Let's get the word out

[DiogenesDog]

So, as I'm sure you've all noticed, Alt isn't getting much attention from mainstream gaming media. This is BS, so let's fix it. They can ignore official Nimbly marketing, but I think if we get enough people emailing sites about this, they'll have to take notice.

So - let's make some noise and send an email to each of these places, telling them that Altitude is awesome and they need to post some news about it:


http://kotaku.com/ (tips@kotaku.com)
Rock paper shotgun: They already gave coverage wooooo. Please don't bother them.
http://www.destructoid.com/ (tips@destructoid.com)


These sites were all chosen because they represent what I think is a good midline for gaming media - they're not big professional sites like Gamespot that don't give a **** about indie games, but they're not niche sites like tigsource or the indiegamer blog with tiny audiences. They're small enough to maybe care about Altitude but big enough to maybe actually matter.

If you want this game to grow, please take ten minutes and send a quick email to these guys letting them know it exists. Just a quick, polite "Hey this game is awesome, you should post about it", no marketing bull****.

sound good? STRIKE FORCE ATTACK

[Kuja900]

Perhaps you can write us a scripted email for each of us to send that sounds good, for the lazier people out there ^_^. This would allow people to literally do this in 5 sec and I think youl get more results .

Edit: Its what the starcraft community tried to do with wcg usa we all just spammed them a scripted mail that was like 2 paragraphs long. We had some success to (we were trying to fix the retarded system they had).

[Pillars]

Originally Posted by Kuja900

Perhaps you can write us a scripted email for each of us to send that sounds good, for the lazier men out there ^_^. This would allow people to literally do this in 5 sec and I think youl get more results .

Edit: Its what the starcraft community tried to do with wcg usa we all just spammed them a scripted mail that was like 2 paragraphs long. We had some success to (we were trying to fix the retarded system they had).

We'd probably get better results if everyone writes something unique. What you write doesn't have to be a masterpiece, and it doesn't have to be long. Also, whatever you come up with can just be copy/pasted to all three sites Dio listed.

[DiogenesDog]

and on top of that, it doesn't have to be particularly intelligent or compelling even. volume is the important thing. if 50% of the emails are this:


subject: dude altitutde roxxx

omg guys check out altitude the game it's ****ing rad gogogogogoogogog DO IT



...that's still useful. literally one sentence is all that's necessary if enough of you guys (and lurkers!) care enough to take 2-3 minutes for this.

[Ajplagge]

Lam and Karl, despite their apparent negitive feelings towards social networking sites, should create a link and blurb for altitude on digg/stumbleupon/facebook... for people to vote up/friend. I've seen other small games catch on that way and its free and easy.

[lamster]

Gogogo! Every email makes a difference -- even if they don't post about Altitude directly it builds subconscious name recognition.

lol I got so many of my friends playing this game

This is our #1 key to growth, thanks! Harass everyone you know until they at least try a round of Altitude

Lam and Karl, despite their apparent negitive feelings towards social networking sites

Despite our antisocial tendencies we are not in fact anti social networking sites! If anyone has seen an example of effective game promotion via facebook (e.g. game profile apps, share links, etc) please link them so I can steal their ideas for Altitude.
We're planning a coordinated digg/reddit/stumbleupon campaign eventually; in the meantime our facebook page can always use more fans:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Altitude/53760421068

[run2home93]

Originally Posted by lamster

This is our #1 key to growth, thanks! Harass everyone you know until they at least try a round of Altitude

LOL you have NO idea how much I harass. It's hard to get them started, but once they do... they haven't stopped

[as red as black]

I wrote a marketing letter if anyone wants to use it. I'm sending emails like this and "DUDE CHECK THIS OUT" emails as well.

----------------------------------------

To whom it may concern:

Altitude, a 2D flying game made by Nimbly Games, deserves your attention as it is one of the best online indie games I have played in quite some time. Altitude's simplicity in gameplay and creation is ridiculously addicting and stimulates players to get involved in its creation, as it is still in its budding stages. The exposure provided by your website could help Altitude garner a much larger gaming audience and would be much appreciated by the hundreds of dedicated independent game-lovers already playing and contributing on Altitude's servers.

Altitude's gameplay is simple. There are Team Base Destruction and Free-For All maps: simple. There are 5 unlockable planes each with a handful of unlockable perks: simple. Players fly around either working as teams to destroy bases or dogfighting to the death: simple. Many different items spur player creativity: simple. All of this simplicity adds up to a game which is easy to quickly pick up and play, crucial, sometimes overlooked, aspects of indie games. The simplicity combined with the nuances of many different planes, perks, and maps fuels addictiveness and encourages players to spend time mastering planes and strategy, taking the simple core of Altitude's gameplay to insanely complex levels.

