Hyperion PR - Suggestions Thread

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Trestkon
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Hyperion PR - Suggestions Thread

Post by Trestkon »

As some of you may know, OTP (ie: the lazy slackers behind such games as The Nameless Mod and...err...) have stared work on our next project, currently code named "Hyperion". Sadly, this post is not going to shower you with the amazing, orgasmic details of said project. Instead, I'm going to use you all for nefarious "market research"!

We're looking at unique and interesting ways to draw people to the project throughout it's lifespan, similar to what we did with the weekly TNM site updates, but better. We've already established a fantastic community in these forums, the idea now is to draw more slaves...er, fans, to the forum.

One of the most obvious methods for generating interest is blog posts. Interesting blog posts are a staple of the Wolfire marketing strategy and it's paid off rather well for them. I doubt that we're going to do *daily* posts as they do, but we'll at least have weekly news, I'd think.

We're also considering compiling a monthly "Making of" video which would be a kind of documentary style video profiling the development process and the opinions of the different team members.

What I'm looking for are ideas, and I know you have them, so gimmie!
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Re: Hyperion PR - Suggestions Thread

Post by ~Psychotic~ »

Whilst I would support this idea heavily (as I love development blogs) the problem I have is keeping it all tight-lipped. You don't really want to release too much info and give away the entire game straight away, but at the same time you don't want to give too little and leave readers bored and impatient.

I don't think many blogs of this kind suffer from having "too much" info, because discussing a certain feature each week (even the more insignificant ones) can help build up some sort of marketing strategy. Even if you only discuss how the game engine works or how the team plans things it still can get people interested (people like me, at least).

Though when you add too little you can either achieve unwarranted attention (aka "over-hype", where something is hyped up to unimaginable expectations, I believe Star Wars: The Old Republic is like this, and even moreso when the trailer WHICH WAS ONLY A CGI TRAILER was released) or not enough attention because people read all they can then quickly get bored when they realise nothing is actually being told (I feel this way about Deus Ex 3, we have some information but nothing to make me as excited as I am about other upcoming games).

Just my two cents at least. I wish you good luck on this endeavour. I'm sure the game will come out great, just like The Nameless Mod did, even if marketing plots don't work out as planned.
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Re: Hyperion PR - Suggestions Thread

Post by Jetsetlemming »

http://www.projectwonderful.com/

Is paying for advertising on other websites a bit too much, you think? :P Project Wonderful handles the ads for a bunch of the different webcomic sites I know of. You can get a big banner ad on a site with a few thousand readers for a few dollars a day.
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Re: Hyperion PR - Suggestions Thread

Post by Trestkon »

It's definitely something that we'll consider (and almost certainly do), but that'll be closer to release. Thanks for the link, though! *bookmarks*
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Re: Hyperion PR - Suggestions Thread

Post by ~Psychotic~ »

Jetsetlemming wrote:http://www.projectwonderful.com/

Is paying for advertising on other websites a bit too much, you think? :P Project Wonderful handles the ads for a bunch of the different webcomic sites I know of. You can get a big banner ad on a site with a few thousand readers for a few dollars a day.
I've never visited their site myself but I've seen a number of sites use Project Wonderful adverts on their own sites for generating revenue.
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Re: Hyperion PR - Suggestions Thread

Post by m3rc1l3ss »

As far as blog posts, I am rather looking forward to seeing posts that are so vague as to barely reveal anything. What might be helpful is to make the site have something of value other than the forums and blog, for example you could have a few short flash games or pump out a second round of TNM advertising for the next version. If you are going to keep the project largely secret until some point in the future, it is probably going to be better to build hype on completed projects hosted here, or the forums which may work well seeing as PDX is shutting down.
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Re: Hyperion PR - Suggestions Thread

Post by gamer0004 »

Also, consider some releasing some info without anybody telling anything... Like DX3, where every detail, every newspost was examined again and again. Like a kind of low-res (about as low-res as the UNATCO whiteboard, readable, but barely) photo or scan of a part of the design document covering something that isn't particularly interesting (like "load screens" or "interface"). Make some vids discussing the project (from a designers point of view, what do you think is important in games) with some screenshots or artwork on a screen somewhere in the background.
Give people something to waste their time on. It worked for DX3 (until they released no information for months after months).
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Re: Hyperion PR - Suggestions Thread

Post by Jonas »

gamer0004 wrote:scan of a part of the design document covering something that isn't particularly interesting (like "load screens" or "interface").
Unfortunately even our loading screens are insanely interesting and awesome, so that wouldn't work.
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Re: Hyperion PR - Suggestions Thread

Post by Jaedar »

Jonas wrote:
gamer0004 wrote:scan of a part of the design document covering something that isn't particularly interesting (like "load screens" or "interface").
Unfortunately even our loading screens are insanely interesting and awesome, so that wouldn't work.
Foiled by your own awesomeness. Also, Hyperion reminds me of Starcraft which is good, so I'm already hyped up :)
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Re: Hyperion PR - Suggestions Thread

Post by DDL »

Have your logo tattooed on some chick's forehead.

Seriously, this can work.
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Re: Hyperion PR - Suggestions Thread

Post by Hassat Hunter »

Only in Belgium, DDL! :lol:
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Re: Hyperion PR - Suggestions Thread

Post by Kee715 »

DDL wrote:Have your logo tattooed on some chick's forehead.

Seriously, this can work.
XD
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Re: Hyperion PR - Suggestions Thread

Post by Jonas »

Jaedar wrote:Hyperion reminds me of Starcraft which is good, so I'm already hyped up :)
Except they're not even the same gameplay genre (StarCraft being a pure bred RTS and Hyperion being a tactical RPG).
DDL wrote:Have your logo tattooed on some chick's forehead.
That sounds kinda hot.
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Re: Hyperion PR - Suggestions Thread

Post by Jetsetlemming »

Make an account on Destructoid.com and post community blogs. The last indie dev who did this got a ton of attention from the staff there, including interviews and shit, right up until the end where they reviewed his game and found it was a massive pile of shit. :D
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Re: Hyperion PR - Suggestions Thread

Post by Jonas »

Oooh that sounds like a good idea. Also a lot of work though, unless we could just mirror our posts from our own site there - or would they call us out on that?
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