There are a million ways to lose a work day, but not even a single way to get one back. ~ Tom DeMarco & Timothy Lister.

Hustling beats Procrastinating.

Activity chops down inactivity everyday of the week. Sometimes you may not realise it, but you aren't doing anything at all to help generate any sort of advancement or productivity for your company. You need to be active in the digital world; for example trying to be active everyday may just be communicating through different social media outlets 10 times a day 5 days a week. It may just be a comment or tweet on a current topic or discussion, or even making contact with old or new contacts, colleagues or if you're lucky enough, fans of your Game or company. So if you look at it like this, thats 50 times in a week you've exposed yourself (not in a naked under a trench coat way. But even that may work for some) 200 times in a month. Create presence by avoiding procrastination it makes a huge difference.

While on the topic of creating presence. NETWORKING, It's not what you know but who you know. Most industries rely on this a lot and more often then not you find yourself meeting new people or introducing people you know to others at conventions or game jams or BDSM Party, Game Dev Nights or those cool Orgies we hold while sacrificing baby lambs to our Indie Game Gods. Thats how the ball roles at these kinda jigs.

INTRODUCE PEOPLE IN DEPTH!

I think this counts for nearly every meet and greet, networking situation. We are all personal developers and real people. When introducing people to one another instead of "John this is Sue, Sue this is John. Well enjoy the next five minutes of unavoidable awkward moments of the same old intro conversation routine. I've got to go and do this to another 30 or so people." Yeah thanks for that.
How about this; personalise your introduction of them. Be a bit more open and loving over the whole thing;

1. This is the person and what they do.
   2.This is what they are good at.
2. This is what I like about them.
   This leaves the newly introduced able to spark conversation and much more comfortable from the get-go. Also it helps you as those people will be thankful towards you and you are also reminding yourself why those certain people are connected with you and valued in the first place.

Also don't be a mouth 24/7 when dealing with people at any public gathering. Don't just tell sell. All too often you see people just go all pitch routine even if they are speaking with people that know of their game already or have some knowledge of you to begin with. This is a major kill joy and will bore the hell out of people. The more you speak the more you lose the chance to hear what your potential prospect or customer could be telling you of what they are looking for. Pitch quick but then listen and respond to them. A conversation itself about your game is a blessing and opportunity as long as you use it rightly and respectfully.

Wholesome Directional word.

What the Fuck is that? It sounds like a word you have to shove up your ass and walk around with for a few days.
Well no, but in a way yes… It's a simple technique some people use and it kinda makes a lot of sense.
Pick a word that describes the direction you want to head in. It may be the direction of where your game is heading or the direction of where the company needs to head to this year. For example you want to make money this year, you would pick something like PROSPERITY. Or you want to make an ultra violent game you might pick VIOLENT as your word.
This word now guides every decision you make from then on. It helps filter decision making and drives decisions to be made quickly and clearly. If a potential idea doesn't click with the word then it probably isn't a good idea to do that. The word can change as your motives change.

Value Adding.

This is all about increasing your value which in turn if you want to, allows you to increase what you believe you are worth. You need to go the extra mile! Do things that have high value but don't cost much. So really it's high perceived value to the customer but low cost to you. So raising the value of your game rather than discounting your game which is the WORST option most devs take because they haven't thought this through.

Let me explain.
You make a game, great but it's not unique. Actually it's really just a standard well made game in an over saturated industry. Who the hell cares, well almost anything can be marketed to seem interesting. You just need to run that extra mile in the game and everything else.
The game for example, might have a cool way it builds emotion into it. By this I mean why not have a thank you screen pop up after you download the game for the first time and it's a note from the developers thanking the customer for downloading the game. User Interfaces…. oh fuck this, he said the U.I words. I'm done reading this shit. Place the extra mile in U.I. it matters. I heard a dude say once "One of the richest people in the world started it off of a User Interface." So it matters a heck of a lot, face up to it!

Or why not the "everything else" like I mentioned. Why not build emotion into your website which should really be your masterpiece of all marketing material you work with. Even we need to redo our website.

Here take a look at Team Meat's Super Meat Boy ;
See how those guys have really placed emotion and top notch quality through their site. Even photography on that site is amazingly great photography. Check out their ABOUT section. It's all fucking brilliant!
Another site is the creator of Spelunky, Derek Yu. "Derek Yu's Home on the Web"
I hear his name and think of his kick ass website straight away.

What I'm saying is triggering emotion creates remarkable things. Increasing these things don't cost much other than a bit more time. Sure there are other things that do cost money and relate to getting the same outcomes but I'm speaking about the easy and low cost. Be creative think of other ways to connect with people through emotive tactics. Most of the time it's as plain and simple as just being yourself and not what you think you should be in the eyes of the industry, you're unique remember. Why not use that? Regardless, they all add massive value to you and your company and its creations. There's a lot of company's out there outside of the game industry doing the same thing and it's working massively for them. So theres no reason why this wouldn't work in our industry. Even taking the time to look into these small start up company's and big ones that are pulling this off can help you get ideas to implement into your products and self image.

There is no product that can't be made interesting.

Final note.

Hey YOU yeah YOU, you're not the only busy person!
Everyone is busy, publishers are busy, game reviewers are busy, people playing your games are busy, your fans are busy even your dog is busy doing dog stuff…. you're waiting for me to go down the licking his own balls kind of busy line aren't you? Well I'm not doing it buddy!
Keep this in your mind, let it engulf your awareness. It will help you keep things straightforward. From Website to Pitching, doing tutorials, Game U.I and even managing team members and financial dealings.

Well there you go some more shit to read and take on board or not. I hope that reading this in some way helps you or entertains you. I'll be wise and fancy and finish like I started with some fantastic quote that sums up everything I've written about.

Roses Are Red, Violets Are Blue, I'm a schizophrenic, And So Am I. ~ Oscar Levant

Paranormal Out...

Nick Stavrou

Paranormal Games

Twitter:@ParanormalGS