I saw in the Multiwinia thread a link to a post on the Introversion boards titled “Save Multiwinia”. (Thanks AndrewM.)
Please, review our game. Talk to your editors, convince them to print your review. Interview us, use our screenshots, our videos. Link to our demo in your articles. In the end, you hold the key to our games reaching a wide audience, or vanishing without trace. This is a bigger issue than just reviewing Multiwinia. We’re talking about games journalists and your editors making a rational choice, and wiping out all but the biggest indie games companies as a consequence.
It’s an interesting counterpoint to Vic Davis’s story with Armageddon Empires (awesome article by Bill Harris over at Newsweek) where he really didn’t hit his stride until more than 6 months after release and he got a mention in Penny Arcade. Mentions from Tom, KG, Tim Edwards, Bruce Geryk, Gamasutra, and Bill Trotter in this forum and other media were a boost but after the PA mention sales more than doubled and finally exceeded his goal.
I think the innovation happening in the indies and smaller publishers is what’s preventing PC gaming from being d0med. As the big publishers make PC the destination for ports from console games that were released weeks earlier places like Tilted Mill, 2d-boy, Stardock, Introversion, Paradox, Battlefront, etc. are releasing quality titles without AAA budgets.
How does an indie or small publisher get the word out about their games through the media and to the public? Is there just not enough resources at magazines and websites to get press for games that aren’t published by EA, Actiblizzard, THQ, and Ubisoft? I always thought Brad and the Stardock team do an excellent job of getting the word out for their games (a lot of people at the big media sites were talking about Sins for weeks). Do they have the right formula for success? Can it be replicated by smaller teams like 2d-boy, Tilted Mill, and Introversion?
Maybe it’s because Multiwinia is just not as good as they think?
I know Tom recommends it but I won’t buy it and I bought most of their titles even when they weren’t on Steam yet (starting with Uplink which I got on a self-burned CD from them a few years ago).
To me it lacks innovation and looks more like a rehash of Darwinia (which I bought and enjoyed a lot). It should have come as an expansion pack for owners of Darwinia and priced cheaper.
Just playing the “Hey we are indies! Buy our games!” doesn’t work (see that French artist that bitched that none bought his crap game a while ago).
Sorry, I wasn’t clear with my quote or explanation of the post, but they’re confident about the game because of the high conversion rate.
Multiwinia has the highest conversion rate we’ve ever seen. What this means is that every time somebody plays the demo version, there is a percentage chance that they will go on to buy the game, and that percentage is higher than any of our other games. […] The kinds of conversion rates we are seeing with Multiwinia are in fact excellent by any standards, and we should be very happy about this.
Unfortunately, a high percentage of zero is still zero.
Nobody is playing the demo of Multiwinia. There are a number of theories as to why this might be, but we think we already know the answer – very few people have heard about it, or have seen enough reason to try it. In this regard, Introversion has always relied on one primary form of publicity – reviews. Darwinia and Defcon were reviewed far and wide, exposing hundreds of thousands of gamers to our games in a far more effective manner than any adverts we can ever afford. The only way for most gamers to hear about Introversion games and to understand the premise of our games is to read reviews of them, look at the pictures, read the comments, and then try the demo if they are interested.
So it’s more that people don’t know about it, than it’s a crap game.
I completely agree that if you have a crap game people aren’t going to play it, but if the game is ignored then most people don’t even know that it exists.
You’re assuming that the conversion rate would be equivalent across the general population. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a very significant self-selection effect currently biasing the conversion rate – the only people who know about the game are those who are rabid fans of the earlier games (or the developer, or indie games in general).
Please, review our game. Talk to your editors, convince them to print your review. Interview us, use our screenshots, our videos. Link to our demo in your articles. In the end, you hold the key to our games reaching a wide audience, or vanishing without trace. This is a bigger issue than just reviewing Multiwinia. We’re talking about games journalists and your editors making a rational choice, and wiping out all but the biggest indie games companies as a consequence.
Are they having a really tough time getting reviewers’ attention?
Because I listen to podcasts and read gaming news, and more often than not there’s a whole lot of talk about nothing.
It strikes me that a post on one’s own board isn’t the best way to press publicity. I might be misunderstanding the situation, but if they feel they need reviewers, why aren’t they beating down their doors? Coming up with their own wacky publicity stunts? Demanding the spotlight?
Maybe they need to bring someone on for marketing and promotion? If that’s what’s really holding them back …
Well if the number of demo downloads went up and the game was crap then the conversion rate would go down wouldn’t it? I can agree that conversion rate == good game is a bit of a stretch, but if the overall number of demo downloads is low then there’s a different problem that the word is not getting out right?
Which goes back to my original topic, how do small publishers and indies get more press coverage and reviews?
Maybe I was not clear in my first post:
By generating a lot of downloads / word of mouth in forums.
Uplink was out for a long time and sold pretty well before some magazines picked it up.
I just can’t see much buzz in gaming forums about Multiwinia. It’s largely ignored.
I heard about Darwinia, got the demo, bought it. I heard about Defcon, got the demo, bought it.
I’ve heard of Multiwinia but I haven’t tried the demo, because they’ve been advertising it as a multiplayer version of Darwinia and I personally don’t care about multiplayer Darwinia.
If it’s something more than that then they should’ve called it Darwinia 2 and I probably would have already purchased a copy by now.
Butt the pIrAteZ! Everyone knows random unidentified reviewers are responsible for most of the images and pirating of games. A Catch-22, Yosarian!
If they’re concerned, I’m sure they could figure out a way to watermark the copies they send out. I’d suspect coverage is more important in this case than worrying about piracy.
Good for you, but they exist; I’ve written a couple of them myself. More to the point, all they’re asking is that people review their game. It’s mind-boggling that your response is “make a better game.”
I’m with others here. I’m just not that interested in a multiplayer extension of darwinia. If I do get it, it will be through xbox live, as that seems to be the intended platform. I would much rather them do sequels to defcon or uplink.
