2nd edition - Understanding our audience.

As we continue to define game mechanics and features of our game we have come to the conclusion of highlighting sustainable tourism as the cause of our game. There are 5 questions that we have answered to help us develop the dynamics and aesthetics of our game. 

• Who Will Use My App? - People between the age of 16 to 25 usually students who are in university or completing their education
• What Is My Competition? - Mobile games that have a strong replay value considering the main hero of our game is a pigeon one of the most obvious competitors is angry birds, but then again our unique value of being a game that has a social initiative sets us apart from a lot of our competitors.
• Why Will My Product Be Unique? - Yes we do believe our game is unique because of the social element involved in it and as we agree to this, we all are trying to keep the fun element in mind. It is very necessary that we have a balance and i As mentioned in the previous Blog social games are causing a ripple effect and making a difference. 
• How Will People Interact with My App? - As our game appeals to the digitised age we will utilise digital marketing platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Google+ and other such platforms that will compliment our game and influence audience members to participate and share our game. The reason i think this is necessary is because the ages of 16 to 25, which is our target audience are heavily obsessed with such platforms.

A very important point that we need to take into mind is market research and audience research in order to design our game. As our target audience is set from 16 to 25 a very important question to answer was the current gamers market and the kind of games (Genre) people are playing. 

Considering our audience target is 16 – 25 and that accounts for 30% of mobile social gamers and considering our topic our World heritage conservation, we should concentrate on the game as a commercial game that is meant for every age and gender.

The game is sold from the point of view of educating people and making them aware of issues with World heritage sites. The game should look into a selling point that attracts audiences of every age just like candy crush.

Since our the hero of our game our Pigeons and we are trying to keep the game light, we need to come up with a tag line and a ‘why should you play this game’ tagline that defines our theme and why people like US would play the game.

Again considering our competitors only come in the form of characters(birds) when we look at games like angry bird which was not a social game, we should formulate an attractive marketing strategy that will make heads turn.

According to audience research majority of mobile gamers like spending money so we could add a donation drive on the game which is like virtual money or support that shows the amount of people who care for world heritage sites.

Also a lot of mobile gamers are females too and we should keep them in mind as well while constructing the game. Our audience is both inner and outer directed as our topic is of a social game and its for the betterment of society hence our consumers would be coming from both categories and are multilingual and are a mixture of different nationalities since we are making an international game with a far reach, the best kind of target audience would be users like us, since we come from different backgrounds have different choices and likes and interests , the question after all this to understand the success of our theme ‘would be to ask would we play this game?’

These are the reasons why people play games and highest comes to word of mouth – recommendations and rankings. 

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(source: http://www.newzoo.com/insights/cga-smartphones-and-tablets-2013-games-market-sector-report/)

Another important decision was platforms for our game, and we came to conclusion that our game will be Smart phone/ tablet game and will subsequently also be launched on Facebook. This could be supported by the players statistics mentioned in the diagram below

(Source: http://www.newzoo.com/insights/cga-smartphones-and-tablets-2013-games-market-sector-report/)

As we finalise game dynamics and aesthetics we also are looking into costs involved in developing our game. Our game will utilise 2D graphics as mentioned by my colleagues. 

Costs and Finance:

Estimating a cost for development is essential to develop our game concept. According to market sources a game like angry birds required 140,000$ and received 70,000$. As we are an indie game our basic outline of costs include: 

Game Design : Aesthetics and features 

Marketing : Advertising, Promotions and Public Relations

Production: Game development, distribution etc.

Coding: 2D softwares and programmings

Arts: Music, Animation and effects

There is no specific estimation for our budget. We would like to spend minimum amount of money but if we do receive the required funds we can develop and enhance the feel of our game. Various game bloggers and critics have given a minimum for 2D mobile games and they have divided into levels of complexity involved in developing the game as follows along with estimated costs for an iPad game development- 

• Simple Enterprise iPad App Development Cost: $50,000 (+/- 20%)

• Medium Enterprise iPad App Development Cost: $100,000 (+/- 20%)

• Complex Enterprise iPad App Development Cost: $150,000 (and up) 

(Source: http://www.formotus.com/14018/blog-mobility/figuring-the-costs-of-custom-mobile-business-app-development)

This is only a rough cost for an apple device supported game and the costs are more or less similar for Android and Windows markets. Keeping in mind the rapid change in technology and operating software updates we will require our 2D game to be built with accordance to all the latest OS available on smart phones. This will be an added cost since not all games are based on just a website but multiple platforms. Another important cost for us would be 'upgrades' which, will be after the official launch of our game and shall be an added download for the user. It will be followed during the post launch phase of our game. 

