WINDIE GAMES | Animamundi

"WINDIE GAMES"

Marketing Executive for Year 2 Game Studio

& Online Arcade Event

Assigned Marketing Executive - 18th February

THURSDAY 18TH FEBRUARY: SLACK MEETING WITH TEAM LEADERS AND JAMES

DISCUSSION

I have been appointed head of Marketing - in charge of promoting and advertising online arcade event and creating necessary social media channels in order to promote year 2 development work.

NOTES FROM MEETING:

It is my responsibility to create promotional material/advertise our years development work via social media channels.
For now continue with personal development work and we will have another discussion after Easter and closer to the event.

EVALUATION

As Marketing Executive I have to document and promote the work of Year 2 including my own groups. In order to do this I must look into the appropriate social media channels and use my knowledge in this area to be successful. My next meeting with James will outline the basics of what I'll need for after Easter.

I will continue with developing Anima Mundi in the meantime.

THURSDAY 18TH MARCH: SLACK MEETING WITH JAMES

DISCUSSION

Next steps for Marketing - what exactly will I be doing/in charge of?

NOTES FROM MEETING:

Requires a Studio name and Logo to brand year 2 independent game studio.
Social media channels e.g. Instagram and Twitter - use these to advertise work and link with existing WSA Games accounts.
Set a system for people to send me files/attachments at a certain time and day as a part of contribution.
Organise around personal development work.
Make it easier to gather work sent - organise specific place and time for this.

EVALUATION

My next steps will involve creating an Instagram and Twitter for our development material.

I will also discuss in a few weeks time with the class that I am available for them to send me progress updates/development process work via my email and this way I will be able to post it on our social media channels.

NEXT STEPS

Make Instagram and Twitter - Follow existing WSA accounts and related/similar themes
Brainstorm Studio name and Logo

MY PLAN - MY APPROACH

INSTAGRAM -

Must follow existing studios and people with similar audiences
Follow WSA Games and related accounts
Post development work, unfinished work to showcase the process - not always about the final outcome but this will be useful too
Use hashtags of similar themes/events which will attract the type of audience we desire
Post regularly - approx 1/2 weeks before event
Gather following a week before posting - keep followers on their toes
Post regular stories to update followers - so they know when to return to our page
Tag creators in all work and link other development accounts from class

TWITTER

A more specific audience - more sophisticated, would rather be informed in the purpose of our studio etc rather than process images/attachments, this is better for Instagram
Updates and reminders for arcade event
Countdown
Follow similar accounts and existing studios
Professional approach but still fun/playful to reach wide target audience

STUDIO NAME/LOGO

Brainstorm ideas and use class as inspiration, words linked to our class/year 2/Winchester school of art
Take a personal approach
Logo linked to studio name
Brainstorm idea of being independent studio based in Winchester
Logo will branch off studio name and use both pictorial/wordmark logo type

16th APRIL: AFTER EASTER - SLACK MEETING WITH JAMES

DISCUSSION

Taking first steps for Marketing.

NOTES FROM MEETING:

Assigned me to be 'in-charge' of Arcade event.
Will require its own Instagram and Twitter.
In need of studio name and logo.
Email to allow for classmates to send their work and to post this on social media channels.
Tag GDD Instagrams and Twitter - as well as following relevant/related accounts with similar content.
I must choose a date for the event and organise the structure.
Set up Instagram and Twitter and assign us a studio name.

EVALUATION

I will firstly plan the Arcade Event using the information James provided in the call.

QUESTIONS TO ASK JAMES -

What time will the arcade take place?

How many people will be attending roughly?

NEXT STEPS

Organise structure of Arcade Event, send to James and ask him relevant questions.
Brainstorm studio name and logo.
Create Instagram and Twitter.
Gather work from teams/classmates.

ONLINE ARCADE EVENT PLAN:

Date – Friday 28th May 2021

What time?

How many people roughly? – Open to the public, will be able to invite family and friends.

Basic Structure –

Link shared to a Teams or Zoom Call.

James talks – Opens the event
Team Leaders talk – Team leaders or preferred member of the team (can be discussed between them, whoever’s comfortable) introduce their team and the game they have developeD.
Trailers displayed – One person with reliable internet/audio plays each game trailer for guests to watch from home.

Potentially could combine team leader talks and trailers – maybe team leaders present a quick PowerPoint briefly covering the basis of their game and team members involved in development, then followed by their trailer. (Maybe this will take up too much time or be unnecessary?)