The most amazing aspect of Altitude is how involved it allows players to be in its creation and gameplay. Players can create and upload their own unique maps on servers which they can upload as well. Creators are easily accessed on its player forum and actually care about and respond to players' comments and requests. Just organized was a team tournament, completely organized by private contributions on the forum.

This game has much potential and any exposure provided by your website would be greatly appreciated. Please check it out and play a free demo at altitudegame.com.

[DiogenesDog]

I think if everyone sends that letter then it's going to look like one guy just spamming from multiple accounts. I really think it's best if people keep it short and sincere for the most part.

[as red as black]

Originally Posted by run2home93

Awwwww it looked like he put a fair amount of time into that
lol

like 5-10 minutes. nothing too bad. I've got nothing better to do.

[Valarauka]

So yeah, RPS picked it up: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2009...altitude-demo/

[Triped]

Haha, nice intro.

[pig_bomb]

"teeny levels and little more to it than flying in tight loops and throwing ammo everywhere."

as if he said that. just cause you suck dude....

[uberknarf]

E-mails sent. I really think you guys deserve the attention.

[Edit: should check wiki before posting... Jayis Games already reviewed]

[Karl]

jayisgames already reviewed us:
http://jayisgames.com/archives/2009/06/altitude.php

this is why the wiki needs to be updated:
http://wiki.altitudegame.com/wiki/index.php?title=Press

[Karl]

oops i guess jayisgames is in the wiki. gj whoever put it there im guessing it was maimer .

anyways also check the wiki before you spam people that have already reviewed us.

[eth]

Originally Posted by Valarauka

So yeah, RPS picked it up: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2009...altitude-demo/

I'm in both those screenshots, yay! Commented/rated/reviewed/emailed :P

[DiogenesDog]

btw, you really should add a quote from jayisgames at least (and either of the other reviews if you can find a good one) to the quote cloud on the main page. cycling between just two quotes makes you guys look more desperate than you are. also, you might want to try to get fargo to say something nice, hopefully he'll be guilt ridden from fleeing to blizzard and will at least be willing to write a sentence or two. (or maybe he already said something you can pull out of an email, I dunno.)

also: fix my ****ing name already, jesus. I know erasing and retyping a 5 letter word is pretty demanding when you only have two full time employees, but I really think you guys have the technical know how and commitment to the community to pull it off!

[uberknarf]

Originally Posted by Karl

oops i guess jayisgames is in the wiki. gj whoever put it there im guessing it was maimer .

anyways also check the wiki before you spam people that have already reviewed us.

Apologies; I should have checked there first.

[Karl]

Originally Posted by DiogenesDog

btw, you really should add a quote from jayisgames at least (and either of the other reviews if you can find a good one) to the quote cloud on the main page. cycling between just two quotes makes you guys look more desperate than you are. also, you might want to try to get fargo to say something nice, hopefully he'll be guilt ridden from fleeing to blizzard and will at least be willing to write a sentence or two. (or maybe he already said something you can pull out of an email, I dunno.)

also: fix my ****ing name already, jesus. I know erasing and retyping a 5 letter word is pretty demanding when you only have two full time employees, but I really think you guys have the technical know how and commitment to the community to pull it off!

yea i know, just all this little stuff is on the back burner. ill get to it.

[omnicron245]

ALL of da kids at mah elementary school r saying, when i show dem da game, that it is a WORTHLESS PIECE OF C**P. OBVIOULSY i dont believe them.

[lamster]

Is there anything in particular your friends at school don't like about Altitude? Specific graphics, music, sound effects, map design, theme? Have you convinced any of them to try the game? Of those that tried, were they frustrated by the controls, game modes, or something else?

Information about prospective players' reactions to Altitude is very useful to us -- sometimes a simple tweak can make the game more inviting to new players.

[Beagle]

Originally Posted by lamster

Is there anything in particular your friends at school don't like about Altitude? Specific graphics, music, sound effects, map design, theme? Have you convinced any of them to try the game? Of those that tried, were they frustrated by the controls, game modes, or something else?

Information about prospective players' reactions to Altitude is very useful to us -- sometimes a simple tweak can make the game more inviting to new players.

They're probably upset about the lack of regenerating shields, chest-high walls, and death streaks.

Okay, that was half sarcasm, but honestly this game won't come across well to kids who have been brought up on CoD4 and Halo 3 and what have you. Now those are great games, and I love them, but what I'm trying to say is they tend to be very shallow and expect top notch graphics and genre-based gameplay; without that its a 'bad game'.

So, it might be a little hard to market to them. Just my thoughts.