In order to come to a finalised budget we accessed a website that generates quotes according to platforms that we would like to launch our game on. This is just a tentative figure but that could be worked as and when we work on investors for our game. 

Source: (http://howmuchtobuildanapp.com/#)

As we work further into the budget, we as a team agree that our game should be as cost effective as possible but, there is no finalised minimum or maximum figure to it! We would like to spend an average of 100,000$ for its development and around 50000$ to 75000$ for the post launch game upgrade and refining process.

PFC are now working on game levels and finalising the games - story line, locations communication/promotions strategies and designing the feel of the game.

Stay Tuned!

PilotFish Communications

Sukriti Chopra

Marketing and PR startergy - The Final Plan!

Ou Game PigeonWatch is not just an ordinary game it has a deeper meaning to educate people about the happenings with World Heritage sites and to compliment this we require a stealth and achievable Marketing/PR strategy that appeals to our target group. We would like to bifurcate ours into online and offline activities. Through this plan we would like to promote the uniqueness of our game and promote the serious issue as well as the fun aspect of our game.
 Both these activities will coincide due to use of Digital marketing strategy. These offline/online activities are divided into three phases of:

Pre Launch

Launch and

Post launch

Our mission is to educate people about our cultural heritage and sustainable practises.
Our strategy will involve to target our specified age group with the use of the right platforms and to build a community of followers who would actually make a difference and further our cause.

Online: Social media platforms will be utilised to generate a early buzz and community of loyal gamers, and there will be simultaneous- content centric activity on these platforms that, will be constant through all 3 phases of our PR and Marketing plan. Content will be related to our game dynamics and features and will also include facts and details about locations used in our game keeping in mind the Social initiative that the game will create (World heritage preservation).

Social media platforms which we would like to be utilise:–

•      Facebook
•      Twitter
•      Instagram
•      Blog
•      Website
•      Google+

·      The creation of profiles of our game on these platforms will be done simultaneously.

·      We will have teasers that will either have a poster with a tag line (or something similar), which will create a sense of anticipation amongst our audience. These will be promoted across online and offline platforms.

·      This will be followed by a Launch video that will give out snippets of our game and will give out the launch date and Social media profile links where audiences and promoters can keep a track with the launch of our game.

·      We will also simultaneously have ‘seed’ in marketing through- gamers/world heritage preservation blogs where bloggers will discuss activities around our game.

·      The game will also be promoted on gaming ign.com, zynga.com, PopCap.com, Pogo.com etc, and tech websites like reddit, mashable, Tech crunch and many more.

·      Another requirement is creation of a Hashtag that will stick through the game eg: DR who and their community of Whovians during the last season episode created the Hashtag #TheDayOfTheDoctor. This can be achieved as soon as we lock in on the name of the game.

·      We will also be tying up with UNESCO to approve and have their seal on our game as they don’t use their websites for promotions but generally do tie up with activities that go along with their motto and causes.

Offline

·      All offline activities will be coordinated and publicised on Social media platforms as that is one of our main portal for the promotion and community creation of our game.

·      Prior to the 1^st event we will be sending out an online press kit inviting people to attend our Press conference. This press kit will be online and slightly different from the traditional one where, we will be giving out details and teasers of our game and then inviting them to attend our Gamers press conference where they can know more about the game and could try a demo version of our game.
      
      We will also conduct activities with organisations like UNESCO and World Heritage Preservation NGO's to highlight the basis of our game and to educate people about our game and initiative.

We will have 2 highlights as our launch events: 

1)   Press conference with collaborators and game critics, Game bloggers, Journalists and game developers and will be a Press conference hosted by Pilot Fish Communications.

2)   Our 2^nd event will be a ‘tweet up’ with our collaborators, investors and developers that will take place simultaneously in the 3 cities that our game is based in.
      This will be the official launch of our game and will also include a celebrity from that specific country that will be a self-professed gamer and someone who believes in our initiative. 
      This Tweet up will also have locals from that area that will have the opportunity to take part in our launch and play our game. These locals/audience members will be selected through a 'Click a selfie with the monument'  contest that will grant them entry into the launch.
      This concept is also being used as a part of our game to unlock the 4th level of our game and could be collaborated as a benefit for playing the game and taking part in the tweet up. The use of selfies' has been taken into consideration as a new trend amongst our target audience.The basic idea about the tweet up is to get our game trending across the world and allowing people to get a hands on experience of our game.

Both these activities will create a media buzz and coverage will be covered on our social media platforms.

·      We will also be collaborating with the World heritage websites that will have a separate section or dialogue box for our game. These are the following official websites that we should aim at:

1)   http://www.comune.venezia.it/flex/cm/pages/ServeBLOB.php/L/EN/IDPagina/1 (VENICE)

2)   http://www.machupicchu.gob.pe/ (MACHUPICCHU)

3)   http://www.tajmahal.gov.in/ (TAJ MAHAL)

Pre Launch (Phase 1)

• The Pre Launch Phase of our game will begin approximately 2 to 3 months before the launch of our game. The basic objective of our Pre Launch is to create an organic community of early supporters for our game.