Games shared and streamed – Links to games (to be discussed) will be shared with guests via call. Guests will be able to play the games or stay in the open call and watch streams one at a time. Games to be played/streamed for approx. 10 minutes each (or more or less) and team members to be available to instruct players or answer any questions if need be.
Surveys – Link to survey will be sent after each session of gameplay for guests to give creators feedback/customer research/suggestions!
Quiz – An idea to encourage everyone to get involved could be a short quiz with a small prize. This can be presented via PowerPoint and consist of 10 multiple choice questions based off the 4 games made. This encourages guests to pay attention to each game closely and is also a bit of fun!

This can be set at a specific time so people will be able to return to the open call after playing the games. Will be open to everyone; creators can play too. Great way to get everyone involved and interacting. Winner can maybe receive a custom illustration or some kind of artwork.

Can be via PowerPoint or made online to record everyone’s answers in real-time.

Marketing Plan

Instagram to promote arcade event

Twitter

Name and Logo – Survey to decide final studio name

Email available for students to send in development work/progress/finished images so I can post on social media (organise specific days to do this)

To advertise event –

Instagram

Twitter

Digital Posters - due to Coronavirus Pandemic we will be unable to promote the event physically (using posters) therefore digital posters/advertising will be necessary.

FRIDAY 16TH APRIL: QUESTIONS ANSWERED -

Friday 28th May is a suitable day for the Arcade Event - planning to take place during Midday.

How many approx will be attending/open to the public? - Up to me, open to the public or on a closed invite link? - I decided an open/public will be better and more exciting. This allows for loved ones to attend if they wish but can also get others involved too.

NEXT STEPS -

Create structure for Event.

PLAN

I have orchestrated this Plan based off the information provided by James and ideas of my own.

JAMES VIA SLACK CALL WITH TEAM

James is happy with the structure of the event and think it will be a great way to get everyone involved. Next steps are to get the studio name and logo in place.

NEXT STEPS -

Studio Name and Logo

NAME GENERATION

I began by brainstorming words related to Games at Winchester School of art and being a small independent studio.

I also linked our class with words such as Soulful, dynamic and diverging to present our 'take-over' and how we are different from the rest - Essentially making our studio unique from the rest.

CHOOSING A FAVOURITE

I have narrowed it down to my five favourite studio name ideas:

WHY?

Soulful Productions - Soulful is to represent that we put extreme thought and detail into our work. Making games is our passion and I feel as though this presents that in a simpler and more meaningful way. The work we produce is full of passion and emotion.

Dynamic Arts - Spirited, lively and full of new ideas.

Diverging Arts - Differ from any other general game studio, we are unique and different from the rest. Playing on the fact that we are better and one of a kind.

Windie Games - Play on words and a combination of Winchester Indie Games. Windie is a short and catchy way of combining the two which identifies our purpose well.

WSA Collective - Winchester School of Art as a collective - we come together and produce games. Representation of the unity between us.

NEXT STEPS -

I will take the name generation to Slack and ask the class to vote/react to their favourite one! This is better than choosing it myself because I may have a biased opinion and they too should be involved in the name generation of our studio.

SURVEY RESULTS

14 votes for Windie Games.

4 votes for Soulful Productions.

Windie Games is officially our new studio name!

NEXT STEPS

Using "Windie Games" I will rename the new Instagram account and Twitter accordingly. As well as this I will begin sketching logo concepts.

MOOD-BOARD - SIMILAR STUDIO GAME LOGOS

In this mood-board I have gathered a selection of independent game studio logos as inspiration, to take ideas from them and generate one of my own. The colours used are often warm tones and rarely use more than one shade. To keep it professional I will have a similar approach and use both pictorial images and wordmarks to form a final logo.

I have researched into Logo Design which you can find documented in my blog section found here: Logo Design. In this blog I establish how to create an effective logo, taking into consideration making the logo memorable, recognisable and most importantly to convey a message or suggest something about the brand/product/service.

I will be referring to this research to influence my logo design process and taking into consideration the aforementioned.

PROCESS

I began by sketching icons that came to mind after thinking of the name 'Windie' and based my logo creation off this. I associated the word with wind and the feeling of being free - this can be linked to having artistic freedom and we encourage this always! I gathered some simple icons from google images such as linear clouds and simple strokes of wind.

TYPEFACE

I gathered a range of different typefaces options to find one suitable for the Windie Games logo and made a few comments as I went through.

