How to plan and script your video game trailer

Writing a game trailer script for the first time? Worried your writing and formatting skills might not match your secret Hollywood ambitions – or that it’ll take more time than it’s worth?

Relax. Your script doesn’t need to be a great work of literature. You don’t even have to follow screenwriting conventions. You’re simply making a useful document, which will help you (and any collaborators) plan a brilliant trailer. Continue reading “How to plan and script your video game trailer”

Ideas for your new indie game’s press release

It’s a couple of years since I helped out with press releases for a small indie game called Apple Jack 2. But I’m still amazed by what we achieved, and I’ve been meaning to write it up to help other developers ever since. Better late than never.

Apple Jack 2 is a genuine independent game, made by one talented fellow from the South of England. None of this Kickstarter stuff! Developer Tim Sycamore at one time tagged his company “the zero-budget game developer,” and it’s a fitting slogan. The game’s few external contributors worked for no money up-front, but shared in pretty good profits afterwards.

So how, with such limited resources, did AJ2 wind up on the front pages of massive gaming sites like IGN and Eurogamer? If you’re a game developer, the answers to this question could maybe help you do the same. Continue reading “Ideas for your new indie game’s press release”

A list of UK marketing agencies that specialise in video games

If like me you’re interested in video game marketing, it’s useful to know which agencies are focused on the industry.

Here’s a list I put together. This post was updated 9 October 2017. Continue reading “A list of UK marketing agencies that specialise in video games”

Apple Jack 2, an Xbox 360 game I helped out on, is out today!

I’d love to write more for video game companies. I think their industry is the most creative and exciting in the world at the moment.

So when I played a game called Apple Jack on the Xbox Live Indie Games service a couple of years ago, I decided to contact the developer My Owl Software.

My offer was to write press releases for My Owl’s next game, to help the developer get the publicity they deserved. Because this is no ordinary game company. It’s just one man with a ‘zero budget’. Somehow along the way, I ended up doing the illustrations for the game’s intro as well. Continue reading “Apple Jack 2, an Xbox 360 game I helped out on, is out today!”