Black Shell Media Blog
Check out marketing tips, development advice and more, authored by our team of expert writers, marketing professionals and industry veterans!
Categories:
Business | Developer Spotlight | Game Design | Game Development
Guest Post | Interview | Marketing | Technology | Writing
Check out the Indie Insider podcast for interviews with industry veterans and experts!
4 Management Tips to Run Your Indie Development Studio’s Finances Like a Hyperion Executive
The deeper I've journeyed into the extended lore of the Borderlands series, the more I'm convinced that the Hyperion Corporation is the most competently run video game business of all time. Corporate leadership at Hyperion, and by that I mostly just mean Handsome...
Indie Insider #54 – Indie Insider Focus (The Advice Episode)
A compilation of all of the best advice and ideas we've received from 50 episodes worth of amazing guests and industry icons. Topics discussed: How to get up and start something new Dealing with feedback and finding balance in your work Mastering the art of...
5 Game Development Lessons I Learned as an MBA Student
Today's guest post comes form Brandon Rollins. My name is Brandon Rollins. I made War Co. and I’m working on Highways & Byways. I created Brandon the Game Dev, which is a website dedicated to showing first-time hobby board game developers how to see their projects...
A Crash Course in Board Game Marketing & Promotion
This post first appeared on Brandon The Game Dev's blog! Self-publishing a board game is a long, drawn out process. Some of this goes back to the process of creating your game, getting it manufactured, and raising funds. Yet if there were a single thing that...
So You’ve Graduated from College and Want to Make Games
Today's guest post is by Rosemarie Gabinete. Congrats on your graduation (or, as we like to say, Congradulations—feel free to use that one)! If you did it right, college was an academic challenge and a time of great personal growth. It was a safe, happy time, a time...
Indie Insider #53 – Larry Kuperman, Director of Business Development for Nightdive Studios
Guest: Larry Kuperman, Director of Business Development for Nightdive Studios, the team perhaps most notable for remaking games from the past, such as the System Shock franchise. Topics discussed: Larry's story and how he went from a theatre education degree to...
How to Effectively Fit Marketing into Your Busy Workflow
Once you’ve created your marketing strategy (make sure you have a marketing plan in place before optimizing your workflow!), you should have a clearer picture of the amount of work you have ahead of you. From here, you have two options: Hire someone to handle...
5 Books You Should Read If You Want to Be A Great Developer
What do beginners and industry veterans have in common? They all want to be great developers. Yes, even seasoned professionals need to seek constant improvement and challenges. The learning never quite stops, especially in this field. There are many resources out...
The Intricacies of Lore Creation
Ah, lore. There's so much to say, let alone dissect, that it's no wonder most developers forgo a fully fleshed out lore crafting experience for the player to enjoy. It's just much easier to create a singular story for a game than it is to create all sorts of other...
Indie Insider #52 – Tobias Sjögren of White Wolf Entertainment
Guest: Tobias Sjögren, CEO of White Wolf Entertainment, a sister company to Paradox Interactive. Topics discussed: Tobias' story of taking over a company acquired by Paradox Interactive and nurturing the World of Darkness IP, as well as his humble beginnings...
The Two Kinds of Metroid Games
Today's guest post is by Ishaan Sahdev. At E3 2017, Nintendo confirmed that both kinds of Metroid games fans know and love would be making a return in the near future. Metroid: Samus Returns, a remake of the side-scrolling Metroid II on the original Game Boy, is now...
Stand Out: The Person, Indie, and Mobile
As the gaming industry expands, the amount of developers cropping up and the increase in the amount of gaming being made is making exposure a key focus in progressing. It can lead many to doubt themselves, or ask "how do I stand out?" For a developer to rise to the...
What Life Taught Me About Learning Through Video Games
Today's guest post is by Antonio Perez, Executive Director for Gamer Society. Looking back through the years, I feel very fortunate to have had the experiences that sent my life into the direction I’m in today. The thing about growing up poor is that you don’t really...
Indie Insider #51 – Zhenghua Yang, Founder of Serenity Forge
Guest: Zhenghua Yang, Game Developer and Founder of Serenity Forge, an indie video game publishing studio. Topics discussed: An in-depth exploration of the blood disorder that almost claimed Zhenghua's life, and how video games saved him How Serenity Forge is...
There’s Still Time: The Line Between the Proven and the Innovative
I'd known it for a while. I'd felt it whenever picking up my trusty, blue controller. I would play a game absentmindedly and nod off. Even when it was an exciting game, an immersive one, I would focus and start off just fine before... getting completely bored. For the...
Binaural Simulation: How It Benefits Your Game
There are various elements that make up the player experience within video games. Visuals, story, level design, and audio all meld collectively to facilitate and assemble an atmosphere that players can enjoy. Each of these elements can be talked about at length, but I...
Indie Insider #50 – Nolan Bushnell, Founder of Atari (and a Giveaway!)
Guest: Nolan Bushnell, Founder of Atari and father of the video game industry. Nolan Bushnell has also co-founded companies such as Modal VR and Brainrush. Topics discussed: Things that shouldn't hold you back, such as location or a college education Nolan...
A Comprehensive Guide to Media And Public Relations
There is a distinct “news beat” that game companies follow for their launch, and once you notice these beats, you’ll see it everywhere. By following each news beat, companies know what to share with journalists to get the maximum amount of eyeballs come launch. In...
Get Started: Developing your Projects
There you are, sitting at your work space and staring blankly into the abyss that is a blank page. You’re here because you want to make a game—had that inspiration bug bite you—but now that you have cleared your schedule, maybe cleaned up your area, but the well is...
5 Tricks for Managing Your Indie Game’s Discord Community
Discord is a rising superpower amongst the available free voice chat clients. It allows for free voice chat between two people, a group, or within a server—similar to the days of Ventrillo and Teamspeak. It has risen in popularity greatly over the past year and is...
Indie Insider #49 – Craig Morrison, Design Department Manager of Blizzard Entertainment
Guest: Craig Morrison, Design Department Manager of the World of Warcraft franchise at Blizzard Entertainment. Topics discussed: How Craig approaches design as a philosophy and a discipline The immense importance of collaboration in this industry The values and...
3 Quick Tips to Help New Devs Avoid Stress
When deciding to develop a video game from the position of an amateur or newcomer, you may find yourself working as a one-person team, at least at the beginning. Many over the years have produced amazing titles working as a single developers, but it can be a...
Learning From Mistakes: The Ultimate Writing Error Guide
Storytelling is one of those things players don’t have any expectations of until something doesn’t meet their standards. All of a sudden, the narrative is a little off, the story doesn’t seem to align properly, or worse: there isn’t a story at all. Oops. While there...
Indie Insider #48 – Fredrik Wester, CEO of Paradox Interactive
Guest: Fredrik Wester, the CEO of video game developer and publishing company Paradox Interactive. Topics discussed: What platform should you put your game on, and is console viable for indies? Fred's advice to "taking a lot of s**t." How to maximize your own...