Maybe add in things with a visceral cool factor. I've always liked the idea of there being a Jet introduced into the game - I mean, we've got an Alien ship, so why not? Bring in an F-15 or something. Maybe add some more personality to the kills too - add in more of your RAMPAGES and your MONSTER KILLS and all that crap, though you don't have to have them in audio, text would be fine.
Maybe a revamp of FFA would be good too? I don't know how you'd do it right off the top of my head, but making it a popular choice that people would enjoy would bring it to the forefront more, and I think new players/younger players could really enjoy that fast paced action. Hell, I myself love FFA, but I know 9/10 people for some reason can't stand it and will vote it back to TBD the second it changes over. Maybe canvas opinion on whats wrong with FFA and make it more appealing so it can be an actual game mode again - Although, if its just crap like 'because its too chaotic' or 'because my ratio goes down when I play it' then I guess the mode itself just doesn't work for the kind of people who play this game.

[Evan20000]

Honestly, what I think makes Alty so good is it's bold leap away from the norm. Granted, this approach wont appeal to everyone, but I'm sure there are plenty more players out there who are suck of grey and brown FPSes who'd like to try something new.

[hurripilot]

Originally Posted by Beagle

Bring in an F-15 or something.

I vote Tomcat

I kinda agree w/ sin on this one. I've never been a big fan of graphics, heavy FPSs and whatnot. I wouldn;t change a thing about the graphics or GUI (other than add a Tomcat ). I mean, most of the kids who play Halo and CoD wouldn't be interested in the kind of game Altitude is. This is more of a game that appeals to people who are looking for an alternative to Halo and CoD, and FPSs in general, not their biggest fans.

I fly flight sims and I know of a couple of people on Alty who do/did as well. It might be worth it to advertise the game on some sim forums, like Il-2 and Warbirds.

[Carbon]

the most common complaint I've heard from people I tried to get playing this game is "It's too hard, I'm no good at it"

People don't seem to like games with steep learning curves, especially when half of the people that play range from good to pro and new players are struggling to not slam into walls. One person in my college class last year started to play it a bit but stopped after a month because he died twice as much as he killed.

There is a lot to learn, and since Altitude has so many "1 shot kills" it can be frustrating for new players because they don't really see how they could have avoided that death or don't even know what killed them. Piloting is difficult in this game, especially with EMP and explodets around.

All I can say is that Altitude is definately not for everyone and it isn't very noob friendly. I was lucky that I joined in the beta and most of the people playing weren't very good, or maybe I was just better than I thought, but it honestly took me months to be able to fly around and not randomly slam into walls while also shooting at the enemy team.

[wolf'j'max]

I sended an email to kotaku and that other link balso send it to myself so i can copy/paste it for you guys. I readed it after i sended it and there are like 3 typo's but yeh.... Ipods.....

[omnicron245]

Originally Posted by Beagle

Okay, that was half sarcasm, but honestly this game won't come across well to kids who have been brought up on CoD4 and Halo 3 and what have you. Now those are great games, and I love them, but what I'm trying to say is they tend to be very shallow and expect top notch graphics and genre-based gameplay; without that its a 'bad game'.

So, it might be a little hard to market to them. Just my thoughts.

they've pretty much been rasied by these games

[Beagle]

Originally Posted by Evan20000

Honestly, what I think makes Alty so good is it's bold leap away from the norm. Granted, this approach wont appeal to everyone, but I'm sure there are plenty more players out there who are suck of grey and brown FPSes who'd like to try something new.

Originally Posted by hurripilot

I kinda agree w/ sin on this one. I've never been a big fan of graphics, heavy FPSs and whatnot. I wouldn;t change a thing about the graphics or GUI (other than add a Tomcat ). I mean, most of the kids who play Halo and CoD wouldn't be interested in the kind of game Altitude is. This is more of a game that appeals to people who are looking for an alternative to Halo and CoD, and FPSs in general, not their biggest fans.

Okay, maybe it wasn't clear, but thats what I meant. I wasn't saying we should make Altitude into Gears of Alty 2: Electric Boogaloo. The point I was trying to make to lam is it might be hard to expressly market this game towards people who are used to that kind of thing - i.e., what you're telling me

Originally Posted by omnicron245

they've pretty much been rasied by these games

Bad news: THEY is YOU

[Evan20000]

Ah ok, I thought you meant something completely different. :P

Also, this thread hasn't had any lulzy tags yet? O_o

[omnicron245]

i may be an idiot for saying this, but, are you referring to me? AND if it WAS me, i was referring to COD and Halo.

[Rechtschaffen]

I teach 16-18 year olds. I tell my nerdier students who do Computing/ICT about the game. A few of them play as demos.

Hopefully some of 'em will eventually buy it... if they get drunk enough and forget they have to save up for University.

[AlterMX]

Originally Posted by Rechtschaffen

I teach 16-18 year olds. I tell my nerdier students who do Computing/ICT about the game. A few of them play as demos.

Hopefully some of 'em will eventually buy it... if they get drunk enough and forget they have to save up for University.

