Backers: Help with viral marketing

Sunless Skies
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As can be seen from the recent Weathering a Storm post above, Sunless Skies isn’t doing as well as hoped, and Failbetter is in a little bit of financial trouble. We can do something to help!

Apparently over 11,000 steam keys for sunless skies have been given out to backers, and there are many still floating around unclaimed.
Sunless Skies also has a dearth of active players at the moment.

These are two problems which can help to cancel each other out

The principles of viral marketing for games are not too hard to grasp, and steam has greatly helped to accelerate the process through features like popups when one of your friends starts a game. The premise is simple: Playtime equals profit. Anyone who is actively playing your game is, at the same time, granting free exposure for you, to their friends and associates. The more time they spend playing a game, the higher the odds that one of their friends will take note and have a look to see what it’s about. I’ve seen this in action many times over the years and personally caused it on many occasions. I got at least three sales for A House of Many Doors just by playing it and talking about it, and it was by the same method that i first got into sunless sea, and learned of FBG’s existence

I’ve asked the marketing folk for keys, and they directed me to the community. There’s lots of keys floating around. So i’m here to ask you lovely folks. If you have steam keys for sunless skies that you don’t plan to use, I can put them to a use.

I have several sociable friends who are interested, and each have wide friend networks of their own to passively market to
And i can actively hold a giveaway to simultaneously promote the game, and get keys into the hands of those who’ll use them and play. I’ve got a mild following on a little social network i frequent. With a little luck i can get exposure to about 2000 people, largely gamers, and sales from it are pretty likely. Steampunk sells!

Results aren’t guaranteed, marketing is as much an art as a science. But at least a few people will play, a few sales from it are probable, and wider exposure is always helpful.

If this sounds like a worthwhile plan and you’re willing to help out, PM me any spare steam keys you’re willing to be rid of. I promise to get them into good hands
edited by Nanako on 2/8/2018
edited by Nanako on 2/8/2018
edited by Nanako on 2/9/2018

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I feel it may be a bit early to get people on board the hype train for the game right now, as even FailBetter admitted they’re in early access too early, so it may be good to wait a few months before revving up a fan-driven publicity campaign. Gameplay right now is… spotty, to say the least. Nowhere near representative of the full game.

But by all means, I think it’s a good idea for us to mobilize and try to help them out! In the mean time, we should get people playing Sunless Seas and Fallen London, if any of us have friends we haven’t introduced it to yet!
edited by Addis Rook on 2/9/2018

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i disagree personally.
They admitted they got into EA too early. Past tense. I was there for the first release and it had a lot more critical bugs than it did now, including a save corrupting issue, and vanishing ports.

Since procgen, trading, and spectacles, the game has gotten a lot better. And imo its now in more than a good enough state to actively recommend and market. There’s enough to see and do, to last quite a long time - ive put more playtime into sunless skies than i ever do most other games, 129 hours to date.
I’m passionate about it and heartily, unreservedly recommend it in its current state
edited by Nanako on 2/9/2018

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[quote=Nanako]
I’ve asked the marketing folk for keys, and they directed me to the community. So i’m here to ask you lovely folks.[/quote]

Alright so I gotta say, as you are easily the most active Sunless Skies community member (both here, over on the steam forums, and in social media)… what you’ve just said seems to entirely sum up the marketing department for this game (does it exist?) - I mean, I’m kinda speechless.

If their marketing department isn’t supporting Nanako during early-access, then who the **** ARE they supporting?

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[quote=Nanako]i disagree personally.
They admitted they got into EA too early. Past tense. I was there for the first release and it had a lot more critical bugs than it did now, including a save corrupting issue, and vanishing ports.

Since procgen, trading, and spectacles, the game has gotten a lot better. And imo its now in more than a good enough state to actively recommend and market. There’s enough to see and do, to last quite a long time - ive put more playtime into sunless skies than i ever do most other games, 129 hours to date.
I’m passionate about it and heartily, unreservedly recommend it in its current state
edited by Nanako on 2/9/2018[/quote]Perhaps, but I think it may be a good idea to work in tandem with FailBetter when they finally decide that the game is in a good enough state to be unleashed upon the big-name youtubers for review. Even though we may like the game as it is now, we’re the hardcore fanbase who have been here since the start. Many less dedicated prospective players may want more polish, and might get the wrong ideas if they see it too soon. First impressions are extremely important.
edited by Addis Rook on 2/9/2018

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[quote=FeralJim][quote=Nanako]
I’ve asked the marketing folk for keys, and they directed me to the community. So i’m here to ask you lovely folks.[/quote]

Alright so I gotta say, as you are easily the most active Sunless Skies community member (both here, over on the steam forums, and in social media)… what you’ve just said seems to entirely sum up the marketing department for this game (does it exist?) - I mean, I’m kinda speechless.

