Game Dev support pact. Who's in?

I know I'm totally conveniently thinking of this as my game's release approaches, but how about we start a support pact here on the forums.

Simply put, you release a game and post about it here.

Then everyone in the pact goes to the game's social media outlets and likes it, follows it, or whatever. Then we download it, when it's freely available. And give it a positive rating if we deem it so.

It's such a simple way to support one another I'm surprised no one thought of it earlier.

So who's in?

And does anyone have a game that they would like to enter?

 

Before Unity I used Corona SDK and they did this to support each other in a big facebook group. It worked out really well, and I was very surprised Unity developers didn't help themselves like that here. Yes if we could get like 100 people together we could all get 100 downloads and 5 stars right when our games start!

 

Nothing wrong with sharing, re-tweeting, liking etc. but the download and five star/positive review part can be seen as store manipulation from the store owners perspective and is usually forbidden.

 

Followed by getting banned. What you're describing in this sentence would actually violate the terms for both stores.

That said I wonder if we're allowed to link our games to other developers for fair reviews. I'd be hesitant to do it though just because I'd be running the risk that they might like it enough to give it five reviews and get the store owners after me.

 

I'm happy to do YouTube videos on any interesting games that people send me.

 

So unconditional support may backfire. If the game is very good it wouldn't be suspicious though ... can we haz screenies btw?

But what about post it here and we'll give realistically good reviews?

 

A facebook group in general would be nice. I've either read or wrote to you guys since 2011 - might as well look at the content you create.

 

There are tons of unity groups on facebook already, just search unity game developers in facebook and you'll get results.

 

True, though I "know" these people. I follow Mormon's YouTube channel. It's fun.

 

I'm a little bit over Facebook groups. They are great for small scale local things. I'm part of local larp groups and local game dev groups.

But on larger scale enterprises they tend to fall to pieces. It's too difficult to effectively monitor and control. I've left all of the Facebook Unity groups I joined.

 

I think it's debatable as to whether or not any of this sort of stuff would actually help with raising the world's awareness of a particular game. Unless there's a few hundred thousand people reading this thread that are all going to participate?

 

@Ryiah and @dogzerx2 I didn't say to give anyone unconditional support. I said we should download other people's games and give it a positive rating if it deserves it.

I know that market manipulation and click fraud are both big issues, but I really don't think there's anything wrong with downloading a game that a friend made. That would just be silly and over reaching. Please let me know if I'm wrong, though.

And as far as being worth while, I know it's not a thousand downloads or anything too significant. But I do think that 50 people could be a good start for a hobbyist.

And it's not just about the raw numbers, it's also a community thing. I want to support my friends.

 

Right. It wasn't really aimed at you. That said it isn't about whether the reviews are fair but whether the app store is capable of recognizing them as fair reviews. It's just an algorithm as far as I'm aware. Apple will likely handle the verifying with actual people but you just never know with Google.

 

It's a worthwhile idea the way you are proposing it. Because basically you are only talking about providing a "guaranteed" minimal amount of awareness. Nothing more.

You are not saying always rate the highest. That would be unethical and manipulative. But basically what people are getting from this is some minimum amount of exposure. So it's just a way to do marketing. Gives people a tiny jumpstart.

I was actually hoping you were talking about a different kind of support group. One focused on like accountability partners to stay on task and get things done. Not waste time needlessly iterating on one area, a closed group for feedback and bouncing ideas off other people, etc. Basically the very best of the forum in a highly focused form.

 

Sounds very interesting.

 

That.

Is a fantastic idea.

Maybe the two could be incorporated together.

 

I thought we kinda already did this. I try to check out other peoples stuff when I have some time. I've also downloaded over a dozen feedback friday submissions, though I've only commented on about 3-4.
Just - time dictates when I'm able to do this - or if I'm busy working on my own content.

I'd never promise to give out 5 star reviews - unless the game deserves it.
Related - I've only ever taken the time to rate peoples games posted here in these forums. I guess I could be more focused and rate games not developed in Unity also, but I feel a little biased when reviewing other peoples games for research on mechanics and genre. I don't want to be negative to developers who don't directly ask for feedback on visuals and gameplay.

What type of crazy person would voluntarily sign up for such a pushy, whip cracking support group like that! LOL
Seriously though - I think being successful requires some type of accountability partner like this. I've been working with another individual the past couple weeks, and we've been emailing every other night (voluntarily) to keep each other on task and updated. It's working quite well so far.

 

Well maybe a better idea is to create an active developer ratings group, and have people choose what genre(s) they are interested in. Lets say you got a game about retro games, someone like gar is going to be interested in playing and rating that game (give him a steam key), im more interested if its a top down shooter, if its a metroidvania im not interested in at all.

 

That's a good idea. People should only give feedback on the kind of games they actually like and play regularly. Anyone else is probably not representative of the target audience. And if the person posts / tweets whatever about the game and that dev has been sensible building a following the majority of them will like the same thing. So a double win.

 

We'd need a big enough pool of people and quite I'd be surprised if we could even get a hundred or even ten people interested although if unity officially backed it would make it a lot bigger

 

Ha ha which might be interesting considering I am not even developing in Unity any more. I might one day again but I found a solution that suits me better and am very happy with it so far.

It's a shame majority of people seem to be using Unity and I guess participate either only or primarily in these forums. That's the only reason I still come here. Many of the people I've "known" for years now.

Anyway yeah it seems like most of the time everybody just does their own thing. I guess I get it though because everybody has different goals and different amount of time they want to spend on this stuff. But... since it is marketing... and potential additional sales just maybe more people would be interested in such a thing than normal.

 

I think a good way to start the pact would be for everyone to support my Patreon.

That would certainly help me to make some more tutorial videos. Or forum posts if you prefer.

https://www.patreon.com/boredmormon

 

Hmmm....

Is that even possible?

 

I'm not sure. But I hope to find out.

 

LIAR!

THIS MAN IS AN IMPOSTOR!

One of these days I'll get boredmormon of that.

 

And this my friends is why we can never have a decent support pact. We can't make 25 posts without derailing ourselves.

Spoiler: You're Welcome

 

Though it does offer insight into why he has over twelve thousand posts.

 

I think the biggest support we can realistically expect from eachother is stuff like @BoredMormon making gameplay videos like he did with Felis, or sending out a tweet or whatever.

I'm not even sure if unconditional support would be effective, it'd end up feeling like spam.

As much as I'd love some guaranteed floor in terms publicity, I don't know if unconditional support is the way to go.

 

I gave you $1 a month, all we need is 99 more people and bored Mormon will post 2x as many posts.

 

Thanks!

According to everything I've read the first few Patrons are the most critical. It seems similar to kick starter or green light, people are more willing to back already successful projects.

So who else has an active project that needs some extra support at the moment?

 

Neginfinity

 

Eventually we might as well all just list our paypal emails and give each other $1 per month. lol

Something else to consider would be collaborating to some degree on projects (as in A helps B by doing "this" work and B helps A by doing "that" work) and other ways to carry the financial support outside of this community (maybe posting on FB, Twitter, blog, etc).

 

it might help get us on a list (which could generate more money) even if have 100 devs giving each other 1 dollar to each other.

 

As a hobbyist I'm always interested in messing around on interesting projects. I'm open to this idea.