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Monetize your pre-launch, earn revenue, build community with early game builds
STEAM
Creating a QR code for your Discord community and distributing it both online and in a physical mode, such as through flyers, can be an effective strategy to attract new members and expand your community. By utilizing QR codes, you provide an easy and convenient way for potential members to access and join your community.
Additionally, distributing flyers in physical locations can help reach a wider audience and increase visibility. This multi-faceted approach combines the advantages of digital and offline marketing to maximize your chances of gaining new members and fostering a thriving community.
Even in Augmented Reality (AR) mode campaigns, there are opportunities to participate and win prizes online.
You can get a free key for the game by registering for a short-term campaign, such as a playtest event on Steam. Simply scan the QR code and enter the provided Discord server. Additionally, don't forget to invite others to join and set up a "ticket bot" for easy management.
Streaming in the loop will also give you a hot spot for every campaign you intend to make. Don’t forget about streaming on multiple social platforms at once, even on X.
Create a Mailing List
Here are a few examples of CRM tools that offer pre-built email lists:
Salesforce is a popular CRM platform that allows you to import and manage email lists. You can purchase pre-built email lists from Salesforce or use its data enrichment tools to build your own list.
HubSpot is a CRM platform that includes tools for managing email lists and marketing campaigns. You can purchase pre-built email lists from HubSpot or use its data enrichment tools to build your own list.
Constant Contact is a CRM and email marketing platform that includes tools for managing email lists and creating marketing campaigns.
It's a good idea to verify the accuracy and quality of the data before using it, and to ensure that you are complying with all relevant laws and regulations regarding email marketing, such as the CAN-SPAM Act in the United States.
Create a mailing list on your company site for newsletters. Here are some platforms you can use:
Mixmax
Mailerlite
Hubspot
Revue
Freshworkinc
Convertkit
Blog Post 7
Klaviyo
Substackinc
Mixmax
Convertkit
Aweber
Palabraio
Sendspark
CustomerlO
Flodeskinc
Postmarkapp
Uibreackfast
Activecampaign
Benchmarkemail
Landingiapp
Zohozeptomail
Smartreachio
Trycourier
Mailgun
Mailmunch
and more
For example, BREVO as a CRM tool, help me to collect automatically email addresses, phone numbers etc, from every email you receive, and from every chat you have a conversation on every social. It is allowing you to do a design too, add tags, and not go in spam, authenticate the new domain, using DNS, You can do forms also, email campaigns.
Companies like Newzoo, SuperData, and Statista provide in-depth market research reports and data on the gaming industry, including audience size, player demographics, and regional trends.
These reports can help you understand the popularity of X type games on a global and regional scale.
Platforms like SteamSpy, App Annie, and Sensor Tower offer insights into game performance, player numbers, and download statistics for both PC and mobile games.
While they may not specifically track X games, they can provide valuable data on similar strategies or historical-themed games that may offer insights into audience size.
Tools like Hootsuite, Brandwatch, and Mention can help you monitor social media platforms for discussions, reviews, and mentions related to X type games.
Every great game had to start somewhere. It's a grueling and rewarding process that industry veterans know well, from the long hours to countless iterations. As your game approaches its final form, the fruits of your labor emerge as you launch your gold master to the masses.
But before presenting your finished product to eager players, what if you used the alpha and beta phases to build community, generate revenue, and gain valuable player feedback? In this post, we'll explore how leveraging key developmental milestones can work in your favor and examples of other games that executed these tactics to their benefit.
# BUILDING COMMUNITY DURING PRODUCTION
The average time for a game to stay in production can be anywhere from [**1-4 years**](https://theglobalgaming.com/gaming/how-video-games-are-made), depending on various factors, from the type of game you're creating, if it's a follow-up to an established game, or if it's the first of its kind.
One thing you can be sure of is keeping an existing community interested in your next release or starting to cultivate a new base of players is a long and gradual process. The earlier you can begin fostering loyalty and attracting prospective individuals during earlier development stages, the more fans you'll have a month, a year, or even a decade later.
