Distribution - Reaching the Audience

Reaching your target audience should be on your mind throughout the process. Who are they and how will you get them to play your game? These decisions are highly interdependent with your choice of platform, i.e., the device on which your game is played. They also require you to have a clear business model—free vs. fee-based is the primary question, with signiﬁcant implications for distribution.

Existing Channels First, consider what channels are open to you already. Wherever possible, exploit existing networks to reach your audience. If you have a sponsor or partner whose website attracts a high volume of trafc, you can steer those visitors to your game. Games integrated with social networks such as Facebook are also attracting increasing levels of attention and activity.

Non-Traditional Channels Games for change are often distributed outside traditional game channels, or treat them as secondary. For example, Hope Labs’ Re-Mission (www.re-mission.net) (a game for young cancer suferers), was distributed mainly through hospitals and clinics; it's now also available as a download on the Internet. Similarly, 100,000 copies of Peacemaker (www.peacemakergame.com) were distributed in Israel and the Palestinian territories under the auspices of the Peres Center for Peace. If you do take an original approach to distribution, be sure it dovetails with your game design, and vice versa.

Web Channels Just as home computers are the most common platform for games for change, the Internet is the most common distribution channel. Simply putting a game on your own website, however, undermines the time, efort, and resources you invested in creating your game. Don’t stop there! There are many more avenues for web-based distribution—leverage all available options.

Free Flash Games In addition to your own website and partner websites, you can distribute web-playable Flash games through websites ofering free Flash games. These sites attract large audiences: Miniclips (www.miniclip.com/games/en) has 43 million unique visitors each month; visitors to New Grounds (www.newgrounds.com/game) and Addicting Games (www.addictinggames.com/index.html) number in the tens of millions; and Kongregate (www.kongregate.com) attracts 4 million per month. The most successful games on such sites are played millions of times each month. Relatively cheap development also makes Flash a cost-efective approach to getting your message out.

Few free game sites allow free upload, however, so placing your game here requires negotiating with the site owners. New Grounds is open to almost any content (including adult); Miniclips and Addicting Games strive to be family-friendly, and Kongregate claims to ofer a higher level of gameplay quality.

Distribution - Reaching the Audience - 1 There may also be modest revenue opportunities. Many Flash sites ofer a share of revenue generated by advertisements played alongside (or before) the game; some ofer a ﬂat fee for the right to carry a game.

Free Downloadable Games Downloadable games tend to reach a smaller audience than online games, unless they achieve quite a lot of attention from the press or on social ﬁlter sites such as Digg, Stumbleupon, and Slashdot. Downloadable games are typically hosted by their publishers, but there are also free download sites like Fileplanet (www.ﬁleplanet.com) and Download.com. Fileplanet features an "indie game of the week," which has occasionally included games for change. In addition, Download.com and Softpedia (www.softpedia.com) allow you to upload any application, which they make available to their users after a security check.

Free/Fee Casual Games Casual games are videogames targeted at a mass audience. They can ﬁt in any genre and are distinguished by simple rules. Casual games require no long-term time commitment or special skills to play, and production and distribution are comparatively low. Casual gaming demographics vary from those of traditional computer games, as the typical casual gamer is older and more predominantly female, with over 74% of those purchasing casual games being women.

Casual games are sold via direct download from portals such as Yahoo! Games (www.games.yahoo.com), RealArcade (www.realarcade.com), and Big Fish (www.bigﬁshgames.com), and they typically feature a demo permitting 60 minutes of free play with purchase costing $20.

The large distributors in this space prefer to work with established publishers or developers; partnering is therefore a good strategy. Portals retain the lion's share of the consumer dollar. The most favorable ones pass on 40% to the publisher, while some pass on as little as 20%.

Free/Fee Indie Games Increasing attention is migrating to indie (independent) games, which are typically developed by lone-wolf developers, small teams, or as student projects. Many are ofered as free downloads, while others are self-published on a business model similar to the casual games market. The Independent Games Festival (www.igf.com) provides exposure, as do game review sites and (occasionally) major game media.

