Size of the community (some suggestions)

[Markos]

Of course the forum has been set up not so long ago, so it's not a big suprise that it isn't a very big community, but it would of course be ideal if it grew a bit more. The more people following the site (and actually participating in the discussions) the better, right? Would make things a bit more lively.

I have been on two or three other forums before and they had some option that allowed you to type in how many people you "refered to the site", how many people you brought there yourself. If everybody would be able to invite maybe two or three people that would be a big change already. Right now, the majority of the communities nineteen members are developers of the game, artists or otherwise involved in the process of making the game.

It would be nice if we could get some more "outsiders" in here. Promoting the CotD community and all. The banner on USS Greate Pier's site was a great start, for example.

[USSGreatePier]

Omrop Fryslân? :) hehe

[Markos]

Omrop Fryslân? :) hehe

Sounds good to me, to begin with.
But even better would be the national media as it is much better watched then regional television, maybe on "De Wereld Draait Door"? Anything that is likely to draw a large audience would do - and then there is still online promotion of course. And newspapers and all that, gaming magazines, thats sorta thing.

[Timen]

Remember that we're just two weeks live. And already we have some active members on the forum, which we're very happy with. But of course we aim for a broader audience. They will come, I'm sure of that. And we're not sitting still, we have some things in the works to get this community noticed by lots of people.

[USSGreatePier]

Like a little YouTube trailer/promotional vid? :) That might do well...

[Remco]

Hey guys, thanks for starting this topic. Timen is actually hard at work building a media planning for CotD, but some questions for you;

* Would you see an invitation screen as spam for your friens? Or rather, would your friends see it as spam?
* Any suggestions for websites that are not game related, but you think we would make a good link with?

Good to have this discussion rolling :)

[USSGreatePier]

* Would you see an invitation screen as spam for your friens? Or rather, would your friends see it as spam?

Well, anything that even remotely LOOKS like spam, might be interpreted as such... Even if you know it's coming from a trusted friend... If I want to bring this game to the attention of my friends, I'll tell them myself without sending them a generated mail for instance...

[Remco]

That's what we thought as well. Though it might be interesting to see how we can use the community to 'spread' the news. Of course, using social media buttons is an obvious step, but perhaps there's more that we can do.

[Markos]

Like a little YouTube trailer/promotional vid? :) That might do well...

That's just the type of thing I'd like to see. Of course, moving images are a bit harder then art work, but I think maybe some epic trailer with some bombastic music would do wonders. ;)

[Remco]

That's just the type of thing I'd like to see. Of course, moving images are a bit harder then art work, but I think maybe some epic trailer with some bombastic music would do wonders. ;)

Once the Asset concepts have been completed, we will start on the cinematics for the game. We will definitely be able to post teasers and trailers quickly afterwards! I also need to get Stefan in here for a music discussion I see ...

Oh and today we've sent out press releases to several high-profile blogs about indie games. Hopefully we'll get some attention and see some new people appear on the boards as well! :-)

[Markos]

Once the Asset concepts have been completed, we will start on the cinematics for the game. We will definitely be able to post teasers and trailers quickly afterwards! I also need to get Stefan in here for a music discussion I see ...

I bet those trailers will be awesome. :)
As for music, it its very important - a movie with a great musical score often does well; everything Hans Zimmer touches turns into gold, for example. Music has to fit the game, though. I dunno what type of music you guys have in mind for CotD.

Oh and today we've sent out press releases to several high-profile blogs about indie games. Hopefully we'll get some attention and see some new people appear on the boards as well! :-)

Even one high profile blog to feature this site would be great - it would send many visitors this way. More then one would be even better. Say, a few hundred people click this page, then at least a dozen might sign in, right? Who knows, it might give the community a major boost.

On a site note: just how well visited is the site right now? Having thousends of twitter-followers or facebook-fans usually doesn't hurt either, another thing to look into and invest in? :P

[USSGreatePier]

Wouldn't it be awesome to see a giant poster of Greate Pier at the bus stop?

[Remco]

Wouldn't it be awesome to see a giant poster of Greate Pier at the bus stop?

