being mike bithell
DESCRIPTION
Here's my presentation I original gave at Develop In Brighton and subsequently at The Games Quarter about Mike Bithell and how he has used press and social media to drive awareness for his games. Do get in touch if you have any questionsTRANSCRIPT
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Being Mike Bithell
Simon Byron, director of games/social, Premier
@byronicmanTiny disclaimer: I really like Mike and all this ribbing is meant affectionately
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Session objective
To observe the phenomena known as ‘Mike Bithell’ and identify six rules for
being him
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Introductions• Simon Byron:
– Director of games at Premier– 2,600 followers on Twitter
(@byronicman)– Co-authored two books on
videogames– Present One Life Left, a weekly
radio show about videogames– Videogames PR since 1994– Won CTW “PR exec of the year”
• Mike Bithell– Well, he’s Mike Bithell– 22,000 followers on Twitter
(@mikebithell)– Worked on a fair few
videogames– Wrote Thomas Was Alone, is
writing Volume– Is basically a child (I think he is
about 30 or something)– Won a fucking BAFTA
Mike is winning
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Reasons to be Mike
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Reasons to be Mike“...it will be well nigh impossible to reach an
audience unless you are at least as good at public relations and marketing as you are at
game development.”Greg Costikyan, game designer, author
GDC 2014
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|A wider view• Good games aren’t guaranteed to sell• Review scores often don’t matter• The industry view is frequently at odds with the consumers’• People literally like free to play• It’s not who you know, it’s what you say
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Time
Impo
rtan
ce
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Metacritic:
61 per cent Xbox 360
57 per cent PS3
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Metacritic:
60 per cent PS3
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Metacritic:
No-one reviews
Facebook games
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“[I’m] shit at coding, I'm not a very good programmer, I've
never had any training”
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#1
Lesson one: Share it
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#1
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#2
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Perfect opening
Brilliant introduction
Recognises we are lazy
Absolutely no fucking about
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One Life Left exclusives!
Earliest example of an actual, Mike Bithell in the wild!
First ever mention of Thomas Was Alone!
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#2 Lesson two: be opportunistic
#2b: Turn up for interviews. I could have been doing this talk about you.
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#3
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17 – 23rd June 2012
24th – 30th June 2012
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24th – 30th June 2012
1st – 7th July 2012
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#3: Lesson three: Be prepared
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#4
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“Mike Bithell” 12 months to 20/5
“Thomas Was Alone” 12 months to 20/5
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“Godus” 12 months to 20/5
“Peter Molyneux” 12 months to 20/5“Peter Molyneux” NOT “Curiosity” 12 months to 20/5“Peter Molyneux“ and not “Curiosity” nor “Godus” 12 months to 20/5
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A month in Tweets
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A month in Tweets
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A month in Tweets
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A month in Tweets
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A month in Tweets
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#4 Create personality, but don’t
dominate
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#5
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#6
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#6
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Thank you
• Google• Twitter• Sysomos (paid)• Topsy
• Google Trends• Metacritic• Mobygames
Resources used in this talk: