Lonesome Village

Ogre Pixel approached Game If You Are to help promote their forthcoming Kickstarter. As non-native English speakers looking to reach an English-speaking audience, they wanted an agency who could help to refine their comms – but we ended up going a step further…

Project Details

Client:
OGRE PIXEL

Project Type:
CROWDFUNDING

Services Provided:
STRATEGY, MEDIA RELATIONS

Kickstarting the journey

Mexican studio Ogre Pixel approached Game If You Are a few months ahead of a planned Kickstarter for their upcoming indie game, Lonesome Village. The team hoped to raise $22,000 to complete production. With a key target audience of English-speaking players, the team wanted an English-language firm to advise them on their communication strategy and assist them in reaching out to the English-language media.

Speaking with Ogre Pixel, we were able to identify a number of areas to tighten up their messaging. But we also began to look more in-depth at their Kickstarter strategy itself, and recommend a number of ideas to consider to increase both their reach and engagement.

We put the studio’s entire campaign plan through its paces – analysing all of their promotional assets, their page copy, their reward tiers and their stretch goals. Digging into their target audience, we identified that the game – which was currently slated for Steam but with a Switch version being considered for announcement at a later date should the campaign exceed its targets – would potentially be most appealing to owners of Nintendo’s handheld console.

We agreed to take a calculated risk – removing the Switch version as a stretch goal and announcing it for the platform in the run-up to the launch of the crowdfunding campaign. It was a risk that paid dividends – with significant quantities of coverage from the Nintendo-specific and multi-platform press that would not have been possible with only a PC version confirmed.

“A charming new dungeon puzzler inspired by Zelda and Animal Crossing, and it’s hoping to launch on Switch… it certainly looks like it has potential.”

In the days leading up to the launch of the campaign – having spent weeks working with Ogre Pixel to present the game in the best possible light – we engaged in substantial press outreach. We asked outlets to hold off on coverage until after the Kickstarter had launched, which resulted in a large groundswell of content being posted in the first few days of the campaign. Within just a week, the campaign had not only hit its funding goal, but doubled it.

In turn, this resulted in even more coverage, as the project became featured on Kickstarter and word of the campaign’s success began to work its way around the indie game community. Ultimately, Ogre Pixel were able to raise $108,000 – a whopping 390% of its funding goal. This has allowed the team to significantly expand the scope of their game, responding to popular community requests, and move toward a successful Switch-focused release.

“Our decision to work with Game If You Are was certainly a decisive factor in the success of the Lonesome Village Kickstarter campaign. We would be happy to work together on future projects.”

Pablo Durán

Marketing Manager, Ogre Pixel