The fonts that caught my attention were the softer and less harsh ones. These appeared much nicer to the eye and in my opinion represents comfort and a sense of calm. This is a great way to represent our independent studio as we are small and unanimous.

COMBINING

I chose the pictorial images which I thought displayed Windie Games the best. The cloud is a simple yet effective way to represent our studio as "Clouds produce rain that brings benefits to the world". This is a fun and playful message that could represent Windie Games as a studio that provides games for people to benefit them. (As well as being fun and entertaining) I also based my choice off which one was the most memorabe.

COMPOSITION

Working with composition in order to discover the most appropriate way to display our game name and image. The fonts I have chosen are more playful than serious and sophisticated.

FINAL CONCEPTS

EVALUATION

I have tested these different logos by using a range of colours, compositions and typefaces to establish which one works best for Anima Mundi. Within a few designs I have used a lightning bolt to represent the 'W' in Windie which represents the location in which we are based in, Winchester. I liked the combination of the light blue and grey and the khaki and blue however I still didn't feel as though they worked the best for our studio. I like the appearance and creativity of the logos with the lightning bolts and think this would be a fun and playful way to present our game studio. In terms of being the most memorable, I think the purple logo stands out the most and is easily recognisable due to the contrasting colours and lightning icon.

In terms of composition I prefer when the studio name is below the clouds, to represent unity and the studio as a whole, rather than being pushed to the side.

I will be asking a few classmates for their logo preference between the following 4, and make a decision based on this.

VOTES

1. //

2. ///

3. /

4.////

OUTCOME

Our final logo!

NEXT STEPS - SETTING UP THE INSTAGRAM

I have previously created the Instagram page however I am now required to begin posting and use the new logo to promote our studio.

MAY 13TH -

OUR FIRST POST!

Using my marketing research (can be found in my blogs section) and what I have learned while running the Anima Mundi Instagram account, I can apply my knowledge to successfully promote and advertise our game studio and arcade event.

In order to do so I must make myself accessible for classmates to send their work to me with other relevant information, for me to post via our Instagram page.

PROCESS AND STRATEGY

I have used the relevant hashtags similar to my process for Anima Mundi and have tagged the accounts associated to ours. This includes the main 'Gamesdesignart' page, and the other teams instagram pages to showcase their own development. My strategy is to post everyday and approximately a week before the event, to begin posting invitations and posters containing the necessary information for this.

PROCESS AND STRATEGY

I have also followed all of the accounts associated to WSA, our course and individual developers. This way we can create a base foundation for our audience and overtime encourage members of the public to follow too!

MAY 13TH -

TWITTER, INSTAGRAM & COLLECTING WORK

We now have a Twitter page too! I am aware that Twitter is a more sophisticated application and the strategy will be different. However, as a user myself I am aware of the kind of things people are interested in and will continue to update our audience regularly. I have begun by following other small indie studios, developers and bigger companies to ensure we are 'suggested' to potential consumers with the same interests.

Our Twitter Handle is @GamesWindie and i have already begun posting the names of the games in development as well as images to give followers insight into the kind of games we are working on.

I have been using the hashtags #gamedev and #games which has increased the number of insights and engagement.

PLAN

I plan to post updates of development regularly and promotional material for the event around a week before it takes place. This is to prepare potential guests for the arcade and to organise themselves beforehand.

NEXT STEPS

Next I need to make our year group aware that I am available to send work to (via my email) during the weekend, and using this I can create our first few Instagram posts.

I plan to announce this to the class during our Friday lecture.

STRATEGY

I have informed our year group with my plan for marketing and provided them with our social media handles in order for them to follow and support! I have also provided them with my email where they will be able to send me the files they'd like posted on our accounts. James has also questioned me for promotional material which is currently underway and will be posted soon!

COLLECTING WORK

Students have sent me their work via Slack and email and I plan to have this posted today.

PROCESS

I have successfully posted the following images on our Instagram to provide followers with information into the games we are developing. I have made sure to use game related hashtags and tag the individual team accounts/developers too.

ENCOURAGING INTERACTION

Interacting with our followers is extremely important to keep active and to maintain a relationship with our audience. This forms trust and followers are more likely to stick around for a long time. For this post I have asked our audience to comment their favourite concept idea which encourages them to interact with our posts and boost our engagement.

MAY 14TH - Continuing with posts

Using my same strategy and marketing plan, I will continue to post on all social media accounts up until the online arcade event. This will include promotional posters, invitations and a sign-up link.

