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Up Topic General / General / Promoting the next release
- - By Maikel Date 2014-07-07 18:21 Edited 2014-07-08 18:42
Hey guys,

I think we are again experiencing a drop in activity... and for that reason I'd already like to start discussing how we can advertise OC when we do a next major release.

I found this website where they have lots of faqs and reviews on how to promote your game.

And the most prominent methods for our game are reviews by indie sites and coverage on youtube by indie game youtubers (apparently there are more than 500 with loads of views).
To reach those people, the usual road is to email them and tell as briefly as possible about your game, including a short description, screenshots and a trailer. And of course a playable
copy of your game, but that is trivially fulfilled for our opensource game.

I was hoping that in this thread we could discuss about possible methods of advertisement and make a press kit for our game.

I have made a small page on our wiki of the most important information on our game which is the Press Kit. If you want to
make some reviewer aware of our game you can use the information from this page. Please help me keep it up to date and improve the text and screenshots.
Parent - - By Clonkonaut [de] Date 2014-07-07 21:14

> I think we are again experiencing a drop in activity


:(
Was very busy the last weeks with my new job. Will improve!
Reply
Parent - - By Maikel Date 2014-07-07 21:23
I will also have less time next few months... but enough to post some random stuff here in the forum and a few commits from time to time.

Congrats! What are you doing? Did you find a research position?
Parent - - By Clonkonaut [de] Date 2014-07-07 21:39

> research position


Yes, found one at the University of Hamburg and looks like I made the right decision at which chair (had to choose between two). Will now be there for the next 3 years :)
Reply
Parent - - By Newton [de] Date 2014-07-08 15:22
Why, whats up with that other chair?
Parent - By Clonkonaut [de] Date 2014-07-08 16:05
From what I heard, too much work for the people, they don't finish their thesis in time. In addition, I would (for now) not work at the main campus but somewhere else.
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Parent - By Zapper [de] Date 2014-07-08 07:22
For me, the last semester has been busier than expected. But I will probably be home a lot during the summer break now. So hopefully™, I'll get to do some progress on the menu stuff then
Parent - - By Sven2 Date 2014-07-08 10:06
For me the problem isn't so much lack of developers, but lack of people who are just playing. I'm not very motivated to build scenarios if noone is there to play them :)

So yes, I agree that we should make a polished release and then do some advertisement. So far, we've been advertising mostly in the Clonk community, which isn't such a big target group.

If we want to send stuff to people who do not know Clonk at all, I think the main focus on polishing should be on the tutorials and first missions. I.e. have some dialogues to explain the game goals, big red arrows pointing at targets, etc.
Parent - - By Newton [de] Date 2014-07-08 15:31
Kinda the result of the Release 5.0 topic was that we could release right away featuring bugfixes and K-Pone's new music + the league. Imo it is high time to get a new release out. And if the league is not ready yet (or is it?), then a minor release without it but with all those tweaks and fixes you guys made in the last months.

Maikel was already beginning to improve the tutorials based upon the new features that Zapper and Clonkonaut were working on. So that's probably stuff for after we released a version now. (We could put all those branches together after a final 4.x release)
Parent - - By Maikel Date 2014-07-08 15:35
The league works, but might need then a small bugfix release if it is better tested.

And yes, I think putting the branches together is a good idea. And then finalize the new concepts and adapt the settlement scenarios to get a playable game as soon as possible again.
Parent - - By Newton [de] Date 2014-07-08 15:41
So, regarding the league: It makes sense to include it in the release this weekend?
Parent - By Maikel Date 2014-07-08 15:47
Yes, but I am not there :(

So if Sven supports this go ahead! He should change the default server ingame to the league server, and we can abandon boom.openclonk.org
Parent - - By Clonkonaut [de] Date 2014-07-08 16:09
Most critical bug to me currently. Haven't come up with a satisfying solution. Well, removing wheat when ObjectCount > x would be possible for a quick hack.

But really, haven't got an idea for a boost in performance for the wheat that will not make the wheat look bad. Or so.
Reply
Parent - - By Pyrit Date 2014-07-08 17:23
There's much to learn from watching Let's Plays.
This guy here gave it a shot and went into some problems:

At 1:20 he tries to produce basic tools although they are already in the lorry. Maybe it's he didn't know the lorry is commonly used as a storage unit right now, instead of mining. Maybe he didn't see the lorry at all.

At 9:25 he accidentally burns down a forrest. Probably because of 2 button usage, so this will be resolved w/ new controls I guess. But his 2nd clonk catches fire and he doesn't notice it and is clonk dies.

At 10:50 following to that he has that bug where you can't release an object if you stand in front of another.

Then there isn't much more worth noticing, but it's interesting to watch a total newbie play a settlement round for one of the first times.
Parent - By Maikel Date 2014-07-08 17:31
Indeed, YouTube is a great way to find out how people play the game.

And I should write a blog post about all these nice let's play videos and promote them a bit.
Parent - - By Newton [de] Date 2014-07-08 15:40
In case you wonder, some statistics:

In the last few months, OpenClonk has been downloaded more often then ever before. Currently about 15000 times per month. And that is only counting the downloads from our site and not from the many copies on various download sites. Right now, we have more downloads for the year 2014 already than for the whole year 2013.
Parent - By Maikel Date 2014-07-08 15:48
That's good news, I think the game is maturing content wise and people play offline a lot then.

Unluckily online nothing really happens, with roughly 20 games a day :( During some periods we had over 100 games a day.
Parent - By Sven2 Date 2014-07-08 15:51
It doesn't feel like we had all those players just from reading the forums or chat though. Maybe they download the game, it doesn't work for them for some reason and then they just shrug and download the next game?
- - By Maikel Date 2014-07-08 18:44
I have started this wiki to produce a Press Kit, please give me suggestions for improvements and some nice screens!
Parent - By ala [de] Date 2014-07-08 23:53

>and some nice screens


*klick*
Up Topic General / General / Promoting the next release

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