Marketing & Development of TrainStation

[R3v]

Hello guys,

I decided to share our experience with marketing and development of TrainStation. The game is still in production phase and gonna be released in summer 2013. You can check our microsite here.

Facts:

• TrainStation has 170k DAU / 500k MAU on Facebook, over 5 million people already played the game
• We're porting whole game to iOS & Android via Adobe AIR
• We have strong community in US, UK, GER & AU

What we have done till date:

• steady 2k visits / day on microsite (for last ten days)
• 20k gathered emails via microsite in 3 weeks (people who are interested in mobile version)
• 135k gathered emails via our game portal (general players of TrainStation)
• 350k gathered emails via Facebook (general players of Facebook)
• sent early press releases and built a database of reviewers interested in our game
• an early promotion on game's Facebook page (425k likes) and Twitter (5k followers)
• Skype with potential Russian publisher
• Chat with potential Asian publisher at Casual Connect Kyiv
• Skype calls with AppODay and PlayHaven about potential partnership
• created a simple Press Kit availaible on microsite
• created forums on community and gaming sites

What we plan to do in near future:

• Skype with ChartBoost, TapJoy, AppGratis and AppTurbo
• Chat with Adobe at upcoming Casual Connect Hamburg
• Chat with more potential publishers at Casual Connect Hamburg
• Book a feature in Facebook App Centre during game release
• Create a video trailer
• Contact more reviewers

I will try to post regular updates.
If you have any questions, I will be happy to answer them. We can discuss any suggestions here as well.

[Kafu]

Thanks for sharing! I found very interesting the stats about secondary channels (as the dedicated microsite).

When you write "emails", do you refer to people that voluntarly leaved their email address to be contacted later?

[R3v]

Originally Posted by Kafu

Thanks for sharing! I found very interesting the stats about secondary channels (as the dedicated microsite).

When you write "emails", do you refer to people that voluntarly leaved their email address to be contacted later?

Yes, 20k people already entered their emails and subscribed on microsite during 3 weeks.

However, the game is live on Facebook for two years, so we have a decent number of emails from there, as well as from our own game portal (http://portal.pixelfederation.com/). But I have no idea how much of those are still valid or their owners use iOS / Android devices. Still better than 0 emails tho

[Kafu]

Absolutely!

I was doubtful about microsites in the past, but was looking for stats; yours are very reassuring in the effectiveness of such channel, also if maybe a consolidated user-base is an important factor.

[R3v]

Originally Posted by Kafu

Absolutely!

I was doubtful about microsites in the past, but was looking for stats; yours are very reassuring in the effectiveness of such channel, also if maybe a consolidated user-base is an important factor.

Microsite is must-have in my opinion if you want to generate pre-release buzz and gather some emails. Those 2k visits a day are mostly from our Facebook / Portal ingame banners. Without such a traffic source, you need to push it even harder.

[BravadoWaffle]

Originally Posted by R3v

• steady 2k visits / day on microsite (for last ten days)
• 20k gathered emails via microsite in 3 weeks (people who are interested in mobile version)
• 135k gathered emails via our game portal (general players of TrainStation)
• 350k gathered emails via Facebook (general players of Facebook)
• sent early press releases and built a database of reviewers interested in our game
• an early promotion on game's Facebook page (425k likes) and Twitter (5k followers)
• Skype with potential Russian publisher
• Chat with potential Asian publisher at Casual Connect Kyiv
• Skype calls with AppODay and PlayHaven about potential partnership
• created a simple Press Kit availaible on microsite
• created forums on community and gaming sites

Awesome post, and great job on the promotions. The mini-site is fantastic! What did you use to build it? Was it a custom job or a service? We are doing something similar with our next release as well using LaunchRock as our service here's what our signup page looks like using them: signup.ztanks.com . We will be giving exclusive Alpha access to the online version of our game to those who sign up too as an incentive.

You mention an early promotion on Facebook and Twitter that looked like it yielded some awesome results. Care to share any tips on how you accomplished this?

[Stephen Richard]

Awesome post. The Facts and plans that you follow for the promotional strategies will definitely works good. You can also try out banner ad in some of the reputed app review sites.

[R3v]

Originally Posted by BravadoWaffle

Awesome post, and great job on the promotions. The mini-site is fantastic! What did you use to build it? Was it a custom job or a service? We are doing something similar with our next release as well using LaunchRock as our service here's what our signup page looks like using them: signup.ztanks.com . We will be giving exclusive Alpha access to the online version of our game to those who sign up too as an incentive.

You mention an early promotion on Facebook and Twitter that looked like it yielded some awesome results. Care to share any tips on how you accomplished this?

Thank you mate!

We have built microsite completely inhouse, both design and coding. We run our own server racks too, so it's hosted there.

Your microsite looks nice, however I would suggest:
1, Add more ingame screenshots, main menu is not exactly eye-catching.
2, Move subscribe field up. On my 13" MacBook it's below the fold, I need to scroll down to be able to enter my email.
3, Shorten the copy. Information are doubled/trippled, e.g. top bar saying "signup to get access..." is stating exactly the same as lower copy. In addition bar is a bit small compared to other elements on site so one can easily miss it.

However, it's just my opinion

Facebook / Twitter: As I said, we have pretty big user base on Facebook / Twitter, so we have just teased some screenshots with link pointing to microsite. There is also an in-game banner teasing the mobile version. We don't want to overspam our fans now. Here is our first Facebook status about TrainStation Mobile.

Of course, on a launch day we will push it much harder via our own social media and ingame channels. There will be competitions, day-by-day teasing, cross promotion among our other games, etc.

[BravadoWaffle]

Originally Posted by R3v

Thank you mate!

We have built microsite completely inhouse, both design and coding. We run our own server racks too, so it's hosted there.

Your microsite looks nice, however I would suggest:
1, Add more ingame screenshots, main menu is not exactly eye-catching.
2, Move subscribe field up. On my 13" MacBook it's below the fold, I need to scroll down to be able to enter my email.
3, Shorten the copy. Information are doubled/trippled, e.g. top bar saying "signup to get access..." is stating exactly the same as lower copy. In addition bar is a bit small compared to other elements on site so one can easily miss it.

However, it's just my opinion

Facebook / Twitter: As I said, we have pretty big user base on Facebook / Twitter, so we have just teased some screenshots with link pointing to microsite. There is also an in-game banner teasing the mobile version. We don't want to overspam our fans now. Here is our first Facebook status about TrainStation Mobile.

Of course, on a launch day we will push it much harder via our own social media and ingame channels. There will be competitions, day-by-day teasing, cross promotion among our other games, etc.

Good tips, thanks! I totally agree!

[R3v]

I have just set up a meeting with Adobe at Casual Connect, looking forward to it