If their marketing department isn’t supporting Nanako during early-access, then who the **** ARE they supporting?[/quote]

I hope its okay to post this. Correspondence was through the support system, and the mention of policy gives it an official tone, so im thinking there won’t be an issue. But please let me know if not, and ill remove it asap

I corresponded with haley briefly around new year, requesting a couple keys to spread around for passive marketing as described above. The response is below

[BFW STRUCK HERE - SEE BELOW :) ]

It was a rather forward request, most companies wouldn’t grant such a thing, so i don’t look badly upon it. There’s nothing at all unreasonable about the response.
In any case, there are apparently 11,000 keys floating around, given to kickstarter backers. I’ve no access to data on how many have been used, but based on the community activity, i’d estimate the majority of them are still sitting in people’s email inboxes, not claimed at all, and going to waste. Hence this thread!
edited by babelfishwars on 2/12/2018

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So am I. I don’t work in the video-games industry, nor do I know anything about marketing from the inside, but… I’d thought a very active, keen and motivating player would receive some support on this matter. That is… weird.

Hope you’ll get your keys, Nanako, your energy about all this is very pleasant to see !

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Hey i got a sale, maybe two!

721×260 111 KB

:cool:
edited by Nanako on 2/10/2018

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[color=#e53e00]Nanako - I’ve removed your screenshot. We have asked you not to post whole tickets before, especially as you include the responder’s name. While you are welcome to quote information from tickets, please do not include names. While our immediate community is wonderful, not all people online are. If someone doesn’t like a particular response, we want them complaining to and about the company, not a specific person. This is particularly important in the wake of events in gaming over the last couple of years; we need to ensure our employees feel safe replying to tickets.

We have a blanket rule as a company not to give out extra keys to fans, even if it is in a kind effort to help us. Part of this has to do with respect for our Kickstarter backers’ support, but also we generally save keys for the press and streamers.

Finally - it’s quite important that we keep the distinction between fan and employee. We really dearly appreciate all the love and enthusiasm - it’s made us much happier at a pretty sad time for us. But if we give keys to fans, there’s a risk we’d be seen as making them official spokespeople. This could cause confusion within our game messaging amongst other fans. And if there was any backlash against our work or policies - we want it to fall on the company, not individuals, and definitely not fans who are trying to help us succeed.[/color]

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[color=#6666ff]Hey folks,[/color]
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[color=#6666ff]Just wanted to pop in and say thank you for the support you’ve shown us. We know our fans are amazing, but when things like this happen and we see the troops rallying, we’re reminded that we have the best gaming community out there. I can’t tell you how much we appreciate your support and your efforts to help us. <3[/color]
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[color=#6666ff]One thing I’d like to address however is this idea that &quotFailbetter is in financial trouble&quot. We tried to be very clear and transparent in our blog post but I think given the nature of the information being relayed, it can be natural to focus on the negative aspects. As a team we’ve all been affected and upset about what has happened, but this decision was made to ensure the financial future of the company before it got into trouble. To quote our blog:[/color]

&quotLate last year we made some hard decisions to ensure a couple of things: that we don’t reach launch in a financial state that would put the studio in danger of closing before we can make another game, and that we continue with a better structure for a business making games of our kind&quot

[color=#6666ff]So I’d like you all to not panic and rest assured that while Skies will be a little late, there’s no danger of it not being delivered. As our name suggests, we learn from every decision we make, good and bad. We will bounce back. We are going nowhere. We will always be here for our awesome community.[/color]
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[color=#6666ff]With regard to marketing and promotion, we’ve got a brilliant team to take care of this, they know their field and will be making their moves when the time is right. For example, see Hannah’s comment about YouTubers and key access here. All is in hand, all shall be well. [/color]
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[color=#6666ff]Thank you once again for your support and patience. [/color]
edited by FailbetterFuzz on 2/13/2018

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I got you guys another sale today