• We will use the website as the main portal of information for the game. This website will include our Blog where we will give out details of our game development and the social initiative behind the game.

• This will also include the Vlog which will give video diaries of our development team and the current situations of the world heritage sites mentioned in our game. We will also utilise blogs to target 'seed in' promotions which will have bloggers talk about our games' concepts.

• We will also conduct email-marketing during through our website in order to collect a database and connect with people in our cause. This is very essential for the creation of our organic community and gather early support for our game. 

• Our Website will also feature a 'support our cause tab', all people have to do is give a thumbs up to our cause. This will also include a section for donations for our initiative and the game. 

• As mentioned in the previous blog - Digital marketing strategy is very important for our campaign as our target audience consists of audiences that have a digital foot print. We will use social media platforms to connect with our audience and to inform and educate them of our ideas, vision and cause.

• Content marketing will take place through all these social media platforms (Facebook,Twitter, YouTube,Google+,Instagram, Tumblr) through all the three phases of our launch. This specific content marketing strategy will enable us to educate the audiences and develop a like minded community for our game. 

• A Viral teaser will be created to share the first look of our game. This will not give any details of our game and the reason for this is to create a viral campaign that expands our audience base from more than just our early supporters as we move into the launch phase of our game. 

• We will also invest in banner adds on Google and Yahoo add networks and on Gaming websites to promote this viral teaser.

• After the Viral teaser we will have the launch video of our game that will include our main character of our game along with the official release date.This launch video will be on our Youtube page. This Launch video shall have a slight serious undertone to highlight the World Heritage Preservation concept of our game. 

•  Through this all we will have continuous networking and communications with relevant people from the Gaming Industry along with organisations that are involved in world heritage preservation to promote our game. Through this all we will continue activities on our digital platforms as we come closer to our Launch.

• Online Press kit/invitation will be sent two weeks prior to the gamers/press conference. This will not be traditional PR kit and shall be an online PR kit along with an invitation to attend our conference where they can try our game hands on and review our game.

  Launch (Phase 2)

• The Objective of our launch is to create a buzz in the gamers community and too launch our game successfully with maximum coverage from media outlets.

• The first event will be the gamers press conference with our Developers, Investors, Game Critics, blogger and journalists who will have the chance to try our game for the first time.

• We will also take part in Game Conference/ conventions before our Launch to grow our market and make our presence felt in the gamers community.

• Along with using Google and Yahoo ad networks to advertise our game we will also publicise on relevant magazines related to tourism and games.We will also conduct Radio and Podcast interviews for the game all across the world on local platforms.

• As we continue our marketing strategy we will conduct our TweetUp in 3 cities. The Tweet Up as mentioned above will have a competitive aspect to see which city trends first. The invitation of the event will depend on the 'click a selfie with the monument' and will be strictly restricted to the local crowd of the city.

• We will also provide incentives during the launch phase which could include extra granny crumbs and lives for our first downloaders and players. This will help in the replay value of our game and attract our users to play the game on a regular basis.

• After our Launch events we shall participate in conversations on gaming forums and websites and will continue with the content marketing and advertising.   Another feature would be to have ambassadors for our game that promote our game locally and nationally to our target audience. These ambassadors will be University students will have in depth knowledge of our cause and shall educate audiences about our game and the meaning behind it.

                   

   Post Launch (Phase 3)

·      During our Post launch phase we will concentrate on maintaining activities on our digital platforms and sustain our relation with our collaborators and investors, as this would be necessary to launch the further levels of our games. This includes continuing with blogs and vlogs and content marketing. Audience members will also have the chance to share their progress on social media platforms. This will help us creating a chain effect within friends circles and shall lead to creating a buzz and increase in number of downloads.

·      Through this all we will collect Data and statistics on the effect of our game globally in order to calculate the worth and get to know the effectiveness our social initiative.

·      Game user feedback's will be taken into consideration and further   improvements will be used to enhance the gaming experience. We will also continue with incentive gaming like including daily challenges or extra granny crumbs and lives as a growing feature to sustain and bring people back to play our game.

·      We will also start planning the 2nd installment of our game which will have audience involvement. We will urge our supporters to send in pictures of monuments that they would like to see included in our game, along with the issues of that monument. These entries will then be shortlisted and people can vote for the monument that they would like to see in the game. 

We would like to have more than one large scale launch event but that greatly depends on our budget and future developments of the game.

Sukriti Chopra

PilotFish Communications

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