Black Shell Media Blog
Check out marketing tips, development advice and more, authored by our team of expert writers, marketing professionals and industry veterans!
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Business | Developer Spotlight | Game Design | Game Development
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Plug In Digital Acquires Publishing Operations of Black Shell Media
Plug In Digital is pleased to announce the acquisition of Black Shell Media publishing operations. From February 1st 2021, Plug In Digital will be publishing Black Shell Media’s catalog of third-party titles, including the roguelike dungeon crawler Dungeon Souls, the...
Reverence: What to Do and Avoid Doing When Tackling a Big Name Project
Remember all the bad press Star Wars Battlefront II generated? Their parade got rained on for one simple reason: the studio lacked the respect to take on such a big name project. Here's what I mean. Cleary their objective was to change things from the first game. In...
Should You Put Out a Remake?
Being in the gaming industry is a bit like playing chess. You have to look at the whole picture, see what your opponent is doing, and decide your next move. If you make the wrong choices, you're in for a rough, frustrating ride. One that ends with you losing more than...
Digging for Truth: Is Online Competitive Multiplayer Worth It?
Star Wars: The Old Republic. World of Warcraft. Even the controversial Star Wars Battlefront II. Games that are either entirely based around online multiplayer, or that feature a multiplayer mode, are pretty common. But there's a reason why there are far more...
Youtube Gaming vs. Twitch.Tv for Live Streams
As a follow-up to last week's article on live streams, we've got some more info for you! Live streams are popular for a single reason: people love to watch others play video games. Think about it, it's exciting. It provides the opportunity in engaging with a fellow...
5 Tips for Running a Successful Live Stream
Thinking of doing a live stream to gain traction for your game? Congratulations on making a smart marketing decision! Not only are live streams a great way to connect directly with your audience and build a dev-player relationship, it's also an opportunity to answer...
Are Demakes Going to Increase in Popularity, or Fall out of Style?
Demakes, you know, like Gang Garrison 2, a direct reinvention of Valve's Team Fortress 2. Games heavily inspired, influenced and dependent on a predecessor, often created on an older platform (or at least made to look that way) by completely different studios, these...
Email Marketing Best Practices
In a day and age where everyone is connected through Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, and Twitter, it may seem surprising that email is not only still around, but still relevant. Something that began in the 1960s is still around, being used to communicate with business...
Are Advanced Degrees Worth It in the Games Industry?
As we've covered before on the blog, college and education in general is important for any career, gaming or otherwise. It can open doors, give you a foundation for a new job, and maybe even an edge over the competition. But again, as we've stated before, getting a...
Choosing a Content Managing System for Your Website
Thinking of creating a new website for your studio? In this digital age, that is more important than most things you could do! Think of your website as your own storefront, with a proper landing page and call to action. A blog to increase search engine optimization...
Put Up or Walk Away: What to Do When No One Buys Your Game
No developer wants to think about this kind of scenario, but . . . What do you do when no one buys your game? This isn't something commonly addressed, despite the fact that it happens all the time. Games get released and lost on digital platforms, hit the sales bin at...
Is Porting to Console Worth It?
Thinking of porting to console, but not sure if it's worth it? Welcome to the club! This is something that every developer, indie or AAA, has to deal with at some point. There are projects where the platform just makes sense, such as mobile games that are...
Content Marketing 101: 7 Tricks for Better SEO
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is vital to every single business out there, large or small: Solo developers need it just as much as any large 300+ employee business. The thing is, SEO makes it possible for you to show up in more searches online. Anytime someone...
The Top 5 Movies About Game Development
If you're new to the industry, or you're debating whether or not to go into game development, there are a few movies you should probably watch. Now, it's easy to ask, "Are there even . . . more than 2-3 movies about game development anyway?" Yes, there are. And by...
6 Tips For Living A Healthy Lifestyle While Working A Desk Job
Game developers lead a very distinct lifestyle. Regardless of whether or not they have day jobs, they always wind up in front of their computers working on games for hours. While entertaining, and certainly rewarding, game development is also quite challenging. More...
10 Personal Finance Tips for Entrepreneurs
Being an entrepreneur means a careful balancing act of many things. Marketing and advertising, product manufacturing (actual game development), and even personal finance just for starters. The thing is, everything must be carefully kept up when you're an entrepreneur....
Crossroads: Is It Time You Switch Career Paths?
Game development can be a difficult road filled with demotivation and self-doubt, so on the BSM blog, we try to stick to positivity, good messaging, and overall hope. How to be a better designer, how to overcome obstacles, how to better manage your time and handle...
3 Reasons Discord Is A Great Place for Your Indie Game’s Community
Discord has established itself as the go-to for many gamers and developers when it comes to communication. It's become the place where gamers meet new friends, where they learn about new games, and where they get to express their distastes openly. It's Discord, and...
10 Easy Ways to Grow Your Dev Blog Fast
Remember when blogging was a hobby? It was some random teenager on Tumblr just reposting their favorite celebrities and quotes. Any blog with its own domain was relatively unfollowed and unread. Well, both digital advancements (the rise of the digital age, the...
Top European Cities for Game Developers
We've covered the American cities that should make your list, but now it's time to focus on Europe. While it may seem like America and Asia have the hold on games, Europe shouldn't be underestimated. The coffee-fueled, book-reading public enjoys their games too, and...
Most Popular Cities in the U.S. for Gaming Companies
Whether you're looking to move, visit, or potentially even kick off a career in gaming sometime in the future, it's likely you've wondered what cities to look into. After all, AAA is kind of the big leagues of game development. And some indie studios really do have ....
7 Reasons Why Your Game Isn’t Selling
Scenario: your game is done, and it's been launched and marketed. It's available for purchase on platforms like Steam and itch.io—maybe even console if you're a lucky indie development studio. And yet . . . The game isn't selling. What's going on?! Surely, there...
A Not so Entertaining Battle: What’s Going on Between Developers and Players?
As a developer, how difficult is it to choose between innovating in an untested market vs. going with a safe rehash in a tried and true market? This is the question of the hour these days, with so many players up in a frenzy over lack of industry innovation in the AAA...
Is It Good or Bad to Spend Too Much Time Playing Your Own Game?
You did it: you launched your game and now it's available for anyone to play! Everyone, including yourself. That's amazing, right? Being able to finally play and enjoy something you created either alone or with a group of people. Not everyone can say they accomplished...