Miller, 3D Realms

#18 Reposting because I had too many errors in that first post (typed too fast!), and wanted to add a few more points...

Here's the secret to all PR and advertising: A great game doesn't need it, and a bad game cannot be saved by it.

And here's what sells game above and beyond anything else: Word-of-mouth (a.k.a. buzz). People talking good things about your game makes the difference, and it's what drove Half-Life and Crouching Tiger to long-term sales.

(BTW, sequels to games that are already branded, such as Diablo, Warcraft, Tomb Raider, etc., are another issue -- I'm refering to virgin brands only.)

"Unfortunately, I haven't figured out how to make great titles like Independence War / System Shock etc. sell."

Now that you know the secret, here's where people get confused: Some genres will outsell others, so System Shock, as good as it was, won't necessarily sell that well--it's too much of a blended genre game and people who like shooters don't want to get bogged down in puzzles, while people who like RPGs don't want to risk buying a game that might have too much high-speed, twitch action.

When you're a jack-of-all-trades, you're usually a master of none. This may or may not be true for all games, but it's almost always the initial perception of people, and perception is more important than reality in the science of marketing.

Hype, btw, does not equal buzz, so do not get them mixed-up as many people do. Hype is pre-release talk about the game based on PR, advertising and other marketing. Hype can jack up initial sales of a bad game, but very quickly bad buzz will kill any good that hype may have done.

The best of all worlds is to have a wildly hyped game that actually lives up to its hype and goes on to generate first-class buzz.

There's really a LOT more to this than covered here, this is merely a surface overview. Even more important is that you understand that marketing is ***the science of human behavior***, and advertising and PR are much less important than the more fundamental issues of branding, image and positioning -- get those three wrong and your company and your game have a much steeper hill to climb (and most developers and publishers get it wrong, because they think of marketing as a creative art, and that's exactly what it's not).

Scott, 3D Realms

#19 I think good advertising and PR, hand-in-hand is really what sells games (along with good word of mouth, of course).

Online advertising right now is at its least expensive point ever, really - even though people may not click on many banners, just having them in sight, with your game on them keeps them in mind. I'm surprised companies don't just buy an assload of banners on the sites that its games could benefit the most from, and just go crazy.

btw- Scott - Have you ever considered getting a third-party PR company for 3D Realms? I've gotten to know Bill since this thread started a couple months ago and he's really cool. If any company could use good PR, it's you guys. ;)

#20 I disageree, I think Scotts company does fine for PR. Even saying that they dont release any information, the magazines still print that!

Its weird really, its more that the press NEED to say SOMETHING every day/week/month, so if your skilled enough, you can build up a "press following" which hangs off your every word (because basically, the press know that your not lost for words if its a bad news day they can always rely on you to say something).

After learning of all the "buying reviews" that happens, well, lets just say my feelings on journalists and press is pretty low. Especially in the paper magazines (I dont view too many online review sites).

Phil.