Streaming on Twitch, Mixer or YouTube is becoming increasingly important for the success of a game. It's called viral marketing today and how this works particularly well, an insider talks in the GameStar interview. Milo Gutmann is CEO of Pow Wow, the Viennese developer of the multiplayer action game Misbits. He says:
"There is no 'silver bullet' for success on Twitch. […] Sometimes you just have to be lucky. […] But there are factors that favor it. […] Looked at development, what viewers especially enjoy playing at. That was either horror, where the streamer is frightened – or physics effects that lead to extremely funny situations, something else always happens. "
Watching Twitch is fun
At Misbits, Pow Wow chose the second way, in the colorful early access game on Steam
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"We wanted to go as far as possible [with the physics effects, editor's note] without making it look buggy. It just shouldn't give the impression that the game is broken. […] You kick one Grenade, knocking over an explosive barrel and then it flies in the face of your character in the middle of the jump and kills him. And you ask yourself: 'How did that happen now?' But it's always part of the game without being completely absurd. "
Such scenes should not only be fun for the player himself, according to Milo Gutmann they are too especially entertaining for viewers and can fuel the hype of a game on Twitch or other streaming platforms.
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Streamers, players and developers cooperate
Milo Gutmann hopes that Misbits' toybox mode in particular will lead to many such WTF moments. Because here Misbits players can build their own mini-games and also vary the physics settings freely.
This could result in particularly fun game modes, which streamers might pick up and gain in popularity among the fan base – until the developers finally adopt them into the official matchmaking themselves. The managing director of developer Pow Wow gives examples such as a kind of sumo wrestling arena and various platforms with bouncy inserts.
The Toybox is an editor, which also works in multiplayer mode for up to 16 players – streamers can thus invite their fans to join in live on the server. In the past, there were successful collaborations both at the impulse of the developers and the marketing department of Publisher 3BlackDot and through inquiries from streamers.
You stand there with large streams like that of the Spanish influencer Vegetta777 Always increases in player numbers and Steam Wishlist entries as a direct result of quasi-advertising, says the Misbits developer.
"It is extremely important for small developers and publishers to spread their game virally. But it is difficult to be successful alone. A mix is important, even traditional forms of marketing continue to be justified. More and more games appear and only a fraction of it becomes a streaming hit. "
For well-known streamers, their work as influencers is very lucrative; In a report, we take a closer look at how much money they make on Twitch. For the valuable marketing developers are willing to pay over 100,000 euros to individual streamers.
Disclaimer
Misbits is developed by Pow Wow Entertainment and Purple Lamp Studios. The publisher 3BlackDot belongs to Webedia, the parent company of GameStar, GamePro, Mein-MMO and IGN Germany. We will report neutral about MisBits, but will not test it.
