Originally published at: http://boop.social/considerations-before-launch/
Part 1 in this series: 'Just Put it on Steam!' Is Not a Strategy

Audience: Independent Developers, Self-publishing

What: High level overview of the areas outside of 'make a great game!' that should be considered before you launch. Not all of these may apply to your individual title, but it's worth the exercise of considering each high-level area and its implications for your game.

When: Ideally you should be thinking of these throughout the development of your title, and make a special effort to revisit and focus on them no less than 3-6 months prior to launch (for any title which has been in development for more than 1 year).

NOTE: Questions provided are only intended as a kicking off point for brainstorming and consideration, and are not intended to be all-encompassing. Please seek additional information and/or guidance from subject matter experts as applicable.

Jump to:

Market Awareness

Being aware of the current market is an absolute must for understanding how to better develop and position your game. If you're creating a title that will be up against a lot of competition, knowing this in advance will help you better develop, identify, highlight, and market those points that differentiate you from others in the market. If you're not sure what you're up against, you're doing yourself (and potentially your team) a huge disservice. Put some time aside, research the current market, and check in periodically to revise those findings as the market changes.

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Regional Considerations

If you're intending on launching your game to a global audience, you'll also want to be aware of regional considerations. This impacts not just how you build your game, but how you interact with and market it to your non-native-region customers. Remember: Your customer may not end up being who you thought they were; If you gain a huge customer base in another region, how do you keep those players interested and engaged?

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Marketing & PR

You've made a great game! ...Now how do you get other people to notice? In a market that's saturated with choice, putting careful thought, planning, and resources into your Marketing & PR strategy can be vital. As discussed in the previous article in this series, 'just put it on Steam!' is not a solid strategy. While it's always fantastic when a game picks up traction and gains a huge following without much effort on the part of the team, counting on that is gambling

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Advertising

If you're launching a freemium game, you're absolutely going to want to investigate and understand your options with regards to advertising models. I know there can be a bit of hesitation around Advertising, but remember: there are models which benefit both you and the customer. (thankfully enough, these also tend to be among the most effective!)

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Monetization

In short, how will you make money from your game? Making a game just for fun is fantastic, but if you're attempting to earn a living from your work you need to carefully consider how you will be making money from it well before you send it out into the real world. For example, in markets such as the Steam store, a premium model is still a viable option for most titles as long as you hit the right price point for your content. However, if you're launching on the App Store or Google Play Store, you're going to want to strongly consider a freemium option with an ad-supported and/or in-app purchases. Your game and its audience will help inform the strategy that's likely to work best for you, but if you're not thinking this through early in your development it may be too late to change course. Consider:

Analytics

In short, what information do you need from your game once it has been launched? It's much easier to build in the hooks to collect the right data before you ship than to attempt to foist them in at a later date, so think through this area and what would be beneficial information for you to have longer term.
 

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Finances

Outside of 'how do I make money in the game', you'll also want to consider your larger financial picture. If you're self-publishing and relying on your game's success for your income, this should be at the forefront of your mind before going into indie game development as your full time profession.

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User Experience

Technically User Testing, Community, In-game social hooks, QA and Customer Support can all fall under the larger umbrella of 'User Experience'.  However, as these are all fairly large areas, I've chosen to break them up into their own segment.

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User Testing

If you're able to do so, testing your game with your expected audience can provide a great deal of feedback and ideas that you might not have otherwise considered. User testing can also help validate or disprove ideas with the target audience before too much has been invested.

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Community & Social Media

Building a great community and social media presence around your game can be a great way to not just build interest in your title pre-launch, but also set the foundation for the long term relationships that lead to great interactions & genuine advocates for your current and future work.

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In-Game Social Hooks

Provided you've built a great game, building social hooks inside of your game can go a long way to helping spread the word about your new title. With the cost of user acquisition well outside of the realm of possibility for most indie game developers, finding real, innovative ways for your players to easily share the things they love about your game can go a long way towards increasing visibility (and hopefully downloads!).

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Quality Assurance (QA)

If you're not providing enough time for thoroughly testing your game, you're setting yourself up for failure. Even the most well tested game will discover bugs after launch. 'It works on my machine' doesn't mitigate customer frustration, and shipping an overly buggy game can forever damage developer reputation.

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Customer Support

Customer support is absolutely critical to maintaining your reputation and establishing customer loyalty. By ensuring you have a solid strategy for how you interact with your customers prior to launch, you can cut down on a lot of the day to day stress. The last thing you want is to receive a high risk customer support interaction in the middle of a flood of other tickets and have no idea how to handle it. If you're planning for the worst, and implementing the right processes before you launch, you'll have more time and mental bandwidth to deal with the critical communications.

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Legal

While it can be intimidating to look into the legal aspect of game development, it's truly one of those cases of 'better safe than sorry'. A great lawyer can help mitigate your fears, provide guidance, and steer you clear of potential legal red flags before they ever become an issue.

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Note: This area is particularly critical if you feel you might need guidance regarding the FTC, COPPA compliance, and/or EU regulations. It's far better to spend a couple hundred dollars up front to be certain you're in the clear than to be hit with a serious lawsuit and/or penalty from larger organizations.

FTC, EU, and more

If you're creating content that will be distributed in the USA or the EU, you need to be aware of and compliant with the regulations set forth by the FTC and the EU. Note: It does not matter if you are physically located outside of the USA or EU; if you are creating content which is in any way distributed in the USA or EU you fall under these regulations and can be found in violation & fined for transgressions. These penalties are not insignificant, so take this area under serious consideration and tread carefully (and seek legal help before you need it!). Consider:

Partners

Partners encompass everyone outside of your core development team. Unless you're developing in a silo, you're likely working with partners of some sort.

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Alternate distribution channels

Just because you created a title for a particular platform or distribution channel doesn't mean it has to live there and there alone forever. If you have the opportunity and the means, releasing on multiple platforms or distribution channels can be a great way to boost your overall audience and sales numbers.

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Launch Strategy

While your launch may seem like a long way off, it's always good to keep in mind as even the most seasoned gamedev can massively underestimate the effort needed to release a product into the market.

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Post-Launch Calendar

Launching your game is often just the first step in a long product lifecycle. It's important to consider how you'll be supporting the title once it's out in the wild. Not just with regards to actual customer support, but with bug fixes, new features, updates, etc. If you're not planning the calendar for this work before you launch, it can be easy to get caught up in the day to day firefighting and conversation around your game. Having clear post-launch milestones to work towards is a huge win, and can help keep you on track when you'd otherwise find yourself distracted.

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Live-Ops

If your game relies on any timed, server-based, or regularly updated elements, you're going to want to plan out your Live Operations strategy well before you launch. Running a game with timed elements can be intense in its own right. If you've tied those elements to achievements and/or rewards you've increased the risk substantially as these are high customer pain points should anything go awry.

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In Closing...

Now, after reading all of that you might be inclined to panic... DON'T!

As with any project, it's up to you to look at what you need to do, prioritize what you have the resources to do, and build an action plan for covering and/or cutting those aspects that you are not able to handle internally. In short, it's just like every other part of the game dev experience! If you're considering these areas and making the appropriate plans along the way, it's just another part of the larger experience. You got this. Now go make something great!  

Next in this series: Creating Great Social Shares

Questions? Comments? Areas I've completely neglected to include? Drop me a line in the comments, or on Twitter @boopsocial!