Recht,

My heart bleeds for you - I once had to teach first year uni students for a year so I don't know how you can put up with them in college.

[Rechtschaffen]

Originally Posted by AlterMX

I once had to teach first year uni students for a year so I don't know how you can put up with them in college.

If you simply remember that I'm not you, then it will be much easier to imagine how I (who am not you) can do something that you would not (because you are not me).

It's really not that bad.

[iPlane]

emails sent

[wolf'j'max]

ok guys here's the e-mail i send including typo's ^^:

Hey, i just want to inform you guys about the game altitude. An aerial combat online multiplauer game.
Atm players are organizing season 2 of the altitude proleague. When you search at youtube for 'tyraltitude' you will seebvids called fLb vs ACE @ summer league finals. Those are the vids of the epic finals just to give you a good picture of the game. I also got their website for you with a trailee and a link to the forums for you ^^. I hope you will watch the trailer and the finals of the league. Here's the link: www.altitudegame.com

Altitude player Jasper van de Vorst (dutch ^^) AKA sMuGGy

---------------------------------------------------------------------

good enough?

cheers,
wolf

[NewAltUser]

I am down, but when will I receive my first paycheck (essentially this is a marketing gig-no...?)? A refund of the $20.00 I spent to register would be acceptable too .

Me no work for free.

[iPlane]

Originally Posted by NewAltUser

I am down, but when will I receive my first paycheck (essentially this is a marketing gig-no...?)? A refund of the $20.00 I spent to register would be acceptable too .

Me no work for free.

I think of this more as investing on my $20.00. See, the more people that know about the game the more people that play it. The more people that play it the more people that buy it. The more people that buy it the more time the developers will spend on improving the game and possibly developing a new game. The developers make a new game just as awesome as Altitude and sell it and I have another game to play. So essentially I have spent 5 minutes of my time to spread word of mouth advertising for a game I like in the hopes that all of us who play the game can reap the benefits.

Of course, if you want to create an entire marketing campaign, I'll pay you the $20.00 via paypal, if I like it. I find that to be a steal for the 50-100 hours to create a good one for a local market... Of course then I would own all of the marketing ideas and materials and be free to do with them what I wish.

[NewAltUser]

Originally Posted by iPlane

I think of this more as investing on my $20.00. See, the more people that know about the game the more people that play it. The more people that play it the more people that buy it. The more people that buy it the more time the developers will spend on improving the game and possibly developing a new game. The developers make a new game just as awesome as Altitude and sell it and I have another game to play. So essentially I have spent 5 minutes of my time to spread word of mouth advertising for a game I like in the hopes that all of us who play the game can reap the benefits.

I have a bridge to sell you.



If the developers are not willing to invest their own time into advertising their product: marketing it is not a cost-effective option (it seems that they believe this to be true). Where is the marketing? What have they done?

Go right ahead and work your tail off. Get more people to play, get them to pay $20.00 for the full-version (the obvious questions that no one has asked is "how did Nimbly use my $20.00?".

Ask yourself:
-Did they make more maps? Or were the maps made by users?
-Did they make more features? Or did they change the values of existing elements in the software?
-Did they spend the money to market and grow their product?.........

There is a saying in business "If you (a company) are not growing then you are dying". If Nimbly is content to have basement-dwelling teenagers be responsible for the future of their product then so-be-it. Demo-users beware.

[lamster]

NewAltUser: Our players enjoy the game and would like to help spread the word, both for their own benefit (publicity = more players = more maps, more server niches filled, more patches, etc) and for ours (some of them actually want us to be successful -- thanks guys!). You are free to not participate, but please don't junk up a productive thread with obvious trolling.

Where is the marketing? What have they done?

We've spent a huge amount of time and money promoting the game including hundreds of emails and forum posts, two major overhauls of our website, a facebook application, paid advertising, press release circulation, and game contest submissions. Additional marketing ideas are always appreciated, but we are just two guys, and time spent marketing is time not spent developing the game. That's exactly why player-driven publicity is a great thing: the player base grows and we can continue to focus on improving the game -- everybody wins.

the obvious questions that no one has asked is "how did Nimbly use my $20.00?".

So far everybody's money has been reinvested into the game (art, sound, and continued development) but someday I'd love to pay myself an honest wage and develop a new game. If Altitude is successful maybe we'll do that.

-Did they make more maps? Did they make more features? Did they spend the money to market and grow their product?

The answers are yes, yes, and yes. The community has also contributed a lot of great maps for everybody to enjoy (thanks guys!).

If Nimbly is content to have basement-dwelling teenagers be responsible for the future of their product then so-be-it.

Useless negative trolling - please cut it out. We love and appreciate every user who helps us promote the game. We are committed to improving the game and growing the community, and we will continue to work together with our community towards that common goal.