AZOOVE

Azoove is a co-op roguelike survival card game releasing on PC in which you manage your resources and cooperate with your allies in order to return a cursed book to the library! With this contract, I was contracted to join Timeless Toucan’s team of 4 developers artists and musicians to get their branding up to speed and create exciting content to push for a successful game release by the end of 2023.

PHASE 1: The Azoove Brand Image

Starting designing content from a single logo and an array of concept art pieces, I was tasked to implement a full branding solution for Azoove to drive its commercial release later this year. Majority of the gameplay was complete which proved effective to derive both the style and limitations that I will be working within going forward.

The game featured a vibrant and unique array of colors and had an internal (but undocumented) systems of fonts, gradients and symbols which I quickly organized into a style guide to move forward with the project.

After spending a few days upgrading the entire game’s entire UI systems, I took to set up a Steam store page akin to the industry’s best to serve as the backbone of a solid marketing strategy. The Steam will serve as the main commodity of a game releasing to PC. Wishlists. As well as serve the end of the pre-sale marketing funnel.

The new Steam page featured many new trends as well as standardized practices with commercial steam projects, including:

  • Gif headings for feature showcase

  • Action driven language to promote a good sense of mechanics and main player actions

  • Image links to a community page to further discussion.

  • Optimized use of tags similar to other games in similar genre.

  • Screenshots that showed the game’s brightest moments and its many actions.

Once collecting all that information into a single document, I was able to construct a press kit that outlined all the game’s art, relevant links and things to plug into any streamer, event host or publication out there.

PHASE 2: Planning the Expedition

NOTE: Threads location on this list is relative to its exodus but it does proof to be a great place to grow in. This will be continued to be monitored over time and observed over time. Reddit while a good source of initial exposure before is under heavy protests by the communities on there.

Achieving the correct feel for game marketing is easier said than done. The content that is being created and the tone in which it is expressed are key to success. I took a careful look on a few projects: Cult of the Lamb (which is a big inspiration), Stampede Racing Royale, Rift Rangers and more as a sample size of what could be achieved at each level.

Through careful analysis, I deduced what is passable, what works really well, and what doesn’t which brought me to the conclusion that gaming audiences are looking for:

  • Exciting and short video/gif content prioritizing gameplay, dev updates and key visuals.

  • Remixes and attention grabbing moments that teaches about the gameplay edited fast for consumption.

  • Interlace standardized announcements to continue to remain an official news outlet about the game progress.

  • Delivered in a funny tone, utilizing the full power of meme culture to drive engagement through comedy.

  • Make responses seem personal as if there is a single person behind the account, which adds connection and relatability to each post.

With all that in mind, I continued to research into WHEN to post on each platform, which is nested around the morning pretty consistently and reserve the afternoons to react to posts which is another great tool to up the engagement with your account. You get bigger on social media by being on it as much as possible. This netted in this first draft of a posting schedule:

The landscape of social media and marketing is in constant flux. As a game marketer, it is important to be on top of upcoming trends and learn the new ways in which to extend key messages to an active audience. The best way to do that is through RESEARCH!

Through careful research, observation and general hand on the pulse of social media, I was able to observe what makes the most successful online marketing teams tick, where are they posting, what kind of content pops off and what doesn’t work to grab a viewer’s attention.

With that, I laid out what initiatives and platforms should be prioritized as a bottom line to ensure maximum exposure.

PHASE 3: Shifting the Sands into Motion

Planning is all well and good but you need to actually start posting! Before the marketing schedule was in full swing by the time I am writing this, the massive Threads exodus happened. I took to that platform first to both experiment with twitter style messages and being on top of current trends including how scary new platforms are to new marketing coordinators….

Managed to grab some 50 followers in the first 3 days.

But first, I totally lied about the order of things, its been a trick, a ruse you see.

Before I even did all that, I constructed the first and most important piece of game marketing, A GAME TRAILER. As Azoove is still in development, many of its future animations and flashiness were not in place. That made making a dynamic and informative video about cards and still images. well. very difficult. Going through the entire video production cycle from storyboarding, blocking, wireframing then multiple drafts netted me with the following 90 second highlight of the game, its story and mechanics. I made sure the process kept in mind a few key factors.

The video must teach the players how to play, showcase real gameplay, must be effective if muted but also great with sound. Additionally, the trailer footage is multipurpose and able to converted to social media footage with ease.

FIRST DRAFT

FINAL RESULT

Finally here are a few of the greatest hits of the social media adventures, showcasing our current push for a public playtest and initial socials launch for national video game day. I will be utilizing many long standing trends such as #trailertuesday, #wishlistwednesday and #screenshotsaturday and capitalizing on successful trends both old and new as the needs arise to make sure Azoove is represented correctly until its release at the end of the year.

PHASE 3: OUTCOMES AND LEARNINGS

The day I started posting on Threads, Azoove’s Steam page got the highest spike of traffic to it since it launched. While starting new accounts from scratch without the power of a publisher is daunting, I am sure that good consistent content are key to bringing a small indie game like Azoove into the limelight. Social media is both a test of endurance, ingenuity and keeping an eye on what is fresh and new so anyone can jump on the trend to get that precious exposure.