Console Game Downloads Console manufacturers are for the ﬁrst time permitting development of downloadable games that can be purchased online, e.g., WiiWare, Xbox Live Arcade, Playstation Network). Successful games can reach hundreds of thousands of people, and PC games developed with XNA are fairly easy to port to Xbox 360. Sony also sells some games for the PSP via download. Microsoft and Nintendo take 30% of the consumer sale, passing on 70% to the game publisher (assuming no development funding from them). It may also be possible to distribute free downloadable console games via their networks.

Distribution - Reaching the Audience - 2 Retail Distribution Console games and many PC games are distributed through conventional retail channels —big-box retailers such as Wal-Mart and specialty game stores such as Gamestop. Major publishers typically release on multiple platforms simultaneously, and strive for a million plus unit sales. The demands of the market place limit retail distribution to large-budget games, and partnership with a publisher is highly recommended. Specialty game stores stock more modest games from smaller publishers and also carry boxed versions of the more successful casual games. For a high-quality computer game, it may be possible to partner with a smaller publisher for retail exposure, but only in addition to online distribution.

Terms: Publishers typically receive 60% of the retail price. If you bring a completed game requiring no further funding to a publisher and are willing to support the game with some level of promotion and advertising, you may be able to negotiate as much as a 50% share of the net. If the publisher shoulders development and marketing costs, 15% is more typical, and development costs are recoupable before any royalties are earned.

Mobile Platforms Distribution via mobile platforms requires partnering with a major mobile game publisher. More than 90% of all mobile games are sold by the carriers, e.g Verizon. Major mobile game publishers have established relationships with dozens or hundreds of carriers worldwide, and typically provide dozens or hundreds of diferent versions of each game. Only 3% of mobile users purchase games, and unit prices are small (typically $3 to $7), so broad distribution reach is essential to scale and commercial success. Deal terms vary widely by country; operators pass on somewhere between 20% and 60% of the consumer dollar.

Marketing and Publicity Publicity motivates users to try a game, thereby engaging them in its message. A second beneﬁt is awareness-raising, i.e., exposing a wider audience to the game’s issue, message, and goals, even if they never play it. A newsworthy or compelling story around a game can therefore serve an organization's goals, even if the game itself has limited appeal to players.

Make sure to build a substantial line item into your budget for marketing and publicity. Some mainstream games have budgets as much as 50% for marketing and PR—yours should be at least 10%. You shouldn’t make a game if no one is going to play it. The best approach is to hire a publicity team, or build your internal team’s capacity for games. Have them read some of the resources here on the Toolkit, and play the games on our site. The more they know about games, the easier it will be for them to pitch your story.

And remember: Creating a game that addresses a real-world social issue is no longer newsworthy in and of itself. As journalist Heather Chaplin discusses in the accompanying video, publicity for social issue games needs an additional hook to gain widespread attention.

Distribution - Reaching the Audience - 3 Games like Peacemaker (www.peacemakergame.com) and ICED (I Can End Deportation) (www.icedgame.com) attracted notice in major national international media when their story was crafted to reﬂect current headlines.

In order to make your game attractive to journalists looking for stories, make sure you are ofering them something “new.” Journalists want to know how your game is doing something diferent than other media—what does your game ofer that reading a newspaper doesn’t? What real-world outcomes have you measured that might be of interest to their audience? Find a good hook, and know your writers. The more you understand their interests and angles, the more easily you will get your game written about. Don’t be afraid to use all your available networks—listservs, school groups, your friends—anyone who might help you spread the word.

Conclusion Unless your project is designed for commercial release, you will probably be releasing your game for free. Consider nontraditional channels, including your own networks, and keep your eyes open for additional opportunities via partners and innovations in the market. You can apply the same creativity to distribution that you bring to other aspects of creating, producing your game. Questions to consider:

• What is your business model?

• Is your game free or fee-based?

• Who is your target audience?

• What devices are they using?

• What channels are they using?

• What partners can you work with?

• Who has problems that your game solves?

• Which media outlets will you use to publicize your game?

• What’s your story, i.e., how will you pitch your game to the media?

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