Games Fanbases

Last weekend I was dragged -- pretty much literally -- by my teenage daughter to attend the Insomnia gaming festival in Telford.  For those unfamiliar, it's an enormous LAN party for people who love playing stuff like Counter-Strike or Team Fortress.  I've always been rubbish at FPS games -- I much prefer old-school retro arcade stuff and casual puzzle games -- so I've never really paid the event much notice.

This year, however, they added a major Minecraft Expo, featuring guest panels from Yogscast (YouTube broadcasters) and FyreUK & Mindcrack (content creators).

The event proved to be quite an eye-opening experience for me, especially about the ways that indie developers are using online fan communities to test and promote games.

A scene from indie game Starbound

The traditional Insomnia halls were no surprise -- I'm used to colleagues & students doing the whole headset-wearing co-op warfare thing.  (On a side note, I was impressed at the infrastructure, coping with powering one thousand PCs in each large room and keeping the temperature bearable).

What really blew my socks off, though, were the panels.  2000 people crammed into the main presentation hall to see FyreUK -- a team of server operators & game moderators -- show off their latest timelapse videos of constructed worlds like Lothern.

Minecraft is an immensely popular game but, until Insomnia, I'd never realised the scale of the fan & modding community for it.  These fan broadcasters are not just some cult thing: the Yogscast YouTube channel has over 5 million subscribers.  (Their meet-and-greet queue was so long that it took TWO HOURS to clear.  Wow!)

In the midst of this, UK indie developer Chucklefish were doing something very clever.  By some mutual arrangement, they had members of the Yogscast doing a "world premiere" panel, demonstrating how to play their Starbound game.  (Full video here.)  Starbound has a lot in common with Minecraft's survival mode so the players picked it up very quickly.

The Yogscast Starbound panel.

It struck me as a very shrewd piece of marketing.  Starbound isn't out until later this year and the company has used to the event to start building a buzz amongst potential customers, who also had a chance to try it for themselves on a dedicated stand.  By getting Yogscast to endorse it, the product gets immediate credibility with its main target audience.

For an indie company, advance interest can be critical.  A game like Starbound costs a fair bit to make so they have tried to crowd-source investment by offering the chance to buy presence within the game.  For $45 you can have an NPC named after you; $1000 gets your own weapon design into the final game.

For a number of years games companies have been using online beta-testing communities to help develop games, but it's interesting to see how the fanbase can also help to promote a product effectively.  And games like Minecraft have shown that you can also get the fanbase to develop game levels and mods, effectively increasing the size and appeal of the game with minimal developer outlay.

I'd already considered a possible fan-driven level system for my own game project, but had put the idea to one side; this event has made me reconsider that.  I've also learned about the power of online fan communities to make or break a product.

All-in-all a very educational weekend.  And, best of all, my Minecraft-crazed offspring spent the weekend grinning from ear-to-ear, clutching her poster signed by the Yogscast crew.  Mission achieved.