Chapter 491: Chapter 299: What’s Wrong with Me Running a Few Steps?
After confirming the strategy of a low-key release and no promotion for the game, the next challenge quickly followed.
That’s right!
"Abab’s True Story" is not seeking returns, whether players buy the game is secondary. Even if they do buy it, and many do, Chen Ba will donate that portion of the revenue, so a zero-promotion issue is not too big.
But still...
This game was made to win awards. If it doesn’t win any awards, then what is the point of Chen Ba’s busy efforts during this period?
In other words.
Players might choose not to buy or play "Abab’s True Story," but those judges must play it. They must know about this game.
"There’s still time..."
Yang Dong analyzed: "The time for award submission is still sufficient. Before the game officially launches, we can send a Cdkey to those qualified to nominate and vote, like gaming media professionals and game producers."
This is also an industry norm.
Just like how films aiming for Oscar awards often mail tapes to Academy members at their own expense, saving them from having to buy tickets to watch.
Most major gaming awards are decided by votes from various well-known gaming media professionals, producers, and industry veterans.
We can’t expect each of these people to buy and play "Abab’s True Story"; that’s certainly unrealistic.
Therefore, giving away a free Cdkey or even a physical game cartridge becomes a very necessary thing.
Moreover, it doesn’t cost much.
The media professionals and producers qualified to nominate and vote number only in the hundreds, sending out these hundreds of games is a piece of cake for Tianba Studio.
"Alright, leave it to you to handle."
After thinking for a moment, Chen Ba said: "Since we’re giving them something, let’s be generous. We shouldn’t just send the game; let’s also include some small gifts, derivatives, and memorabilia."
"Won’t that count as bribery?"
"Reciprocity, normal PR and lobbying behavior, how can that be called bribery?"
Chen Ba said irritably: "When you need someone to do something, don’t you invite them to dinner or foot massage? As long as there’s no blatant cash handout, it doesn’t count as anything."
Blatant cash handout definitely won’t work; it leaves a terrible impression and wouldn’t sound good if it got out.
But giving a game Cdkey or cartridge along with some "insignificant" small gifts is a different matter.
In truth, Tianba Studio has done this quite a bit.
Take the media outlet it has the best relationship with, [Game Starry Sky], for example; from the editor-in-chief to ordinary editors, who hasn’t received a small gift from Tianba Studio occasionally?
Otherwise, why do you think [Game Starry Sky] publishes articles praising Tianba Studio every so often, praising their games, which players jokingly refer to as "Tianba Starry Sky"?
There’s no love without reason, nor hate without reason!
People always say that the domestic scene is a society of human relations. When someone arrives, they have to be offered a drink and a cigarette, but how much better can it be abroad?
Interactions between people, besides emotional factors, are nothing more than interests!
In this regard, while Chen Ba doesn’t claim to have much authority, he at least has some judgment capability.
Why does Tianba Studio have the Nobug Platform, yet its games are still released simultaneously on E-Shop, Steam, Wegame, and other platforms? Can’t they make it exclusive on Nobug?
Of course not!
Chen Ba can make it exclusive. If players want to play Tianba Studio’s games, they can only buy them on the Nobug platform.
But he knows well that monopoly often has no good outcome, and players don’t want to see such a situation either. Making more friends always comes in handy at critical moments.
"That’s true..."
Yang Dong said with a smile: "Our relationship with the Steam platform isn’t bad; over the years, they’ve given us lots of premium recommendation slots, and our games are always featured on the homepage."
This is the benefit of cooperation.
The Steam platform also values its partnership with Tianba Studio and doesn’t want to see Tianba Studio withdraw from Steam, so it has been making every effort to retain them.
Fun fact!
For ordinary game developers, when their game is sold on Steam, Steam charges a "passage fee" of 30%, meaning a full third of the earnings.
Whereas for developers like Tianba Studio, which have a certain "bargaining power," the negotiated commissions are only 10%, even lower than the publicly announced commission rate of E-Shop.
Of course, E-Shop privately promised Tianba Game benefits, directly offering commission-free terms.
All in all, E-Shop is still the best!
Unfortunately, E-Shop hasn’t performed well; the community atmosphere is far inferior to Steam, even now falling behind the Nobug platform.
Yes, E-Shop’s community atmosphere is not as good as the Nobug platform’s.
Although Nobug is jokingly called "large Wegame," at least this platform integrates [Tianba Community], and the activity of Tianba Community needs no elaboration, right?
"E-Shop is quite pitiful, but it’s okay; at least they have the Dream Building Engine. With this engine, they won’t die out anytime soon."
Yang Dong sighed: "On the contrary, we’ve painstakingly developed the Tianba Engine and updated it to version 5.0, yet it’s still lagging far behind the Dream Building Engine..."
Chen Ba was at a loss for words.
Is the Tianba Engine easy to use?
Yes, definitely easy to use!
As a technology-packed AI game engine, the convenience of developing with the Tianba Engine is undeniable, which is why it has won many developers’ favor.
However, the developers using the Tianba Engine are mostly small developers or independent game developers, while major companies or top studio teams rarely use this engine for developing games.
