Marketing the BONE game series
From the Press Release;
Also from the Press Release;
It would be a good way to reach your non-adventure-game-fanboy target audience.
And that there confirms we are indeed looking forward to a series of BONE games. Excellent....And now Telltale, a company that takes you to the worlds where characters like Bone play and invites you to play with them, will be creating new episodes for PC gaming....
...Telltale Games will compliment this with their first Bone PC episode...
Also from the Press Release;
With this new colour version of the comics being distributed via Scholastic, I really hope Telltale get to put full page ads for the game(s) in each issue. Or what about a demo "Coverdisk" with one of the issues? Is that a possibility?Bone is also the flagship title for Scholastic's new graphic novel imprint Graphix, which launched in February. "We are thrilled to launch our exciting new imprint with this adventurous, funny and unforgettable series" added Jean Feiwel, Scholastic's publisher and editor in chief, "Scholastic's unique distribution network of bookstores, school book clubs and book fairs will send Bone out to a vast, new multi-generational audience." Telltale Games will compliment this with their first Bone PC episode.
It would be a good way to reach your non-adventure-game-fanboy target audience.
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If Telltale can sell CD versions of their BONE game(s) via the Scholastic distribution setup, that'd be a huge marketing coup.
That being said they're actually really good prints with decent coloring, embossing and surprisingly thick paper.
I'm not sure about putting them into scholastic book clubs, Those usually only go through elementary schools and I doubt parents would drop the 40 or 50 bucks on it.
Either way there's a definite planned attack with the new trade paperbacks, the game, and whatever else they have in store (I wouldn't discount a movie if it takes off again).
Well, if what you say is true, that's a pity - quite a lost opportunity to advertise the game direct to the BONE fanbase (as opposed to the Adventure Game fanbase).
Make a few posters to be displayed in-store too to catch the attention of those not specifically looking in the BONE section.
This is the way music stores give away t-shirts, posters, promo CDs etc.
Oh, and would some kind mod please move this thread over to the new BONE forum? Thankee!
Marketing the game directly to the existing comic fanbase is a no-brainer - or else what's the point in getting a licensed product in the first place?
That number has jumped substantially in the last year or so - meaning it is sure to climb more. Look at the number of people who simply use the internet compared with just a few years ago. Telltale is smart to jump on the bandwagon off online distribution only. They will save tons of money which translates into more money put into their products = good for us!
And there are a significant number of computers that are not Internet connected.
What I'm getting at in this thread are ways to market the game to the existing Bone fanbase, probably via the comics somehow.
Yes, we're all adventure game fans, but there is a huge established audience fot this game who probably are not (or at least don't know that they are yet).
Good point JP
"What I'm getting at in this thread are ways to market the game to the existing Bone fanbase, probably via the comics somehow"
I misunderstood. That is a good idea. I like the idea of Bone comics being sold with an insert that has Telltale's website and info about the game. I was just trying to make the point that Telltale needs to keep costs down - and an aggressive internet advertising campaign is much cheaper than giving tons of CDs to graphic novel/book retailers.
There is indeed a world outside of the US, like the Netherlands. The place where I live and where they don't sell Bone! So if they will put demo discs with comics I hope they'll put it online too cuz if they don't I won't be able to play it.
They might, however, do a limited time exclusive demo available on CD that comes packaged with a magazine for a month before they put it online. I wouldn't count that out.
So it would be good to get the (probably quite large) 'engine' portion of the game delivered via disc if at all possible, for those who only have dialup modems.
Nice to see someone from the netherlands here.
to bad the shopz dont sell bone comics here
but www.bol.com sells them
Publishers are the ones with the money, and thus are the ones that have the funds to advertise. Unless of course Telltale has a trust fund baby on the project and has some alternative distrubution methods lined up, but I'm going to wager there's going to be a publisher involved somewhere.
Gamespot: When do you expect to announce a publishing partner?
Dan Conners: We may not. The proliferation of broadband has opened a direct channel to fans of these types of games. We started Telltale to push the market forward and quickly take advantage of advances in technology. There are many behemoths in the industry going about things in a very formulaic way; Telltale isn't down with that. If we do choose to work with a publisher, it will be because we have a shared vision.
Which nobody did, but I told you anyway.
I've been playing many more console games than PC games lately. While it could be a quality thing, I think it has to do with the fact that I've become fed up with errors and installation and system requirements and all that other stuff. When I bring a PC game home it seems to take hours before I can actually play the thing. With a console game, it only takes about three minutes (would be faster but those boxes seemed to be sealed better than prescription medicine). I havent played Half Life 2, but friends of mine who had all mentioned the ungodly amount of time it took for them to actually be able to play it, this is mostly due to screw-ups in Steam. Now Valve is a pretty reliable company, if they can make a slip up of that magnitude, so can Telltale.
It could also be a lot worse of a slip-up if Telltale makes it. If a Bone reader whos never bought a computer game (or at least doesnt buy them often) tries to download the game and fails, hes going to give up (while HL2 players are more likely to keep trying and just complain about it in message boards).
All Im saying is that downloading a large full game (without the option to get it in a box) is uncharted territory and that Telltale should be very careful that they dont shoot themselves in the proverbial foot. I have a lot of faith in these guys and Id like to see them around for a while.
The good news is that their card game was incredibly easy to get going (although I didnt try to register). It only took about fifteen second to download, but Im on a very fast network. Im not sure how long it would take someone on a 56k.
I just realized that this is almost 400 words long. No ones going to read all this. Oh well. Thank you, and goodnight.
It is perfect that the color editions are being released one at a time by scholastic in a way that will (could) coincide perfectly with Telltale's releases of the game. Out from Bonevile just came out in scholastic recently, and later this year the Telltale game will come out. Probably around the same time Scholastic will be releasing the second Bone book - giving players a chance to read the next installment immediately after finishing the game and get them ready for an early 2006 release of episiode 2 from Telltale and so on.
At least that is how it should happen if they are smart - have players reading the next bone book in color from scholastic while waiting for the next game.
It took me over one hour to download the game with a 56k modem. It worked great once I got it though.
As far as marketing goes, hitting both game magazines and comic magazines is a must. A demo CD is a great idea but may not be a viable option for a start-up company.
I think online distribution is just a natural step forward. I only hope more developers embrace the technology and free us from the designs of oppressive publishers who are only worried about the bottom dollar.
Definitely. My Wife is an elementary school teacher so I see those little phamplets every month and they always have games. We actually just got Sim City 4 Deluxe through scholastic.
Also - in the Telltale Blog
they mentioned that "its another goal of ours to synch up with Scholastic and brainstorm on this so we can have a mutually beneficial relationship."
So I guess that answers that.