# Starting Your Community in the Alpha Stage
When a game has reached the alpha level, it's already gone through several production [**phases**](https://theglobalgaming.com/gaming/how-video-games-are-made), including the first playable stage, the vertical slice stage, and the pre-alpha stage. You now have a mostly complete product, ready for a group of QA testers to begin the great bug hunt. While this [**phase**](https://explaingamedev.com/alpha-and-beta/) is a dance between the dev and the quality assurance teams, it also presents an excellent opportunity to gain early fans.
Early fans are your first ambassadors and advocates, often becoming your most loyal followers. They believe in you and will provide everything from staunch vocal support to financing to help bring your vision to life. To ensure these people stay with you and help spread the word, engage with them by showing that their support matters to you and is integral to producing the best game. In the same way that a [**QA team helps**](https://explaingamedev.com/alpha-and-beta/) find issues and reports on the feel and balance of game mechanics, your fans can also offer valuable insights.
Show them your early work and be honest with the difficulties and challenges you're working to overcome. This honesty can help strengthen your relationship with your fans and generate more understanding as you face various hurdles throughout production. The best way to build your community is by showing your game to current players of similar titles to help grow your initial audience exponentially.
# Taking your New Community into the Beta Stage
As you progress down the production pipeline, moving from alpha to beta, your team focuses on optimization. In beta you have a fully complete game. Most, if not all, bugs have been fixed, and any lingering placeholders are built out. This is exclusively a [**testing**](https://theglobalgaming.com/gaming/how-video-games-are-made) phase. The dev team's goal is not to add but to [**lock up**](https://explaingamedev.com/alpha-and-beta/) all features.
The community you started to grow during the alpha build is also ready to graduate to this new production phase. Your efforts will largely be the same as before, only now your focus will broaden as you begin outreach to bring in new, potentially less loyal, players.
At this point, the number one marketing tip is to [**pitch your game to influencers**](https://xsolla.com/blog/publishing-suite/1966/how-to-distribute-game-keys-among-video-influencers-2).
Not only do they have ready-made audiences for advertising, but targeting the right players for your genre is much easier. For example, if you have an action-platformer game, you can find influencers who mostly play and talk about these titles, share your game with them, and ask if they're open to trying out the beta on a live stream or creating a video.
It's important to remember that you'll get more negative feedback during the beta stage of community expansion. If you had 100 people in alpha and 10% of them didn't like the game, that's no big deal. However, 10% of 1,000 people can suddenly matter. Dealing with growing negativity can quickly get you down, but you'll stay ahead of the curve if you address issues publicly and promptly.
Remember, this tactic already has some real-world success stories. In 2013, [**Valve released its Early Access program**](https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/7-successful-early-access-games-that-all-developers-should-study), which led to some pivotal games gaining traction and being fine-tuned to perfection.
# GENERATING REVENUE DURING PRODUCTION
Developing a video game is expensive, and while most budgeting concerns are addressed well before reaching the production phase, being able to generate revenue can be the difference between launching a final product or shelving all your hard work for a later date. This is the time to trust and use early adopters to help finance your creation into reality. While the prospect of charging for an incomplete game may seem like you're selling a buggy product to the public, it's not. But it does take a level of strategy and care to get what you need out of the situation while still providing value to your base.
# Using a Crowdfunding Campaign
Crowdfunding can be an excellent resource for developers to generate revenue while in production. But just like shoes, crowdfunding is not a one-size-fits-all solution. Researching the pros and cons of whether or not this path works best for you is a must. [**StartUps.com**](https://www.startups.com/library/expert-advice/crowdfunding-pros-cons) has a comprehensive list to help determine this, covering topics like centralized communication, retaining equity, market testing, and more.
If you decide that a crowdfunding campaign is right for you, your next step is to choose a platform. The number of platforms available for crowdfunding has expanded over the years, giving developers more choices. From Kickstarter to Indiegogo, all the way to more independently geared platforms like GoFundMe and Patreon, you want to be aware of several [**factors**](https://fastercapital.com/content/The-pros-and-cons-of-different-crowdfunding-platforms.html):
- Audience Size Consider the number of people a potential crowdfunding platform can reach. More people = more eyes on your campaign.
- Fee Structure Knowing what fees are associated with the platform, if any, can affect the amount of money you receive at the end of your campaign.
- Funding Model Each platform has its own structure and rules on campaign length, money collection, and how they vet campaigners.
- International Reach Not all platforms are available on a global scale. If you are targeting a specific region, ensure the platform you choose services in that area.
