How to deal with the Media - Do's and Don'ts

[Barzini]

I've worked in media companies, big and small - And let me tell you, we are the laziest bunch of people out there. Journalists? Hardworking? MAYBE. But rarely in the entertainment section - And that includes games.

We are a really lazy bunch of people. We sit at a desk from 9-5 or later, reading emails, testing and playing games - How do you get us to be interested in your game?

First of all - Get our names right.

In most websites, they would leave the name of the editor along with the email right below it. Just imagine this -

If my name is, say John... And you type...
Hey Jon

I know we should be a lot bigger than that, but if you happen to catch us on a bad day, we would send it straight to the trash ( I haven't because I'm a really nice person ) - But my colleagues have, so watch out.

Secondly, stop pitching games to us, promising it to be the next big thing or the next thing that resembles something big.

Confusing? I'll give you an example. This email below was edited to protect the identity of the game.

... Our game promises to be the next Assassin's Creed ...

No. NO. Don't do that. Get this, all of us support Indie and startups. Be unique, just tell us point-blank what you are, honestly. Cause all of us have probably played the game before and if you fall short, we will seriously give you a bad rating.

Our game is really amazing, you have to try it to believe it

Okay... Okay... I probably have like 20 or 30 of these emails. How amazing is amazing?

I saw a good one the other day, however - This is how you can skillfully pitch your game to us.
With a compelling narrative and a team of experienced developers from XXXX, XXXXX once again delivers ZZZZZ

In one sentence, you have assured me of two things - This is a game with supposedly good narrative story along with a team of experienced developers which will assure some form of quality.

Writing a pitch to the media is like trying to sell a product to an unwilling person. Or to successfully rebel against the Lannisters in Game of Thrones.

Thirdly, provide everything in two pages or less.

I have ever seen a media pack that is about 20 pages long. I did not bother.

But I have my images in the thing! That goes over a few pages!
You can just zip all the images and leave the necessary things in the word doc you send to us. And really - Try to send it as a word doc instead of a PDF unless requested - This is so that we can make edits on it directly.

And we can then copy and paste it into our system for uploading easily - We'll thank you for it.

I usually advise this format for anyone I work with regarding Media Releases:

Who are you
What are you
What is the game run on and what it is about
Unique Features
Date of Release (if applicable)
Relevant Links (Facebook, Twitter and website etc.)

That's it. A few sentences for each. And you bet we'll do a news byte on you.

Be best friends with the media guy
Just drop an occasional email saying hi. Trust me. We will remember you if you do it long enough. Just don't do graphic heavy emails - Our company's internet is bad enough.

EDITS: Adding a section on Kickstarters ob

We love indie. Let me repeat it.
WE LOVE INDIE AND START UPS!

So of course we would love to help you out in Kickstarter or Indiegogo campaigns! However, do bear one thing in mind - The sum of money you are asking. Justify it.

You see, we've seen campaigns come and go, some realistic targets and then some... Not so.

Along with some, that have so little or ambiguous information that you really just start to suspect if this is dubious. So, make sure you have plenty of information in the description of your Kickstarter and that the information tallies with the press release that you have sent out to the media.

Have a convincing goal to achieve as well. Don't ask for more money than you have to - There is a limit to greed.

This is my way of giving back to the lemmasoft community - I hope more people out there can add to the discussion!

[Geckos]

Great info! :3

[TrickWithAKnife]

Great stuff. Bookmarking it for future reference.

[TheChris]

Thanks for the advice.

[Barzini]

Added a small write-up to Kickstarters!

[laiktail]

Barzini, thanks so much for the advice! It's awesome that you're sharing this info with the community.

I was just curious about the "Unique Features" part from your advice on formatting media releases. VNs generally don't have a ton of features per se, so do you think it would be pertinent to go a different route to your usual indie dev and talk about the story instead?

[Barzini]

Barzini, thanks so much for the advice! It's awesome that you're sharing this info with the community.

I was just curious about the "Unique Features" part from your advice on formatting media releases. VNs generally don't have a ton of features per se, so do you think it would be pertinent to go a different route to your usual indie dev and talk about the story instead?

Hey there!

You are right. You can definitely boast of a unique storyline - But how unique is unique? Perhaps if it is the first of its kind, then that would be some kind of special. I would advise you to make use of excellent artwork to impress us - Most of us sad journalists can't draw, you see.

I hope this answers your question!

[laiktail]

That's very helpful indeed! As a direct result of your advice, I'm definitely going to include the best promotional artwork we can muster up, when it comes to emailing people.

It sounds like going for the "unique storyline" thing may be a little more on the difficult side. I understand that something like 'The Stanley Parable' could be considered a first-of-its-kind type thing, but VNs with pure storyline are gonna be a little trickier. But it's worth a shot.

Barzini, do you have a Twitter account or anything? Would love to connect with ya.

[Barzini]

Thank you very much for your kind words!

Oh and do remember to add a watermark on it at the bottom right side so that when we put it up on news sites, no one of those sneaky sneaky people can steal it!

My twitter UN is @kksdarren or @afterthoughtVN

You can definitely reach me there!

[Katy133]

Also, don't try to censor negative reviews and criticism for your game.

Jimquisition did an editorial video on this.

[Barzini]

Also, don't try to censor negative reviews and criticism for your game.

Jimquisition did an editorial video on this.

In fact, I feel that it is best if you accept the criticism - Media is the last outlet you want to annoy.

[Zootower]

I vastly prefer the Marshawn Lynch approach: be as hostile to any and all publicity as frequently as possible. There are too many people on their grind in games journalism for the nice-guy approach.

I say this because I used to work as a camera operator/videographer at some trade shows in New York, chatted up and talked shop with writers at both corporate and indie events, and heard it straight from the horses' mouth: any "spotlights" that most contemporary journos are doing on indies are those who manufacture a lot of controversy or are buddy-buddy with the reviewer (glances at several Kotaku staffers who I won't bother naming)