20 June 2013
App Marketing Tips from Eric Kinkead, Creator of Questlord
In May, Eric Kinkead gave an excellent talk on app marketing to the Dallas Corona SDK Meetup Group. Eric has had great success with his game Questlord, which is a turn-based Role Playing Game (RPG) in the classic style of the legendary Computer Role Playing Games that defined the genre. Eric shared both his successes and mistakes with marketing Questlord and we got it all on video. Thank you Eric for sharing an honest recount of your app marketing experience.
Be sure to check out the Questlord website for more details on how Eric is promoting his game.
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Mo
Posted at 20:07h, 21 JuneWOW! Eric, that was one of the best app marketing talk i have heard in a long time! LOVE the advice on focusing more on your target audience rather your fellow app developers. Many great advice!
I was not clear on your marketing time line (or maybe I missed it:) Care to explain when you start telling people about your game? As soon as you got a working prototype?
Anyway I really enjoy the talk. Thanks for that.
Mo
Eric Kinkead
Posted at 21:34h, 21 JuneNo problemo!
Oh, also I have the .pdf of the presentation here if anyone is interested in that.
http://www.lavalevel.com/PublicDocs/CoronaGeek_Dallas_Marketing_Your_App.pdf
So basically I started working with Corona in in November 2011 and had the idea for QuestLord around November 21 from the looks of my first builds. I think sometime in December I shared it with the Corona IRC chat group. And I kept it only there for about 6 more months. In June 2012 I began preparing to show it to the web. I had a list of forums and people on Twitter to reach out to about it. I made that first video on the website of me just showing it off. I didn’t expect that video to get much traffic so I was also getting my playthrough teaser video ready. (I used Camtasia, it’s free first month, no watermark) When my video was ready I made the website (bought a template from http://themeforest.net/ the have a lot of good ones) Then I got my “Subj:For your consideration” mass email ready. I waited until July 4th celebration was over so people would get back from break then released it. I said that it was going to be released in Summer 2012, but massively pushed it back when I realized I got so much attention. (I had to up the bar with it) But all that while I kept communication with forums and tweets about the game. I missed Christmas but it worked out because I released during a slow period.
If you go to my blog at http://lavalevel.blogspot.com/ and go to older posts (all the way to the beginning) you can see the time before I even had a Mac or Corona. And you can somewhat see QuestLord unfolding. I didn’t share that much, but enough to give you a an idea.
I hope that helps and thanks for the encouraging words!
bests
eric
Mo
Posted at 23:32h, 21 JuneThanks Eric, that’s a fantastic timeline! It really help decides on how to promote an app. Thank you also for the pdf doc. I am also really enjoying your dev blog. I am a sucker for these type of info:)
GREAT JOB!
Mo
Mo
Posted at 23:48h, 21 JuneMaybe a quick question: Your point about target identification being a crucial step is will taken. I was wondering how you would go about game genre that are more generic (think endless runner, trivia or puzzle game) which may not have a ready made customer base as QuestLord had (rpg crowd)?
Not sure if I am making any sense 🙂
Mo
Eric Kinkead
Posted at 02:37h, 23 June“may not have a ready made customer base”
This part does not make sense. Why would they not have a ready made customer base? Just because it is not as out in the open or as obvious as say ‘rpg’ doesn’t mean that it is not there. It is the developers job to identify and understand the players of those games.
Trivia & Puzzle I would equate with casual gamers. There is a ton of market data on the players of casual games. There are even multiple casual game sites such as jay is games that do reviews on casual games.
And endless runner I would equate with arcade/twitch type games, and very generic at that (unless it already comes w/a brand…ie Roadrunner endless runner) That to me would appeal to the younger, teenage player who is looking for a lower cost quicker game they do not have to put much thought into playing.
Its not as daunting a task as you would think.
But caveat, deciding to make a game for a demographic is not always the best approach. Make a game that you want to make and then establish the target audience. If you design for what you feel passionate about you will create the best product for that target audience.
hope those opinions on the matter help.
Mo
Posted at 07:59h, 23 JuneTHANKS! I can see that I was being silly on my last question (ie: brain fart!) Of course. Casual games is the genre I was looking for. I am still glad I ask the question since your response clear my mind on how to look at target audience.
Thanks again Eric.
Mo
natamuka
Posted at 01:40h, 20 SeptemberHi everyone
How have some advices about learning marketing?