FRIDAY 14TH MAY: SLACK MEETING WITH JAMES - OUR LAST CALL!

Discussion based on project 'Post-mortems' and sharing the arcade plan with the class.

DISCUSSION

I presented my online arcade/schedule to inform the class with what is required of them, giving them time to prepare for this and gather all the necessary resources needed.

I outlined the main structure and questioned whether or not they think a Quiz would be something they'd get involved in. As well as this, the class had suggestions and comments about the structure which I covered during the discussion.

NOTES FROM MEETING:

Phil has suggested having a team 'testing' call to ensure the set-up works before our live event - this would involve running trailers, ensuring audio works, making sure links work and everything runs smoothly.
The class were eager to complete a quiz therefore I'll create this and post it towards the end of the event.
James raised his concern of giving guests too much to fill in - may be a good idea to do either just the quiz or to provide them with survey forms. The most exciting option is to provide guests with a quiz for a chance to win a prize!
Next steps to create promotional material for this event, organise a sign-up and 'rehearsal' meeting to ensure everything runs smoothly.

EVALUATION/NEXT STEPS

I will take these suggestions ahead to refine a finalised plan for the event. Using this we can organise our 'rehearsal' call to take place on the 27th May - the day before the arcade. For now I will be creating the promotional material and quiz for the arcade event.

The promotional material/posters will be shared via Slack (sent to all relevant channels), Twitter and Instagram. I will also create invites for the event which the class can forward to friends and family to gather guests for our event.

MONDAY 17TH MAY

Refining the structure for the event!

Using this schedule we can organise ourselves accordingly, and I can inform the class on the structure of the arcade to make them more comfortable beforehand and also to ensure they prepare for talks/presentations too!

PLAN

INTRO - James to open event

EMILIA - To explain the structure of the afternoon.

LEADER TALKS - To present development of their game

TRAILERS - To present all 4 trailers to guests

STREAMS/SHARE - Games streamed in teams, guests can watch, links also shared so guests can play

QUIZ - Quiz link sent via Teams meeting and guests can answer after gameplay

As our deadline approaches, I will send the refined arcade structure to the class via Slack a few days before the event, to allow them time to prepare.

WEDNESDAY 19TH

PROMOTIONAL MATERIAL

Today I will focus on creating the promotional material for Windie Games including posters and invitations. Additionally, I must begin to think about how the teams call will work as well as sign ups for members of the public and other guests.

PROMOTIONAL POSTER

PROCESS

To create the poster for our arcade event I have used Photoshop to combine assets and screenshots taken from each of the 4 games in development! I have presented them this way to give viewers an indication as to what to expect from Windie Games.

Furthermore, I have incorporated the use of lighting to connect the games together and almost 'reveal' parts of them. The lightning links to the lightning in our logo and therefore reflects a part of us.

"The bolt of lightning is a traditional symbol of sudden illumination."

FINAL POSTER

I have attached the relevant information to the final poster to inform people about our arcade with the date, time and location of it taking place. The poster also consists of our logo which corresponds to our profile pictures on all social media channels. This way people can recognise us as a studio.

I may have to adapt this poster by attaching an appropriate 'sign-up link' later on.

INVITATION

I have also produced an Invitation which our year can send to friends and family to ensure we gather a suitable audience for our event. This invite will also be shared amongst our Instagram and Twitter pages. (Including @gamesdesignart instagram and general Slack channels)

Similar to the poster I will attach a 'sign-up' or Team meeting link for guests and share this once we have organised a suitable way to do this.

WEDNESDAY 19TH /THURSDAY 20TH

SHARING POSTER/INVITES

Over the next few days I will focus on sharing our poster to promote our arcade event and sending out invitations to gather an audience.

SHARED VIA

SLACK - #Instagames #Gamesdesgeneral #gamesdesigngeneral - y2

INSTAGRAM -

@WindieGames and @GameAnimaMundi

TWITTER - @GamesWindie

NEXT STEPS

I must discuss and organise with James and Adam a way to provide guests with a link to either join a Team call/meeting or a sign-up sheet where I will have to email those that signed up the link around 30mins to an hour before the main event.

HOW WILL WE SHARE THE LINK?

Suggestions via Slack

Mailing list
Sign-up sheet
Create a sign-up form via Microsoft Forms (Office 365), email those that signed up the link
Create a team in Outlook to generate a link and share with guests

To make signing up and joining the call less chaotic and as simple as possible I have established that the best way to organise the event is providing people with a sign-up sheet where I can email them a link to the Teams call on the day.