I personally won a contest a year ago for best young entrepreneur in FR/GR/DR and still have a nice advertisement budget to do something similar to this! It won't be posters at the bus stop, but it will be an ad in one of the major local newspapers :D

[Remco]

On a site note: just how well visited is the site right now? Having thousends of twitter-followers or facebook-fans usually doesn't hurt either, another thing to look into and invest in? :P

We have around one hundred active visitors each day, but new visitors are added each day as well. All signs are there of a growing interest, and that's the important bit. On average, people read quite a couple of pages per visit, and hang around for 15 minutes on average. That will go down once people are familiar with the site, but at this moment it is nice to know that the articles are being read :-)

[Timen]

On a site note: just how well visited is the site right now? Having thousends of twitter-followers or facebook-fans usually doesn't hurt either, another thing to look into and invest in? :P

I added the Facebook like box for our Cross of the Dutchman fan page to the right side next to articles and pages. Which is the first step to more facebook users! So join our fan page now! (if you didn't already)

example: http://www.crossofthedutchman.com/2011/09/introducing-the-cast/

[USSGreatePier]

I personally won a contest a year ago for best young entrepreneur in FR/GR/DR and still have a nice advertisement budget to do something similar to this! It won't be posters at the bus stop, but it will be an ad in one of the major local newspapers :D

That is awesome :) I'm sure that'll attract the necessary attention / sales...

Friesch Dagblad, page 17, personal ads:

"Tall, strong man, 25, single as of recent, looking for friendship (maybe more). Hobbies include busting Dutch skulls, pirating, revenge and flower arranging. Serious inquiries only."

[Thagarr]

The toughest part of building a community is making people aware you even exist, but you guys are off to a good start! It can take a very long while to build up a good community, I have been through it before with my home port of Pirates Ahoy! Though I originally found this site by blindly stumbling across it, I had no idea there was a forum community because I didn't stick around long enough to find out. The press release was what brought me back for a second and more detailed look. It might be a good idea to mention your forum community in a bit more detail in your next release. The Youtube video is a fantastic idea and would really help draw people in!

I have noticed that a lot of the big game news sites, and even most of the small ones have not even mentioned the game or your release. It can be tough to even get a mention on some of these sites, let alone get a featured article. It literally took us years to get our mods even mentioned on the smallest of game news sites. Most of the big name sites will completely ignore you unless your willing to pay for it. There are some smaller independent game news sites that are much more willing to put out new content however, one of which we have used many times called Blues News. They will basically let you submit your own press releases as news, and it has a much higher likelihood of being picked up by some of the bigger players.

[USSGreatePier]

It can take a very long while to build up a good community, I have been through it before with my home port of Pirates Ahoy! (...) one of which we have used many times called Blues News.

Sounds like something the Triangle team should take a little peek at :) It appears to be a very active news site, judging from the number of posts per date...

[Remco]

Nice find, Thagarr! It was good to see that the PR was picked up by many sites, but what we're seeing is that not many people feel the urge to start talking about the game yet. It's likely that this will change once we're able to show some footage or teasers. We will definitely check out the site and see if we're able to get the attention of even more blogs / sites that way :)

[Markos]

It's likely that this will change once we're able to show some footage or teasers.

No doubts about that, some promo-video might just do wonders. Make it a youtube sensation with 60,000 likes and millions of views, how about that? I'm sure as hell gonna promote it everywhere. :P

We will definitely check out the site and see if we're able to get the attention of even more blogs / sites that way :)

Good news, hopefully it'll bring even more people in. Maybe some more pirates like Thagarr will also get curious and join in, that'd be nice. I bet this new article on the naval battle-question will draw some new attention to the game.

[USSGreatePier]

No doubts about that, some promo-video might just do wonders. Make it a youtube sensation with 60,000 likes and millions of views, how about that? I'm sure as hell gonna promote it everywhere. :P

Don't underestimate the power of YouTube :) Even the silliest, nonsensical video's can go viral... For no apparent reason. So a good video about a very promising game that will no doubt appeal to a VERY broad audience ranging from A.D.D. kids to retired college professors with fuzzy sweaters will do well.

(And when I have some time I'll be happy to link to the CotD site from several other websites I run...)

[Remco]

Your referral links are greatly appreciated!

We have some ideas for a teaser trailer, it will definitely help get people excited for the game, no doubt about that. Today we will be releasing the Dutch version of the Press release, to see if any local media will pick it up and write/blog about it :-) I would not mind more Dutchies joining the boards at all!

[USSGreatePier]

Today we will be releasing the Dutch version of the Press release, to see if any local media will pick it up and write/blog about it :-) I would not mind more Dutchies joining the boards at all!

I'll be curious to see what that'll bring in :) The main portion of today's forum member are probably (proud) Frisians, hehe...

[Remco]

Just had a short interview over the phone with a friend at the Leeuwarder Courant. Hopefully we'll be featured in a small print article later today :-) She told me she would add the url of the CotD site to the article, so let's see if we can get some more visitors!

[Remco]

Frontpage, baby!