HTML5 multiplayer games distribution & promotion
Recently, I started a discussion about multiplayer HTML5 games. As you have seen, such games are currently working well on both desktop and mobile devices simultaneously. This time, I will focus on methods which can help you to distribute such games. There are a couple ways, and if your game is good enough, you may be able to depend on only your resources and ideas. But if you didn’t manage to gain enough resources for marketing, promotion or game production you may always use different ways to show your product to the gamers.
Market the game on your own.
This is the hardest and most demanding process. If you already have a standalone or mobile landing page for your multiplayer HTML5 game, you can try to just get the traffic from there. The more traffic that comes on its own, the better results you may get later on. The easiness of HTML5 games distribution is very helpful in this process. Links are a very easy way to send information about the game from one person to another. If both players like your game, they will pass on the link to more and more people. If you do a good job with this then you may be really happy with the results of your hard work.
Of course building up your own traffic needs you to expend a large amount of effort into available resources, such as social media, advertisement, PR actions, and press. Is this worth it? Of course it is. Without awareness of your product, not very many gamers would know your game even exists. What’s more, you may even loose its potential without any promotion actions. Such actions may be called a spam by some people, but if you do it the right way, it will only help you reach your audience.
Try to build up a community around your brand and products. Social media such as Facebook or Twitter are very useful in acquiring a new audience. Try to post content connected with your game regularly, and you will see a growth in your fans and gamers. Try to acquire bigger brands in your fans/observers sections. If you like or post their content, they will notice it, and they will also be eager to share your game updates or other useful information for your marketing. One of the easiest ways to build up the community and awareness of your games are your friends. Don’t be afraid to ask them to spread the word about your new game. Maybe not all of your friends will do it, but I’m sure some of them will help you.
Developers and gaming forums/sites connected with HTML5 gaming.
Spread the word about your HTML5 mutliplayer game there too! You shouldn’t be afraid of criticism. If negative and constructive comments can help you make your game better then accept them. This is also a good way to know what can be corrected or fixed. Such groups can be found easily, you just need to do some research. Depending on your preferences you may stay in indie or non-commercial area or you can try to reach out to more professional networks. Sites such as LinkedIn, HTML5gamedevs, MarketJS, or FGL are great places to show your product to developers or publishers, but I will speak about this more later in this post.
Promote your multiplayer game through a blog.
Having a blog is also a fantastic way to build up your product awareness. Not only can you describe your game features, show screenshots or gameplay videos, but also any information about your game is indexed by Google. Google will connect all multiplayer tags with your game and thanks to that your game can be found higher in ranks of user searches. Your blog entry can be also shared by social media or quoted or even re-posted by someone who really enjoyed the blog post and the game. Never forget about the blog. Even short entries written well can help you to market your game. There is always a chance that gamers or publishers are looking for specific content, and they may find your site and game just by entering “multiplayer HTML5 games” in Google.
Multiplayer HTML5 portals & publishers.
This can be the most interesting distribution method for multiplayer HTML5 games. Publishers acquire multiplayer games from developers and provides the games to a vast number of gamers. Recently, I noticed a couple new publishers who want to specialize only in distributing HTML5 multiplayer games. There aren’t many of those networks in the market (according to my researches), but this is a really good trend that could grow in the future. A couple HTML5 multiplayer networks such as Gamorlive and Jawfishgames caught my eye, and I think it would be worth it to try them out.
What benefits could we get from HTML5 mutliplayer networks?
- Your content is directly promoted in a network with a growing number of users.
- Your games get promotion and marketing in an already working environment.
- The publishers give you advice which can boost your product functionality and popularity.
- You get direct access to API’s which may help develop your game to a higher level with new functions such as payment or social features.
- You don’t need to worry about distribution because the product lives in a vast network.
- Such environments empowers your game and guarantees stable traffic.
I would like to see how this part of a market will grow. Tournaments, live battles or challenges, and special functions of such networks can raise the competition among gamers and raise the benefits for publishers and developers. A multiplayer web mobile network with cross platform features would be a really great experience don’t you think :)?
Final thought.
As you can see, you may build up your HTML5 multiplayer game awareness in various ways. You may build up a game that can spread like a virus by itself, and you won’t even need a high effort put into marketing and promotion. In such cases sometimes only a couple of elements make it grow fast, but which ones? It’s hard to say. Sometimes it’s original gameplay, sometimes graphics, mechanics, simplicity or other factor that make gamers addicted to a game.
The methods I talk about here are very easy to do by yourself (they have always been helpful). You may also try a couple of the multiplayer networks for HTML5 that showed up on the market recently. There is also more piece of advice: Try to experiment with different distribution and promotion methods, maybe one of your ideas will work much better? I would like to hear your opinions and ideas too.