Enticing your budding community to participate in your campaign can be done in various ways. Developers sometimes incentivize certain reward tiers with alpha or beta access. This works best when a developer can promise a release date, which can be risky given the likelihood of delays. If you're not confident about a given release date, you may want to wait to use this strategy until you're further into the campaign and promise this as a stretch goal. Keeping your promises is a must if you want to build loyalty.
Early alpha or beta access is often set as a reward for backing high-level tiers. German developer KING Art [**provided access**](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kingartgames/iron-harvest/description) to all alpha versions and a closed beta of its RTS game Iron Harvest to those who pledged $55 or more.
These users got to try the game early on and see how it changed throughout the development cycle. They could also access the alpha by pre-ordering from the developer's website. The campaign was a major success, doubling its $450,000 goal, earning nearly $1.3 million. This meant the game earned its share of testers.
From 16,607 backers, some 11,000 users got access to the alpha and beta, with 4,500 more having only closed beta access. Backers [**got alpha access**](https://kingart-games.com/article/46-iron-harvest-devblog-4-august-2018) as promised on August 2019, several months after the campaign finished. The beta version took another nine months to complete, launching in April 2020.
# Releasing Production Builds via Early Access and Pre-Orders
Since Valve launched the Early Access program on Steam in 2013, the trend of developers providing access to games that still need to be fully finished is rising. A shift has also occurred in the gaming landscape, where early adopters understand that purchasing titles before reaching the gold master stage means everything won't be completely polished.
This symbiotic relationship has made gambling on early access a tactic that often works out in your favor.
Hades creative director [**Greg Kasavin**](https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/developers-tell-us-why-early-access-games-are-better-than-ever) acknowledges this relationship, stating, "Now there are more early access games that learn from each other, and focus on both regularity of their update cycle and the communication back to their communities.
I think it's made more players more comfortable that participating in early access can be a positive experience, that they're not just testing a game for free."
Taking the early access route poses the challenge of effective communication. Clarifying the distinction between alpha and beta states is crucial. Specify your game's current build to avoid misunderstandings that could harm your reputation because players expected beta-quality gameplay but received a buggy alpha build instead.
Another option for generating revenue is via pre-order sales. It is worth noting that some platforms do not allow this option. However, if you can, selling pre-orders, founder's packs, and other digital goods is a powerful way to entice players to pick up your in-dev game straight from your own website.
THE POWER OF FEEDBACK AND POTENTIAL PITFALLS TO AVOID
One of the most significant advantages to pre-launching a game, in addition to community building and generating revenue, is receiving raw data in the form of player feedback. Real-world insight from a diverse group can help developers make strategic decisions on the best ways to improve their games. Benefits to trusting your new community include:
Leveraging a collective's power to resolve previously missed bugs or issues
Creating an engaging game by refining gameplay mechanics
Understanding what players want by expanding content and features
Additionally, common pitfalls to avoid while pre-launching a build include:
Don't promise more than what is possible. Stay transparent and avoid broken promises that can damage your relationship with players.
Don't get lost in the weeds! Maintain a balance between reacting to feedback and keeping sight of your game's vision.
Don't lose sight of your vision. Overprioritizing player feedback and disrupting your timeline can strain your team's abilities and add more work than is manageable.
Don't react defensively to criticism. Negative feedback will happen. Avoid reacting aggressively and risk turning away potential players and current fans.
Think about itWorking to brand and monetize your game before you finish it can be intimidating, but it makes all the difference. Early fans can become lifelong customers and brand ambassadors, making them many times more valuable in the long run than launch buyers.
With the right timing and a little effort, you can capitalize on your alpha and beta builds to build your community and bring in a little revenue. Just be completely honest with your community as you work to achieve 100% completion.
Partial credit to Xsolla
For events in-person it is recommended to have :
- [ ] Having A LinkedIn profile QR code on the backside of your badge, or phone- [ ] 3 business cards: a] with your photo+ email address, QR for website + LinkedIn QR
b] for the game,a personalized one QR for the page of the game + QR to press kit cover of the game + contact email
c] for influencers QR to newsletter to subscribe, do a personalized form with linking the press kit,or say the fact sheet. and email contact cover of the game. can have a QR to a YouTube link