Himalaya Studios Looking for Classic Adventure Gamers

[GameDevBrit]

Hey guys!

We're currently in the beta phase with Al Emmo and the Lost Dutchman's Mine, and the release of the game is approaching on the horizon. I wanted to get some ideas from other adventure gaming fans as to how we can reach our target audience.

I've noticed that many of us don't frequent gaming stores all that much, and don't really trust the reviews we read in the more common gaming magazines (I just read about the awful review for Scratches--so sad:frown: ) I'm wondering, where do you all feel are the best places to reach people who are desiring an original, classic style adventure game? I know word of mouth and releasing information online are powerful methods, but I'm interested in hearing if you have any other ideas as well?

What are the forums you frequent most? Where do adventure gamers hang out? What in print magazines are you reading?

Also, what kinds of competitions have you guys enjoyed in the past? Giveaways? Anything else?

I'm interested in hearing any ideas that you guys have!! And if you have any questions for the development team, we have opened our official Himalaya Studios forums, so feel free to drop by and ask away:D

http://www.himalayaforums.com

Looking forward to hearing ideas from you!

Britney Brimhall
Chairman & CEO
Himalaya Studios, LLC
http://www.himalayastudios.com

[spaceship789]

I just want to commend you on asking such questions. They are exactly the questions you should be asking. But unfortunately, I don't know many of the answers. :)

I visit here, and a couple of adventure game dev sites (ie ags forums) and thats it. Friends of mine who are also adventure game fans are even harder to track down - only a few hunt out the games themselves: Some wait for me to tell them about certain games, and others actually prefer browsing in shops (antiquated I realise). I guess word of mouth is pretty big.

If you wanted an instant community - you could open up parts of your engine. Games like Quake and Unreal built up quite a community this way. I may not be being objective here, its just that biggest adventure game forums I go to are developer ones.

You could also associate your selves with a famous gaming celbrity. Telltale now have Purcel and Grossman onboard, and this is helping their promotion quite a bit.

thats all I can think of right now...

[avatar_58]

I know its going to sound odd, but make damn sure you guys mention the King's Quest remakes. If more people understand where you came from, more people will be inspired to try out your new game. :D

Also you would be really surprised at how many gamers of other genres grew up playing adventure games. Just a mention that a new 'sierra-like' classic adventure game is on its way would have people talking......perhaps on this occasion word of mouth really is the best way.

I would attempt to get into contact with the big names like IGN, Gamespy and the others, because you'd be really surprised how many readers visit those sites. Hell, just check the "Sierra Compilations" news item there and see how many actually said "OH BOY!" :)

Actually I have an idea, I'll let the 3drealms guys know. :) That ought to get some word of mouth going.

[GameDevBrit]

These are some GREAT ideas, guys! I like the idea of finding people on dev forums and the ags forums, as well as mentioning our previous work on the Sierra remakes. It would be interesting to bring a veteran onboard--perhaps some of the old Sierra employees would be interested in playing the game and at least commenting on it. I am going to look into this. Thank you again, guys!

[Legolas813]

Like avatar said above, I would definitely try to get in contact with the big name gaming sites. Let them know the game actually exists. Then in turn they can publish news articles about the game and post a page on the game.

Demos and giveaways are always good in getting attention of course.

But mostly what I'm saying is try to reach gamers outside the adventure gaming sites. We already know about the game. Let other people discover this upcoming release.

When I posted about this game on GameSpot, most people hadn't even heard of it. And of course they were asking why GameSpot was not covering it.

[Dasilva]

I think that you should go out and try and get just as many non adventure game websites to advertize your game, because there are many people out there who enjoy old style adventure games and arent a member of an adventure game exclusive website.

Will you guys have a advert campaign? Like Oblivion had five trailers and released one each day on the last five days before release.

[insane_cobra]

Spread the word through gaming blogs like Kotaku and Joystiq, a lot of people read those.

And then the news will probably get carried over to many other blogs.

[RLacey]

Copy Games Press (http://www.gamespress.com) in on your press releases.

Actually, that isn't a joke. The number of sites I see that lift half their news from there...

[Christian IV]

I agree with all the suggestions above Britney and bravo for asking here, for you will get very good ideas from the forum here, it is one of the best I have seen, certainly do try to reach the real people who will understand and appreciate what you are doing, the experienced gamers but also don't forget there are many out there who are potentially a great audience for you who ahve not yet experienced good adventure games, such people as came into the fold with Myst some years ago, but who may have drifted away since, so you might consider looking to interact with them on the fringes, with user friendly approaches and making an excellent interface for your new title to help with that....

don't forget the good side of the reviewers and that ilk too, as RLacey says, the good media, and some of the journals, such as Game Studies, http://www.gamestudies.org/, and of course the GDC and that level of things, but I am sure you have thought of that. But to reach people also it is very important to have good PR and specially good cover art and presentation, I have seen very good titles nixed or weakened by poor pr over the years, such as the second of the Kyrandia series, poor launch, and others that seem to not have the right presentation visually in terms of the Box art, and graphics. Good luck and thanks for asking.

[Legolas813]

I contacted an Admin at GameSpot about the game and they were kind enough to put up a gamespace.

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/adventure/alemmoandthelostdutchmansmine/index.html

[AudioSoldier]

It's commerical then?

[Legolas813]

Yes.

[Dasilva]

I contacted an Admin at GameSpot about the game and they were kind enough to put up a gamespace.

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/adventure/alemmoandthelostdutchmansmine/index.html

Cool, we should keep gamespot informed about that project. You can get a lot of publicity through there.

[bigjko]

Al Emmo is a third-person, point & click adventure game by three of the King's Quest developers.

That's... wrong, right?

[insane_cobra]

They somehow omitted the word "remake" between "Quest" and "developers".

[Dasilva]

Roberta is working on the game?! :P

[Legolas813]

That's... wrong, right?

GameSpot made that up themselves. I didn't give them anything other than links to Himalaya's site and the AG Hands-On Preview.

There is some discussion about that statement here:

http://www.himalayaforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=279&start=74