SIGN-UP SHEET

I have produced a sign-up sheet for guests to ensure they have access to the teams call and will attach this to the poster/invite as well as sharing this via Instagram and Twitter.

This way I will take names and emails from guests and provide them access to the event. I have made sure to inform guests that their personal details will be discarded once not in use.

MAY 22ND

I've attached and sent out the final promotional material for the event and put the sign-up form in the biography of our Instagram account.

LAST TASK - MAY 22ND

For today I will create the Quiz which guests will be able to fill out at the end of the event and have the chance to win a piece of art of their choice!

REQUIREMENTS

Multiple choice questions based on the 4 game projects produced this Semester.
Contact Team Leaders to provide me with this information.
Create the quiz (6-8 questions, not too long)
Share quiz via team call during event

I have contacted the Team Leaders to provide me with this information and they responded conveniently fast!

QUIZ

I will be using quiz-maker.com to create the quiz as I have used this website before and it's trustworthy. I will use the information provided by Team Leaders to organise the questions and enable guests to receive their score once completed.

QUIZ LINK

http://www.quiz-maker.com/QTQ5DEWY8

MONDAY 24TH MAY

James has informed the class of a rehearsal/event run through which will take place via Teams on Thursday 27th May. This will be to ensure audio works, trailers run smoothly and everyone is prepared beforehand.

I have provided our class with the refined structure and indicated what needs to be done in preparation for both Thursday and Friday.

The links are in place and the invitations have been sent out! We are prepared for the arcade event and I am excited to play the other teams games!

I need to write up a speech in order to open the event with James and explain the structure of the afternoon with our guests. Other than this, I have completed marketing for both Anima Mundi and Windie Games however, will continue to promote the event and our games until the 28th.

OPENING SPEECH

(Co-host)

Firstly, I’d like to say thank you for coming to our event online this year, despite covid conditions we hope to entertain and interest you with our semester 2 development projects.

This semester we have been working in 4 teams to develop a slice of a game, designed during our previous module.

The schedule for today will be as followed:

We will begin with presentations, where each project leader will demonstrate their team’s development process including concept designs, 3D models and final outcomes.

This will then be followed by the original game trailers, put together by the original designers of these games.

We will be providing you with links, where you’ll be able to download and play our games via Itch.

If you are unable to do this, you can stay in the call and watch someone stream the games from their computer.

Once you have played all four games, you can answer the Quiz questions using the link provided in Teams to enter for the chance to win a piece of commissioned art! So, make sure you pay attention throughout!

We hope you enjoy and have a lovely Friday Afternoon!

We will begin with Game Misho: The Forest of Dreams.

REFLECTION/EVALUATION

I will continue to update and post on both our Instagram and Twitter accounts until our event takes place. Overall, I have successfully promoted and advertised our game studio and team development work by taking advantage of social media! I have gathered a good following on Instagram and from this have collected a few more sign-ups for our event on Friday! My research into marketing provided me with a better understanding of how to promote a game studio and work online, I can now apply this to future projects and be of assistance if needed.

WHAT HAVE I DONE WELL?

Using my research I have used the features of social media to reach an audience in a short period of time and gather an audience of people for our arcade event. I successfully produced a range of promotional material including invitations with a sign-up link to enable members of the public, friends and family to join our online arcade. Despite the situation with Covid I have managed to organise an event which will be just as exciting and hopefully others enjoy too! I scheduled myself to complete marketing on time by working this into my time management for Anima Mundi too! I produced the work needed by the required time frame and left myself enough time to promote the main event exactly a week before it takes place.

WHAT HAVE I LEARNED? IMPROVEMENTS FOR NEXT TIME:

I have learned how to successfully run a range of social media channels at once by using the features of these applications to benefit the process. I have understood the effectiveness of interacting with your audience, to build relationships and create a trust between you (the brand/business) and the consumer.

Next time I will focus on creating a range of different promotional material. As our event takes place online this year, the most I could produce was digital posters however, next time I'd love to consider potential material to hand out during the event such as an arcade structure pamphlet or even material related to the games themselves. An idea I had for Anima Mundi was to hand out small bookmarks for guests in the shape of the Shaman's Staff, which if you have played the game will know this is how the player makes use of their special abilities.

I will continue to promote the event and post on our social media channels but to summarise the project I am happy with my progress and will definitely apply what I have learned to future projects!